Boys Noize – Interview – September 2009 [PART 1]
By: Dickon Stone
I meet Alex Ridha, aka Boys Noize, outside in the smoking area of Fire in Vauxall – the venue that will tonight host the UK launch party for his album Power. He looks pretty dapper in a checked shirt and flat peak; no army surplus black and orange jacket tonight. We begin.
Rockfeedback: How does it feel that this is all for you?
Alex Ridha: “It’s a bit weird, but I’m very happy about it. Today I walked past club 333 where I played my first London show in 2004 to, like, 8 people and they spelled my name wrong, and everything was wrong there; and now 5 years later I’m here, and it’s just crazy, and all my friends are playing with me; Smith ‘n’ Hack, Housemeister, Riton; it’s really cool.
RFB: Coming out of obscurity into the kind of ‘mainstream underground’ must have been a crazy time; did this happen as a result of releasing the first album?
AR: “No I actually think the turning point came a little bit earlier; of course releasing an album helped a bit too, but to be honest, in 2006 when Trevor Jackson asked me to do a release on Output Records; that was just too cool and I think that was when for me I knew it was really happening. So many things happened afterwards with a lot of releases on my own label, so I guess that was big too, but the album took it to a different level because I was reaching people outside of the record shop; it wasn’t just DJs that knew my records.”
RFB: Do you think that today you have to be more than just a DJ to be successful? To have something else going on, whether it be producing, or running a night or a label?
AR: “Yeah, this was always something I was doing without thinking, I found it a bit boring to just play two house records and mix them together; I always wanted to put a bit more effort in. Today it’s really a lot easier with all the technology; CDJs, effects on mixers and stuff, but it’s harder for DJs to play material that’s new and unheard. When I was working in a record shop I played all the promos, but then I stopped playing them as soon as they came out, ‘cos then everyone else was playing them. I’m still in this vibe, but of course it gets harder ‘cos a lot of people know the records you play, so that’s a new challenge. You always want to do something different, but for me it’s obviously easier than for small DJs; I have 14,000 records at home to choose from; I could probably play something from 1996 and people still wouldn’t know it…
[CLICK HERE FOR PART TWO OF OUR BOYS NOIZE INTERVIEW]
Watch Boys Noize perform at the 2008 MELT! Festival below
Artists in this article: Boys Noize