Originally published on inthemix.

With one of the most eclectic discographies in dance music, the only thing Erol Alkan can be safely relied upon to do is surprise you. Even a brief interview with inthemix revealed Alkan to be a very interesting character, at once opinionated and non-committal; incredibly passionate yet difficult to satisfy. In answering my opening question he is amusingly indecisive about labeling himself as indecisive…

Going through your discography, I noticed you’re usually working with something, whether it’s another person or band, or an already existing piece of music that you’re remixing… Why do you think you gravitate to that kind of music making more than just starting from scratch on your own?

I find it far easier to do that - to collaborate or to remix somebody more so than just to start from scratch because… well I’m kind of very indecisive, you see. I kind of do a lot of things and then don’t really tend to… I mean I do a wide variety of things on my own but then am never too sure which ones to put out. Although, I am collating a lot of that at the moment… but yeah I do obviously find collaborating quite easy. 

So you prefer the creative process when there’s another person present?

Yeah I think so, only because it’s faster. And I don’t like things hanging around for too long. And there’s definitely far more of a creative flow… I mean I do remixes on my own, they’re very easy, but writing original material… I’m kind of… I’m very hard to satisfy. 

I’ve listened to some of the remixes of 60s psychedellia songs you’ve done as Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve and they’re really interesting. Would you play those sorts of tracks in one of your normal sets, at a festival for example?

I have done, yeah. I used to play the Midlake one (Roscoe) quite a lot - right in the middle of the night just to reset people’s senses a little bit. I like doing that at the moment actually, I like in the middle of my set just dropping something that’s far calmer and less accelerated than the club music. I really like that variety. I’ve just done a remix of Connan Mockasin - he’s an artist from New Zealand who I’ve signed to my label - and it’s a ten minute, very beautiful, spatial track, and playing it in the middle of a techno set I find extremely refreshing. It’s also completely out of sync at the moment as well, because everyone is so hell-bent on, and I quote, ‘killing the party’ and being as over the top as possible. I feel that going further than those guys is actually going the other way. 

Ok fine, everyone’s saying disco is my reaction to it, but I quite enjoy playing techno and I quite enjoy playing accelerated dance music, but I like to put a bit of a curve ball in it by just dropping it right down for about 20 minutes in the middle of a set, and then just taking off again.

Do audiences response well to that?

They have been, but to be honest with you, if I was to be so bold, and I don’t mean to be rude by saying this, but I think it’s my job to challenge audiences still. I don’t think I should be there pandering to them and if one person thinks you’re doing something slightly risqué or they don’t like it, I don’t think you should take your cue from that. I think it’s our job to continue to be the outsiders and continue to challenge audiences and ourselves; just be honest about what we actually are about and what we love, rather than becoming the norm or becoming the establishment. What do audiences feel? To a degree, with all respect, I don’t really mind. I don’t mind if you drop something in the middle of a set and a bunch of people walk off in dismay because I think for the same amount of people who do that I think you can inspire more people. I really feel that one of the most tired things of this year is trying to be the guy that destroys everything. Kills the party. Kills the audience. I think that’s tired, it’s a cliché now.

You talk about honesty with your audience, so what’s the deal with all the different pseudonyms? Do you think your fans won’t accept the full variety of what you do? 

A little bit – a tiny bit - I’d agree with that… but Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve was a collaboration with another person, with Richard Norris, so it’s only fair for that to have it’s own name. Disco 3000 was basically a way for me to be able to get booked in far smaller venues and basically play disco records. There’s no point putting ‘Erol Alkan disco set’ because that would - and this is on the recommendation of other people, not part of my ego or anything - but it would attract too many people or something, you know? I like experimenting and I also like starting from scratch. I like inheriting empty rooms and building it, I like surprising people, I like sometimes not trying to put everything under one umbrella to seem as eclectic as I can. Now when I do a set as Erol Alkan I can play all those different sounds in there now, but at the time, it felt like the right think to adopt a new name.

Sometimes I have pseudonyms because I just don’t want people to know that it’s me. Like when I did Mustafa 3000, I did that because I wanted to do a bunch of remixes that sounded nothing like Erol and I wanted to have a lot of fun with it. But soon enough people didn’t really allow that to happen, they kind of revealed it was me. Actually, the label that I did my first remix for decided to reveal it was me, which was a bit frustrating cause I wanted to have fun with it, you know? I don’t see the harm in creating an illusion.

So when you go into the studio do you start making music and, as it develops, decide which name to release it under? Or do you wake up in the morning and say ‘today is a Mustapha 3000 day!’

(Laughs) No! But do you know you’ve touched upon something that is slightly confusing for me: that I can make records and then sometimes not be sure as to who it actually is making it. A good example is when me and Alex (Boys Noize) made Lemonade. Because it was such a huge track, we both felt, ‘is it too big for us? Is it too over the top or too… insane… or…’

Is it ‘killing it’ too much, as you say…

Ha! Yeah, exactly. But then the reaction to it was so great that we ended up thinking ‘yeah, it is us.’ I mean we made it - it didn’t take long - but we did make it! (Laughs) I do actually feel that’s a healthy thing: to make something and go – is that me? Cause I mean what’s the other side of that coin? Let’s keep making music and going ‘yeah this fits the category,’ I mean how is that a progression?

Does music ever become a chore for you; do you ever need to take time off from it?

I have to take time off music a lot. Music is like any other relationship in your life: if you love it so much then there are going to be times when you absolutely despise it as well. But there’s always an unconditional love, you know? There are times when music disappoints me, when it frustrates me, when it lets me down… when it stands me up when it doesn’t return my phone calls! It does all those things that can infuriate you. By the same notion, how some people respond to certain music is equally disappointing sometimes. When you come across amazing records that are just ignored… that infuriates me. Many aspects of music annoy me but the positive far outweighs that, obviously.

Your last trip to Australia had a bit of a disco theme, what styles can we look forward to this time around?

Oh yeah, right! You know I did a couple of sideshows as Disco 3000, there was one at Oxford Art Factory, and I really enjoyed that gig, it was great fun. The really cool thing was one of the last records I played was Vistors, by ABBA, which is an incredible record. It’s not the cheesy track people imagine it to be and it was so amazing the response that I got; I was really over-awed by that.

Anyway I’ve been hoping to bring a lot of my original music that I’ve been working on to play this tour, but it will still be me… I am made up of all these different components of the music that I love, of psychedelia and disco and rave and alternative music and everything else in between. So it’s still the same me… there hasn’t been a stylistic change which warrants…I don’t know…

…me putting it in writing and pigeon-holing you?

Exactly. I play records that I’m feeling, that’s all. 

Thanks heaps for chatting, is there anything I missed you want inthemix readers to know about?

Hmmm… Someone asked me earlier what new music I loved and the best new record I heard this year is an Australian band, is Tame Impala. I’m having a bit of trouble finding new alternative guitar music but their album I really liked. So thanks for that! Thanks for giving us Tame Impala!