Following a string of speaker rattling productions and highly acclaimed remixes, Alex Calver aka Calvertron has found himself the subject of attention from some of the biggest and best artists and record labels in the business. His tracks are consistently seen at the very heights of Beatport’s charts and, featured across the UK’s national radio stations, are spreading like a pandemic – with his unique sound gaining support from a diverse selection of the world’s most influential DJs, including the likes of Fatboy Slim, Tiesto, Busy P, Benny Benassi, Eric Morrillo, Roger Sanchez, Diplo, and John Digweed.
Formerly the producer/engineer behind one of the UK’s most groundbreaking music duo’s ‘Twocker’, Alex’s versatility knows no bounds. From bass driven house music to Jacking, Electro, Minimal Techno and Tech House, Alex has become one of the leaders on the global scene and has already had the honour of remixing such legends as Laidback Luke, Armand Van Helden and Sander Kleinenberg.
Hi Alex, thanks for doing this exclusive interview with us. How are you holding up there?
Very well thanks :)
SUM: If you are not an Electronic Dance Music legend already, you are on the path to it. With several releases throughout your career with imprints such as Jack Knife, Bug Eyed, Big Fish, Play Digital and Ultra just to name a few. Your music has filled the dancefloors within multiple genres such as but not limited to Electro House, Dubstep, Techno and Drum & Bass. Charting at Beatport frequently, playing out like crazy, you are living your dream! Is there anything else you hope to accomplish in your career that you haven’t done yet?
I’m very lucky I’ve gotten to travel so much, and to make a living out of making music is a blessing I don’t take for granted. My 1st love is metal, I used to play guitar and sing in a band when I was younger, I’d love to incorporate guitars into a project at some point.
SUM: Let’s talk about some of your tracks in specific, beginning with one of your most recent ones “50K”, what’s the story behind the title, how long did you take to produce this marvelous tune? Several months after its release, if you could critically listen to it, would you change something of it?
The vocal says “50 thousand watts” that’s why I called it 50K. I don’t think I would change anything in it really.
SUM: Let’s Dubstalk! “She Devil”, a track you co produced with Kermz, featured in our compilation album “Straight Up Dubstep! Vol. 8”, what’s the story about teaming up to produce it?, was the collaboration process smooth or where there moments of struggle towards its direction?
That’s one of my best Mates Dan, he’s also released stuff on my label as D.Trac3d, he’s been making some great DnB recently, definitely one to look out for this year. We had fun making that track, the vocal we used was sampled from a TV show “Skins”, it’s a Mate of ours called Amy, she starred in one of the episodes, thought it would be funny to pitch her voice down and make her sound like a “She Devil”.
SUM: Many have argued about the similarity of your Dubstep and your DnB tracks, specially your remix for the American artist DANK of his track “Blow Me”, tagged on Beatport as Drum & Bass but a lot of people suggest it should have been tagged as Dubstep, what do you have to say about it?
We call those tracks Drumstep, it’s a halftime beat like dubstep but the tempo is the same as Drum & Bass so they end up in the D&B section on Beatport, I think they are tagged in a sub genre as Drumstep also. I don’t really care about genre names too much but I guess it’s necessary otherwise Beatport would be a confused mess and it would be impossible to make sense of or find what you’re looking for.
SUM: What fans that haven’t seen you playing live yet, can expect from you? What’s your brief invitation, what’s the promise?
I don’t plan my sets, I just try to read the crowd and feel out what to play, it’s more fun that way and I think that’s what djing is all about. I try to mix up the styles and tempo but the general vibe is dirty, bass heavy and energetic. I like to chug beer when I play and am often trashed by the time I get off the decks, haha.
SUM: Can you recall the craziest or the most memorable moment at any of your gigs?
There have been many memorable moments and insane antics at shows over the years, it’s hard to pick out the craziest. I’ve gotten black eyes from stage diving, missed flights from being wasted, been attacked with a skull on the end of a broom stick by a dude on Acid, flown all the way to Texas (from UK) for one show and have the police shut down a festival 15 minutes into my set. I was introduced to the crowd on a revolving, circular stage in South Korea once (that was really strange). Just some silly things off the top of my head.
SUM: What’s the music genre you would say “hell no” if someone suggested you to produce?
Never say never, my interests in music evolve regulalrly
SUM: If you could go back in time to change one thing what would it be?
Prevent the creation of X-Factor
SUM: If you could breed two animals together to defy the laws of nature what new animal would you create?
Crocaroo, you don’t wanna come across one those in the wild!
SUM: As a kid were you ever frightened of a monster under the bed or in the closet?
My teddies protected me from those suckers
SUM: Would you rather be the fella in a movie who gets the girl or the baddie with all the good lines?
I’ll take the chick please ;-)
SUM: Are you in a relationship? if so, does she always support you or does she get mad once in a while for spending too much time on your craft?
I am currently single and enjoying it immensly!
SUM: What artist do you admire or feel lots of respect for their contribution to the EDM scene?
This EDM term doesn’t really mean anything to me but musically I’ve looked up to many innovative artists/producers/dj’s over the years, people Liam Howlett, Goldie, Grooverider, D.A.V.E The Drummer, Sebastien Leger, Noisia, Skrillex, KTN, Shadow Child (to name a few) have all had an influence on my direction over the years.
SUM: What non-edm song would you like to crossover to Electro or Dubstep officially?
Pantera – Walk (bootleg coming soon)
SUM: What country or stage would you like to play at, that you haven’t before, and why?
I’ve never been to Japan, really want to visit/play there one day. Also Iceland, not sure why but it seems so different to everywhere else I’ve visited. I would love to play Amnesia in Ibiza so I can activate that bigass dry ice blaster!
SUM: Recently we have adopted a new philosophy called “free or pay’, which targets our artist development focus for new artists, which consist of making available some of their music as free download as well as for purchase, giving back the power to the fans to support the artists that deserve it. What do you think about it? Could this work as an aswer to music piracy? Do you think more labels should follow or to the contrary, should it start and end with us?
I pay for all my music on Beatport (if I don’t get it sent as a promo), I like to support the artists that made the tracks and want to be sure I get a genuine quality copy. That’s my personal view, if people want to swipe stuff for free I pass no judgement on them. I don’t really see much point in encouraging people not to buy the music though. I’m all for vinyl coming back, I miss collecting and spinning records!
SUM: What are your favorite three tracks at the moment?
Loadstar – Need You (Frankee Remix) (RAM)
Jay Lumen – Nobody (Off Recordings)
Smooth – Drone (Viper Recordings)
SUM: What is next by Calvertron?
Downlink – The Chopper (Calvertron Remix)
