The Kool Kids

On Saturday, August the 28th, Boys Noize was playing at the Mysteryland Festival, where he had his own Boysnoize Records stage. Sir Alex Ridha, who will soon release a new EP on his label, had some time during the day to talk with The Kool kids.

Is Holland your favourite country?

Yeah it is. It really is. When I arrived at the festival and I saw how the people party and how much fun they have too, at just random stuff. Like the way it should. That’s what I like to see.

From the beginning of Boys Noize you created a lot of raw sounds.
With this in mind, what entails the sound and vision of Boys Noize?

I think with all my releases I’ve shown that sound-wise it can be very diverse, but you can still hear my attitude behind my tracks. I wouldn’t say I make only this or that. On my last album I tried to make more modern techno stuff, even some electronica stuff. But you can always see the person behind my music, I hope.

What I’ve heard about Oi Oi Oi is that you got a lot of help from D.I.M.
Can you elaborate on this?

We mixed together one track, which is Shine Shine. And all of the tracks were produced at my studio in Berlin. It started when I was 16 and D.I.M. and I shared a studio together. At that time he started to produce as well. He was more an engineer, so I learned a lot from him about engineering. Before Boys Noize we did Kid Alex together. It turned into a band, because I started to DJ so young. And I sang too, which was a lot of fun. But it was more an accident. I started with the band when I was so young and I worked in a record shop when I was 15. Then some big DJ’s from the US came over from time to time and the boss said “Hey this is my kid”. Then I started to make some club records. On one night when we did a track I had a melody in my head and I just sang it in. My first record that came out ever was called “Just can’t forget”. It came out when I was just 17. In the beginning the stuff I produced sounded really different. It was more house music. When I did the singing I realised that it just was a fun thing, and not something that I really wanted to do. Therefore I stopped with that and when I was 19/20 I moved to Berlin and that’s when I started my own stuff as well.

Recently you’ve produced the Chilly Gonzales album.
How was this different than producing a dance album?

Well, it’s a different thing when it comes to engineering and mixing. Because I never really did piano stuff in my music and I never had real strings etc., so for me it was a real challenge to mix it. It wasn’t harder for me though. Normally you’d say that there are certain rules to mix it, but I don’t care about how I mix it. And that’s what I like about electronic music. There’s no real rule how to mix it. It doesn’t exist in my world.

Can you still combine the stuff you do for Boysnoize Records and your own artist persona?

The good thing is that on my label I just do the creative side. Talking to the other artists, helping them with productions, doing all the music side for the label. Also about the artistic side; talking with the designer and the creator and stuff like that. I talk to every artist every day and they send me music and we share our thoughts and I try to get the best out of them. Some of the producers say that it goes really easy and for some it takes more time. But I think it’s something that I can deal with really easily. Even when I’m in the studio or on the road. I have a partner who deals with all the business side, so I don’t have to deal with that.

You had a lot of collaborations with D.I.M., Housemeister and lately Erol Alkan.
Which projects will we be seeing in the future? Are we ever going to witness new PUZIQUe?

The thing is, I’m really open. I just go with what happens. Let’s say next week I’m in the studio and then Housemeister comes over and then he goes on a machine and then I go on another machine and that’s how it works. Erol and me, we work on some new stuff and we have 2 new tracks. And I did 2 new tracks with Housemeister, 2 tracks with Siriusmo and with Mr. Oizo even. It’s all coming out, just in a matter of time. The thing is, when Mr. Oizo did a remix for me or Feadz or Para One or Housemeister, I always say like “If you do a remix for me, I’ll do a remix for you”. But now Feadz said like “Hey, I don’t have a track for you to remix, so let’s do a track to together”. The same goes for Mr. Oizo. And this just happened. We just finished a track. And PUZIQUe is not dead. I just have to get together with Andy again.

Which releases will there soon be on Boysnoize Records?

I’m not signing so many artists at the moment. We’re going to have a new label, which is called BNR Trax. It’s a sub-label of Boysnoize Records. It’s going to be more Techno music. The first release is coming out in September. The first release will be Electric Rescue. He released on Cocoon records and it’s really more Techno stuff. It’s going to be only a digital label, so it’s not so complicated for us to put it out. The second release is going to be new Jan Driver. And the third release is going to be from a Dutch guy actually, called Benny Rodrigues. No, it’s not Dutch House haha. By far not. I hate Dutch House. He had a release on Len Faki’s label. I play it every time. It’s like an oldschool, chigaco, warehouse sound. The release will be really old school techno, it has nothing to do with anything Dutch. On Boys Noize Records, first I have my new 12 inch with two tracks. The acid track and “Yeah”, the old one. There’s a new Strip Steve, and there’s a new D.I.M. Kleine Traüme is one track of that EP. He did it long ago. He takes more time to make music right now. He never finished a B-side, but he told me today that he finally finished a B-side. So we’re going to put it out soon. Actually I’m going to release a Mixhell record. They did a new track and it’s amazing, because before they sent me music and I just released the Brodinski remix. Not the original, because I didn’t think it was good enough. But the new stuff they made is more like a lot of disco in it, but with bits of Soulwax and it’s really cool. They got a new producer in Sao Paulo and the sound is amazing. They sent me the demo and I was so surprised and happy. Because they’re really good friends of us. But I was always hoping they had a good track I could play and now they do amazing stuff. It’s really cool.

Are you already busy with producing a third album?

I haven’t started yet. I want to start this winter. I will take a few months off to work on it. I don’t have any old tracks ready for this album. The “Yeah” track I already did a long time ago. It’s actually almost 3 years old. I did it before the Power album. I didn’t release it on that album, because I already had the Sweet Light track and I thought that was already enough for that kind of sound.

How important is it for you to have almost the whole Boysnoize Records crew to play on a day like this?

I’m really happy, because I was thinking today on how amazing everything went. On the one side I got really happy, but on the other side I’m really sad as well. When we started all this it always had something to do with the underground and the statement, you know. And when the cheesy guys take bits of the sound and make it commercial, I feel like… It’s hard. It’s hard to stay underground. I’m just trying to always bring something fresh for the people. And I hope that I always keep the difference between this and that. I guess it’s really hard for young kids, because they don’t know anything about production.