CALVIN HARRIS

From Dizzee to Kylie, contemporary pop stars all agree – if retro disco is the game, then Calvin Harris is the production name…

Although he hasn’t released a record under his own name during 2008, Calvin Harris has enjoyed a more than satisfying year. The 24 year-old ex-supermarket stacker is still basking in the afterglow of his first chart-topping single. For when Dizzee Rascal’s Dance Wiv Me reached the top spot in July it surprised nearly everybody, not least its producer.

“I think anything I’ve ever done that has been commercially successful has been something of a surprise,” chirps Calvin. “But it’s nice to know that something that was produced and mixed entirely by me, in my flat, could be played alongside, say, a Timbaland production or a Fall Out Boy record. Big American records don’t scare me, as long as you’ve got a good tune you’ll be alright.”

The Dumfries-born producer was first bitten by the music bug at the tender age of 14-years-old.

“I remember my brother went to university and left his old Amiga 1200 behind, along with some music software called OctaMED,” he recalls. “I started playing around on it, until it pretty much took up my free time.”

Calvin’s music-making meant that his studies took a back seat. Having left school with “pitiful qualifications”, he ended up working at Safeway.

“That meant I was able to pay for the studio gear I wanted,” he explains. “Eventually, I obtained enough gear to make my productions sound good, worked in a couple of supermarkets and, five years later, I got signed.”

These days, Calvin can afford all the gear that his heart desires, with the most recent addition to his DJ set-up being a Korg Zero 4 mixer.

“It’s absolutely amazing,” Calvin raves. “I’ve not had it long but I can definitely see from using it that it has enormous capabilities. When I play live I also have a KAOSS Pad sampler, which I’ve built into an Etch A Sketch – that’s pretty far out. I run my keyboard player’s synths into it and try to put him off.”

Then there’s Calvin’s beloved Korg N5 workstation, launched by the company in 1998, which he used to provide the distinctive synth sounds on his second hit single, The Girls. “The bass sound is actually an electric piano off an N5, run through some distortion pedals,” he reveals.

“The N5 was the very first keyboard I ever owned, it was a joint Christmas and birthday present from my parents.”

Calvin’s retro disco sound is currently much in demand right across the pop spectrum, from the likes of Dizzee Rascal to Australian icon Kylie Minogue.

“That was the most fun,” he says,about working on Minogue’s X album, “because we spent time in the studio recording the songs, whereas with the Dizzee track they just sent me an acapella recording and left me to get on with it. Which I liked too – it’s a very laidback method of working. And I often find the results are better if I’m