Actor. Thespian. Celebrity. AFI Nominated. You can add another entry to this list of attributes – DJ. Yet as a vinyl spinner, Alex Dimitriades remains unknown and untried. But put him behind a pair of turntables and you will enter a very different world as opposed to what we’d expect from the television or movies. This is not the place where he’s a charmer, or the dimension where he clicks his fingers and ‘things happen’. It’s not about seeking accolades or proclaiming his star status to all and sundry. Here, he is not acting. To Alex Dimitriades, DJing is an intimate, private and very real affair. To come into the arena of music, talent is the only entrance and with a massive and ever-growing collection of records behind him, Alex Dimitriades isn’t backing down from the dance music arena. To Alex, music is simply an outlet of expression, and one of many crafts he can assume that allows him to communicate his deep feelings and emotions.

Growing up within a Greek household in the working class suburbs of Sydney’s Earlwood, Alex’s DJ ears were first exposed to Video Killed The Radio Star and tunes from The Beatles. Naturally musical without being a musician, it was at age ten while tuning into Afrika Bambaata’s Wildstyle that life for him would never be the same. “The first time I heard it, it pulsated through me,” Alex relates. “It felt like it was pulsating through my body for ever. When I heard it, I thought ‘what the fuck?’ It really turned my brains inside out.” From this point, commercial radio and Rage wasn’t enough. On Saturday nights, he would stay awake until midnight to tune into Triple J for imported dance tunes and hip hop. “That music would turn me inside out,” Alex asserts. “It turned me onto a new world. Soon as I could afford it, I bought records. I also collected tapes for years and years.” His older friends who were going out and hitting the clubs kindly passed on the mixtapes of their DJ friends. When he was old enough to hit the clubs, he would collect those mixtapes from the DJs themsevles. “There was some crazy stuff on those mixtapes,” Alex muses, recalling he still has boxes of those mixtapes “somewhere”.

From 1986, Alex observes it was the beginning of an era for listening to great music. “I knew where to go and where to hear it. Anything vocal really hit me.” Alex claims that tunes like Jocelyn Brown’s Somebody Else’s Guy or anything by Soul II Soul “really turned me on. You see, it all comes back to black music styles,” Alex declares. “Disco is the shit. Early RnB or funk with all those bass lines and great rhythms – that’s where it all starts. That black mixture is so uplifting. It’s really very simple – and it works. It inspires so many different emotions and feelings. It’s reduced to its very essence – it’s all about that filthy, naughty feeling. It’s the bottom line. All the young trendy cats are now discovering disco,” Alex smiles. “Not that shit wedding music,” Alex emphatically points out.

“And you know – the true essence of hip hop has not been represented in a cool way – not like in late 80s or early 90s. Then, it was really banging! In those days – god, I sound old!” he laughs good naturedly, “but in those days, it wasn’t about making money. People were just making music and expressing themselves. I really like soulful music. That doesn’t mean it’s soft,” Alex points out. “Soulful music will stir a gamut of emotions within me. It might be about the production, the arrangement, or the vocals. To find this though, you just have to dig a little deeper, try a little harder to look for that sound. Because it’s about fun at the end of the day.” As a self confessed “severe record collector”, Alex seriously got into mixing his precious records once he had accumulated a large enough collection to mix from. “I don’t walk around with an iPod,” Alex confesses to me. “I have a Walkman – but I don’t know where it is. I’m just not down with it,” Alex defends. “I’ve got my records and my turntables and speakers. And that’s all I need.”

And why only records? “CDs don’t come with a history like a 45’,” Alex affirms. “Records encompass everything.” And his thoughts on the ‘underground scene’? “I don’t really think there’s an ‘underground scene’ anymore,” Alex muses. “I’m tired of shite. You gotta dig a little deeper. I’m not into the boganesque electro that everyone has been crazy about. I don’t really care what the media or people think about my DJing. I don’t give a fuck – I’m still doing it. I’m happy for people to get off on the music. What comes out of the speakers is what is important. There are so many different emotions and feelings that music creates,” Alex notes. “I don’t think about my DJing that much – it’s something I just do.”

Balancing his acting with his love for music, Alex notes that both crafts “in different ways, trigger a hormone. They’re an outlet of expression,” he maintains. “Music is a very basic essential part of life. I can’t imagine not doing [listening to] it. Thankfully, there’s lots of good music out there. I’ve sifted through millions, and I’ve managed to fine loads of good hard-soul records. It’s all about the next goal – searching for the next record. I source the net for my tunes,” Alex notes. “The net is great for keeping in touch with what music is out there. I work hard collecting,” Alex smiles. “Records with Carl Armstrong or Barbara Lynn – I spend so much time looking for them. The record label Love is so hard to find – any of those records are super rare – though I’ve got a copy. Tropical Records is another favourite because it’s hard heavy funk and rare and hard to get. I just want to play everything. I have a big melting pot of different music.”

Having already performed a few stints around Sydney recently as a celebrity DJ with plenty of exclusive DJ performances around the country under his belt, Alex Dimitriades will be welcomed yet again to Brisbane’s Alhambra Lounge on Friday June 27th. Since his last successful Brisbane performance in September 2006 with a dynamite house set, Alex maintains his record collection has significantly grown. On Friday evening, Alex promises to unleash his special brand of assorted jazz and house. “There are some very exciting pieces on the way that I hope to bring with me,” Alex declares. “My set will be angled more towards jazz and eclectic – not strictly house; more a mashup. I’ll definitely be pulling out loads of different stuff. So, I’ll see you on the dancefloor.”

Alex Dimitriades plays Brisbane’s Alhambra Lounge this Friday June 27th.