|
Calvin
Harris invented disco. No, Calvin Harris reinvented disco. He was Marks &
Spencers’ champion shelf-stacker two years running. He made his debut album
fuelled by chicken breast fillets. He knows the whereabouts of Alex Kapranos’
secret studio-hideaway-laboratory-home cuz it’s quite near his own place in
Dumfries.
Calvin
Harris’s debut album, with the subtle title I Created Disco, cost 0p to
record. He fashions future-disko using an ancient Amiga computer and is, right
now, (literally) knocking together a stonking live set using MDF and 204
samples. “My live band’s gonna be even more rocking than the tunes. I’ll be
singing, but only because no one else in Dumfries can sing. I’ve got an extremely limited range.
But I will be wearing a top hat made from the skin of a
tiger.”
Calvin
Harris is one of those ‘myspace sensations’ you keep reading about. He was
wildly popular amongst The Kids and on The Club Scene, a cult
producer-slash-singer-slash-bedroom-knob-twiddler who can make the banging-est
of pop-dance tunes out of bugger-all kit. The last time he spent any money on
gear was three years ago, when he bought a voice processor for £200. “I’m not
the kind of dude who buys Sound On Sound. I know if something sounds nice. If it
does, I’ll keep it. If not, I’ll try and make it nice. You don’t need to splash
out on technology.”
Calvin
Harris has big plans for summer 2007: a debut album, of course, and then a
single called Colours, which contains a dash of Visage’s proto-electronica
classic Fade To Grey and is about girls’ clothes. “Chicks who don’t wear
colours annoy me because there are many wonderful colours in world – and those
women who are not utilising them make me very upset. Although black and white
does look good. But if you’re gonna go out I wanna see someone in a big
canary-yellow hoodie. And big baggy pink jeans.”
Calvin
Harris’s first release will be a limited edition 10-inch featuring the
turbo-funky Acceptable In The 80s and the robo-pop jitter of This Is The
Industry. What are they about? “The song titles say it all. My tunes aren’t
supposed to invoke deep thought within people; they’re just to get you dancing.
But musically it is for the brain – it’s not music for stupid people. I take
great pride in my productions. It’s not knocked out in a few seconds.” And if
you can’t track down a copy of Acceptable In The 80s on 10-inch, don’t worry.
It’ll be coming out properly as a single in March too.
Calvin
Harris will make you jump around like a silly-billy – the slamming likes of The
Girls and Merrymaking At My Place (the latter soon to be found on a second
10-inch) will meet you on the dancefloor now. But if you let him, he might also
make you cry. “I’ve made a lot of miserable tunes – I’ve got an album worth of
depressing chords. I’ve not got any lyrics, like.”
Calvin
Harris has his own label, FlyEye, and a manifesto, innit. “Disco disappeared,
didn’t it? Everyone got sick of it. Now I’m reviving it, with space goggles, or
something.”
Calvin
Harris only made some of this stuff up. |
Felix Howard
