The Coolness

Few are cooler than actor Alex Dimitriades. But when he’s not in front of a camera he’s airing out his vinyl, bringing secondhand sounds to the people.

Most of us are familiar with your identity as an actor, but not so much as a DJ/ record collector; where does music fit in the tapestry that is Alex Dimitriades?

For as long as I can remember, well, since I was about ten years of age, this black music thing has had me by the balls and it's been a non-stop journey of discovery ever since ... I've never stopped digging.

What first sparked your interest in vinyl and led you towards DJing?

I used to listen to a late night radio show hosted by Tim Ritchie on Triple J in the early ‘80s; he was playing all the hard edge new release imports at the time which were hot, many of which are now cited as seminal classics of the hip hop/ electro/ house genre — basically anything electronic dance, which back then was very, VERY alternative! That sound really caught my imagination; it was like nothing else I'd ever heard anywhere else, so it became like religion.

What genre/ era of music are you most interested in, and why?

These days I'm mostly digging ‘70s soul. It was such a fruitful and important era in the development and evolution of what is broadly categorised as ‘black music’ and is pretty much the era in which the two most potent forms of modern dance music — hip hop and house — were born. You can go either side of that decade a little, and I'm still with it.

Your approach to playing music; do you keep it old school and stick to vinyl, or incorporate newer technologies such as Serato?

Unfortunately the advent of new technologies makes life harder for vinyl purists; it's removed the art of sound engineering from the equation because their job has become much easier, making them lazier. I can't tell you the number of times I've had sound issues because they've cut corners. Not their fault though, it's in our nature as humans to seek the path of least resistance. It would be nice to pack my laptop and carry 1kg around as opposed to 20kg per case, and it would certainly save money at airport check-ins, but it's just not for me. I'm a vinyl junkie; always have been.

Alex Dimitriades plays the Zuri Lounge January 27.