Calvin Harris: A Disco T-Party

At 23, Calvin Harris has gone a lot further in a shorter space of time than many stalwarts in the industry, and his funked-up electro pop smashes of Acceptable in the 80s and The Girls have infiltrated the musical collections of the general populace with great alacrity. It wasn't that long ago that Harris was stocking assorted vegetables on the hallowed shelves of M&S, after years of sending out unsuccessful demos, and returning home to Dumfries from London. We must bear in mind here that Harris began making music when he was just 14 - but it wasn't until he joined the Myspace online community that a fruitful chain of events was set in motion.

It all started when Calvin started "messing" about on his Commodore Amiga computer instead of playing tracks, venturing into "music software creation programmes, and sort of misguidedly chose not to go to university and fuck about on the Amiga instead." With the wealth of technology and advancements in sound software, why the decision to use what is considered outdated technology - did he make a conscious choice? "Did I fuck! I didn't have any money! I knew I had to use it, so I kept using it." He's been tagged as a funkateer, electro performer, and disco exporter - is there any firm genre to which he wishes to adhere? "I like funkateer, that's brilliant. If there's a genre called Funkateerism, then that's what I am."

He claims that he doesn't really listen to 80s music; "It's a common misconception, given that my first song was all about the 80s, that I'm well into the 80s, but I'm just not." He's barely launched his album (due for general release on 11 June), but he's already stepped up to remixing duties for the All Saints, Groove Armada, Kylie, CSS, and Jamiroquai, but there are hints of a hiatus or slow on this front: "I did this remix for a band, I won't name names, who basically said it was cack, so I just said to myself, ok, you know what? I spent two days on it which I'd rather have spent two days in my bed sleeping. Since then I can't be bothered, I'll just do my own stuff. Pretty immature attitude, but that's the one I've now adopted, for this week, anyway; my moods are changing by the second at the moment."

The wait to get his own debut out has been prolonged - after finishing the tracks a year ago, they spent a further few months remastering it, and it has been sitting ready for about seven months now. "It would be good to see it on the shelves," says Calvin, "It's gonna look nice, they're doing some glow in the dark packaging which I'm absolutely over the moon about." Was there a little hope of stirring up some controversy by titling the work I Created Disco? "I've got several answers to this question, but I think I'll use the old explanation. It's a track on the album and it's a made-up sample of a man who is me, pretending to be this man who says he created disco. But it was like in the 40s with kettles and stuff; it's called I Created Disco, which we decided would be a funny title for the album. And yes, it would provoke people to think 'oh this guy's a knob', and it worked! Especially amongst the older generation, they all think I'm a twat."

It sounds strange to hear that someone who is booked for major festivals and gig appearances up and down the country, has never actually set foot inside a festival ("I'm a miserable anti-social bastard, not done nothing like that!"), never mind played one, so how does it feel to go as a headliner to T in The Park? "It'll be fun, but I don't know what it will be like, but banter-wise it will be good." Also appearing in the Calvin Harris line-up are Irving (guitar), Sean Vs The Robots (keyboards), Davey PlAnEcRaSh (bass), and Rikki Stixxx (drums), an amusing roster of names that sound like they may have appeared in hairmetal bands of the late 80s.

Calvin's set is on Jul 7 in King Tut's Wah-Wah Tent, amongst a host of indie bands. It's also gonna be a stormer in the Slam tent this year, with a mix of the old and new talents in the electronic scene: from favourites like techno and electro artistes Adam Beyer, Green Velvet, Miss Kittin, and scratch masters Cut Chemist vs DJ Shadow, to the increasingly popular grime master Dizzee Rascal (live) and the punk electronica of Alloy Mental (live), plus more - and that's only the line-up for Saturday! If you managed to snap up a weekend ticket and plan on hanging around for Sunday, you will be greatly rewarded: with more techno, house, hip hop, and electronic mix-ups with Dave Clarke, Wu-Tang Clan (live), Felix Da Housecat, Tiga, Andrew Weatherall, Slam (deep breath, there's more!), Hardfloor (live), Digitalism, and we'll leave it at that as a tantalising teaser! Be sure to also catch electro-soul outfit, Unklejam, and new wave electronica courtesy of New Young Pony Club on the Saturday at the Futures Stage, followed by hip hop from Plan B on the Sunday. P.S. tickets are already sold-out, so if you haven't got one, stay tuned to the TV and The Skinny for a review!