In Depth: Alan Fitzpatrick Reviews His Career To Date

Alan Fitzpatrick was born and raised in Southampton, where he still lives with his family. Known equally as a DJ and producer, he has been closely affiliated with Adam Beyer’s Drumcode label for many years now, and for almost as long he has been coming to play for us here at fabric. With a studio set up at the bottom of his garden, Fitzpatrick has produced some of UK techno’s finest output in recent years, working alone and closely with collaborator Reset Robot under their Customer alias. His signature brand of intelligent, big-room techno has won him fans across the globe, but we chose to talk to him about where he feels truly comfortable and at home. This past year has been by far his best yet, with releases on Drumcode, Hotflush and Mosaic alongside a busy touring schedule. Alan took time out of his studio to come and chat with us on the roof of our HQ close to the walls of a club that he considers a home from home. On a greying, windy November afternoon we chatted through his early clubbing experiences, his first time at fabric and what else is in the pipeline - including some exclusive information about a particular compilation he’s working on… Tell us about some of your first clubbing experiences that you remember? Alan Fitzpatrick: We used to always go down to Bournemouth, to what used to be called the Opera House. It’s now the O2 Academy I think. We’d get on the coach Friday night, go down there and that would be our weekend really. We’d see all sorts of DJs, from house to trance, techno to drum & bass. In the late ‘90s, it was much broader, a sort of tombola of who you wanted to see. Festivals still do that now, but club nights are more focussed on specific sounds. Back then you’d be watching someone like Paul Van Dyk and the next DJ would be Digweed and after that someone else. When did your interest in music start? Very early on. From middle school, I properly started getting into listening to my parents’ records and recording stuff off the radio, from chart stuff to compilation albums. From that I progressed to tape packs at school and making tapes. Going through bargain bins at Woolworths and picking tapes out. I bought those racks you used to get and you had to try and fill them up with as many tapes as you could. I was listening to everything, whether it be pop stuff to dance stuff, from hip hop through Motown, soul and a lot of the ‘80s stuff like the New Romantics and David Bowie. I still have a wide-ranging taste. I rarely listen to dance music unless I’m working or preparing for gigs. How often are you able to devote time to finding new music? I pick up a lot of stuff by word of mouth from friends. I don’t get as much time digging as I would like. Especially having a family and having such a busy touring schedule and writing music and everything together, there’s just not enough time. I do my best though to still dig through stuff. There are so useful things out there now, like the suggested artists on Spotify or ‘customers also bought’ sections on certain sites. That’s quite good. Sometimes it’s way off, but a lot of the time there’s something you can pick up in there.

”I’m not the kind of DJ who goes into the booth and starts to scratch and hypnotise you by watching what they’re doing”

So you studied Music Tech at university. Tell us a bit about that? I did! I dropped out though because I started getting releases. I was there for a year or so. It’s quite a full-on course, full time, so I learnt quite a lot in that time. Towards the end of that year, I’d gone to Digital Village and basically financed a home studio setup, a PC and various other bit and bobs. Then I got part-time work to pay for that finance agreement. I was applying everything I learnt in college to actually doing it. Towards the end of that course I was starting to see records of mine coming out, so I had to decide between sticking with the course for another two years, or jumping straight into this. Thankfully it paid off. So the course was in a way the catalyst for your career? Yeah, I just thought that with my limited knowledge, I like to jump in and just try things and if they don’t work, then perhaps they’ve had a part that’ll pay off. I work closely with Dave Robertson (Reset Robot), and he stuck out the course and he went on to study a little further and a lot of my friends that I was associated with at the time were all involved in music. After that stint doing part of the course, it fuelled me to get out there and get on with it. This is an industry where nobody is going to ask you if you’ve got a degree in music to write a track. You just do it and if it works it works. I can’t read sheet music, it just looks like tadpoles on paper to me, but I know what sounds good. There’s people who score films at the highest level in Hollywood who don’t know how to read music, but they know what sounds good. It really is all about your ear, I think. What do you see yourself as more, a producer or a DJ? For me they really do go hand in hand. I enjoy both. Being a selector and DJ definitely came first for me, but with the success I’ve had with writing, now I’d say I’m probably more known for productions. DJing is catching up now, but initially my view was to focus on my strengths. I’m not the kind of DJ who goes into the booth and starts to scratch and hypnotise you by watching what they’re doing - they don’t need to write tracks because they’re so good at performing. I thought my productions were good enough and I caught more people’s attention by producing first. The DJing kind of came afterwards, on a professional level. Nowadays it’s very much in the middle. Moving on to your relationship with fabric, when was the first time you came? I think it was about 12 years ago, just about being old enough to get in. We got the train up from Southampton or Portsmouth, depending on who was coming up. We’d get up early, get in the queue, spend all night in here, leave around 7 or 8 in the morning and get an hour’s kip on a bench in the train station at Waterloo, before getting the first train back. That’s what we were doing for ages. After Slinky and the Opera House sort of died off and slowed down, events started in other cities like Bristol and other places, but it definitely slowed up in Bournemouth. We then started looking at fabric and it became our almost weekly place to go. I’ve had some really good nights here, seeing Craig Richards and Ricardo Villalobos till 11am, sometimes coming up on the Friday for drum and bass events. When we first started coming we didn’t know the club too well and you’d get lost walking about and end up in Room Three and you wouldn’t know how to get back to somewhere else. You’d find your mates at the end, or you’d bump into them refilling their water in the toilets and you’d share your stories. It used to just be like that. It’s like it became my regular weekend out. What was it like to be asked to play for the first time? It was awesome. In fact the first time was a kind of stand-in gig, which is weird. I was at home on the sofa, watching TV. It was December and I think Cari Lekebusch was supposed to close Room Two, but he couldn’t fly because of the weather, so I got a phone call from Andy at about midnight and he asked me if I was free to play. I remember getting straight in the car and driving up. James Ruskin played before me and I closed the room. I was up to the club within two hours of getting the phone call. That was my first gig at the club. I’ve been quite regular ever since. It was a cool first experience because it wasn’t something that was particularly orchestrated. I thought it was my night off. I was already touring at the time and I really thought I was going to take Saturday off. The drive up here was insane, because loads of roads were closed and there was black ice, snow… we had to crawl up the motorway and straight back afterwards too, no hotel or anything.

