Sauce

I’m willing to bet that somewhere, earlier this month, there was a dance music fan who picked up Calvin Harris’ debut album, took one look at the title – I Created Disco – and thought, “Who does this guy think he is?” To that fan, wherever they may be, relax. Calvin Harris didn’t create disco. But, after listening to this, his opening salvo into the dance music world, I think he may well have reinvented it. Not bad for a guy who made his tunes on an old Amiga.

 What’s the stupidest question you have ever been asked in an interview?
Um, “What’s the strangest animal you’ve ever seen on a leash?” That’s pretty bizarre.

[Laughs] What’s that got to do with anything?
I’ve got no idea. I don’t know what we were chatting about … music, life in general. She just asks, “So, what’s the strangest animal you’ve ever seen on a leash?” and I said, “Well, I don’t know – a llama?” and then she moved on.

You should’ve put it straight back to them and said, “So what’s the strangest animal you’ve ever seen on a leash?”
Well I did, after answering, and she said, “I don’t know – a Koala Bear.”

I reckon she’s bullshitting.
Yeah, probably.

Congratulations on your album mate, I think it rocks.
Oh good, awesome. So do I.

Now how long has it taken you to put this debut together? And I’ll continue this question with a bit of supplementary information: are these tracks that you’ve got on this album the best that you’ve ever produced, and maybe some of them are three years old, four years old? Or have you gone, “Right, I’ve got a chance to make my album; to make a shitload of tracks and choose the best?”
It was basically a collection of tunes that over the last two years I’ve been doing, but I had older tunes for my album before I found an album deal, so there was never a moment when I sat down to write and said, “Right, I’m going to do my album now”, because there was no need … what’s the point? So after that I just picked the best ones, and said, “There you go – there’s your album.”

How did you come to the attention of the record label gods?
[Laughs] It was trying to set up a real Myspace, which involved me joining Myspace after about seven years of sending out demo CDs and not getting any response. And I think the guy who works for EMI Publishing – he liked it, and they ended up signing me, and then they shopped around for record labels on behalf of me, and got me a deal with Sony.

Cool. That’s really bizarre, isn’t it? EMI Publishing getting you a deal at Sony.
Yeah. Sometimes that happens. But it was basically a series of lucky accidents.

There’s a real contradiction here in your career already, in that we’ve got the latest technology, which has enabled you to come to attention, and then release this album. But, at the same time, you actually shunned to some extent the continuous flux of new technological sound devices that are out there, don’t you?
Not [because] they were electronic – just because I couldn’t afford any of them, you know? I used what I had at hand, and it was good enough to make a decent tune. Some people have it wrong to think that you need all the best stuff to make a decent tune. You don’t really need anything. You can write a really good tune on nothing but a piano and a fucking microphone, and it’s good.

Calvin Harris’ debut album I Created Disco is out now.