US DJ/producer XXXChange, known by his family and friends as *Alex Epton, has made a name for himself both as a member of the infamous electro-rap group Spank Rock as well as for his own production and reworks. Talking to ITM from Brooklyn, he spoke adamantly about his passion for music, as well as his upcoming Australian debut as part of the national Parklife tour. While he wasn’t onboard for either of the last two Spank Rock tours, he says his bandmates have passed passed on good reports. “Everyone says it’s really fun, I’m looking forward to it,” he says.
Learning from the best, he had an internship with the DFA and can boast a very distinct production style. A prolific remixer, he’s done work for artists as diverse as Thom Yorke of Radiohead to Brazilian ‘baile funk’ rappers Bonde Do Role. He scored the coveted role at DFA through his friend Tim Sweeney of beatsinspace, he says. “We went to high school together, he told me they had a big movie screen there that we could play videogames on”. He described the DFA’s approach to production as ‘old school’. “I mean they don’t use tape machines and stuff, they use a lot of their own recording as opposed to sample libraries”. He channels a similar style in his remixes, with his musical motifs recalling a style of earlier electronic music that’s reminiscent of Larry Levan’s legendary performances at Paradise Garage.
When asked about his attitude to remixing, his refashioning of Thom Yorke’s track Eraser stands out as one of his biggest projects to date. How does he approach such a mammoth task? “It depends on what you think you is appropriate, and whatever your instinct says,” he says. “That one I got an email from Thom Yorke, (it) started off on a kinda Prince sound or something”. The results speak for themselves as the gig requests are still flooding in for XXXChange. He’s recently contributed to the soundtrack for the videogame Skate, alongside Tommy Guerrero and Z-Trip. His contribution to the project came about because “one of the guys who was on the creative team heard the Spank Rock album, and he was listening to it while he was skateboarding”.
And Alex identifies video games as a very interesting medium for electronic producers to work within. “You can certainly reach more people, they sold like 4 million copies of the game, more records than I would ever sell in my entire career put together. It’s pretty cool ‘cause you get the exposure but then there is a trade off, you are working for a corporation. You have to do pretty much what they want, you are not really the focus and in that case the music was way, way in the background.” The project also saw his creations competing for attention with the work of some pretty talented artists. “For example they hired like the best graffiti writers, like all the best graffiti guys to do the set designs. It’s so incredible all the arts direction that goes into it. You get exposure but become part of a virtual world, competing for everyone’s attention, it’s not like someone just put on your CD with their headphones on.”
Apart from his work producing Spank Rock along with various other bands (he produced The Kill’s latest album Midnight Boom), he’s known as an accomplished DJ as well. Last year XXXChange, Ronnie Darko and Chris Rockswell put together Spank Rock’s contribution to the FabricLive series for the renowned London club. The result was an eclectic mix that jumped from the pounding electro of Justice to the lush 80s soundscapes of German synth act Tangerine Dream. The mix was not without its difficulties. In order to transition Yes’ Owner of a Lonely Heart he had to enlist Tyler Pope of LCD Soundsystem and !!! to create a fake intro due to license restrictions. When asked why the labels imposed such strict rules he responded “I don’t think it’s the labels in that kinda of restrictions. It’s the artists. ‘You can license us but not chop it up’, the labels they don’t care. Someone like Yes or whatever, they are like 50, 60 years old. Trevor Horn, they don’t want someone ripping the shit out of their music.”
An equally intriguing track selection should be expected from XXXChange at Parklife. Ranging from seminal disco and new wave to the latest underground hip hop and electro.
XXXChange tours Australia as part of Parklife, For all the latest on the 2008 tour head to www.inthemix.com.au/parklife:
Sat Sep 27th – Adelaide
Sun Sep 28th – Melbourne
Mon Sep 29th – Perth
Sat Oct 4th – Brisbane
Sun Oct 5th – Sydney
