DJ and Producer Scott Attrill’s legacy for those that don’t know has lasted well over twenty years, hard to believe isn’t it when you look at his youthful face whilst the rest of him is covered head to toe in stylish clothing; it’s just one of many symbols that show you that he is in fact a man always one step ahead.
Currently pioneering the movement known as ‘Hard Electrik’, a sound which takes every existing popular sub genre of cleverly engineered dance music greatness and gives it a fresh, hard, unique and simply sensational twist; Scott has moved and indeed shaken in many guises. As a DJ, he became Vinylgroover during the rave scene explosion in the early 90’s, the change to Scott Attrill aka Vinylgroover saw him turn his skills in a more advanced direction turning from hardcore to hard house, hard dance and trance, cleverly fusing them all to distinctively make his own noise, that has been gathering him love, respect and vital support from fans internationally ever since.
His three artist albums under his Scott Attrill guise followed with ‘Bass Junkie’, ‘Mega’ and ‘Noize’ becoming both critical and chart successes with Mixmag awarding five star ratings and ‘Album Of The Month’ accolades all round. Scott’s best selling compilation albums including ‘Riot! In Ibiza’ continue to shine on, as does his contribution to the Rock Band series of video games and the continuation of productions on his and industry legend BK’sRiot! and Traffic Records only serve to further that success both garnering key (including daytime) radio play from BBC Radio One and selling healthily in record stores and on dance floors the World over.
He also had the opportunity to recently remix the work of Sidney Samson, he owns an artist agency and regularly turns his hand to promotionand here, we speak to Scott about all things Hard Electrik and the release of the already popular 7 mix compilation album, set to break boundaries and rock the World on Riot! Recordings.
Scott, we trust you are well and that you had a pleasant start to the New Year, it sounds like already in the short space of time that we’ve led into 2012, you’ve already been very busy indeed. Now, before we delve into exactly why that is and what ‘Hard Electrik’ is and how it’s been created and in saying so, evolved; we’d like to get to some roots first – formerly known as ‘Vinylgroover’, now as Scott Attrill, give us a brief summary of your journey from those vibrant days to these evidently more exciting days to come and a little about where that’s taken you, both in the business itself and of course where it’s taken you in terms of global visits to various parts of the World showing off your many talents...
The early days were great, the whole rave sound was booming and I was lucky to be a part of that and a leader in that genre at a very young age. In fact, I had to be accompanied by adults at the start because I was not old enough to be in clubs with a drinking licence. I moved onto hard house and trance in 2000, I had grown bored and disillusioned so decided to move on and it was hard having to work again from the bottom even though people knew who I was but I achieved it. Then, about 3 or 4 years ago, I decided to drop the ‘Vinylgroover’ name completely and push forward with my own which was like a whole new re-invention again as I was working on a new sound.
Over my career I couldn’t tell you all the places I have been but it’s been fantastic. Obvious ones include Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide in Australia; Auckland in New Zealand; Toronto, Niagra, Edmonton, Vancouver & Montreal in Canada; Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Washington DC, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Phoenix, Seattle, Boston and others in America and many times to Tokyo and more in Japan. Ibiza of course, Holland, Finland, Africa and others, some places also like Taiwan & Albuquerque in New Mexico, places I would never have dreamed of visiting. It’s been fun but I don’t remember every place I’ve ever visited.
By the sounds of things such a colourful, interesting and fruitful journey to be on and still going strong none-the-less, with already many chapters written and yet so many chapters to be written. We’re going to ask that ultimate question before we move on and that’s why? Why have you chosen this path and why is it you continue to follow the road you’re on professionally?
I just love what I do, it’s that simple, I love being creative and making music and I love to play it to people.
2011 was such an important year for you, tell us why that was?
It was, I have been working really hard on this project throughout 2011, as well as being in the studio and further developing the ‘Hard Electrik’ sound. There are so many more producers now involved too and making great music with no limits - that’s how it should be.
Writing and producing is something you thrive on, this much is obvious and in that process you’ve developed ‘Hard Electrik’. Please explain what it is, what it means to you and why in your opinion it’s been such a success both as a producer and as a DJ?
The ‘Hard Electrik’ sound really is what it says, it’s harder electronic dance music of any kind with tracks ranging from 130 to around 142 BPM, and it encompasses everything that’s great in dance music! It came around when I did the ‘Hard Electrik’ remix of ‘Everlasting’ for Nukleuz, around the same time I remixed ‘Sidney Samson’ and a magazine in America did an interview and said I had pioneered this new ‘Hard Electrik’ vibe. I liked the name; you don’t have to think at all about what it is! Basically the sound fuses together all that is great about groundbreaking dance music, refusing to be pigeonholed. You will find a diverse and genre defining mixture of techno, trance, hard dance, electro, hard style, hard trance, minimal, house and even dubstep. Anything goes, if you want it hard, twisted, edgy, dirty and with new ideas, you will love it.
