From growing up in Hamilton, Ontario, plugging away at various musical projects to taking his music to the world's stage with what he likes to call a 'one-time art project', you may know of Azari & III, Alphonse Alixander Lanza III. He is a man of heart. Hopefully he never stops touring the world, or recording the noises in his head.We caught up with him at Movement, possibly the most refreshing DJ-focused festival in America, where he shared his wisdom on the best music to play for yourself (and your plants). He also shared possible theories on why the mainstream popularity of EDM is killing the actual dance aspect of the culture.THUMP: What have you been up to lately?
Alixander: I'm in a rock band called The Cruelty Party, that's out of left field. We're a power trio. It's very liberating and easy to write songs for it. But I'm still doing a lot of techno. I'm going to Europe to host a music academy at a studio in Utrecht, Holland. They have an orchestral scoring stage, a synth museum with two of every synths ever made, different production rooms. I have a studio workshop for a week in July. I'll be bouncing from room to room saying things like "this is a good hi-hat pattern," [laughs] I'm going to impart my techno music onto people.
I started playing guitar, trying to play things by The Jesus and Mary Chain, Slowdive and shoe gaze stuff like that. My uncle got me a drum machine when I was 11. I was trying to program beats by guys like Nitzer Ebb and Depeche Mode because I'd seen them on tour. But I realized you couldn't make everything on one drum machine so I went back to guitar. Eventually I got a few more machines and a synth and started making techno. I'd record to a cassette tape recorder and then take things to the vinyl pressing company. We called it Stiff Records in Hamilton. I put out maybe four records under the name Smut Machine. I didn't have many of my vinyls so I went on Discogs to get them all back.You have a long history in the rave scene. What was the progression from that to Azari & III?
I think we just wanted to do something more funky and soulful. At the time there wasn't a lot like that going on. We thought if we did something electronic, it should be something with good singles, get away from the laptop and use old gear. We tried to use a 2-inch tape machine with a computer and recording a tape but that got old fast. It was so hard and complicated that we gave up. Those guys in the '80s and their tape machines, wow, they had a lot of techniques.What helped pushed Azari & III to a bigger level?
I think signing to Island Records really helped and they promoted the shit out of it. Before that, there was already a big following for our music in the UK and "Hungry For The Power" was playing at every club so that got people really interested. "Who were these Canadian dudes without a label?" people were asking. It took about a year to build up from the underground in November 2009 but then in 2010 it really hit. Then it got to the radio in 2010. The Jamie Jones "Hungry For The Power Remix" was the big one. That's still the biggest thing that him and us ever did together.Will you ever continue the group?
No, but I've worked on some of Starving Yet Full and Fritz's solo stuff. We'll see if that sees the light of day. I know that Cedric is planning a solo album.What is your vision for the future of your music?
I like emotive music, things that aren't too alienating. Rather than a bunch of forgetfulness, or partying to forget, or music that's forgettable even. It's nice to give people a cathartic and even healing moment. I think that's what music should be about. There's a lot of damaging and unhealthy music out there that grinds away at you. Whatever music you could play to a plant that shows it has a positive effect on it would be good for you. There were a lot of experiments that showed certain music stunts their growth and other kinds enhance it. Humans have a tendency of searching and relishing in the darkness of life. I'm guilty of this, big time. It's easy to focus on this because it's so fascinating but it gets hard to see the light after a while.Where do you want to take things now?
I think things will just take me. There's lots of new stuff and people like it. Maybe that was the ultimate music connection. It might be more challenging and I might have a more limited audience but I don't care. Maybe it will catch on.How do you feel about Detroit?
The people that have stayed and tried to make it good, God bless them. This is a great city with a lot of pride and hope. It's a fucked up place that shows how capitalism can fuck you over. It's an unfortunate reminder to that but I like it. There's a lot of heart. Underdog towns are good to root for.What about Detroit techno?
I think that there's a new generation like Seth Troxler and the in-betweens like Omar S. that are grasping onto Detroit techno. It's so alive, from the heart kind of music. Not hands in the air "rah-rah" music. It's music that would speak to social and civic decay. It's good at conveying that alienating feeling of being in the burbs or a decaying metropolis where you're not sure where you're at.
It's hard to say. The Azari & III set was not so different from Jamie Principle. Things go in cycles. Now people like techno, and house is dying away but other parts of the world are just starting to get on the house vibe. There's often a five-year delay. Techno is great because it lets atonal rhythms that aren't that musical or pleasing to be explored. Techno has a lot of room for experimentation of normal music scales or format.What do you think about the EDM trend over all?
Rave culture didn't last very long the first time around; it was maybe five to ten years of being mass popular. I imagine the way people treat themselves and party, they would burn themselves out.When I first started partying, it was artsy people that were into design, fashion and others. It was an underground way for people to connect. To me, that's more positive than just going to get fucked at a party to smashing music that just doesn't have a lot of soul to it. It seems like it hurts your ears and you can't dance to it, really. You can't interpret the sounds. It needs sub-rhythms and polyrhythms that aren't obvious so everyone can latch onto something different.People don't even dance anymore; they just gyrate on the spot in the most basic kindergarten rhythms. They're afraid to interpret the music in a contemporary dance way like people used to at raves. They just freak out and do whatever their bodies felt. People are way more self-conscious now. Why go see dance music if you're not going to get into it? It seems like everywhere I go around the world, EDM is the big thing at festivals but people don't know how to move.You think there's a cultural loss happening?
Yeah, back in the day there were more gays and moonboot trannies. There was a history of connecting people. You would find the underground and be accepted—cut loose. Now you go and connect with a bunch of other lollypop ravers and do whatever.What music are you liking right now?
