You grew up in Hamburg. What was the scene like there when you started out?<\/strong><\/p>\nBerlin was the techno city, Hamburg was the house city. But once the house music got more and more vocal-y, I really didn\u2019t like it too much and that was the time when I got more into electro. I like a lot of those early vocal tracks, like Frankie Knuckles, but it got too much like handbag house\u2026<\/p>\n
What do you think about the rise of EDM in places like the States?<\/strong><\/p>\nFor me, \u2018EDM\u2019 means more mainstream. Of course I\u2019m a part of it, but I still think there\u2019s something wrong in putting like good stuff like Warp together with David Guetta. But the generation that gets into it will probably start with mainstream music and you might have a good chance that they\u2019ll start digging deeper after a year and find out that there\u2019s so much more amazing music.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s it like to play at big American EDM festivals like Electric Daisy, then?<\/strong><\/p>\nI know what I\u2019m getting into. It\u2019s not easy because on every stage you hear a redneck\u2019s Cotton Eyed Joe trance remix or like, a Coldplay breakdown after three minutes of snare rolls. It\u2019s tough for me to get on that level. I actually can\u2019t. I\u2019m pretty happy that people over there know that: “All right, it\u2019s this German guy and he does his thing and we love it for what he does.” So I\u2019m just happy to be around there without doing the same tricks.<\/p>\n
Recently, a lot of people have criticized DJs for turning up to their sets, pressing \u2018play\u2019 and letting smoke machines and confetti do the work for them. How do you feel about that part of the industry?<\/strong><\/p>\nEverybody talks about it \u2013 and it\u2019s true, you know. There are a lot of people who have DJ sets that are the same everywhere they play. They know exactly what they play, and the music is very functional. It\u2019s just about crowd pleasing and playing hits.<\/p>\n
Before you go, we gotta ask – Snoop Dogg is on one of your singles, Got It. What was the Dogg like in person?<\/strong><\/p>\nI was really nervous, but I kind of broke the ice when I played a lot of like Chicago dance mania booty stuff to him. He smokes a lot, so he\u2019s so super chilled. I was hanging around in their L.A. office all day as well and there was a basketball game, he was entertaining everyone\u2026 He\u2019s a homie, you know?<\/p>\n
Out of the Black is out now. Boys Noize is currently on his European tour, check boysnoize.com<\/a> for more details.<\/p>\nWords: Zing Tsjeng \nImages: Bjorn Jonas<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alexander Ridha is back to terrorise the dancefloor with his third Boys Noize release, Out of the Black. The legendary Berlin DJ talks EDM poseurs, laptop DJs and chilling with Snoop Dogg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11671,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9419],"tags":[3122,2661,1828,3124,1797,559,48,3123,495,464,2047],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
OUT OF THE BLACK: Boys Noize talks laptop DJs, EDM and Snoop Dogg | Wonderland<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n