feeder insider w/ Alexandra [en]

feeder insider w/ Alexandra [ro]

[citește în RO]

feeder insider w/ Alexandra [en]

The first thing you can say when listening to Alexandra‘s DJ sets, regardless of the location, crowd or sound system, is that you cannot place her style under some specific electronic genre. She’s part of that rare breed of DJs who are first and foremost record selectors. With a presence in the house & techno underground for quite a few years now, you definitely crossed paths with her on some well-known dance floor, as she travelled to Berlin, Tokyo, New York, London, Moscow, Paris, Lima, Miami. From 2016, she teamed with her good friend Vera to start her own imprint: Melliflow Records, the label that breathes Alexandra’s warm & joyful personality through its releases, signed by the likes of Spacetravel, AK41 or VRAC.

innovative / record selector / grooves

A good morning starts with… love, sun rays warming the windows, my cats cuddling and “Guerrilla de dimineață” show at Radio Guerrilla.

Summer days make me… alive and happy sometimes or exhausted if it’s too hot.
I feel happy every time I watch… fluffy clouds travelling a broad blue sky, Family Guy, sunsets, Grey’s Anatomy, thunderstorms and Game of Thrones.
If I could, I would colour the sky in…nothing else but his own intense deep blue
First thing I always pack when touring… is my passport.
My guilty pleasure when it comes to food… oh no, I don’t wanna go there 🙂 too many guilty pleasures…
Sunday afternoons are for… the long flight home.
Last track I played on youtube… “tiny desk concerts with Maggie Rogers”. One day my best friend played Maggie’s song “Alaska” and it was love at first hearing. I love this girl’s genuine, beautiful, unique, intense voice and energy.
Favourite sunset watching spot… the kitchen window of my apartment in Bucharest.
3 artists close to my heart Michael Jackson, Ricardo Villalobos, Maggie Rogers

 

Vixi:  Imagine a spring day in Berlin, with some showers in between a few sunrays and it’s just you with a fresh 36 positions film in your photo camera. What would we expect to find on the film at the end of the day?

Alexandra: I don’t really fancy spring days, I find them cold, empty and depressing. They make me stay inside and wait for summer to come. I would choose an early autumn day to go out exploring. On my 35mm I will catch dogs and cats, the objects people abandon on the streets, reflections, and signs of love, street art, architectural details and the romantic autumn foliage.

 

Vixi: Your sets cannot be tagged under some particular genre and we know you don’t like to be labelled, music wise. Yet, do you have a comfort zone where you feel you can truly unleash your full creativity in melting tracks into each other and make the dance floor vibrate exactly the way you intended?

Alexandra: I would not call it my comfort zone, but rather my “sweet tooth” in music: everything with broken rhythms: breaks, electro, breakbeat, IDM, dubstep, UK garage, broken-beat, jungle.

 

Credit foto: Studio XXIX

Vixi: You are connected for quite a few years with the house & techno underground. Going to the larger picture and as being as objective as you can be, what does the Romanian underground miss to become a thriving scene such as Germany’s?

Alexandra: I don’t have an image broad enough about Germany’s scene to be able to make a correct comparison, I can only think of Berlin’s scene, which I believe is different from the rest of Germany.

I think Romanian underground misses diversity and openness.

 

Vixi: Sticking to the Romanian underground, famous for its super long parties and that true human connection on the dance floor: did you experience these feelings anywhere else in the world where you played?

Alexandra: Yes, of course, even more, intense than in Romania: Closer club in Kiev, Phonoteque club in Montevideo, Arma17 parties in Moscow, the Volks parties in Moscow.

 

Vixi: You’re quite fond of Berlin and its cultural diversity. What did you find in Berlin, from the musical inspiration perspective, which you couldn’t find in Bucharest until now?

Alexandra: Exactly the tolerance and acceptance for the diversity of humans, art, music and expression, in general, was my main magnet and inspiration to move to Berlin. Something you don’t meet much in Romania, we’re still uptight and narrow around here (especially when it comes to diversity of humans). painful truth. 

 

Vixi: You run the Melliflow label with your good friend, Vera. Is this strong connection based on the shared love for sound or on the simple life things?

Alexandra: It’s a great combination of both. We know each other for a very long time and we built a strong connection, even if we are two very different individuals. We have both work meetings and long walks with Vera’s dogs in the park.

 

Vixi: What are the key elements you search for in a track so it can get released on Melliflow?

Alexandra: The main element is the element of surprise 🙂 The tracks must have emotions, soul, wickedness, grooviness, trippiness, sickness…

Vixi: You’re constantly refining your signature sound, deeper and more melodic compared to what we’re used to, different every time: sometimes you add a bit of 2 step garage flavour, sometimes 90s’ vocal house. Is it the crowd’s vibe that drives these changes in your sound, is it your mood at that particular party?

Alexandra: First it’s my personal mood, then the party situation.

I travel through the music together with the crowd. I fuel them, they fuel me (or not). Sometimes I do the journey alone, other time I feel the whole party exploring with me. For every gig, a different scenario.

 

 

Vixi: If you’ll ever receive a proposal for curating a non-electronic playlist to accompany an exhibition of Brâncuși’s works, what artists should we expect?

Alexandra: I admit I don’t have enough knowledge now about Brancusi’s works and life to be able to come up with something. I must document myself a lot before preparing something like this.

 

Vixi: A bit over 1 year ago, you recorded a mix for feeder sound series. How is the music selection for podcasts different from the one you make for a party?

Alexandra: Completely different. For a podcast I take time to choose the tracks, I am designing a compilation, I have more time to search for ideas and inspiration and to arrange and rearrange the tracks. At the club it’s all in a blink of an eye, no time to think, only time to react and to spontaneously choose the next track, I never know which direction I will go and where the situation will take me musically, it’s all improvisation and experiment.

Vixi Pixi: Thank you, it was a pleasure.

feeder insider w/ Alexandra [en]

Words by Vixi Pixi

 

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