EQ Interview With Ali Love – “I basically was playing her and was a bit of a twat – she got wise to it and gave me the boot…”

One of the artists I'm really enjoying right now is Ali Love.  He's releasing a new electro-pop record very soon which is a bit of departure from his previous disco sound that some of you may be familiar with – remember "Late Night Session", what a tune!  The first single from the new record is "Love Harder" and it's a hot introduction as to what is brewing with this very cool and uber chillaxed Londoner.  I really enjoyed chatting to him and I think that once you guys hear what he's working on, you'll be just as excited about him as I am.  He has a song called "Doing The Dirty" which has me VERY excited – it's one of the finest pop records I've heard in a long time…

In this EQ interview with Ali Love, we talk about the shift from disco-pop to futuristic electro, some of the women and antics that have inspired his latest tunes and why he is in big love with the blogs right now – enjoy.

EQ: Well hello Mr. Ali Love – how are you today?
Ali Love: I'm fine thank you – a little bit hungover…

Late one last night?
Yeah yeah – not too late, I got to bed about 4am or 5am – not too bad – rock n roll!

One thing I didn't know about you which I just learned today is that you sang on one of the Chemical Brothers tracks…
Yeah – "Do It Again" two years ago. It came about from just knowing Ed and bumping into him at parties and stuff.  He liked the stuff I was doing at the time and we ended up going to the studio and knocking that track out pretty quickly. All of the sudden they put it out as a single and it's been good!  It's kept me afloat financially that track!

Nice way to start your career then!
Yeah! Thanks guys! [Laughs]

Now I was a fan of your stuff before your new EP – your more disco stuff like "Late Night Session".  Your new stuff is more electro and more darker.  What prompted the change from disco pop to more grittier electro?
I just had a lot of equipment lying around the house and I played with a lot of old keyboards and stuff.  My flatmate is a DJ and he was listening to a lot of obscure 80s music and Italian disco.  So for the last couple of years, we listened to that kind of music and got quite into it. I like making electronic sounds-capes like "Blade Runner" and I quite like minimal music.  I'm quite inspired by German dance music as well.  Basically I swapped some instruments around like live bass for electronic bass and guitars for electronic sounds and you end up in a different place – a bit more futuristic. The funny thing is that we we used keyboards that are 30 years old to get that futuristic sound.

Tell me about your new single "Love Harder".
"Love Harder" is about being addicted to a girl.  Addicted to her pleasure - almost kind of predatory.

The video is kinda dark and creepy…
Yeah creepy!  It's a strange one that one – it came from a relationship that went really wrong but you were still really hot for her. It had a bad vibe to it at the end. The music became very minimal and stripped down so that added to the tension of the music. It's more of an underground sound. The next single "Smoke And Mirrors" is a little more up and fun. We've been keeping things lo-fi at the moment. We haven't been pushing the music really hard, we've just been putting it out and letting the blogs do the work and letting things build on a grassroots level and not try too hard…

What is your opinion about how the music industry has changed. You mentioned "letting the blogs do the work" – do you feel that there is much more focus on online and social networking than traditional forms of music media?
I find blogs very exciting. You bypass the stigma and gang mentality of the main music press and you get some good opinions. There are some good bloggers out there with good opinions on music and I've read some some great stuff on blogs and found some really great music on blogs. There is always good and bad with everything, but for me it's been good. When you are starting out with music and trying to humbly make a few waves, music blogs are ultimately a good thing – what do you think?

Well, I definitely agree with you. I think the whole music universe is changing and with online it's bringing a lot of the micro music communities together. I don't really accept anymore what's thrown in my face anymore – I want to really connect with the music and discover it myself on my own terms…
That's it right there!  You've said what I feel.  What I am really happy with at the moment is that people have found my music on their own accord and it hasn't been shoved in their face. That's a really big thing for me – it's an honest thing. It's not liked you've tricked anyone. With the main music press, people get tricked into liking these bands and they never really know them that well…

Absolutely – so I've heard the five tracks on your album sampler and the track that gets me the most excited is "Doing The Dirty".  It's way catchy and uber cool, I'm curious about how that track came about…
It's a true story. I had a girlfriend a few years back. I was broke and she had some money cuz she was like a model and shit. [Both laugh]. Basically I ended up bumming off her for a bit. I was the classic "gigolo" I guess. I kinda moved in with her and basically I was playing her and was a bit of a twat and she got wise to it and gave me the boot. Then after we broke up she instantly had a new boyfriend and I got pussy whipped. [makes whip noise]  She got me good.  It was about learning your lesson, licking your wounds and rockin on. That's the moral of the story behind that track.  It's had a few different versions. The current version is the best one though cuz it's more fun and bubbly.  A lot of the record is quite dark, but that one is fun and catchy. My friend Mickey plays in La Roux and she is one of the singers on the track. One of my mates from New Young Pony Club sings on it as well as a stripper called Tree…it's got three really cool girls singing the chorus and that makes it fun. It's gonna come out in the summer, just you wait! [high fives me].

Tell me more about the overall feel of the album, you just said it's gonna be quite dark…
Well not really, there are some dark tracks and there are some more Daft Punk-ey sort of tracks. There is one track on there about the 12th planet in our solar system called "Nibiru" which has a 3600 year orbit around the sun. A lot of scientists say it exist and some say it doesn't – but the track is space funky. There are some mellow tracks on there too - it's one of those records that you can put on at a party and it will keep the party going. It's a danceable affair but quite listen-able.  It's songs – not just pumping dance music – the songs have structure.