Brought up on a diet of analogue electro and raves in rural Norfolk, Alec Storey’s interest in underground dance music sprung roots at an early age. Techno stole his heart and in 2006 he began releasing music under the moniker Al Tourettes, applying his skill as an accomplished drummer to an uncompromising take on techno and electro production. In the years since, his style has progressed from glitched out and wonky through to garage and dubstep influenced, all the while maintaining a heavy emphasis on funk, groove and serious attention to detail. The past year has seen Storey’s profile spiral; amongst a busy live schedule, co-productions with close friend and Bristol legend Appeblim and releases on the Apple Pips label, his success recently culminated in a collaboration with Underworld and commission to produce music for the hugely acclaimed Darren Aronofsky film ‘Black Swan’. We caught up with Mr Tourettes to chat movies, music and more.

Hi Alec! You’ve received a fair bit of press in recent months, with many people tipping 2011 to be a big year for you. It must feel good to be gaining recognition outside of underground circles…

Yeah, definitely. It’s wicked to hear people are getting into my music from different areas. It’s been a long time coming, so feels all the better for it.

How did the opportunity come about to produce music for a scene in Darren Aronofsky’s film ‘Black Swan’?

Mary Anne Hobbs knows Clint Mansell (Director of the film’s soundtrack) from the days when he was the lead singer in Pop Will Eat Itself. She was doing a tour in the States and met up with Clint. He told her about the film and asked if she could send him some music for the bar/club scene in the film, so she sent him a load of tracks to listen to and they picked out ten they liked. One of them was my track ‘When I Rest I Rust’. They got in contact with me about producing a piece of music inspired by Tchaikovsky’s score for Swan Lake. Of the ten they contacted, four of us made the cut, myself being one of them.

Tell us a bit about your approach to making the track featured, ‘The White Easton’. Did your methods differ to creating a track normally?

It was a very different process. Darren’s idea was that he wanted to have a track produced by me in my own style, that was inspired by Swan Lake. I was sent extracts from the score from which I could use as inspiration for the piece. They also sent a description of the bar/club scene which they wanted the music for, but didn’t send any images of the film. I wrote three demos in two weeks, so really got my teeth into it. Of the three, they decided that ‘The White Easton’ would fit best in the bar scene, so I spent the next month or so tweaking it until it was exactly what they wanted. In this respect it was completely different to working on your own material, as you’re working for a client and their word is final. You have to remove your ego from the whole process. I submitted many versions until it was just right. This is very common in the film world, so although I found it initially quite demanding it was an excellent learning curve and one that I hope will prove invaluable in the future.

The experience is a great string to have in your bow – is music for film something you want to pursue further?

Yes definitely. It’s really been such an honour on my behalf to have been involved in the making of this film. Having had the experience it certainly makes me want to pursue it further.

Moving on to your performance as an artist, your live sets are an integral part of your work. Give us a rundown of the setup you’re using at the moment…

I’m using a Macbook Pro running Ableton Suite 8 and Max for Live, along with loads of 3rd party instruments and effects. I use an Akai APC40 and Novation Nocturn for control. I also use a Roland SPD-S sampling drum pad. I’m a drummer so it makes absolute sense to use it as an improvisational tool in a live setting.

Do you see yourself as more of a ‘live’ artist now, or are DJ sets still important to you?

DJing is still just as important as my live set. I love DJing as it’s a completely different discipline. The feeling you get from it as opposed to playing live is totally unique. When you’re playing live it’s much more personal, which can work either way, whereas when I DJ it gives me a chance to show my influences and how they relate to what I’m doing.

Your sound has evolved a lot since your early productions, with the glitchy electro and techno stuff giving way to dubstep and 2-step influences. Were there clear turning points or has it evolved naturally?

It’s definitely been an organic process. I would put a lot of it down to being in Bristol and having the friends that I do. They have certainly influenced me in certain directions. The same can also be said the opposite way…I think it’s massively refreshing as an artist to be able to react to the environment and people around you in a way that not only complements, but intensifies what your doing.

It seems that despite this evolution in your sound, you still retain many of the influences you’ve taken on over the years, and this makes you a difficult artist to pigeonhole. Is this important to you? Do you feel more free as an artist without being defined as just a ‘techno producer’ or just a ‘dubstep producer’?

It’s hugely important to me that I can operate on a level where I can produce what I’m feeling at any particular time, regardless of the perceived style of music. If I look at my favourite artists throughout the years I think they have also done much the same.

Who are you referring to when you talk about your ‘favourite artists’? Who’s really influenced and inspired you musically?

Autechre, Drexciya, George Clinton, Cristian Vogel, The Meters, Two Lone Swordsmen, Raymond Scott, Juan Atkins, Mathew Jonson, Mad Mike Banks, Ed Rush & Optical, Herbie Hancock, Prince, Daft Punk, Anthony Rother, Surgeon, Neil Landstrumm, Stevie Wonder, Wevie Stonder, Kenny Larkin, Si Begg, Plastikman, John Tejada, Luke Vibert, Dan Bell, Isolee, Photek, Bitstream, Perlon Records, Skull Disco, Aphex Twin, Carl Finlow, Michael Storey…

You’re operating in a climate where dance music is cross-pollinating and boundaries between genres are breaking down all the time, particularly in the house, techno and bass music spectrum. To what extent do you feel this factor has helped you push your music out there?

I think this is very healthy. Most people I speak to are into all three of those genres, if not all styles of electronic music (maybe not happy hardcore so much!), so I think it’s actually been happening a lot longer than you might think. It’s a natural progression. I think it’s about concentrating on the individuality of the artist rather than what genre or tempo they’re operating in, and breaking down those barriers. If I look at the more forward thinking nights around they won’t just have the same music policy over the whole night. This makes things much more interesting from the audience’s perspective. In this respect I think people are a lot more open minded now thanks to this interplay, and it’s certainly played in my favour.

What can we expect from your performance at this year’s Bloc Weekend on the Mary Anne Hobbs stage?

Seriously funked up freakiness!

And which artists are you looking forward to catching?

DJ Funk, Dopplereffekt, Speedy J, Apparat, Matthew Dear, Shackleton, Ancient Methods, Kenny Ken, Addison Groove, Will Saul, Placid, Joe Hart, Aphex Twin and LFO.

We hear there’s a debut album in the pipeline. Can you give us some details about that?

It’s something I’ve been thinking about. Time is always the main issue so don’t expect it in the next month! I’ve never been one to just ‘knock em out’ and like to take my time over anything I do. The nature of my tracks means I like to include a lot of detail, which always takes the most time. I want to explore more tempos, vocal arrangements and beatless sound palettes really. I’m at a point where people are getting my musical outlook much more and it would be really exciting to work in the album format.

And any more exciting projects we can expect from Al Tourettes in 2011?

I’m soon to be releasing an EP on Bloc’s in-house label. One of the tracks is called ‘Swan Sketch’ and was originally one of the demos I submitted for the film. It also includes a remix from Ai Records’ Datasette. I’m working on a remix with Appleblim of a track by Axel Boman for Glass Table records, and the track ‘Hamburg Hotel’ that I co-produced with Underworld and Appleblim which featured on their latest album ‘Barking’ is going to be released on a limited Apple Pips 12″. There will be more original co-productions by myself and Appleblim as well, possibly under a new name later in the year. I’m also working on an EP for new label Sneaker Social Club as we speak.