There are a few theories abounding from where the DJ name Alex Kidd derives from. The man himself reckons that it hails from his days of growing up in the Shaolin Temple in China, serving as an apprentice to the Buddhist Master Shi Young Xin, whom gave him the name and it kinda stuck!

What ever the case, its no doubt that he’s one of the new stars of Hard Dance. The Kidd has been involved in dance music from the age of 13 and today you’ll find him tearing up dance floors with his unique style of European Hard Trance and Hard Dance, throwing in some Hardstyle and Techno for banging measure. Of course, that all got acknowledged when he was voted ‘best DJ’ at the last Hard Dance awards. There are few that have more crazy passion and energy for the scene (did we mention that he also won the award for ‘biggest party animal’ @ HDA as well?) and that’s exactly why he’ll be entertaining 1200 nutters at Resonate - the ‘Insane Asylum Part 1’ @ The Old Fire Station in Bournemouth on Friday 4th April.

So to hear just how he’s going to be aiding and abetting all the madness, we sat down and got up-close and personal with him………

Alex, Resonate the Insane Asylum part 1 looks like it’s purely doing what it says on the tin; that being a real unpretentious, good old-fashioned stomp-up. What are you looking forward to about playing there?

The thing I love about Bournemouth the most is the people; the Firestation has become a legendary venue on the South Coast and when it’s pumping the ravers know how to get the place hot and sweaty, it goes reet off. There’s a good vibe all round and the open mindedness to push the European sound at Resonate makes it a winner gig for me. Rather than just playing safe with the bog standard sound, they can pride themselves on their willingness to give the limelight to the stars of today

The theme running throughout the line-up is that it contains acts that are real performers and are extremely energetic players behind the decks. What sort of entertainment value do you think that’s going to give the crowd?

Well, through the years myself, the donors, Mark and Harri [Proteus] have all become very tight friends, and for me it’s amazing to be associated with such high profile and talented individuals. I think the last time we were all together was Dance Valley 07 and it was a rocking affair, Harri and Mark played in the day and me and donors played at night. It was one of those unreal events that I dreamt of when I first started out in the scene. They all have their own unique persona’s and skills, Proteus is a Finnish legend and took out the best DJ award twice [@ HDA] , so he holds massive presence on the scene and is definitely one of underground superstars of today. The Donors innovative and jaw dropping DJ skills combined with their off the hook tunes and forthcoming album has yet again given them my vote for 08. Mark is a personal hero of mine and undoubtedly one of the most passionate leaders in our scene. But the maddest thing is they’re all my best mates on the circuit; we all keep in touch, help each other out and generally work towards making this scene the best days of both yours and our lives. So when we’re all on stage together. Ha, are you for real? That’s gonna be fucked up; the venue is going to need a new roof and the crowd will be in for one seriously crazy experience, I imagine.

You’re going to be playing in quite a quirky venue this time; that being an old converted Fire Station. Will that make a nice change for you, compared to a standard purpose built club?

Yeah as I said, the fire station is always going off when I’ve been in attendance, has a nice underground feel with a great size room and powerful system. I like the stage because it’s set up in a way that I can still interact with what’s happening in front of the decks.

This is going to be the third time that you’ve played for Resonate. Can you give us a rundown of how the last two gigs went for you and what you particularly enjoyed about them?

Actually I think this is my 4th time in that venue, but yeah every one of those bashes has been cool, always full of energy which is what you want after a long trek from Manchester or from whichever city I have come from first. The people make the night in there, really friendly and all sharing a common love for the harder and more European based soundtrack so it’s party time from the minute the doors open. This time I will be there for the whole night so I’ll experience the full Resonate experience!

Resonate don’t over hype their events, always deliver what they promise, have quite an underground music policy and keep the price of admission at a reasonable cost; what do you think of that ethos?

Well for my Kiddfectious events this year, I am supporting similar artists with myself, Donors, Mark and Proteus all playing together for Kiddfectious @ Magna up north the night after! So it goes to show how similar our tastes are and how we’re all pushing towards a similar direction with the music at opposite ends of the UK. Having a main room line-up for extra cheap entry can’t be sniffed at either, there should be cues forming from the bottom of the M6, I imagine.

Your style of music that you play has always been geared towards the harder end, but growing up, you were surrounded by all sorts of music influences like ‘Hacienda House’ and ‘squat party Techno’, so what attracted you to the tougher sound’s in the first place?

I think because I got into the scene from such an early age, I was sneaking into clubs and raves and in those days it was easier for me to blag my way into a jungle event or a techno party than it was to go and see a big house DJ. Straight away though, the underground vibe is what I caught on to and that’s what has been my biggest draw to the scene.

You’re renowned for your highly energetic show in the DJ booth; when you’re leaping around, playing to thousands of mad up-for-it ravers, can you describe what kind of feeling that is?

Not really, it’s quite indescribable hehe. It’s funny though because I play in front of really big crowd’s week in week out. I get on the stage and feel right at home and really enjoy and soak up every second of it. I’m in a really comfortable environment and although it might not seem it, inside I'm quite composed and relaxed even though I've got billions of eyes staring in my direction.

Now last night I found myself at the local music production college in Manchester; it’s where I did my first music tech course about 10 years ago. They asked me to come back as a guest lecturer, deliver a 2 hour programme of production and dj’ing. In true Alex Kidd style I forgot all about agreeing to it and I hadn’t prepared anything. The tutor rings me up and gets me down to the college and to walk in to the classroom /studio and have 30 students sat on chairs, hanging off my every word (the ones that weren’t half asleep), well it was the most daunting and nerve racking experience I’ve ever put myself through.

