Features
Calvin Harris Discos Across The States
The month-long trek kicks off March 28 at the Raleigh Hotel in Miami and wraps April 28 at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom.
Other stops include the Ultra Music Festival in Miami’s Bicentennial Park (March 29), Music Box at the Henry Fonda Theater in Los Angeles (April 23), Popscene at 330 Rich Street in San Francisco (April 24) and the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, Calif. (April 26).
Tickets for the Bowery Ballroom show are available at Ticketmaster.com, with others available through the various venues.
Disco, which was released last September, follows a string of highly successful U.K. singles, including “Vegas,” “Acceptable In The 80s,” “The Girls” and “Merrymaking at My Place.”
Harris recorded the album in his bedroom using an old Amiga computer and other random equipment he picked up, something he’s actually been doing for years.
“I was about 14 when I started using it,” Harris told Pollstar. “I made sort of primitive, quite bad house music for a number of years just for my own enjoyment. I kept it up when I probably should have gone to university.
“I left school, started working in a shop and started making music on the side.”
Harris said he didn’t start out to make an album that was influenced by and that pays homage to the ’80s.
“Given the choice, I’d rather listen to ’80s than ’90s music, but only the good stuff, like Prince and David Bowie. I’m not that wildly influenced by the ’80s at all. It just sort of worked out that way. I really listen to more hip-hop to be honest – Outkast and Timbaland, people like that.
“For some reason when I was making the album, I had ’80s in my mind. Probably because I was using the Amiga, which makes sounds that are intrinsically ’80s, so I guess that contributed.”
While most indie artists are loathe to give credit for any of their success to a label, Harris acknowledges there are some things he couldn’t have accomplished if he didn’t have the good fortune to get signed to EMI in the U.K., including putting together a band for touring.
“There were a few people that I knew and a few I had to ask help finding. Like I didn’t know a drummer that would be good enough, so I had to find a drummer through the label.
“I was just lucky to have signed a record deal, because they basically paid for us to rehearse for two months. I would never have been able to do it without that. We just rehearsed and worked on different ways of playing live until we hit upon a good way, and that was that.”
Fans will certainly hear all of their faves at Harris’ shows, but they should be ready for some of them to sound a little different.
“I would say overall they’re quite faithful, but we have had to rearrange some things. I wasn’t even thinking twice about playing it live when I was making the songs. I wasn’t even thinking it would come out as a record. So there are some things that obviously don’t work that well live that we had to change.”
There is one thing audiences at Harris’ gigs can count on – a rousing good time and maybe even some attention from Harris himself.
“It’s very relaxed. I never used to go to live shows. I was more into the recorded sound. But ever since I started doing my own live shows, I’ve caught a lot of other live shows. And I’ve been slightly appalled at the lack of interaction with people. Some people don’t say anything during the gig, which is quite odd.
“I’ll go down (after the show) and have a drink and try and have a laugh. The main emphasis is on having fun and just playing some nice songs for people to dance to. It’s quite simple.”