As I wait on the end of the phone while Alain Macklovitch, AKA A-Trak, drags his suitcase down what I can only imagine is a narrow-wrought iron spiral staircase in a chic Parisian apartment, I wonder to myself how long it will take me to learn how to DJ, so in a similar fashion to A-Trak I can travel and work with some of the world’s best DJs and musicians. When he finally jumps back on the other end, he sounds a little flustered. Turns out he is running late for a flight to New York where he is heading to DJ at “some awards show that MTV is doing”.

“Oh yeah, just some awards show” I hear you scoff, but that’s life for the busy 26-year old who, since winning DMC World DJ Championship in 1997 at the age of 15, has gone on to become a respected producer, Kayne West’s tour DJ and founder of the Fools Gold record label. “I did a house swap with my friend DJ Mehdi over the fall,” Alain tells me. With Mehdi living over in Brooklyn NY, Alain has been using his friend’s Paris apartment as a base for his recent string of shows across Europe. With gigs all over Europe, and the world for that matter, I ask whether A-Trak changes the style of his set depending on which country he’s playing in? “It’s a little bit different, but not as different as it used to be,” he says, before going on to explain that it’s more about the club or party he is playing at rather than the country he is in.

Having said this, A-Trak does advocate what he believes to be a DJ’s responsibility to be aware of crowd preference in different countries. “France has been very much defined by the Ed Banger sounds over the last few years,” while over in the UK, “there was a lot of fidget stuff like Switch and Sinden.” How about Australia? “Well, there’s a lot more of the synth, 80s inspired electro funky stuff,” which would be breeze for A-Trak as his brother is one half of electrofunk duo Chromeo (gee, those Macklovitch boys must have some very proud parents). Whatever and wherever the club, party or festival, one thing guaranteed in an A-Trak set is hip hop, “It’s a big part of who I am and I don’t want to just play a straight electro set, it’s not really me.”

Amidst all this jet setting, partying and house swapping, A-Trak tells me about a recent project with Nike. Titled Running Man, the 45 minuet track is part of Nike’s ‘Original Run’ series in which they employ an electronic music producer to create a track of continuous original music. “It’s glorified jogging music for runners, they give you these guidelines …. for the first 10 minuets you have this set energy level then in the next 10 you bring it up a little bit”. The project took him two months to produce, and believe it or not, it’s his first A-side release. “There’s never really been just a record under my name that you can just go into the shop and pick up or whatever”.

It appears as though Alain is now on a roll, from the Running Man track comes Say Woah, A-Trak’s debut single. Released on the French label Kitsune, the single has already been remixed by the likes of Sinden and Boys Noize, who are also both “good friends” of A-Trak, how nice! Sooooo.. Can we expect a A-Trak album soon? “I haven’t started working on my album yet,” he says. Not only does he want to release a few more singles first before starting a A-Trak album he’s also been too busy working on two mix compilations along with putting together the final touches for Kid Sister’s debut album which is due for release next year. Kid Sister, who also happens to be Alain’s girlfriend, is the voice behind party tracks Beeper and Pro Nails, and according to Alain the album will be “a little bit more hip hop than people may expect it to be, I think people think that she’s just does electro rapper or whatever. She really has a good ear for melody in the tracks that she picks”. Alain has produced the album and recently took it over to London to “one of the best mastering studios in the world” to finish it off. So are you happy with the final product? “We’ve made a record that’s very well rounded, I’m pretty proud of it,” he boasts.

If you a fan of A-Trak then get excited because he is heading down under for a string of festival dates and a couple of side shows this summer both in Australia and New Zealand. Playing at Falls, Field Day, Rhythm & Vine, Southbound, Sydney Festival plus more, I ask him how he handles such a intense tour schedule. “I know I have a bunch of days off after that so I’ll give it my all then rest after that.” I also ask A-Trak, who has visited Australia about 10 times before, what else he hopes to do while here? “Meet up with friends and go to the beach,” he replies, also revealing he will be recording while in the country in order to meet a deadline. Man, the kid never stops!

Catch A-Trak at the following shows over the NY period…

29th Dec – Falls Festival, Victoria
30th Dec – Falls Festival, Tasmania
1st Jan – Field Day, Sydney
3rd Jan – Southbound Festival, Busselton
8th Jan – Empire, Brisbane
9th Jan – Prince of Wales, Melbourne
10th Jan – Festival First Night, Sydney

For more info on all the party action happening over summer, check out ITM’s Festival Pages for more news, features, clips and DJ mixes that you could possibly ever hope for!