You’re fond of using the EFX1000 during your sets; what added dimension do you think that gives you and when do you know it’s the right time to apply it?

When you know how to use it and how to apply it, with the combination of the cdj’s it can also be treated like a synthesizer or a drum machine as well as a whole load more capabilities, it’s in a league of its own.

The launch of your new label Kiddfectious took place @ the K2 in Manchester on the 25th January how did it go for you?

The night was firing on all cylinders. It was definitely a completely bonkers night but inspiring at the same time. It was like a home coming for me, I’d not played in Manchester for a long time and to have a pumping main room and a unique atmosphere made it a very special night for me. It was the 1st club gig I had promoted and it was quite different from anything I had done before. As far as launch parties go it couldn’t have got much better!

Your first release on Kiddfectious was ‘Atomic Bomb’, that being a very hard Schranz re-work of Madonna’s hit ‘Muzik’, by Alex Kidd vs. Organ Doners. What gave you the idea of working with that track?

I had the accapella and the Donors were feeling it, after 'Boot it Up' being such a huge hit we knew we had to deliver the goods for a follow up, whilst doing something different to show the versatility of our partnership. There was no point in doing another hardstyle track straight after and we were all creaming over some of the schranz bits that were doing the rounds. You see, that’s the beauty of hard dance, whether its techno or European trance, it all fits under the same banner and it opens up the whole spectrum when it comes to producing and performing. The track was an instant hit in our sets and so far it’s been on loads of compilations so again I’m really happy with the release as far as label launches go.

The aim of the label was to showcase the best artists in the scene; it contains your own productions, colab efforts, cheeky bootleg numbers and remixes. Has everything been going to plan with the label and whets the next exciting thing release that we can expect?

The next release will be out in May time and it’s called “The Bass Loverz" EP. It features collaborations with BK and also my protégé Kidd Kaos. Again, it showcases new styles of hard dance, from 138[BPM] tech trance to full on German Hard Trance. Definitely one of the strongest tracks in my sets right now so check out previews on the Kiddfectious advert which can be found on AKTV on my Kiddfectious DSI forum!

Off the back of the famous phenomenon known as ‘Kiddfields’, came your own mini festival Kiddstock where you adopted an invite only policy. Why did you choose that rule and do you feel that it worked out in the best way?

The event was never about making money or competing with anything else in the scene, it was a fresh concept that was ready to blow the hard dance circuit in a unique and underground way. Because of that, I wanted to keep it exciting and add the air of mystery to the whole proceedings. The secret location and invite only policy meant that the raver’s who really follow and support the same styles as I do or the clubbers who were willing to open their mind to something new...this was the party for them because they knew it was to be something different and something special.

Promoting your own large event is undoubtedly one of the most difficult jobs in dance music; can you give us an insight in to the hard work and organisation of it all and how you smoothed over anything that went wrong?

The key is to build a good team, I have an amazing crew of people at AKHQ and I wouldn’t get very far without them. The organisation is immense, especially for someone like me who isn’t a naturally organised person. I had to learn a lot along the way and make some testing decisions, but ultimately the challenge was something I soaked up.

The biggest mishap on the day was the bar selling out of beer within a few hours of opening. We combated it pretty well though and sent a wagon to the nearest shops to clean out the off licence, but it was slightly stressful to say the least!

Mixmag recently published an article suggesting that Hard Dance could be in trouble. In the feature, you gave your input defending the genre. Do you feel that article managed to portray a fair picture of the scene or not?

In some ways there was some interesting stuff in there, recognising new artists and talking about how the scene has developed. There is always going to be controversy when Hard Dance is involved though, and any Mixmag article about our scene is bound to cause a debate.

When you’re playing a packed out main room set in a club, there could be a jock in the next room who’s been DJ’ing for as long as you have, but he’ll only have about five of his mates who feel sorry for him, on the dance floor; what have you done correctly that he hasn’t? In other words, what do you think you’ve done to become successful?

I don’t really like to think of myself as successful, it’s an arrogant way to look at things, I have just followed what I love and what I know, and what I didn’t know I haven’t been afraid to learn along the way. I think I’m a good all-rounder; I have some skill and creativeness and also a lot of enthusiasm and energy for the scene so maybe all together that contributes to a packed out main room.

You’ve been working in the studio a lot with BK recently, where you’ve created a new style that’s very fresh and unique. Have you got any further plans to hook up with Ben again, to take that all forward?

Ben is a legend and is an absolute wizard in the studio, his way of working changes each time I have worked with him, and over the past year we’ve built up a good friendship and have also talked about some big future projects to work on together. The first 3 tracks we have done will be coming out on Kiddfectious and Riot over the coming months and then look out for some special news to hit the scene soon on the new AK/BK alliance.

And finally, by the end of The Insane Asylum part 1, do you think that they’ll be a few men in their nice white coats coming to take a few people away hahha!

Hopefully I will be one of the ones getting carried away and taken back home to my asylum! x

Remember to catch the man who is officially Hard Dance’s biggest party: DJ Alex Kidd performing at Resonate-The Insane Asylum part 1 @ The Old Fire station in Bournemouth, Friday 4th April 2008!

Feature by Greg Lynn
©Greg Lynn 2008