He cut his teeth at the Big Beat Boutique, as one half of the much-loved Insurgents. He created the infamous after-party that is Retox. And now he’s got everyone tuning in to his new label, Hypercolour. ROB CHADWICK meets Alex Jones…
Alex Jones made his name through his infamous afterhours Retox parties, which pulled in followers like Luciano, Pier Bucci, Jamie Jones and M.A.N.D.Y. to name a few. Then one day he decided it was time to start up a label. He found a funky name, persuaded a good friend to come on board, and Hypercolour – which he runs with Jamie Russell – was born. And since its first tracks in 2006 he’s not stopped, creating tunes with the likes of Matt Walsh and Geddes, and pressing them onto bigger labels such as Viva and Murmur. Alex talks to EQ about his favourite places to spin, the idea behind Hypercolour and what’s in store in the future…
What’s behind the name Hypercolour, and what made you guys start up the label?
The name just sounds cool. We reckon colour goes hand in hand with music. Hyper does what it says on the tin. And, of course, we all owned the T-shirts once upon a time. So it was the best name we could come up with… We started the label because all our friends were DJs and producers, so we thought we might as well release the music we were all making. We thought we had to be able to do better than 90% of the shite out there.
You’ve played at some of the biggest festivals and clubs around including Glastonbury, Mulletover and Ministry of Sound. You’ve even had your own parties at these clubs. What have been the highlights?
Playing after Mylo when he first became famous at the Big Beat Boutique, back when I was in The Insurgents. It was our first gig there, the place was fucking heaving, and we were shitting ourselves. After it we were asked to become residents alongside Radioslave and Touché. More recently, there was the Hypercolour night at Muna in Germany with my pals Glimpse, Jamie who I run the label with, and Eddie Gold. It’s the best club I’ve ever been to or played at, in the middle of nowhere in Jena, south of Berlin, in a farm. It’s amazing. If you ever get an opportunity to go, do so. It’s a bit tricky to get to as it’s an hour’s drive from the airport and somewhere in the woods…
You master for a lot of artists. Who’s been the best to work with?
I’m doing a lot of stuff with my mate Matt Walsh from Turbo. He’s really cool to work with because it gives me an opportunity to make more banging electro stuff, which is always fun. We’ve just remixed Peaches on XL, Williams on Turbo, Kenton Slash Demon on Tartelet, Doorly for Wax:On and an EP for Tiga.
Tell us about your recent release with Geddes, the Paper Weight EP.
Stu lives up the road from me. We’ve known each other for years, so it just made sense to get in the studio. We’d tried a few times before but it never came to owt. The EP sounds really cool – good, old-fashioned pumping tech house. Works well in the clubs. We’re doing an EP for Hypercolour together next.
What’s your summer schedule like?
Tresor, Underground, Weekend and loads of Hypercolour parties dotted around the place, from Manchester to Moscow. Oh, and we’re starting a new label called Glass Table Music for weirder stuff. And I’ve just finished two EPs with Glimpse – the True Friends EP on Kindisch, and the new Glimpse record…
Visit www.hypercolour.co.uk and www.myspace.com/hypercolour
