This brings us to the subject of this article, the American maestro of the electro banger, DJ/producer Aaron Clevenger or as he is more commonly known in temples of ‘boom’ across the globe, AC Slater. The promotion video for Clevenger’s October release Party Animals EP shows people in very normal working situations with the dulcet tones of vocalist Nina Sky over the top, but at ever increasing time periods a red light washes the screen and the normal peeps begin raving with a menagerie of party people joining them. Clevenger explains that clip conveys exactly the message he wanted.
“It’s so crazy the dualities that some people live with. What I wanted to capture with clip was that you might know someone from one side but not from the other.” Clevenger asserts that the this theme of duality is close to his heart and this promo video. “I came up with the whole concept for the clip. I had the video in my head before we ended up making it. We shot it in about a day and edited for a few weeks later and literally came out exactly how I imagined it in my mind,” he pauses before surmising, “The whole concept is kinda getting glimpse of the whole person from their day job to the inner party animal.”
AC Slater was inspired by this theme from his own experiences and one particularly memorable situation that occurred here in Australia. “This is really funny because I know a lot of DJs and a lot of DJs outside of clubbing but somebody I really love but never really saw outside of DJing was Brondinski. However, a couple of years ago we did Parklife in Australia and there was a soccer tournament between the artists and some triple j people.
“I remember watching Brodinski play soccer, it was like an epiphany where I was like ‘I have never seen this dude outside of a club so to watch him play soccer is really weird.’ I mean it wasn’t weird at all – he was quite good – but just the juxtaposition of knowing someone from a club and then seeing them play sport was just weird.”
This theme of day/night, low/high, soft/loud also seeps into the Party Animals EP sonically with the title track Party Animals feat. Nina Sky having a one-minute intro of the vocals, piano and a light rolling kick snare before exploding into a signature AC Slater drop.
“I would always write these chill sections and then end up not using them because they weren’t ‘AC Slater enough’ but with this song I wanted to show another side to me. I have been working with Nina on and off for a while now and she just came through with the vocals on this one.”
With the embrace of melody and one minute of a pretty standard arrangement, does this mean AC Slater may stop writing electro bangers? Clevenger explains this is unlikely with his current songwriting credo. “When I’m making music, making a song, I am definitely picturing myself playing live; I just try and put the song in that position and imagine how it is going to come off.”
Does this mean AC Slater could never become purely a studio producer?
“I could but I don’t know when that will happen. Right now I can’t see myself doing it but I can’t DJ forever. I’ve seen this Italian guy – Alexander Robotnik – and he must have been 50 something and I saw him DJing in a disco and he was just thrashing and having the time of his life so maybe I will be someone like that?”
Finally, Clevenger tackles the issue that electro-banger DJs are a dying breed because if you look at the Summadayze’s line-up it’s just him and Knife Party bringing the bangers.
“Looking at the lineup for Summadayze it’s a really varied lineup of artists and I am looking forward to seeing a lot of them. But like you said there aren’t many bangin’ DJs – I mean there’s Knife Party and myself.” He asserts that this maybe a situation unique to Australian festivals because in LA there’s no shortage of clubs giving punters an aural lobotomy. “Here in LA there is now shortage of banging DJs, like here at like 9pm most clubs will be playing Skrillex,” he laughs before adding, “Here in the US there is no shortage of guys producing really great party music. You should keep an ear out for ETC!ETC and Brillz.”
BY DAN WATT
