Hi There Danijel,
Thank you for making this interview. We appreciate your story!
“Danijel Alpha is not new to the scene, in a matter of fact he was one of few
pioneers that brought electronic dance music to Stockholm in the late 80s.
Working as a deejay since the mid 80s, Danijel had already established his name in
the Swedish capital. Full of influence of the European scene, Danijel formed a plan
to promote the new dance music to the Scandinavian crowd.
In 92 Danijel got an offer to hook up with one of Germanys biggest agency to start
touring abroad. After a few years on the international circuit, Danijel decided to
move to Berlin. At this point he was spinning most of his gigs in Germany anyway.
The move ended up with a residency at the legendary techno club, Tresor. During
this time, Danijel produced tracks and remixes under various monikers for
different labels.
In year 2000 Danijel moved back to Stockholm where he became a father of three
beautiful little children. During this time Danijel focused on his producing and
stayed away from clubs to support his family. This period he produced music for
three different feature films, and a couple of short stories.
Danijel is now back popular demand, and once again spinning all over the world.
His unique style is a mash up of deejaying and live performing as well as remixing
tracks on the spot. If you have a chance to catch his performance, make sure you
do.”
Your hopes and dreams. Where do you want to go * with your music?
I have finally come to a place where I can focus on producing some dance music
again. Koh Phangan is a great environment for inspiration and I have not been so
productive in years since I got here. Back in Sweden my life was occupied by all the
things that a western lifestyle encourage. The freedom to make music was a
contributing part that made me and my family move to Thailand. With my new
label in my back pocket, I now have a release rate that I always dreamed about.
I try to make music sprung out of my heritage in dance music, and hopefully some
other jocks out there will play the tunes. More important is that I have a creative
canalization where I can feel productive in a satisfying way.
What is your Koh Phangan story? How did you end up here?
Me and my family has always been in love with Thailand, one way or another. First
we moved to Bangkok and lived there for a year. We got our business going and
soon we realized that the kids needed more than just be stuck in traffic all day. We
had spent some time on Koh Phangan and after being here on one of the kids
school break we decided to move here. Ever since we got here in May this year we
have scouting the terrain for a business opportunity. Now we are settled here and
work our way towards becoming a part of this island, and contribute as good as
we can to this beautiful place.
You are a producer as well as a DJ. How would you classify your music?
I’ve been deejaying since as long as I can remember and along with that comes the
urge to make your own music. I’ve been producing ever since the mid eighties. I
started off on my Amiga by making music for hacker demos back then. When I
started deejaying a couple of years later in 1986 I span mostly funk, disco and
electronic influenced music as italo, new wave and kraut rock, a genre that groups
like Kraftwerk was sprung out from. A couple of years later I discovered house
music and the rest is history.
The music I play and has always been deep rooted in the early values of house
music and techno, mixed up with what is coming and is just around the corner. It’s
often easier to say what I don’t spin instead of telling what I actual play. Most of
the time I stay clear of trance and progressive house, and don’t get me wrong I can
totally dig those styles but I’m in my heart a black music person since I was born,
and I just find it hard to incorporate that genres with the rest of my music.
Otherwise I play most styles that has a house beat, especially if it has a distinct
bassline that makes people go nuts.
Do you only play your own music when you DJ?
No of course not, I’m not Todd Terry. But I tend to blend in a few tracks now and
then. I don’t make a big fuzz about it, deejaying isn't about tracks, it’s about
making new tracks as you deejay. I can’t think of any more boring, than a deejay
that just play tracks from start to finish. Deejaying is about putting a different
bassline to another track, switching hihats, incorporate vocals and so on. I always
thought that the best deejays put on a great vibe and you don’t recognize
anything, but everything sounds great. You just wanna dance.
Did it change genre or style through the years?
Of course I did. I’ve been around this scene since it began, and I’ve covered about
everything, even if I like I said before, tend to have a more eclectic approach
towards the music I play. Over these 25 years I been doing this I’ve been through
every style on the map, even trance music back in the days, when the genre first
surfaced around 1993. One thing I never did, was to play commercial music, even
when I had hard times surviving I never went down that road. I just tend to focus
harder and make sure I get the job done. I’m not saying that is wrong to take that
path, I just couldn’t do it and continue what I was doing.
Where and Who do you get your inspiration from?
Mainly from black music. Soul, funk, American house and techno pioneers. Today
EDM is such a global phenomenon so you can find your inspiration everywhere. I
tend to spend hours on Soundcloud to listen to music by new talents out there,
and I’m truly amazed that there is such depth and variation to the things that’s
being produced. The scene has totally changed the last couple of years. You only
have to look back two years to realize that it happened a lot. There was not as
much variety as now, and much was focused on a few particular genres. Dubstep,
techouse and soulless german minimalistic house, pardon my french. The music
scene today is much more forgiving and experimental. You can easily mix up
styles again without the purist lifts an eyebrow. Music is free again and the guys
hanging by the wall is no longer scratching their beards while they analyzing the
tunes the deejay is spinning to the same extent. Today is a completely different
range of music being produced and you can find all kinds of styles merging and
grinding in a new and exciting vortex. There’s only one thing we can thank for that
progress, and that’s house music.