"I’ve done so many shows around the world where the spotlight’s on your and the focus is completely on you, but that’s taken away here. I’ve always thought it would be really cool to DJ from behind a screen where nobody could see you and they are just listening to the music."

What do you think fabric means for London? It is without a doubt the best club in London. It’s an institution. It’s London’s Berghain for me. For me playing somewhere like Berghain is where I’m at my most comfortable. I do exactly what I want. And it’s exactly the same here, so I tend to link the two, because I love playing here and being part of this set up. If it were to close, it would be a big blow to the city. It’s the club that everyone knows. People really associate the city with this club in this scene. There’s a reason for that, because it’s wicked! I’ve been lucky enough to play both Room One and Room Two. What are the differences for you between the two rooms? Room Two is essentially a sweaty bass cave. It’s loud and it’s heavy. Room One has that clarity of the sound and it’s really comfortable. It’s like playing in your lounge, but in a louder environment. There’s no booth like it in there. You’ve got monitors all the way around you. One of the best things about the club for me, in both booths, is that you’re not exposed. I remember when I started first coming to fabric, it was packed, it still is nowadays, but sometimes you wouldn’t know where the DJ was. There were tourists coming in and not knowing which way to look. Especially in Room Two, people still do it now, people dance looking at the stage and you’re to the side. They really don’t know where you are. That’s what I like, because I’ve done so many shows around the world where the spotlight’s on your and the focus is completely on you, but that’s taken away here. I’ve always thought it would be really cool to DJ from behind a screen where nobody could see you and they are just listening to the music. Perhaps there’s too much focus on the DJ in the scene at the moment in general? Definitely, and I really don’t like that. I suppose you link it to your own personality, but I’ve never been in a club and just staring at the DJ, listening to what they’re playing. For me, the music’s on, but you’re out with your mates. Obviously you know whose playing, you might be name-checking tunes or whatever, but you’re not just staring and reacting to whenever the DJ raises their hands. For instance you’re very exposed when you’re on a festival stage and there’s 20,000 people in front of you. What have been your highlights of playing at the club? I had a New Year’s Eve slot one year with Adam Beyer and Slam in 2011 and all of my mates came up, it was one of those rare times I’ve played a NYE party with anyone I know in the crowd - I’m always away playing somewhere else. One summer I remember being called in to play in place of Nicole Moudaber, but then I already had a date a few weeks later, and both times it was completely sold out. I really enjoy playing b2b with Adam Beyer in Room One, we’ve done it twice now, both times just before the NYE slot. I remember they only had Room One open, but halfway through the night they had to open Room Two because there were so many people. They just pumped the sound from one room to another and even then, people were still looking around to try and find the DJ. What’s coming up that’s exciting you? It’s been such a busy year, the next period is actually relatively quiet, but there’s a remix for Pan-Pot as part of their album. Also just had a couple of remixes out, one of Argy on BPitch Control. Got a new Drumcode EP coming and a new Hotflush EP. I’m also working on a new album and I’m really excited about having been asked to mix the next fabric mix. That’s where my focus is at the moment, I’m treating it almost like an album project. The deadline is so far in advance of the release, which will be in April, that I’m really having to think very far in advance and tailor it. How are you feeling about your date on the 5th December? RPR are in Room One, and Slam are playing in Room Two, so it’s a great lineup. I’ll be closing, which is always fun! It’s gonna be a long day, as I’m playing a small party in Southampton beforehand and even before that I’ll be at Southampton/Aston Villa football match, so yeah it’s gonna be hectic. Can’t wait! Photo credit: Dan Reid