Your newly released compilation album ‘This Is Hard Electrik’ personifies this forward thinking sound, for those interested, how would you explain the album to them and again, what were the thoughts and creative processes that led to its creation as an idea to put forward to the industry? What drove you to develop and deliver the project?
It’s simply an album that presents quality hard electronic music with attitude, scope and edge. New ideas and fresh thinking on a number of fronts, presented by eight DJ’s from around the World that are really leading the line and moving things forward.
You do of course manage and release material through your own labels (in coalition with BK) - Traffic and Riot! Recordings. How is it that you filter through what’s worth signing and what isn’t and overall, how are they doing both the labels and the artists signed upon it, what’s new and fresh in 2012 from them and how do they now fit into the ‘Hard Electrik’ movement as we like to call it?
I get sent music every day, it’s always good to hear new ideas from people and we are always searching for potential ‘star’ producers. The sound and mix has to be phat, that’s so important and clean too. We have some excellent talent now on Traffic and Riot! that includes Leon B, Leon Clarke, Lee Mac, Joe Rogers, Jordan Duke, Generator, Mike Avery, Ben Car, Scott Fo-Shaw and loads more, these are exciting times and these artists are all contributing significantly to developing this sound and style, along with many more from all genres.
You also manage many of the artists that you work with on Traffic and Riot! upon your personally developed NOIZE! Artist Agency, named so after the artist album of the same name. How is that doing, who is now on the roster and more particularly why have you chosen who you have chosen to join you on the firm as they say?
The agency is doing well but things are about to get a lot better as the interest is growing all the time and we now have a few more people involved as our behind the scenes team continues to grow. On the roster is myself, Leon B, Neal Thomas, Jennerate, Sam & Deano and Joe Rogers, all chosen for their love of the music and not just sticking to what everyone else is doing.
Are we right in understanding that NOIZE! is more than just an artist album and agency brand, it’s also moved into events, want to tell us more about that?
That’s correct, the very first Noize event was on January 27th in Exeter, the line up included myself, Lisa Lashes, Phil York, Leon B, Joe Rogers, Nick The Kid & more. The response has been amazing and the event sold out two weeks in advance, so a good night was had by all.
Besides the already astounding ‘This Is Hard Electrik’ compilation, will we be expecting another artist album from you this year?
I really hope so, I’m looking at releasing the new artist album in September so hope to have it all ready in time, been working on it a year and a half now so trying to get it all finished.
Where can we see you performing in 2012, whether it be locally or internationally, where will Scott be taking the main stage this year?
This year there is a lot happening already! In the UK there are gigs happening in Exeter, Newcastle, London, Portsmouth, Bristol, Devon, Sheffield and I have international dates confirmed for Ibiza, Stockholm, Helsinki, as well as an Australia tour with some USA nights being discussed so it’s great thus far.
As always, we wish you every success with each venture, now do remember to schedule yourself some time to sleep! Before we go, let us know how people can stay in touch with you, follow the course of everything Scott Attrill and close by telling us this – everyone always asks, “What’s your favourite tune?” and “What’s your favourite gig?”, we’re going to put a bit of a spin on that and ask – what do you think will be your favourite tune of 2012, from what you’ve heard already and what do you think looking at your Diary may well be your possible favourite gig of 2012?
You can keep in touch with me at www.scottattrill.com. On my site you will find all my social network information and so on. As for a favourite track there are so many, for so many different reasons, I love Kraftwerk, Bowie and all those groundbreaking artists so I’ll pick one from each - ‘Model’ by Kraftwerk and ‘Fashion’ by Bowie. For what I predict as a big tune already for 2012, I’m going to have no shame and name my new tune ‘Simply Electrik’, it’s sounding very cool. As for events, I have no idea, I look forward to Ibiza every year and I’m playing the Monday Bar boat cruise so that should be a lot of fun.
Scott, thank you!
Scott’s ‘This Is Hard Electrik’ mix and tracks are available now from all good digital dance music retailers including iTunes, Track It Down, Beatport and more; as are album length mixes and tracks from Andrea Montorsi, Jon Bishop and BeXta. Diablik, Aaron Olson and Leon B & Joe Rogers mixes and tracks will also be available soon.
LISTEN TO THE EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW
VIEW THE ‘THIS IS HARD ELECTRIK’ MEGAMIX VIDEO ON YOU TUBE
Images courtesy of Scott Attrill, Emily Kemper, Andrea Montorsi, Jon Bishop, Aaron Olson, Joe Rogers, Leon B, Diablik and BeXta. Not to be reproduced without permission.
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Scott, we trust you are well and that you had a pleasant start to the New Year, it sounds like already in the short space of time that we’ve led into 2012, you’ve already been very busy indeed. Now, before we delve into exactly why that is and what ‘Hard Electrik’ is and how it’s been created and in saying so, evolved; we’d like to get to some roots first – formerly known as ‘Vinylgroover’, now as Scott Attrill, give us a brief summary of your journey from those vibrant days to these evidently more exciting days to come and a little about where that’s taken you, both in the business itself and of course where it’s taken you in terms of global visits to various parts of the World showing off your many talents...
