In House With Boys Noize: Alex Ridha Misses the 'Nerdy' DJ Community

Alex Ridha, the DJ better known as Boys Noize, lounges on the couch of the Spinner offices like a relaxed tiger -- at ease for now but ready to spring viciously into action at any moment.

The prolific producer, who's worked with the likes of Santigold, Spank Rock and the Scissor Sisters, just released his third solo album, Out of the Black and focusing on his own music has been a nice change of pace. After over 15 years of DJ-ing dance and working in the studio, Ridha is just now getting used to performing solely his own material, which he did for the first time this fall.

"It felt like I was giving a punk-rock concert in a way, because my music is like punk rock in a way, and that's what I love about it. It was a totally different vibe than when I'm DJ-ing in a cool club in London or in New York, what I've done before. I just felt it makes sense now because I've released my third album so I can easily play like two, three hours of all just my own stuff if I want to."

The initial show for Ridha as Boys Noize was in Berlin on Oct. 6, and the rest of the tour hit countless other dancehalls packed with electro-loving fans. He cites Paris and London as two of his favorites on the road.

"One of my favorite ones was definitely the one in Paris because it was in this old theater and it was totally sold out and crazy mayhem. And once the music dropped it was so epic! London was pretty much the same thing," he says. "Now, it's great, because when I perform I have every single element of my track and I can change it, even do remixing live. I feel like a lot of people have been waiting for this for a long time because they'll always be like 'Can you play this track or that of yours?'"

As far as his DJ background, Ridha reminisces about the community that existed before the technology made it possible for any kid with a laptop to play the hits at a party.

"There is still a community in the record shop where all these nerds talk about the next white label that only that DJ has and he played it for six months. It's still like this on the internet and everything, just different. What I feel is there are a lot of DJs who are actually producers now and get the chance to DJ -- and I don't know if it maybe would've been better if they had maybe a couple years in the club to experience communication and getting a feeling for moments."
The art of DJ-ing has become a little lost in the shuffle, as producers who have made a name for themselves honing tracks aren't necessarily the ones who have extensive knowledge in the back catalog of electronic music. Ridha, though, has a firm grasp on the history of the varying electronic genres and how they've affected his own music.

"Traditional house music started in the U.S. Same as techno. House music started at the end of the '80s in like Chicago and New York. There's a lot, if you want to look up those DJs or producers, like Franky Knuckles or DJ Pierre. Then there's techno, which is more minimal, less melodic, deeper. That kind of started off in Detroit and a lot of the DJs from Detroit were playing in Berlin as well, so Berlin has a very strong techno culture as well since the end of the '80s."

Now that EDM is the most talked-about iteration of club and dance music, Ridha says he definitely considers himself a part of this tradition despite his varying influences.

"I'm definitely part of EDM. I don't care, I never care about titles or whatever. I've always had the same with my music, because that's always my favorite question of how to describe my own music. And, it's tough, it's definitely based on electronic music but I always like to go in different areas, so I'm fine with EDM. It's great that it exists right now."

On his Boysnoize Records label, the act that has been exciting the Berlin-based artist this year is New York rapper Le1f, who has a sound that Ridha describes as "tropical." The two previously worked together on Spank Rock's 2011 album Everything Is Boring and Everyone Is a Fucking Liar.

"We put out the latest releases from Le1f," Ridha says. "I have known him for like two years, when I was producing that Spank Rock record, and Le1f actually wrote a couple songs on that record with Spank Rock and he produced a lot of beats as well. So at that time he was sending me a lot of beats as well and I have a lot of music from him too. He's actually making a lot of beats as well, just without rapping. Just now he turned out to be more of a rapper than producer."

With nearly 20 artists like Le1f and Spank Rock on his label and countless production credits, the new release of original material from Boys Noize is just another step in his career. Whether it be producing indie rock songs, DJing sold-out dance clubs internationally, curating upcoming artists or going on tour with his own music, Alex Ridha is only become more of a powerhouse in the electronic world.