Girl talk on Benzaiten / Radio Vibration with hostess Dj Angela interviewing ALIENNA, Wednesday 18th of May, from 7pm-8pm, 107.2FM à Bruxelles 91FM à Mons

“Maybe it’s a fetish thing…”

When did you decide to buy turntables?

ALIENNA: We always had turntables at home. My first memories as a human being are related to music and records. The moment I decided to buy my own turntables with the purpose to become a DJ… was somewhere during the early mid 90’s. I was already inspired by the radio show Teknoville on Studio Brussels, the first national radio show broadcasting techno & underground music. During that same period I went to a local club and I loved how the DJ (Radical G/Linear Straight) was mixing his records. I was fascinated by his technique and I wanted to learn it too. I didn’t have a lot of money, so it took me a while saving money for buying two turntables and a basic mixer with faders only.

Who has learned you to play? Wasn’t it too much frustration?

ALIENNA: You wouldn’t be able to imagine it, because we all have YouTube now and a billion of tutorials all over the internet… but it took me over 1 year to understand how to mix 2 records. It wasn’t frustrating because I really was motivated to learn how to mix records. My first gig however, was a disaster… I didn’t know what a monitor was and the pitch on my JB Systems turntables at home worked the other way around . Total confusion! After some time I finally had the money to buy one Technics turntable and another mixer with equalizer.

Is it difficult to play with vinyl in clubs nowadays?

ALIENNA: It was more difficult from 2005 till 2013. People were getting used to digital sounds and while I was still playing with vinyl, people were asking questions about the sound quality of vinyl , about the weight that I have to carry each time and so on… not always in a positive way. Once I really had a very bad experience. During a gig, there was this light jockey complaining about my record bags standing in the way because we had little space. When one of the bags fell off the little table behind us, some of my vinyls were spread all over the floor. On purpose the light jockey stepped right on them.  I couldn’t believe this was happening! The last few years there is a vinyl revival. People & promotors understand the value and that it has meaning.

Tell us more about your community page For The Love of Vinyl?

ALIENNA: For the love of vinyl is a community page for vinyl lovers of electronic music & beyond. I started it a few years ago, just for fun. To me it is just another way to share music or musical thoughts, which I love to do. Or maybe it is a fetish thing, I don’t know. Haha 🙂 I prefer to play with vinyl because I grew up with it, but I also play with cd’s or digital, it depends on the duration of my set, the course of the evening, the condition of the turntables, etc. For me it is important to feel what I am playing and with vinyl I am more connected with the sound in some weird way. But as long as you play good music, it really doesn’t matter where it comes from.

Is there a new production in the making?

ALIENNA: Yes, at this moment most of my time goes to making music with my machines.

What’s coming next?

ALIENNA: A little bit of touring with the Festivibe collective, and making music. This summer we have the Festivibe Yaman Day with Funk D’Void and many others! Check out the Festivibe page for more info. I’m also looking forward to BYR (more info about this soon). But my focus is on making music now, and the learning process behind it. I’m in a good place now with my machines. I love working with them because they are the only things I can make music with. I tried everything else but it didn’t work out. I just love turning knobs and the warm organic sound of my machines.

Track of the day:

Bjarki – Baepolar
TRIP06 ‘When I Was 14’
Release date: 20.05.16

https://www.facebook.com/myloveforvinyl/
https://www.facebook.com/AliennaMusic/