ALASDAIR DUNCAN recently spoke with DJ and producer EWAN PEARSON to discuss his association with the legendary Kompakt label, and his work on the forthcoming Tracey Thorn solo album.

The last time I caught up with Ewan Pearson, the Berlin-based producer was preparing to go back to German language class after an extended absence, and was in the throes of some pretty serious anxiety dreams. In the eighteen months since then, I wonder, how has his education been going? “To be honest, I haven’t been for over a year,” Pearson laughs, when I raise the subject. “I’ve stopped having anxiety dreams and now I just feel guilty.”

To be fair, Pearson has been busy lately. He has produced two high-profile albums – the debut from Manchester indie-dance group Delphic, and the second Tracey Thorn solo album, due out mid-year. In addition to this, he has crafted his third DJ mix compilation, an immaculate affair, entitled We Are Proud Of Our Choices, for the iconic German techno label Kompakt. How did his association with the label come about, I wonder?  

“I’ve been a big fan of Kompakt for many years,” Pearson says. “They’re one of my favourites from a DJ perspective. There was a track of mine on Michael Mayer’s original Immer CD, a remix that I’d done, so it was quite nice to be part of that. I met them three or four years ago at Sonar in Barcelona, and it was just a case of me telling them I was a really big fan and them saying, well, we like what you do, and it all became a bit of a sick love-in really.

“I was really pleased to be able to put out a DJ mix compilation with Kompakt,” Pearson continues, “because they have such a strong history of doing those. I’ve been a really big fan of their mixes, and the chance to do one was too good to pass up. You can be a bit more musical, and you don’t just have to think about the groove, you can think about things in harmonic terms. I worked really hard to pick tracks that had a Kompakt sensibility to them, ones that would fit.”

As for the title of the album, We Are Proud Of Our Choices refers to a text by the philosopher G.A. Cohen, but also, to Pearson’s method of choosing records for his DJ sets. “There’s so much music out there, that even someone with the best of intentions couldn’t possibly take in everything,” he says. “With that in mind, though, the most important thing for me is not going for the obvious promo tracks. When I hear my favourite DJs play, I love that I find myself asking, ‘what the hell is that?’”

I can’t let Pearson go without asking him what the forthcoming Tracey Thorn album is going to sound like. “It’s much more of a singer-songwriter record than her first,” he tells me. “There’s no programming – any synthesisers that are there are played. It’s more about songs, it’s more stripped-back. There are tracks that are just Tracey’s voice with minimal piano or guitar accompaniment. It’s not a dance record with pop vocals – there’s one track that’s kind of disco-y, but even there, everything is played live, including my quite poor keyboard playing.”

EWAN PEARSON plays at The Gold Coast’s Elsewhere on Sunday Feb 28. WE ARE PROUD OF OUR CHOICES is out now on Kompakt/Stomp. www.myspace.com/ewanpearson

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