We Love Sounds 2010

First published on 17 Feb 2010. Updated on 5 Apr 2011.

Felix da Housecat gives us his thought on a variety of matters ahead of his headline set at We Love Sounds.

On his favourite part of Australia...
Sydney. [Laughs] I'm gonna be recording there - I'm going to be working on an album I started in 2004, so on my off days I'm going to be working in the studio getting that nice harbour vibe. I met up with this dude called Klaus Hill, Klaus ‘Heavyweight' Hill, a couple of years back, we went into the studio, jammed out on some tunes but I never got to finish them. We made like 12 songs. He still has the sessions, and I still have the sessions and the vocals, but I have to update it: I have to make it 2010. Some of the stuff sounds so good now so I don't want to alter too much, I'm not trying to sound Kanye-esque or anything, but there's some good stuff in there.

On being a producer...
It's hard with the digital devil running round out there to keep relevant. You know the digital devil? You've got everyone downloading, making tracks. So I think it's all about quality, not quantity. Instead of putting out 10 tracks a week, why not make that one good track, put it out every five months? I think there's so many people flooding the market with stuff. This year I'm just doing 12 singles. I just finished a Felix da Housecat track called ‘The Anthem', and I've got an Aphrohead single coming out real soon, and the second half of the year has Thee Maddkatt Courtship album. And this is all stuff I am doing for love. I'm not trying to get a buck. Nowadays, it's a whole new generation. I learned how to produce by vinyl standards, and back then I was putting out a record a week! But now, with so much stuff out, I think people need to focus their energy on one good track. Because if you come out with so many tracks they just get lost and that another reason why I'm chilling on the album format after Thee Maddkatt Courtship, because the digital devil's going to take that one track, and the magic of opening up the album and looking at the credits is gone. But I think vinyl is starting to make a little comeback.

On having so many nicknames...
When I first started I was using a pseudonym because I didn't know what I wanted to be. I was still trying to find myself when I was 21 or 22 and coming back into dance music. Every name would be a different kind of style, so I really didn't know where I wanted to go. I never knew Aphrohead and Thee Maddkatt Courtship would blow up. Felix was the name that stuck the most out of all of them.

On his back catalogue...
I never, ever play my own stuff. Everyone gets on my case about why I don't play my own music in my sets. I hear it so much when I make it that I don't want to hear it again. The only song I will probably play is ‘Silver Screens'. ‘Ready to Wear', ‘Madam Hollywood', I don't play them. The versions are too short to play anyway.

On what to expect from him at We Love Sounds...
I'm playing a lot of booty-shaking type of music. Not through the whole set. It'll be a cross between electro, booty-shaking, some 80s bootlegs that nobody has but me. That's good when you have the best 80s bootlegs that nobody has, that they've been waiting to hear since they heard you play last time. I've got cut-ups and remixes of stuff that's never been approved by people like Florence and the Machine, so I've got some crazy sounds. For the daytime, I'll keep it sexy and booty-shaking. I'm not going to play the cheesy, commercial sellout anthems that all the other DJs are playing. I don't roll like that. Anybody can do that.

On ‘festival sets'...
I think people [play ‘festival sets'] for the money, some people do it to look cool playing stuff they hear on the radio, and some people do it because they just don't know any better. I think it's the easy way out. I like to play a set and test myself. If the song is brand new and I like it, I wonder if they will like it, and if they like it wow! I know where I gotta go now. If they don't, so what? Don't throw in ‘One Time' by Daft Punk. Anyone can play ‘Sweet Dreams' or ‘Smack My Bitch Up', it's just so corny to me! I was the first dropping all those before they were hits and people were screaming. It's cool to hear a good anthem every now and then. How you mix it and work it in needs to be amazing. I think the energy and vibe you portray when you playing is also important.

On how dance music has changed over his two decades in the game...
I think it's got better. I think it's become more universal. There was a point where America just didn't get it and everybody went to Europe. And now, everybody gets it. Festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza in the States are embracing it. So it's gotten better, more... I'm not gonna say mainstream, because I don't ever want it to get too popular, because then it gets industrialised and cheesed out. That's why I like electronic music, because there is still a balance. I think most fans who listen to electronic music will love a cheesy track, but they'll also love a nice underground track.

On vinyl nostalgia...
Aw man, I miss the feeling of touching that vinyl! But I don't miss the feeling of people slamming into the record and the record skipping and jumping, or carrying six crates of records on the plane to Ibiza and then they lose all your vinyl because they make you check them in and then you ain't got no party! You have to stuff your 10 favourites in a carry-on. I don't miss those days at all. Kids nowadays, they don't know what that's like, having to carry the vinyl. The best DJs were made for carrying other peoples' records. The person who carried the famous DJ's records, he became more famous than the actual DJ.

On his favourite drink, the Mexican spirit mezcal...
Hopefully, they've got a good brand of mezcal in Sydney that's going to show me the way. The Truth Juice, as I call it, relaxes your nerves, but at the same time it has this sort of excited hype. I've hooked every DJ I've toured with. They all ask "Where's that good mezcal, Felix?" But I've been taking it easy, laying low. My liver can't handle it as much as it used to. I have to pick my spot, so Sydney will be mezcal spot to party, because I can't drink that shit every time I roll out now because it's so strong. I have my own brand [of mezcal], but I had to put it on hold.

On his animal namesake...
I'm afraid of cats. That's a true story. They don't listen to you, you never know what they're thinking, you say ‘sit' they don't sit, they just do what the hell they want.

On the Mixmag April Fools joke that said he beat up Deadmau5...
It was so funny because I know the editor at Mixmag very well. Someone sent it to me on Twitter, and I looked at the link and thought "what is this?" So I hit up the editor and said "did you do this?" and he said "no, honestly, I had nothing to do with it," so I talked to my manager and he said someone at Mixmag did it. I read it and I laughed so hard. I'd never met Deadmau5 in my life, so I called Tommy Lee, because Deadmau5 was working at his studio. I said "Man, what's up with Deadmau5? He didn't even reply to the joke. He don't get a good joke?" I asked if he was an asshole or something. Tommy said he was totally cool, and then my house phone rings and it's Deadmau5. He said he was going to reply, but I wouldn't believe what happened to him. He was getting one of his mouse masks designed for him, and when he had it on it was too tight so when he left his nose looked broken and he had two black eyes, so when he walked into his office they thought it had happened for real! So I retweeted the story and said I sent him flowers. People still think it happened. I get people coming up and saying "hey man, I'm glad you kicked his ass." I didn't kick anyone's ass, it was a joke! Jonathon Valenzuela

---

We Love Sounds returns, with a special Dim Mak and Friends arena, God's Kitchen arena and Planet Turbo (the best of Turbo Records).

The line up is pretty damn impressive, with Underworld, Crookers, Laidback Luke, Markus Schulz, Tiga, Steve Aoki, Felix Da Housecat, Gareth Emery, M.A.N.D.Y, Joachim Garraud, Proxy, Zombie Nation, Ellen Allien, Roger Shah, Paul Ritch, Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team, The Revenge, Thomas Von Party, Sonic C, Felix Cartal and more.