Society could learn a lot from German producer and music manipulator Alex Ridha, aka BOYS NOIZE. He has managed to bring together two of the most emulous groups of genre warriors known to man; the internet blog-surfing hipsters and the techno-deifying minimal chin-strokers. Usually dichotomised by a figurative Berlin wall of keyboard heroics, the former enemies have bonded over their love of his loopy futuristic disco. Everybody loves Boys Noize.
Juggling his time between jet-setting superstar DJ and BNR label boss, I managed to catch Alex at home having just returned from some much needed R & R in Puerto Rico. “My holiday was great and I am really relaxed,” he says. “It’s something I like to do every year. My studio was a mess when I came back though – I had to spend the first three days cleaning it up and re-cabling all my equipment!”
As the flux capacitor carries my journalistic Delorian back to the 1980s, we peer through his window in Hamburg to observe the period that shaped the young star into the fire breathing juggernaut he is today, a stature he can thank his brother for. “He was ten years older than me and when he was 17-18, in the mid-‘80s, I used to sit around and listen to all his records, like house and techno and stuff, not really knowing what it was but knowing that I liked it,” Alex explains. “I started buying my own records at about 13 – all the things I loved from my childhood and it just went from there.”
At only 27 years of age, Alex has already been a figurehead in the German techno movement for a whole decade, but alas he is not comfortable with the term ‘the Doogie Howser of Dance.’ “I don’t really feel old now. I mean, I have been through a few generations of music with a lot of things that have come and gone but I guess I was always that guy – y’know, the youngest guy in the club, but now I have a 16 year old producing for my label so it makes me feel a little older,” he laughs.
After dabbling in hip-hop and disco, his move in 2003 at age 20 to the bright lights and dark beats of Berlin was the critical metamorphosis in his career as this was where the real genesis of the Boys Noize brand originated. “DJ-wise I have always had the same attitude towards music – the same style and substance to my music,” he says. “When I moved to Berlin I started playing around on my laptop and making beats. I ended up getting a small studio together so it was really where Boys Noize was born.”
Spying a new Boys Noize remix on Beatport is enough to make any respectable music fan soil their skinny leg jeans and Alex has had the incredible fortune to remain exclusive in his attitude towards who he twiddles knobs for. “It’s actually really hard to choose sometimes. I mean I have always only picked to work with artists I really like – I never do a remix for someone I don’t like. I was really happy in 2006 when I heard that Martin Gore from Depeche Mode was a big Boys Noize fan and I was contacted to do a remix for them. I also always do remixes for friends like Para One, Mr Oizo if they ask me to.”
His studio prowess eventually caught the ear of the Black Eyed Peas, who singled him out to collaborate on their latest album, which was a massive surprise for the Berliner. “That kind of came out of nowhere!” he exclaims. “I found out that will.i.am was a huge fan of my music and they asked me to send some beats over for their album. I sent about three or four of them and they really liked one so they put it on the CD. They are very smart about what they do – they travel to Europe and try to find new and exciting sounds and I was one of the people they decided to work with.”
The release of Alex’s first album Oi Oi Oi in 2007 cemented his hold of the electronic indie disco crown, so when he unleashed the follow up, a throbbing club techno leviathan titled Power this year, some critics were quick to question the change in mood. “It has always been the case for me. It’s like giving someone a little card, a current update of where you are musically right then. I always start fresh with all my music, different sounds, different drum patterns and new ideas so it’s like a fresh attitude.”
With no surprise, he tells me that returning to our great southern land after a five year hiatus is an exciting proposition, mainly due to his eye-opening experience in 2005. “Australia is incredible,” he says. “I was so amazed when I came here last time and everybody was rocking out really hard to my music and they knew it so well. It was not on radio or TV and wasn’t really even promoted here but obviously other DJs were playing it and that was fantastic. It’s what it is all about, so that was really nice.”
Boys Noize is playing at the UC Refectory on Friday February 26, along with Cheese, Hubert and Offtapia. Tickets through QJump and Landspeed Records.
