It’s the middle of an Australian Summer and we’re in Brisbane right now. The temperature outside the house is reading 38’c and inside you can bet your squid it’s at least ten degrees hotter. It’s 7:40pm and whilst there’s a cool breeze gently lifting the curls of hair stuck to the back of your neck, taking a long pull on the chilled vodka neat frosting up the glass in your right hand both warms and cools you in a entirely welcome fashion.

Well, you’re not, but for the purpose of this interview, Dave Clarke and I pretended we were, at least for the next 20 minutes, anywhere other than where we were… You see, Dave’s been hard at the interview slog for near on the past 45 minutes and thought he’d spied an opportunity to grab a bowl of cornflakes for a quick shovel-in before my call… Sadly for us both to have to say, he was mistaken and answered the call with a mouthful of Kelloggs’ best and brightest

“What’s this about a pool? Am I floating bum up or down? Because if it’s bum up then it’s a different matter.”

Dave Clarke is coming to Australia early 2004 and he’s coming to support his latest release ‘Devils Advocate’, which, as is becoming a common occurrence – was written as an ‘out’ from an old contract:

“It was a struggle – one mans struggles against the evils of the Music Industry…mutters ‘multinationalcorporations’..... a struggle.”

“I had to struggle to get out of the contract and struggle to find out if I could still make a new album. You assume you can but you have these crises of confidence – and after a few weeks you begin to think ‘I can make it’.”

“It was enjoyable. The struggle wasn’t enjoyable – making it was enjoyable and I was thinking ‘Fuck me I’d like to do another one actually!’ Hopefully I will.”

‘Devils Advocate’ sees Dave Clarke following a few well-trodden border trails and also pushing a few new frontiers. One track in particular, which has caused a large number of ears to prick up, is his collaboration with Deutsche Uber-Kittens Chicks On Speed on the track ‘What Was Her Name’:

“Originally there was just the track name. It was going to be for Tiga but he couldn’t come up with anything and he suggested Chicks On Speed. I’d gone out with them in Munich, we came back and it was done in two days.”

Another interesting feature of this latest crafting by Dave Clarke, ‘Devils Advocate’, is the use in the vinyl pressing method is the use of the Paradigm Process (http://www.spl-usa.com/Ref/metropolis_mastering.html), which, quite basically lends to a better quality of sound for the attuned vinyl listener. Suggesting that the seasoned DJ within Master Clarke had become overused to poor quality pressings receives the first of a number of empassioned responses yet to come.

‘Not at all – it wasn’t anything like that.’

“I’m always looking for new and exciting ways of doing things. In all honesty if I’d had enough time, Rick O’Neil at Turtlerock Australia would have been nice. With the album released in Australia in 2 months it would have been nice to have Australian pressings for Australia..”

“I’d been reading about it for a while and it pushed things further,. And I’m really into production that extends frequencies. Really, vinyl is by now ways finished as a medium. The fact it existed, I wanted to use it. It’s going to cost a shitload more and the company behind it is very VERY happy. I’m not a vinyl protagonist. I know it’s better than CD’s and there are people who are still bothering to do things to further vinyl.”

The release of ‘Devils Advocate’ is the merest tip of the iceberg for Dave Clarke, one of the most hardest ridden and in-demand deejays in a small group of those who can stand the test of touring such as this.

“I’m coming to Australia in a couple of months and I’m looking forward to that.’

“My schedule is really, really, Really busy. I’ve got a lot of offers from people until September and really in this time of recession, I’m lucky and privileged. I’m wanted in lots of countries and right now my career’s in quite good shape – so I’m lucky.”

“I’ve felt very tired sometimes because I put myself on tight schedules and it tires me so… I just went to Malta… For example on New Years Eve I played 3 gigs in 2 different countries. I awoke at 8:30pm the 31st and went to bed Midnight on the 1st.”

“We did Barcelona by car, this hysterical journey at indescribable speeds to Madrid then private jet to Oporto then drive back to Barcelona.”

“I went to bed with a fever and woke up fine – Hard schedules makes me feel alive.”

“In music as a whole – that’s never changed – I never look for inspiration just from one thing – I look at the whole vast world of music you know like from Marilyn Manson to the latest Undergrowth Mutations. You know – a lot of sources and I’d hate to be in the situation where I could only pick up inspiration from one source.”

”(There’s) lots of good techno, electro guitar based stuff out now. All the stuff I really, really, Really like never finds it’s way onto the radio.”

So Dave Clarke & I have shared a moment or ten with a real bowl of cornflakes in an imaginary backyard pool and I feel that Dave’s a bit more mentally limber than when he first answered my call so I ask him to put his wit to good use and tell me the most un-funny joke he’s ever heard.

His response?... “Eric Powell.”

Dave Clarke’s new album ‘Devil’s Advocate’ is out now through Skint/Sony. Click HERE to reat ITM’s review. Keep your eye out for details on Clarke’s upcoming Australian tour.