MONTREAL - After 15 years in music, A-Trak has finally released an EP.
Granted, in the time from Alain Macklovitch?s debut as a 15-year-old world champion scratching prodigy to today, the Outremont native and current New Yorker released a plethora of singles and remixes, co-founded a record label, toured the world countless times and even made an ambient album to jog to for Nike, but until now had yet to do something as conventional as put out four original songs at the same time.
?Looking back at some of the early years of the (Fool?s Gold) label, the workload got a bit disproportionate,? Macklovitch explained by phone from New York a day after returning from an Asian tour. ?There were definitely days where I wish I could have made more music but had to take care of the logistics of my then young company. Now that we have a small staff (of six), I?m definitely able to work on the creative side without overloading.?
The protean Macklovitch filled that surprising gap in his resum? this month with Tuna Melt, a collection of four instrumental songs he completed throughout the year, each in collaboration with a different producer. Although many duets these days simply involve swapping files by email, the globe-trotting Macklovitch wanted Tuna Melt to be done in the flesh, which meant meeting with his associates in Miami, Los Angeles and Sweden.
?With vocals, it?s easier to have someone record them elsewhere and send you the finished file,? he said. ?But to make a beat, it?s about a vibe. I like to take one whole day, sit down with someone and make a song, to have at least ninety per cent of it done, and maybe just add some little touches after.?
With electronic music and DJs being so en vogue these days, such elder statesmen (in a relative sense) as A-Trak are reaching wider audiences than ever before, and have also witnessed the role of a DJ expand as a result.
?Electronic music is breaking out from what used to be self-contained scenes to everyone wanting a piece of the action,? he said. His core consumers have gone from primarily hip hop and turntable fans to include a broad spectrum of concert-goers, so every show now requires sensing crowd reactions and intuitively adjusting to their tastes.
While the increased popularity is a positive development for A-Trak and his peers, he warned that there?s a downside to all the attention being lavished on DJs.
?You can start to feel like you?re on a circuit,? he said. ?Agents will book their DJs in the same cities, same venues that other DJs do, and it makes it difficult to switch things up.? Complacency can also set in for DJs building their public personas through social media, an integral part of a musician?s career that didn?t exist when Macklovitch was starting out. ?A lot of guys like to portray their lives as being one big party, and sometimes it feels like everyone is at the same party. It becomes like Groundhog Day.?
On the plus side for Macklovitch, the line between DJs and producers has blurred to the point where a traditional spinning and remixing DJ is now expected to produce his own original material. A-Trak has composed songs before, including a ubiquitous club hit in 2009 under the name Duck Sauce (with American producer Armand Van Helden) titled Barbra Streisand, but admitted his many years of remixing were necessary in allowing him time to nurture the distinctive big tent party sound he feels he has attained with Tuna Melt.
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