Acceptable In The Noughties - Calvin Harris

For a man who is all currently over the airwaves and denting the charts with his retro smash ‘Acceptable In Three 80’s’, Calvin Harris seems very withdrawn and tired as he speaks to Gigwise. Apparently the 23-year-old electro-pop connoisseur has been up all morning doing interviews and God bless him, it’s still only 11am! The poor fucker. Still, we were hoping that in his weary state he would say it things were ‘unacceptable’ so that we could make a pun of it. But he doesn’t. Here have a strong coffee Calvin…

Mind you, it’s easy to understand why Calvin is in such high demand on this March morning. Putting things into perspective, this time last year, Calvin was a broke 23-year-old who had just left London due to his uncanny inability to pay the rent to returned to his hometown of Dumfries, to a job at Marks & Spencer’s of all places. After hurtling back down to earth and hitting the humdrum of everyday life, Calvin worked hard re-fiddling his Commodore Amiga and honing his Myspace skills to get noticed by the currently booming music industry. It worked. Calvin added a bloke from the EMI label who had just joined up on Myspace and, as he was new to the game, was up for listening to any talent he could find. Luckily for Calvin Harris his music was heard by the right person and the rest, as they say, is history.

Since then Calvin has re-entered the heady heights of life, remixing for the likes of All Saints and Groove Armada, as well as penning lyrics for Roisin Murphy’s new album and gathering his own personal band for a tour with Faithless and later for his new album, I Created Disco. He has also worked with some Aussie singer called Kylie Minogue, but more on that later.

Calvin Harris’ music is what would be loosely described as electro, but it’s also very funky, as you can hear in his now signature tune, ‘Acceptable in the Eighties’. One very noticeable similarity with Calvin’s music is with that of Scottish dance contemporary, Mylo… remember him? That bloke that Elton John was always parping on about? Sure, Calvin gets this point made often so what does he think about it? Does it annoy him? “He’s class, so it’s no big deal.” Well that’s that covered then. Come one wake up.

Trying to break the ice a bit, we ask that nagging question.. Why was it acceptable in the eighties? He suddenly perks up: “I liked the culture in the eighties, people would say ‘I like your shoes,’ or ‘what you’ve done with you’re hair’… In the last ten years until lately everyone has tried to look the same and daren’t step out, or do anything crazy.” The eighties has definitely enjoyed a revival in the last couple of years and it seems like Calvin Harris has played on that with his smash hit. He adds: “I thought the eighties would be a good idea, I wanted a loose eighties theme so I just stuck it all in that song.”