Calvin Harris Grabs Retro-Electro

By Subhadra Devan

THE new Brit MySpace sensation just wanted to make music, discovers SUBHADRA DEVAN.

“Fields. Cows. Sheep. A few shops. Some people. And one club that plays terrible music. That’s Dumfries. I can’t imagine anyone having visited it.”

Calvin Harris, the latest MySpace sensation, comes from that hamlet in Scotland. All six feet five inches of him.

The 23-year-old Columbia/Sony BMG’s artiste was chatting on the telephone from London. Or trying to. “It’s 10 or 11 in the morning… I dunno really,” he says in a lovely alto baritone sounding like he just woke up and dragged himself to the phone for the interview.

It seems he’s been doing interviews the past few days “but it’s been fun, really”.

All this attention because of one debut album on MySpace. Called I Created Disco, he says he worked on it “in my bedroom on an old Amiga computer”.

One single from that offering, Acceptable In The 80s, grabbed the interest of Net music lovers probably because of its playful quality. The video has Harris sporting FlyEye spectacles, with two mad scientists and a weird chef making food out of orange goo. There’s some green goo there too.

And Harris’ MySpace picture has him sporting those zany glasses with his head peeking out from a field of orange balls.

A check on YouTube shows Acceptable In The 80s has a nice dance beat with an electro sound. It’s inventive pop.

A new YouTube video came out last Monday. Called The Girls, it has Harris singing about the girls he likes, which is good news surely for his growing legion of female fans. The Girls entered No 9 on BBC Radio 1′s UK Singles Charts.

Back to that breakthrough single, what exactly was so acceptable in the 80s?

“I liked the culture then. In the last decade, until lately, everyone has tried to look the same and daren’t do anything crazy.”

From the Net, he captured the attention of Australian megastar Kylie Minogue.

Music executives felt Harris’ style was in tune with the music of the 38-year-old, then in remission from breast cancer.

“She liked three songs, I hope they’re on her new album,” says Harris who adds that he downed “a couple of Jack Daniel’s to calm my nerves” before meeting Minogue.

And he touched her hair. “Well yeah. One guy came into the room as we were discussing songs and he touched her hair. She must have seen the jealousy on my face, and she offered to let me touch it. I did. It’s nice and soft.”

For Harris, the attention has been “lovely” because he’s been sending demos to record companies for, “oh, a long time”.

“I came to London when I was 19. I thought I could sell my music. It was harder than I thought. I was working at Marks & Spencer. I had to get up at four in the morning and I wouldn’t get back home until four in the afternoon. I was so tired.

“I got to know the bus routes really well because I was always going to the record companies’ offices and then work. It wasn’t a great time.”

Harris stuck it out for a year before taking the night bus back to Dumfries and “stacking shelves”.

From MySpace and Day-Glo outfits, Harris is staying on the music charts in Britain and now plays “live” gigs and even tours with a full band.

What’s it like to be in a studio compared with working on the computer at home? “It feels natural.

“Works quite well really. I’ve got a good team. All friends and one arch enemy. The band mates are all from Dumfries. They were homeless really.”

Really? “Yeah, really.”

Harris and his “mates” have since remixed for the likes of All Saints, Groove Armada and Jamiroquai and toured Britain supporting Faithless.

But Harris will soon have his headline tour in Britain.

And with whom would he like to perform a gig? “The Foo Fighters. They are just great.”

And when will he be performing in Malaysia? “Umm, I think in November. I seem to have a club gig in your country then. (Pause) It’s been a lovely ride. Lot better than lining up lettuces. Hope it doesn’t end really.”

It doesn’t sound like that at all. Really.

* I Created Disco distributed by Sony BMG is out this month. You can check out The Girls on www.calvinharris.tv / www.myspace.com/ calvinharristv.

(c) 2007 New Straits Times. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.