INTERVIEW: Alex Metric (2013)

With a plethora of productions and left field remixes,?Alex Metric?s creativity is as vivid as his vibrant personality.??He?s the bloke who can make cool synth-pop, disco house, electro, or progressive and determine which is the right sound for the song as well as what he is feeling.??It is that emotion which he brings to his massive single ?Safe With You,? as well as to his brilliantly executed DJ sets (whether they be primetime bangers or discofied progressive opening sets).?Chatting with him before he opened for Zedd in Nashville, I felt like I had found a doppelganger who uses music to express emotions, with such a wide variety of musical experiences that he is never at a lack for the optimal sound.

DJ Ron Slomowicz: How did you meet up with Stuart Price?
Alex Metric: I met up with Stuart through a mutual friend called Starsmith. Fin had worked with Stuart on the Kylie Minogue album and he knew that I was a fan of his. Stuart actually wanted to start DJing again, so he asked Fin if he could come out to the club with us one night.??Stuart hadn?t really been to a nightclub in a while because he was producing pop music for years and years. Stuart knew of my music, so Fin told him that he should meet me and we went out to dinner and had some drinks. The first time I meet Stuart, who is kind of my musical hero, he came to watch me DJ which was a scary experience. The funny thing about the gig was that it was the first time that I played my remix of The Whip ? ?Secret Weapon? and with that remix my aim was to do LCD Soundsystem meets Stuart Price. As soon as I played it I felt a tap on my shoulder and Stuart asked me ?what?s this record?? It was so weird because I had deliberately tried to channel Stuart on this record and he came up and asked me about it. We had a great night and we stayed friends. A couple weeks later I decided to eMail Stuart because it?s always been one of my aims to work with him, and if you don?t fucking ask you don?t get. So I eMailed him and told him that if he ever wanted to get in the studio we should totally do it. He was like ?yeah that sounds like fun let?s do it,? and a week later we were in the studio doing ?Safe With You.?

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SONG OF THE DAY: Zedd ft Hayley Williams – “Stay the Night”

Building off the success of top 10 pop hit “Clarity,” German producer/DJ Zedd has released a deluxe edition of his debut album adding two remixes (Doors and Empire of the Sun) and two new female vocaled tracks similar in feel to the title song: “Push Play” with Miriam Bryan and the current single “Stay the Night” featuring Hayley Williams of Paramore.? The formula is executed perfectly – pretty piano intro with vocals slowly building in intensity to the big progressive/stadium fueled chorus.? The lyrics continue the pattern of troubled/doomed relationships with the change being the desperation of the female pining for a one night stand.? Now, that’s a modern take on feminism.? For club play, DJs will jump for Tiesto’s classic staccato trance take (which would probably mix perfectly with the recent rework of his own “Flight 643” by John Christian.)?? Then again, DJ’s in the know are probably still banging “Fall Into the Sky,” the sleeper track of the album sung by Ellie Goulding.

Image Courtesy of Interscope.

SONG OF THE DAY:? John Christian – “Flight 643”?

It must be a real honor to hear one of your classic embraced by the new generation.? Just as Mauro Picotto’s epic “Joyenergizer” was reworked earlier this year by Sander van Doorn, Tiesto’s classic “Flight 643” gets a big room update by fellow Dutchman John Christian.? If you go back and listen to the pounding original (or vocal version with Suzanne Palmer), that incessant hook instantly ingrains itself into your brain.? The new version starts a bit more subtly, dropping down before gradually teasing and bringing in that hook.? The energy builds from mellow stadium/progressive to banging big room.? I can already imagine the different vocal bootleg versions that are going to be playing every night during Amsterdam Dance Event next month.? Maybe we should start a betting pool to take odds on which ’90s instrumental club hit will be updated next?? One thing that is interesting to note,? the label for the release of Flight 643 is Musical Freedom, which Tiesto himself started back in 2010.

Image Courtesy of Spinnin/Musical Freedom.