Liverpool producer Alex Farell got his start when he got a pair of DDJ 200s for Christmas in 2019 when he was 12.
"Shortly after, around the time that lockdown hit, I basically spent all my time sat on Abelton trying to work out how to make music," he says. "Because I wasn’t in school I had so much time to work on it I got pretty decent pretty fast. I did some ghost production work when I was really young but then one day I made a track called 3AM In Berlin. I decided to send it out to some DJs and it instantly started getting played around the world. After its release I started slowly getting bookings in the UK and Europe, I even made my international debut in the Netherlands when I was 15. One year after this, after a few more releases I was contacted by Teletech who wanted to sign me to their agency. This was about 3 weeks after I finished high school so I decided to not go to college and focus on DJing and producing, from then I went on to tour the world and have had the best life ever since."
Regarding his sound, Farell says that it has "moved away from the harder techno sound, and I’m focused on creating completely unique music for my followers, in a scene where it seems everyone is just chasing trends, it is so important to define your own sound so you can provide a unique experience to everyone who listens to your music or watches you DJ. A lot of DJs nowadays will just play the same as what all the big DJs are playing, but what’s the fun in that? I’d say at the moment my sound sits between peak time techno and the more commercial EDM techno sound."
Farell's latest release is the "Rave Machine" track, "which is 145BPM and uses bending synth leads with trippy percussion to create lots of tension on the dancefloor. It’s been played by lots of big DJs such as, Eli Brown, Sara Landry, HI-LO and many more."
As for gear: "When DJing I always use 4x CDJ 3000s paired with a DJM V10 Mixer. When producing I’m running Abelton Live 12 and I use a Moog subsequent along with an AKAI APC 40 to help me in the studio. For speakers I’m using the Focal ST6 which I’m absolutely in love with and I think they sound amazing."
Looking ahead, Farell has plenty planned for the coming months.
"I have my debut album coming later this year on October 30th which I’m so excited about, I think it’s a real reflection of my sound over the past year and I cannot wait to get it out," he says. "I’ve finally got my America visa too so I can finally start touring over in the states! I’m also working on a headline tour across the UK and Europe to pair with the release of my debut album."
Photo credit @itscamheyes (Cam Heyes)
