{"id":19003,"date":"2020-02-13T19:41:04","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T17:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xceed.me\/blog\/?p=19003"},"modified":"2023-05-18T08:58:28","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T06:58:28","slug":"interview-with-aleksandir-succeeding-almost-by-accident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xceed.me\/blog\/en\/interview-with-aleksandir-succeeding-almost-by-accident\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Aleksandir: \u201cIt\u2019s crazy to imagine where and when \u201cYamaha\u201d was made\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’ve read the name Aleksandir<\/a> and it sounded like Chinese to you, don’t panic. His career as an electronic music artist has only just begun. In June 2018, this young half-Turkish half-British guy decided to publish “Yamaha”, a track that, according to him, had already been playing in his living room for two years, much to the dislike of his roommates. Those who didn’t dislike it were huge selectors like Dixon, Tycho or Kiasmos. All of them turned this banger into a recurring gem in their sets. And, from then on, Aleksandir began to receive calls. One of the most important collaborations was with Frenchman Agoria to remix one of his tracks. Aleksandir (real name Alexander Lawrence) is humble and sensible. “Success is not about how big your track is or how famous the people you work with are,” he states. Before, he hardly ever went to electronic clubs. Now, he leads them from the DJ booth, getting closer and closer to a profession which he had never approached before.<\/p>\n

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Half-British, half-Turkish, and with your main influences coming from Bristol. It is an interesting mix, Alexander.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Haha! Yes, so I have both Turkish and English parents, but growing up I was pretty much always in Istanbul. Musically speaking, I always had a lot of inspiring people around me and music was always a huge part of my life, but I was barely touching the surface of electronic music before going to university in the UK. My mate Phil, who I went to university with, was a big influence and he showed me a lot and taught me a lot (I still thought dubstep was what Skrillex made before I met him). And then, more and more I started to go out in Bristol, saw some of my favourite acts at Motion or the Love Inn, and bought my first records at Idle Hands, all which were primary influences for what became Aleksandir.<\/p>\n

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You are very young, but your music, and especially your track \u201cYamaha\u201d, has already been played by giants like Dixon. It should feel quite good, shouldn\u2019t it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It all kind of kicked off at the same moment. I remember waking up one day and two friends had sent me videos of Dixon playing it somewhere, and someone else had sent one of Tycho playing it at Burning Man. It was definitely a surreal feeling, and it still is. Just the amount of people \u201cYamaha\u201d managed to make contact with is incredible to me. It\u2019s crazy to imagine where and when it was made, and the life of its own that it\u2019s had since it came out.<\/p>\n

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Indeed, the track got the likes from Dixon and other big names like Kiasmos. So, where and when was it made? Were you imagining such a big success while creating it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh, I definitely didn\u2019t. All my housemates hated it because I made the bulk of it over the course of a very hangover Sunday, and it was very loud and very repetitive\u2026 I think it must have been at least 2 years or so between the time I made it and the time it came out, so by then it was pretty old news to me. When it came out and kicked off, it was totally unexpected, but it all happened so quickly. It just seemed to spiral out of control by itself.<\/p>\n

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