Derived from her influences of the romanian sub-genre Alice Clark has developed her own unique take on deep dubby, groove driven micro house entwined with the drive and subtitles of minimal tech.
Alice fell down the music rabbit hole in her childhood learning the piano, guitar, drums and the sax at a young age, so that reading and writing music became almost second nature. “I guess it was a natural progression when I started DJing, they both went hand in hand,” she says. She recalls “recording lines from all the instruments to make a track. Not sure the neighbours were exactly pleased about this, but it was my little ‘music cave’.”
Today, Alice is a fast-rising international DJ who has built a reputation for working the dancefloor wherever she plays. She divides her time between summer’s in Ibiza and touring globally in the winter months.
Alice started out on the dance floor before transitioning to the other side of the decks. “Before I started to play I was always on dancefloors, all through my university years in London and the long summers in Ibiza,” she says. “I think they go hand in hand anyway. If you can enjoy the music from the other side of the booth, I think it gives you a better understanding on reading a crowd.”
She taught herself to DJ after visiting Ibiza at the age of 17. “I saved up and ended up buying the cheapest decks I could afford at the time — I think they were from Argos or something,” she says. “I spent every spare moment I had in-between school teaching myself, watching YouTube videos, learning from my friends who were DJs. I started to play my first gigs local to my home in Kent, and it went from there.”
She still spends plenty of time dancing — an all-too-rare occurrence for some too-cool-for-school DJs these days. “Sometimes after I play, if the vibe is right I like to go to the floor and enjoy the music of the next act playing,” she says. “It’s always a buzz to meet people who you’ve just played to. I’ve met so many people who I now call friends just from sharing the floor with them.”
Highlights so far in her career have included being handpicked by Monki and Danny Howard to playing Creamfields for BBC Radio 1, commanding her own Pioneer Global Radio Show and signing music to some of her favourite labels, Decay Records and Cyclic. “If we throw it back to when my journey first began, playing at places such as Fabric at the age of 17 was a real moment for me.”
She has been visiting the States every year since the age of 12 and has really made her mark there touring in recent times. “The response has been amazing, and i’ve loved every second. To see people smiling and dancing to my music in all these different cities around the country, and all the amazing people I’ve met along the way, just completely makes all the grind worth it.”
Where possible, she likes to play long sets. “It’s what I’ve always been used to,” she says. “When I first started playing in Ibiza for my first season, I was carving out eight-hour-long sets six nights a week — for five months. It was intense, but it taught me so much. The importance of the journey, the peaks and the troughs.”
Alice’s talent has so far led to her playing in San Diego, Orlando, Miami, New York, London, Sheffield, Manchester Barcelona, Munich, Frankfurt, Naumburg, Cluj Na Poca, Hong Kong, Manila and receiving industry support from the likes of BBC Radio 1, Mihai Popoviciu, Guido Schneider, James Dexter, Markus Homm, Ray Okpara to name but a few. Naturally, Alice is looking forward to returning to the White Isle for what will undoubtedly be her best season yet.