I like the odd track here and there. It could be by anyone from some psytrance guy or someone else, but I have a hard time saying anything particular. You have to look outside your circle of knowledge to find other cool things to mix into your world.@Jesse_Ship is a freelance music journalist and former Juno Juror in the Electronic Music category.
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Alixander: I'm in a rock band called The Cruelty Party, that's out of left field. We're a power trio. It's very liberating and easy to write songs for it. But I'm still doing a lot of techno. I'm going to Europe to host a music academy at a studio in Utrecht, Holland. They have an orchestral scoring stage, a synth museum with two of every synths ever made, different production rooms. I have a studio workshop for a week in July. I'll be bouncing from room to room saying things like "this is a good hi-hat pattern," [laughs] I'm going to impart my techno music onto people.
You've always been a musician. Where did you start musically?
I started playing guitar, trying to play things by The Jesus and Mary Chain, Slowdive and shoe gaze stuff like that. My uncle got me a drum machine when I was 11. I was trying to program beats by guys like Nitzer Ebb and Depeche Mode because I'd seen them on tour. But I realized you couldn't make everything on one drum machine so I went back to guitar. Eventually I got a few more machines and a synth and started making techno. I'd record to a cassette tape recorder and then take things to the vinyl pressing company. We called it Stiff Records in Hamilton. I put out maybe four records under the name Smut Machine. I didn't have many of my vinyls so I went on Discogs to get them all back.You have a long history in the rave scene. What was the progression from that to Azari & III?
I think we just wanted to do something more funky and soulful. At the time there wasn't a lot like that going on. We thought if we did something electronic, it should be something with good singles, get away from the laptop and use old gear. We tried to use a 2-inch tape machine with a computer and recording a tape but that got old fast. It was so hard and complicated that we gave up. Those guys in the '80s and their tape machines, wow, they had a lot of techniques.
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I think signing to Island Records really helped and they promoted the shit out of it. Before that, there was already a big following for our music in the UK and "Hungry For The Power" was playing at every club so that got people really interested. "Who were these Canadian dudes without a label?" people were asking. It took about a year to build up from the underground in November 2009 but then in 2010 it really hit. Then it got to the radio in 2010. The Jamie Jones "Hungry For The Power Remix" was the big one. That's still the biggest thing that him and us ever did together.Will you ever continue the group?
No, but I've worked on some of Starving Yet Full and Fritz's solo stuff. We'll see if that sees the light of day. I know that Cedric is planning a solo album.What is your vision for the future of your music?
I like emotive music, things that aren't too alienating. Rather than a bunch of forgetfulness, or partying to forget, or music that's forgettable even. It's nice to give people a cathartic and even healing moment. I think that's what music should be about. There's a lot of damaging and unhealthy music out there that grinds away at you. Whatever music you could play to a plant that shows it has a positive effect on it would be good for you. There were a lot of experiments that showed certain music stunts their growth and other kinds enhance it. Humans have a tendency of searching and relishing in the darkness of life. I'm guilty of this, big time. It's easy to focus on this because it's so fascinating but it gets hard to see the light after a while.
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I think things will just take me. There's lots of new stuff and people like it. Maybe that was the ultimate music connection. It might be more challenging and I might have a more limited audience but I don't care. Maybe it will catch on.How do you feel about Detroit?
The people that have stayed and tried to make it good, God bless them. This is a great city with a lot of pride and hope. It's a fucked up place that shows how capitalism can fuck you over. It's an unfortunate reminder to that but I like it. There's a lot of heart. Underdog towns are good to root for.What about Detroit techno?
I think that there's a new generation like Seth Troxler and the in-betweens like Omar S. that are grasping onto Detroit techno. It's so alive, from the heart kind of music. Not hands in the air "rah-rah" music. It's music that would speak to social and civic decay. It's good at conveying that alienating feeling of being in the burbs or a decaying metropolis where you're not sure where you're at.
Where do you see electronic music going?
It's hard to say. The Azari & III set was not so different from Jamie Principle. Things go in cycles. Now people like techno, and house is dying away but other parts of the world are just starting to get on the house vibe. There's often a five-year delay. Techno is great because it lets atonal rhythms that aren't that musical or pleasing to be explored. Techno has a lot of room for experimentation of normal music scales or format.
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Rave culture didn't last very long the first time around; it was maybe five to ten years of being mass popular. I imagine the way people treat themselves and party, they would burn themselves out.When I first started partying, it was artsy people that were into design, fashion and others. It was an underground way for people to connect. To me, that's more positive than just going to get fucked at a party to smashing music that just doesn't have a lot of soul to it. It seems like it hurts your ears and you can't dance to it, really. You can't interpret the sounds. It needs sub-rhythms and polyrhythms that aren't obvious so everyone can latch onto something different.People don't even dance anymore; they just gyrate on the spot in the most basic kindergarten rhythms. They're afraid to interpret the music in a contemporary dance way like people used to at raves. They just freak out and do whatever their bodies felt. People are way more self-conscious now. Why go see dance music if you're not going to get into it? It seems like everywhere I go around the world, EDM is the big thing at festivals but people don't know how to move.You think there's a cultural loss happening?
Yeah, back in the day there were more gays and moonboot trannies. There was a history of connecting people. You would find the underground and be accepted—cut loose. Now you go and connect with a bunch of other lollypop ravers and do whatever.What music are you liking right now?
I like the odd track here and there. It could be by anyone from some psytrance guy or someone else, but I have a hard time saying anything particular. You have to look outside your circle of knowledge to find other cool things to mix into your world.@Jesse_Ship is a freelance music journalist and former Juno Juror in the Electronic Music category.