Another roll of the 8 Sided Dice…

Another roll of the 8 Sided Dice…

12 August, 2008 | 9.09PM

• Written by: StylusMusic
• Filed under: Music News: 8 sided dice, alan fitzpatrick, beshektas

Fresh off the back of an impressive debut, UK DJ and producer Alan Fitzpatrick has come up with two more highly charged techno bombs for the all important sophomore release on his own 8 Sided Dice label.

What will this next roll of the 8 Sided Dice hold? We decided not to gamble and asked the man himself…

A numberfour record on Beatport’s techno genre chart, positive reviews in the press, radio support from Tong and Digweed and high praise from the great and good in techno… could 8 Sided Dice have had a better start?

Not really, no! I was really surprised at the success of ‘9 Hours Later’.

It seemed to attract the attention of DJs right across the board as opposed to just techno DJs.

I think that is the great thing these days; a lot of DJs are playing a mixture of music in their sets and that allows them to explore other genres.

It was obviously a big boost having Tong and Digweed supporting the release on the radio, and I was really pleased with that. 

8 Sided Dice – what is the story behind the label name?

Dunno really, I was looking through some possible label names and logo designs and this just jumped out at me.

Also you never know what result your gonna get when you roll a dice, let alone an 8-sided one… plus I like to gamble! 

We heard that Dubfire found your music on MySpace? Do you find the whole social networking phenomena a useful way of discovering fresh new music?

Yes absolutely. I think sites like MySpace are extremely powerful for new producers to showcase their music and talents.

It’s also a great way to communicate with people who are also trying to get their music heard.

Dubfire had heard a clip of ‘9 Hours Later’ from a friend of mine, James Talk, and then he messaged me on MySpace to say it’s “f--king amazing” and that he wanted a copy.

So I sent it over to him and it ended up being a regular track in his sets and featured in his Beatport chart. 

As a new label starting out did you find it hard going getting your music to the likes of Pete Tong and John Digweed?

To be honest, it was quite the opposite. They found me!

John Digweed had heard ‘9 Hours Later’ and immediately loved it.

He emailed me to say that he was into the track and if I would be interested in doing a remix for him. 

Of course I was chuffed to bits and agreed to do the remix. It’s of a Mistress Barbara track called ‘K-10’ which is being re-released on Bedrock later this year.

I actually heard that Pete Tong bought the track on Beatport and played it on Radio 1 the following week. I imagine it’s not often Pete buys tracks so again, that was really cool. 

You are based in your hometown of Southampton. Is there much of an underground scene there or do you have to travel all the time for decent parties?

Southampton is really good, it’s a tiny scene and everyone seems to know everyone but I think that’s a cool thing.

It’s home to some other Southampton boys such as James Zabiela, James Talk, Tom Budden, Dan Reid and Ridney.

We are all friends and all play regularly at the Rhino (Southampton’s best club) Haha!

We also have the High Tide boat parties that over the years have had some of the biggest DJs from around the world. So all in all I think Southampton is pretty healthy. Needless to say I still travel all over the place to get into a good party, that’s what it’s all about! 

Your music seems to have struck a chord with people straight away. What do you put that down to?

I don’t really know to be honest. I just try to write music that I would want to dance to or that I would want to hear in a club.

The beauty of writing your own music is that you have no boundaries, you can make a track to your perfection and if people dig it then you must be doing the right thing.

I will continue to do what I do and hopefully people will continue to like it. 

What are your plans for the rest of 2008?

Well over the coming months I will be busy writing more tracks for 8 Sided Dice.

I am also going to be doing a couple of collaborations, one with Fergie and another with Dave Robertson.

I have a couple of remixes due out in the Autumn - the Mistress Barbara remix for Bedrock and a remix of Fergie’s ‘To The Core’ track for Excentric Musik plus I also have a track called ‘Green Light’ forthcoming on Tokio recordings with a Patch Park remix.

I hope to get out DJing more too, over the coming months.

It will also be a good chance to air a lot of my new material that I have been locked in the studio creating. I’m also working on a live set, which is hopefully going to be very cool.

Beshektas & Germ are out now on 8 Sided Dice. Available exclusively at Beatport

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