Ewan Pearson has been making records for a living since 1998. He’s recorded as Maas for Soma, releasing six singles and an album Latitude, and under a number of other guises including World of Apples and currently, Partial Arts for Cologne’s legendary Kompakt label. His remixes for the likes of Depeche Mode, Chemical Brothers, Seelenluft, Cortney Tidwell and Freeform 5 have made him one of dance music’s most respected producers and have been compiled on 2001’s Small Change and last year’s !K7 2CD retrospective Piece Work.

A regular at clubs from Privilege to The Pulp to Panoramabar and a resident at Robert Johnson and The Loft, his sets – like the rest of his career – defy easy categorisation, marrying the independent and the underground with a pop sensibility that’s all his own. And he’s still got it going on in early ‘09: he’s recently completed remixes for Kelley Polar, Hot Chip, Foals and Junior Boys and is currently working on Partial Arts material and a new solo record from Tracey Thorn. How, amongst all this has he managed to squeeze in time for another Australian tour? ITM finds out.

What’s in store for you in 2009? Are there any plans for more solo work?

Well, there are a flurry of remixes about to come out. Gavin Herlihy for Leftroom, Jon Hopkins* for Domino, Moon Unit for Supersoul and the first single from the new Junior Boys album which is called Hazel. I think that’s out in March. I also mixed the ‘album’ version. I am two thirds of the way through producing a new solo record for Tracey Thorn which is coming along nicely; it’s more of a singer-songwriter record than the last one, all played and no programming though it does have me playing some keyboards in my haphazard way. She has written some amazing songs for it. And I just mixed the debut single for a new band from Manchester called Delphic who just signed to Universal in the UK and finger’s crossed I’m going to produce and mix their album. That all doesn’t leave time for much original stuff, but there will be more Partial Arts stuff later in the year, we promise.

You produced a lot of the Sydney band Lost Valentinos album, what can we expect from it?

I think they’re great; it’s a really diverse record with loads of character and excitement. They were really ambitious and went wherever their fancy took them really; it doesn’t sound like another identikit indie-dance record.

Do you feel that the popularity of ‘dancepunk’ bands like The Rapture has begun to wain within dance music?

Well people and tastes change as time goes on, but the best bands develop what they do too. The next Rapture record won’t sound like Pieces of the People We Love. But I’m really proud of that record. It still sounds great and I think it will stand the test of time.

What is your process of remixing? Do you feel that people have certain expectations about what your remixes will sound like; do you sometimes feel like you have been pigeonholed as electrohouse or electroclash?

I don’t really have a method. It all depends on the track really. I choose what I work on very carefully, but then where I go with it is not always obvious to me when I start. The nice thing about doing music is that you can’t always predict when you start where you’re going to end up. I do try to change up what I do as well so that I’m not predictable. In the last couple of years I’ve made mixes that go from after-hours Berlin house to balearic disco to banging techno.

How did you initially become interested in electronic music?

I remember a friend of my dad’s brought some little Yamaha analogue synth round to show him once when i was quite small and I was fascinated. And as I got into pop I really liked a lot of synth stuff. My dad played guitar as a hobby all his life and was in various bands, but I started to play piano and then gradually saved up and bought keyboards and a computer. And then acid house happened and everything changed again.

Even though you live in Berlin, I was wondering you felt about the closing of a lot influential clubs some of which you have played at like The End which is closing next weekend, Turnmills and The Cross in London?

London is going through a lot of changes at the moment, and I – like many people – wonder what’s going to happen next, especially in this economic downturn. I can’t see many big new venues opening up, but there will always be lots of smaller more interesting parties going on. People seem to party harder and get a bit more extreme and creative in a recession, so there’s no need to be gloomy. Here in Berlin several new places have opened of late; Violet, WMF is open again and another place called Dice – I’m amazed at how many things are on every weekend here, and how many guests are in town. Whether they’ll all be able to stay open and busy we will have to see.

Every mix of yours I have heard has been totally different, whether it is the Beatsinspace podcast, Fabric or Scifihifi. What is that you look for in a track to put it in your DJ set?

I have really diverse tastes and I try not to be dogmatic really. I listen to a lot of things and I react and adapt what I do in relation to what’s coming out. I’ve never had one sound and stuck to it. Again, there’s no criteria really or a way of predicting what you’re going to like. Certain things are visceral; you feel you like something in your gut.

In one of you Groove columns you wrote, “Pop music – usually at its cheesiest and least cool – is one of the most powerful means by which we form and cement memory”. I just wonder if you would ever try your hand at creating music with a more universal appeal than dance music fans?

Well, I’ve been producing and mixing pop records for people for a little while now; maybe they are at the cooler end of things, but something like M83 Kim and Jessie or this new Delphic record Counterpoint are great emotive pop songs as much as they are anything else.

It feels to me from the few tracks I have that you are exploring the more downtempo or Balearic region of dance music with your Partial Arts work with Al Usher, what is the aim of that project?

Yes, I’ve always loved those records and set up a little label called Misericord to put a few things like that out from time to time. The idea behind my Partial Arts stuff with Al was for us to do something a bit more self-indulgent and musical really and just wander off wherever we felt like it. We have a good dynamic – we stretch each other in different ways and stop ourselves from being complacent or repetitive. The down-side of that is we’re quite slow but I don’t mind. I’m immensely proud of the 4 singles we’ve released and until we have new material that’s up to their standard we won’t release anything new. I wish more people would be more like that rather than just turning out anonymous stuff.

Finally, what are you most excited about doing in Australia on this tour?

Swimming, meeting up with a lot of friends and having a break really. I’ve been working like a madman the last 18 months and I deserve a small holiday between gigs. I’ve met some wonderful people on my previous visits, through playing and working with the Lost Valentinos – so I feel really at home when I visit Sydney. Can’t wait.

Ewan Pearson tour dates…

24th Jan – Family, Brisbane
25th Jan – Lost Baggage, Sydney
26th Jan – Spice, Sydney (Morning)
30th Jan – Roxanne Parlour, Melbourne
7th Feb – Playground Weekender Festival, Sydney