Alan Fitzpatrick

How have your tastes, styles and techniques changed over the years? Or maybe they haven’t, maybe you are still on the same mission, still searching for that perfect beat?

Nothing much has changed. Like I said, I only ever set about the task of writing music from the point of view of having fun with it. It was an extension of collecting records, which in turn came from going clubbing with my mates. For me it’s all tied up in the same process and at the heart of that process is a feeling of being relaxed and enjoying myself. If I’m not in the mood to go in the studio or I’m feeling like something is blocking my creativity then I just won’t write. I guess after so many years you know yourself and how you work so it becomes second nature to create an environment within which you know you can operate at your maximum.

the heart of the process is a feeling of being relaxed and enjoying myself. If I'm not in the mood to go in the studio or I'm feeling like something is blocking my creativity then I just won't write.

As far as styles go, I’m just like everyone else, really – a product of the scenes and sounds I’ve grown up with. My musical influences are pretty broad and I get a lot of inspiration from creating a mixture of the old and the new. Maybe this is something that is quite ‘techno’. It is futuristic music but it has a long history so it’s like a never-ending loop of inspiration that means you’re constantly wanting to push things forward and expand the boundaries but you’re operating from a base of what has gone before. It’s about creating something new from a palette of familiar parts. That’s the creative challenge for me. That’s my mission. Fusing the old and the new together to make a new style.

How important has it been to you to have the link with Drumcode?

Drumcode has been massively important to my career. They have provided a very stable home base for my music and have given me a platform from which to develop and grow as a writer and a performer. That sort of support is going to be a massive help to any artist, but I do like to think that the success we have achieved has been built together and that the partnership has been a mutually beneficial one. Drumcode was a very established and well respected label long before I came along, but if you think where they are at now compared to when I released my first EP in 2009, then they have come a very long way.

They are a brand now, recognised across the globe, and in huge demand by the biggest event promoters in electronic music, not just techno. These guys have 20 years’ experience of making music, releasing records, DJing and touring and they are very hands on – always happy to give feedback or answer questions and share ideas. You can’t help but learn from just being around those guys.

Techno is a functional genre designed for the floor, for the most part. How hard is it to keep coming up with new tracks that bear all the hallmarks of Alan Fitzpatrick but that don’t keep repeating the same trick?

For me personally, the inspiration to write tracks comes from everywhere other than other techno tracks. I never listen to other dance music when forming ideas for tracks. My ideas come from books I’ve read or films I’ve watched or feelings and emotions I’m experiencing. I’m really grateful I’m like this because it means that inspiration just flows from my everyday life. I don’t have to try hard at all to find ideas.

Do you have a certain sound, aesthetic or technique that defines your own music, do you think?

No. Quite the opposite. I try to avoid this sort of thing. Of course I have a style of doing things and this has become recognisable over the years. I see or hear it all the time from the track spotters who follow my mixes or live sets or put up recordings of me playing on YouTube. They notice a new track they haven’t heard and are convinced it’s a new Alan Fitzpatrick track, and a lot of the time they’re right. You can’t get away from that as it’s just a style of production and you can’t avoid it. For example, where I place hits or claps or rides within a track are just part of my style. Just like how someone’s handwriting is distinctive or how someone tells stories in a certain way.

For me personally, the inspiration to write tracks comes from everywhere other than other techno tracks.

You release a lot of music. Are you always writing?

I find writing comes naturally to me, and I’ve a good sense of whether an idea is a good one, which means bad ideas get scrapped early on. So I guess I do write more than most because my creative process is very efficient. For example, if I have an idea on a Wednesday morning I’ll likely have had chance to put down a few sketches while travelling over the weekend and then I’ll come back to those ideas one day the next week when I’ve some time in my studio. If everything is firing then that can mean I’ve written a track in a matter of days. I recently had an amazing creative experience on a flight back from America where I had this idea for a track while watching a film after the meal, and by the time we touched down the track was written. I opened up the file the next day to listen back to it, totally expecting it to be all over the place and it needing loads of work, but it didn’t. Even the mixdown sounded good!

Do we hear everything you do, or just the best bits? How do you know what to put out and what to bin?

It really depends. Sometimes the timing is such that a track will be released a couple of months after it’s written. Sometimes it will be much longer, but I generally like to release everything that I’m happy with eventually, even if I give it away free on my SoundCloud. My attitude is that energy and effort and creativity and soul has gone into making that piece of music so it would be a waste for it to just die on a hard drive. It’s all part of my creative flow. I don’t like to have too many tracks hanging around. That stagnant energy isn’t healthy.

I generally like to release everything that I'm happy with eventually, even if I give it away free on my SoundCloud.

What else are you excited about, musically or otherwise?

The whole of 2015 has been a real whirlwind for me. It feels like everything has been blow wide open and magnified by ten. So if I’m totally honest, what I’m most looking forward to is having ten days off in November. Don’t fret, though, I’ve already taken care of things so there won’t be any slow down in all things Fitzpatrick! After a couple of remixes – one for Argy & Mama on BPitch Control and one for Blue & Green on Hypercolour – will come my single Tribe on Whistleblower with Trus’me and Chip Jacks remixes. Then there’s the Mosaic EP and maybe a new Drumcode EP, and the year will finish with a remix for Pan Pot which people are already going crazy for. Touring wise, it’s mental. North America, South America, all over Europe, but I’ve a few real highlights coming up in UK with shows for Fabric and Drumcode in London, Warehouse Project in Manchester, Circus in Liverpool, Motion in Bristol and High Tide in my hometown of Southampton.