ALISTAIR ALBRECHT FROM HAGENAAR & ALBRECHT

SO ALISTAIR HOW DID YOU MEET HAGENAAR?
Ah Patty! He just kept bugging me to play at my club night ‘Funky4love’, I finally gave in said we could meet for a beer, well the rest is still happening….

SO AT WHAT POINT DID YOU REALISE THAT YOU COULD MAKE SWEET MUSIC TOGETHER?
Well we started DJ-ing together first before we went in the studio. He had already Dj’ed for me a couple of times and I was just blown away by his style and choice in music. The idea to make a track together just came naturally. Two heads are better than one and we are pretty blunt with each other in the studio, which stops us from making self indulgent music.

ARE YOU THE HOUSE VERSION OF “BERT AND ERNIE” FROM SESAME STREET?
Hell yeah! Patrick’s “Bert” and I am definitely “Ernie”. He’s tall grumpy and constantly annoyed with me, and I’m pretty childish and fairly annoying, plus we look at little like them too.

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU’VE MADE “THE TRACK” OF ALL TRACKS?
I don’t think you can make the track of all tracks, because you’re always striving to make something better, but there’s nothing like the feeling you get when you play your own track to a packed dancefloor and it just goes off!

SO IS HOUSE DYING? AND IF SO WHAT’S TAKING IT’S’ PLACE?
House is not dying, just changing, but hey what’s new! It’s been like that since its’ birth back in the mid eighties in Chicago, it’s just the adjective before it that changes, funky is dead, electro & minimal is dying, teck is back, progressive house and now even trance is back in, but what’s this infatuation everyone has with pigeon holing it? Don’t the best dance records span a couple of genera’s where it’s just a big melting pot of styles? Marco V dropped “What Would we Do” at prime time at ‘MysteryLand’ in Holland, probably one of the biggest dance festivals in the world and Marco’s an electronic / trance DJ, but he loves our track “What Would We Do”, which is essentially a house track.

DO YOU THINK HOUSE PRODUCERS WHO RELEASE TRACKS GET A RAWER DEAL THAN POP STARS BY RECORD COMPANIES?
Not rawer, just different, dance has a different route to market, they also come and go much quicker, the beauty of dance is that anybody can make it if they have a good track; all you need is for the Top DJ’s to pick up on it and create a buzz.

HOW MUCH OF MUSIC IS INFLUENCED BY FASHION?
That’s a toughie, I think music runs alongside fashion rather than purely influenced, I think they both need each other just a much.

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW?
Cliché, lots, since our latest remix for Seamus Haji’s Big Love Records remix offers have been coming in strong, tracks wise we have two new ones coming out during Miami at the end of March. We have also been setting up our own label, called Refrakt Records, with good friend Felix Baumgartner, and the first track on the labels going to be an Albrecht, Baumgartner & Hagenaar collaboration.

HOW DOES IT CREATIVELY WORK WHEN THERE ARE 2 DIFFERENCES OF OPINION MAKING MUSIC?
You just argue and get there in the end, but it stops you from making rubbish and thinking it the bollocks!

WHO DO YOU ADMIRE MUSICALLY?
From a producer’s point of I really admire Booka Shade, Daft Punk I know it cliché but I can’t fault the Mouse. Generally I am big Chemical Brothers, New Order / Joy Division, Depeche Mode and Prodigy fan.

MOST DIFFICULT DJ SET?
Umm anywhere far away from a crowd you know, and in a foreign land where no one speaks any English is always hard, they start the most difficult but more often than not end up the best. You’re giving something fresh and new and they love it!

WHAT DO YOU PREFER DJING OR PRODUCING?
That’s not far I love them both, I would have to say I do love producing, but then I think I can always do better, but nothing can replace that buzz when a certain track drops and the crowd goes bonkers.

NAME YOUR ALL TIME FAVOURITE TRACK?
Top 3 is better coz I can’t decided
Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us a Part
Booka Shade – In White Rooms
Frou Frou – Let Go

FAVOURITE CLUB?
Played at has to be Pacha Sharm el Sheikh brilliant vibe!
For just clubbing at I liked the Cross

IBIZA IS IT STILL THE PLACE TO BE, OR IS IT A RELIC OF A BYGONE ERA?
God who knows, I think it just another one of those ever changing chameleons
Ibiza knows how to adapt, and it will, its customer base is changing; the thing that most people in the UK are missing is that there are bigger and much more upfront dance events happening elsewhere in the world. For the moment Ibiza still has the kudos but the far east, Eastern Europe and South America are all blowing up so who’s to say what will happen.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO PUSH?
Funky4love Easter Special at Area Nightclub, Vauxhall, London, where we will be headlining alongside some great producers and NME artists on Thursday 9th March after party ‘Electro Kills’ at the Lightbox on Friday day! We haven’t played in London for a long time so we are really looking forward to this monster Easter marathon.