Last in the country in 2009 on the back of his celebrated Papillon LP, German-Turkish stalwart Butch returns to Australia in February with a wave of new tunes in his arsenal, in particular select cuts from his most recent artist album called Eyes Wide Open. ITM caught up with the DJ and producer born Bülent Gürler ahead of his tour kick-off this weekend to discuss his affection for Australian crowds and how to let go.

You’re coming back to Australia again after your last tour in 2009, what stood out as highlights for you on that tour?

“The whole tour was an amazing experience. It was my first time in Australia and I instantly fell in love with that country. It is simply beautiful and the people there are really friendly and welcoming. Gig-wise I remember a great afterhours session with my friend Johnny D in Sydney where we played 6 hours back to back. The atmosphere was really intimate and the crowd was obviously having a good time.”

And what are you looking forward to experiencing this time around?

“I´m looking forward to every single show I´ll play and to all the people I will meet. My last time there was during the Australian “winter” and this time it’s summer which I am really happy about because it’s freezing in Germany right now.”

I’d be interested to get your take on the Australian club scene from an international perspective. What’s the reputation of our clubs like amongst DJs that you circulate with?

“Well, I think everyone I was talking about remembers their time in Australia as something special. The people know how to party hard, the clubs are under good management and there is a certain vibe that comes from the good weather with a lot of sunshine. My experiences two years ago were absolutely positive and I´m expecting the same this time around.”

Other DJs I’ve spoken to have described Australia as a southern Ibiza of-sorts, how does that sound to you?

“Yes, there´s some truth in this comparison. Ibiza is like the world´s capital of electronic music during the European summer. When it’s winter in Europe you can see almost every big act from here playing shows in Australia. Electronic music mixes very good with sunny islands, beautiful beaches and people that love to have a good time.”

Let’s talk about your studio work. What’s coming up for you in 2011?

“My last album Eyes Wide Open was released three months ago on my own imprint bouq. This year I will focus on single releases and my label. The next artist album is planned for late 2012 or early 2013.”

Papillon was described as an ‘artistic metamorphosis’ for you. Is that an objective with your output – to be constantly evolutionary?

“That was my first artist album which I released three years ago. It was the first time I had to think about the album format and the concept of a whole album. It is completely different from doing a single or an EP. I´m not a fan of electronic music albums that have 18 peak-time club bangers. I think an album should take you on a journey…with warm-up tunes and relaxed sounds, tracks made for the dancefloor and tracks you can play at after the club. I even included some instrumental guitar tracks in my albums, which isn’t very common for an electronic music artist”.

When working on your own material, is it ever difficult to strictly edit your work? I would imagine there would be an impulse to continue tweaking and changing small details for eternity so how do you hold yourself back and say ‘this is complete’?

“Yes, that really is a problem sometimes and a reason why I sometimes spent 24 hours in the studio. But I have to admit that over the years I learned how to work more efficient. The production of my last album took me nine months which is a lot of time for an electronic music album (although I worked with a vocalist and a violinist) but if I couldn´t have said ‘this is complete’ I guess I´d still be working on some details today.”

Is there a particular mood or mindset that you find works best when making music that’s different from a mindset when DJing at a club?

“While working in the studio you try to imagine how the crowd would react to certain parts of the tracks. You try to create a certain vibe and you have to take care of many technical details. DJing at a club is completely different since you can experience the direct response of the crowd. Especially when you play a track for the first time, no matter if its your own or of another producer its always an interesting moment to watch how people react.”

As an experienced turntablist how do you feel about the DJ community’s push into new technologies which largely disregard vinyl in favour of digital formats?

I have mixed feelings. As a DJ who´s travelling a lot I´m really happy about technologies like Serato because carrying at least two very heavy record cases makes things complicated on tour. Before I was switching to Serato I was one of the first DJs in Germany using Final Scratch. I´ve learned DJing with vinyls but switched to Time-Code vinyl relatively early. I´m not a big fan of DJing with CD´s or laptops because I feel like there is something missing if there are no turntables involved. So although I´m using Serato with time-code vinyl I´m still a big fan of the ‘black gold’. That’s why my label bouq is releasing on vinyl (some releases even vinyl only) although this minimizes the profits.”