Tiga- Electro Has Dropped Out of My Vocabulary

"As far as genres go the truth is I don't even think about that stuff anymore, especially with electro, though that's not to say I still don't play a lot of electro records. I love techno, I love dance music, acid and a bunch of other things that don't normally go together. Hot in Herre to me is a perfect example."

12 months after releasing definitive electroclash anthem Sunglasses At Night, Montreal based DJ Tiga is poised for another crossover club hit, with his hip hop-electro-disco cover of Nelle's Hot in Herre. Snapped up by Fatboy Slim's label Skint in the UK and Warners-AOL in Germany, the track's been a staple fixture throughout the electro scene since first appearing as a throwaway B side last December.

"Hot In Herre came along as an unexpected surprise, it wasn't initially meant to be a single, I gave it to K7 simply as a B side for my A Side track Man Hadrina," Tiga told Jonty Skrufff this week.

"Since then the track's taken off and turned into a Sunglasses At Night kind of record."

As well as riding Hot in Herre's unexpected success, he's recently been working with bootleg king Richard X and finalising production on his much anticipated artist album.


Skrufff: You've done at least two tracks with Richard X, how much is that an ongoing collaboration and how far off is your artist album-

Tiga: "We did that Burning Down track together and we'll hopefully do one more together. How far off is it- Well my personal deadline for finishing it is November 1, ie for it being close enough to being finished so people will know what it's like. I'll probably then take another month to polish it. I've had such good press and such a good reception I don't want to wait too long to put the album out. Stylistically, my album's going to be fairly moody and also quite dance floor, with songs and almost certainly vocals on every track. I'm not going to use too many collaborators because I don't want it to come across as one of those project albums."

Skrufff: How much do you see yourself as a singer as well as a DJ-

Tiga: "What's interesting for me is that singing is new territory for me and in some respects I'm making it up as I go along. I'm still definitely into my DJing, I'm not one of those producers who DJs to pay the bills. I don't think of myself as a singer, it just happens because I make records and using my voice turns out to be the best and easiest way for me to articulate a particular idea. Singing is just something I can do."

Skrufff: Soft Cell singer Marc Almond told us recently that the two of you might be collaborating, what's your link with him-

Tiga: "I just wanted to meet him because he'd always been a big inspiration for me. He's one of those people who taught me in a subliminal way that it's not so important if you make mistakes. That's it's more important to be confident enough to let something of your own personality come through. I met him in London a few weeks ago and I actually acted as a journalist, interviewing him to help a friend in Canada with a magazine. I was toying with the idea of having him do a song on my album. It was cool meeting him and he was really a lot like I imagined he'd be. It's always weird when you meet someone who you've read so much about. He was super-nice, it's great and a little bizarre to meet someone you've admired for 20 years then to find out they know your stuff. He said he loves Man Hollywood."

Skrufff: Larry Tee was talking recently about hanging out with you in Montreal ten years ago when you were starting your music career, how much has all the success you've had matched your expectations-

Tiga: "It depends, on lots of levels, it's pretty much everything I ever wanted it to be, everything I ever dreamed about, and is quite faithful to my initial images. I don't want to be bitter or jaded at all, I'm really truly happy with how things are. One thing that's really important is what stage your success comes at. Whe Tags