Throughout his distinguished run as a techno original, Dave Clarke has stayed true to his sound. After a too-lengthy gap between visits, the straight-shooting DJ and producer returns to Australia next month for Creamfields. While chilling at his new studio in Amsterdam, Clarke checked in with inthemix about life on the ‘alternative’ side of dance music.

For a gentleman who has been in the scene since the early ‘90s, what is your view on the techno scene now?
The scene has changed massively. The essence of the scene is the same, but the technology has changed massively. There’s a really big dilemma that’s going on, because some of the people that are in the scene are scared of the technology. They are still using vinyl, whereas some people really embrace the technology as they feed the objects, and don’t really DJ anymore.

I’m one of those that acts that are in between. I will try to use the best of everything. I haven’t used vinyl in about eight years now, but I use CDs, and I’ve moved onto laptops. I still use a deck to mix. So the technology has really changed things. It’s liberated. As with every change, there are pro’s and con’s. The pros are that you have much better direct artist-to-artist contact; you feel as though you are part of a scene. The cons are you don’t have record shops around anymore, which in certain territories used to allow people to meet up and create a scene that’s local. It has changed dramatically, and I actually think it’s not a bad thing.

What about the musical side of things? Such as the hard-edged techno moving in a ‘minimal’ directon?
Well I’m not a minimal DJ. I’m not a bandwagon jumper either, because I’m not insecure about what I do. I believe a lot of people jump the bandwagon because they really didn’t have a game story. They didn’t really know where they are going, so they are sort of insecure. With every genre, there is always going to be good music within those genres. I have found the odd good minimal record that I will be happy to play, maybe two or three in a set of two hours, but it’s not my scene. I still love the techno that I play, and there is a lot of great techno around.

Something that I miss? The old Chicago scene, because that seems to have dropped off completely. Some people can make it, but there isn’t really that dance scene any more; the international house scene any more.

You have stated that you see your music as an alternative genre, rather than fitting it directly into dance music. That being, techno is an alternative that happens to be on the border of dance music. How do you describe the sounds that you have been pounding over the years?
Again, alternative. If you look at it from outside the forest, and you don’t really favour dance music a whole, then people say this is dance music and come up with a whole heap of commercial names. When you compare those commercial names to the music I play, it definitely is alternative. Even though I might have a very busy club or a busy festival and people come to see me, in the whole big balloon of things, it is not commercial, and therefore it is definitely, absolutely alternative.

I guess you would be offended if you have a comparison with a commercial artist.
It’s a strange thing, like I can still listen to pop music if I could find a good pop track. But I wouldn’t like to get compared to an artist like, David Guetta for example.

Release wise, you have had major success with your debut album, Archive 1, which had its release way back in 1996, to your second studio album, Devil’s Advocate, in 2004. Are you thinking of releasing a new album?
I don’t know about an album. The term ‘album’ sounds a little strange these days, because an album was a way of packaging a lot of tracks together. I never tried to make a story between those tracks, but put them in the best order. For me to make an album sounds really strange. It sounds almost ‘90s in a way. Who buys CDs these days, especially within dance music? Who actually listens to a dance album, aside from journalists, all the way from beginning through to end in the order that it was meant?

Coming to your radio show, how do you go about selecting tracks that you will play? Do you run off reviews or highly known artists claiming that they think it’s “great”?
I’ve never read a press release in my life.

That is great, in my opinion, it is all about discovering your own, and how you feel towards a release, not any other artist. Do you agree?
Absolutely. Especially with the digital revolution. I actually don’t really care what this person thinks about this particular piece of music; I’m going to make my own mind up. I’m not here to play music by running it past other people and seeing what they think about it, then I think about it and then I think about it again.

It’s all about immediate response. In the day when there were white labels, we had to send back reaction sheets, but I never did. Are people that shallow that they need to read through support, then they will support it? Well if that is the case, they are not in the business for the right reason. You should be following your heart. The whole point of it is if the music excites you, does it make you feel good, does it make you think this music deserves to be heard. And if the answer is yes, then great. If the answer to the question is that you are playing it because so-and-so thinks it’s great, then that makes you a bit of a wanker.

The reason why I brought this up is that there are plenty of quality tracks out there from the not-so-big labels, such as labels from Australia, which are being overseen by most A-grade artists. It’s not giving them much of a go, is it?
No. Well, I remember back in the day when Juice records were coming through, when HMC was coming through. It was really important. But I have to be honest with you; I also think the day of the label has gone. I don’t think the label is that important any more, because when you purchase music digitally, how many times does the label pop up on your iPod or computer?

More significance is placed on an artist…
Exactly. Which in fact is not a bad thing – the artist is a standalone, and doesn’t have to sit with other artists on the label for sound. It’s not such a bad thing. I think labels are less important, and more importance is based on the artist. Another thing that has come through with the technology is that, in the old days, I would have to wait for a record to come through the post, which would take a really long time from Australia. But now, music comes direct. Everything is quicker. Once again, that is both good and bad, because people forget quicker too.

Final heavy-loaded question: you are soon here touring for the Creamfields festival, with wildly different acts, such as the Bloody Beetroots and MSTRKRFT to name a few. How do you feel being on such a bill?
The last loaded question, ha? [Counts down time to finish interview] I have a minute-twenty, a minute-fifteen, a minute-ten, a minute. How do I feel? Well it really depends. I actually feel quite comfortable if I’m playing alongside, let’s say, Fever Ray, Gil Scot-Heron and Queens of the Stone Age which happens quite a lot in Europe where you have a festival with loads of different genres.

When you put me amongst the same genre as dance music, even though I play alternative, it does feel a little weird at times. Hopefully some of the people that are into that sort of music will pop in and say, “Oh I like this”. Actually…we have five seconds left! Sorry! [Laughs]

Dave Clarke plays Creamfields around the country in May; check out the dates below and stay up-to-date with all things Creamfields at ITM’s festival page.