Boys Noize Discussing Upcoming Release and Collaborations

EDM has infiltrated the mainstream, but not all producers are happy. Boys Noize, born Alexander Ridha, falls into this camp. In a recent interview, the German house producer discussed his upcoming third album, collaborations, and the current state of electronic music.

Titled Out of the Black, scheduled for an October 2 release, Boys Noize’s third studio release is a paradox, one inspired by EDM nostalgia but also pushing forward. Ridha additionally describes it as an amalgamation of his first two albums but goes onto say he doesn’t repeat himself. He stated: "It's funny for me this album felt like in order to make a step forward I had to take a step back again and find my roots. I sounded so raw and naive in a way because I didn't really know what I was doing then."

Unlike his contemporaries, Ridha is not going crazy with collaborations. Instead, to hint at his occasional hip-hop influence, working with Snoop Dogg is the only collaboration on the release. He explained: "I don't like to have cheesy vocals on my songs, so we made one one rap track and one house track."

Although a few tracks were created over the past two years, most of Black was produced over the past year. Rather than doing the regular summer EDM circuit, he focused his time into finishing the release. He said: "I took time off and didn't do any festivals this summer [to finish the album]. It's not easy to do that, but I really enjoyed it."

Ridha has not put out a release in two years, but during this time, he started producing other artists, including Santigold, and put together a collaboration with Skrillex. However, the producer won’t work with just any artist. He explained: "I never did a remix for Lady Gaga or Britney Spears because I didn't want to put my name next to something I think is sh-t."