A regular feature at Groovy Trooper festivals over the years in the Viral Lounge, CADJ has quietly gone about crafting a macabre collection of robotic beats that is cyber music at it's best. He sets a mood that makes you feel like you have been teleported into the binary coded dna of a computer processor. If you've ever felt like you are living in a matrix, Robot Erotica permeates this sense throughout in a strangely melange of beats, stuttered effects and twisted ambiences.

Machine music for the masses
interview: Robert Mckay

How did you go from being in a punk band to making electronic music ? I read that you just kinda stumbled into it ?

No, it was definitely a concerted effort, not to make 'electronic music', but to make music. It was hard to keep a band together so after reading up about software, and the ability to make your own music, it was a natural step to move in the computer direction. The opportunity and potential of using software is unlimited and it just fuels your creativity and freedom to explore.

Was it hard to get a grip on the software, not having studied music at all ?

I started using ACID which was ground breaking at the time for its ability to change the tempo in real time, without changing pitch. I made 'Title X' while learning that. I did study sound engineering at Cape Audio college before that and made an album ( Blonde New Zero-Olympic Laundrette) on a tape machine and did some recordings with Pro Tools.

What would you say to other aspiring bedroom musos too afraid to get started ?

Get to know one program (DAW) like Ableton or Reason and once you starting putting two sounds together and that sounds like a piece of music, you realise it's not the hardest thing in the world. Above all, have a vision and finish songs .

What's the closest you could get to describing your music ?

It's experimental but has more of a pop,traditional structure. I start the majority of the songs on acoustic guitar and then program the rest and the tracks follow their own path. So it's kinda techno , kinda punk, kinda ambient. At least I sound like myself, I hope.

How did you come up with Chilled Alaskan DJ as a name ?

My cat ,Alaska , was sitting on a turntable and I think DJ's were the new rock stars at the time. A friend started calling him the chilled alaskan dj . I think we were sampling the fruits of our gardening hobby.

How has your sound evolved ?

I'm trying to make my music less cluttered, more focussed on key elements and sound design. Definitely want to work with vocalists, that is the end goal.

Originally printed in SL magazine 2012.