How do you feel about playing here compared to Sweden or where you have been
playing before?
Frankly Koh Phangan is like any other place that has a good set of tourist and a
vibrant dance scene. It’s in many ways equal to London, New York, Barcelona and
Berlin. It’s easy math to figure out that the people who visit these places often are
there to have a good time. I mean, you travel here to go to a party, it’s just the
same in those other places. That creates a certain vibe and a really good
atmosphere. Then on the other hand, is the climate and nature here that makes
the parties magic. Even if I’ve played at some of the worlds best venues, this island
amazes me every day.
Do you find Koh Phangan to be the right place for you?
Yeah, this is the place. I’ve been living abroad many years of my life, but this will
be the place that me and my wife will stay and raise our three children. We have
one son and two daughters who attend the British school here on the island. We
also just started a football (soccer) school for kids 6-12 that want to play ball
every Wednesday. That and our new business here on the island will occupy my for
some time I’ll hope. This want stop me from making music of course.
Where is your favorite place here?
Oh, there’s so many nice spots here on the island, but since I have a bunch of
children I tend to have the same favorite places as them. To name a few I must say
the Wat Pho herbal sauna, Ban Tai beach for jogging, the fruit shakes and the Nam
Tok cart on Thong Sala food market and the cliffs on Than Sadet beach. But hey!
You can just walk down to the beach and look out over the ocean and inhale the
beauty of it all. Even better when you think about how it use to be back in Europe
around this time. This surely beats getting up in the morning to do an excavation
the get the car out of the snow.
Where do you think The Phangan Scene is headed?
I’ve been here to short of a time to have a real opinion on this. But I hope that
Phangan will continue to spread good quality music, and contribute to a nice
experience for the people who come here for holiday. Hopefully Phangan gets
more of the party tourist that populating the big cities in Europe these days, which
is a bit older, a bit more well payed and a bit more eager to spend more money on
things they enjoy. I think there’s a good possibility to get them here in the near
future, since the airlines are dropping prices and South East Asia will be more
accessible for shorter trips. Maybe in e near future we will see weekend travelers
from Europe?
What are your next projects on Phangan?
Me and my family has just taken over a resort, and that’s the project we will work
on a daily basis. It’s going to be fulfilling to start with a new project again. Back in
Sweden we both had successful companies that we had built up from scratch
before we sold them off. I lived on only music for almost 15 years, after a couple
of years struggling with a day job. Eventually I needed more than the music to
satisfy myself so I got into starting up businesses in various branches. Today we
still have some sort of business in Sweden and in Bangkok, and now we starting up
a new and exciting business here too.
What are your next projects around the world?
I will continue to give out EPs and albums on my Weyland-Yutani imprint with a
good release rate. The plan for 1012 is 5 more releases, and for 2013 we’re
looking at 15 releases. Music now days is just for fun, you can’t make any money
on a record company any more. When we have the resort ready, we will start to
invite producers from around the world that are friends of mine from all these
years deejaying around the globe. With their help we will start a unique remix
project where all those people will contribute to our label, and if we’re lucky we
can even get them to spin here somewhere if there promotors are up for it.
Do you see yourself playing on Phangan in 10 years from now?
I will still be here for sure, one way or another. Hopefully I have still time to spend
on deejaying once in a while, and the scene on the island will be as vibrant as ever.
In ten years Koh Phangan will be a completely different island, but it’s up to all of
us who lives here to keep the spirit alive.
Where do you see your self then?
If I can help it, I’m still in good shape and enjoying life as much as I do now. My
kids are starting to become of age then, and surely looking for a higher education
elsewhere. Either my wife and I will follow them to where ever they choose to
study, or we do something else like staying here or take a few years in another
place. Maybe there’s a new hobby I can dedicate some of my spare time on, or
maybe I’ll be engaged in some sport here on the island. Cause that’s something I
like to encourage on a place like this, more organized activities that are not
dependent on the tourist industry. It’s important to for everyone to have a vivid
community where people can activate them selfs.
I’m a restless soul and a doer. I will always be up to new projects and interact
between people. Back in Sweden my latest company was involved in the
development of intelligent housing. I’m an electrical engineer by profession and
my company was at the cutting edge when it came to reducing electrical costs,
internal communications, automation, surveillance and self sustainable solutions
for the environment. I really hope that I can implement some of these skills here
on the island and contribute to reduce dependency from elsewhere. There’s a
brave new world out there, and it changing rapidly. Just make the most of it and be
sure to help out whenever you can.
If there is something special you would like to communicate to the people
regarding your music or projects or something that you just want to tell about,
please feel free to add this also J
Send some photos of you and everything else you that you think could be good to
put in the interview. If you have a video it can be nice or a link to your website or
page.
We think to use this link:
http://soundcloud.com/dalpha
https://www.facebook.com/danijelalpha
http://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/danijelalpha
http://www.beatport.com/artist/danijel-alpha/67673
http://www.mixcloud.com/danijelalpha/
You can check the other DJ interviews in the magazine for reference:
www.phanganist.com
Thank you &
Kind regards,
Linda
www.phanganist.com