AVA Festival has become a hotbed for electronic talent in recent times, propelling Northern Ireland and its neighbouring republic to the fore of the electronic music industry. With talents like Bicep, Ejeca, DJ Deeca, and Or:la all breaking through in the last five years, Ireland has announced itself on the world stage and AVA regular Bobby Analog is symptomatic of the scene's carefree and stylish sound:

Your new EP was released last week - how are you feeling about the whole experience? Can you talk us through the record?

Yeah, I'm really happy to have the new record out, It's always quite a daunting experience I find, because you actually have to let people hear what you have been working on for maybe the past 5 or 6 months but I love the process from getting my tracks to the point where I am content and working on the packaging and press stuff to getting my copies of the vinyl in the post which is by far the most rewarding bit haha.

It's a 4-track EP all of the tracks are built around samples I have found while digging in various record stores this past year. The A-side is pretty up-tempo and lively and the b-side is a more deep house kinda vibe and it's all a bit of a homage to King Street and Nite Grooves records.

What's your creative process when you sit down to make a new track? Do you have the entire EP in mind when you create each one?

Haha, no, not at all. I just make tracks, each studio session can be something new. I have lots of different ways to get a jumping off point sometimes it will be a sample I have found; recently I have been starting with chords a lot because if you can construct a sweet chord melody everything else kinda falls into place very quickly.

For an EP I try to just build up a library of tracks over the year and the ones that I hate the least end up getting released, haha. I have toyed with the idea of doing conceptual projects but I'm just not sure it's what I want to do, I have a side project I wanna work on called The Cold War Club Band, it's gonna be a large explosion on the first track then 9 tracks of complete silence.

You're playing at AVA Festival in June - do you think AVA's popularity is emblematic of a wider surge in the Irish electronic music scene?

Yeah there has definitely been a large surge in the popularity of electronic music events especially the larger ones which is good and bad for "the scene" in equal measures in my opinion. The larger events can introduce new audiences to more leftfield music but it can also leave the audience feeling that's the way that music should be presented at all times which can make it difficult for smaller club events.

What AVA is doing is great because they are having panel discussions, workshops etc and really helping push new generations of Irish electronic artists out onto a bigger stage but them and Celtronic in Derry seem to be the only ones doing such things. Not everyone that run these large scale events are in it for the right reasons I believe and that's a shame.

If you could have dinner with one pop singer, one rapper, and one DJ, who's coming round for tacos?

Pop singer: Elton John
Rapper: Q-Tip
DJ: Mad Mike Banks

Tacos and 12 bottles of wine.

In the interview that ran alongside your Feel My Bicep mixtape, you mentioned that you'd be moving away from the sample-based approach that you're known for - do you think it's important to change up your sound frequently?

I think it is yeah, I find it important to challenge myself to develop different sounds and skills so what I am doing doesn't get a bit stagnant. I don't want to look at my back catalog in a couple of years and think I was just a one trick pony so it's probably a bit of a personal challenge for myself, some artists can work within the same sound their entire career and just do a really great job of it but I like to be learning all the time.

Production-wise, which artists inspire you?

There's a few obvious ones like Theo, Moodymann, Kerri Chandler, Omar S, Paul Johnson then there's a lot of labels/collectives that really inspire me like UR, NU Groove, Regalbau and more or less everything that DJ Fett Burger touches. These guys are always there in the music I make so if I sound like I'm trying to rip off old Kaoz records It's probably cause I am haha.

Besides AVA, what have you got planned for the rest of 2018?

I'm off to play in Madrid after AVA then I have some other shows in Ireland over the summer. Other than that I'm gonna get my head into finishing off some projects to hopefully get out towards the end of the year. Toying with launching another label cause I want to get creative with coming up with a new identity for some of the music I've been making. I'm most looking forward to just spending a lot of time getting to know some new studio gear.

And finally, what are you listening to right now?

My life has been kinda hijacked preparing for a boiler room set lately so lots of old US house has been getting played and ordered. Been loving everything that World Building has put out since it launched. DJ Sports and Central are always on atm their production is a different level. Roza Terenzi's music is something I've really been enjoying and that new Omar S with Diviniti "Games That We Play" might be my tune of the year so far but that could change next week lol.