An "alpha city" is considered to be an important node point in the global economic system. An "alpha producer" is considered to be an important node point in the global musical system.

Stepping up to the challenge, from Argentina's alpha city Buenos Aires, comes an alpha city boy and alpha producing artist, Senor Seph for a bit of a chit chat with DB ahead of his Australian tour dates.

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Where does the name Seph come from when your name is Seb?
Seph: Well the problem was that there was already a few "Sebs", specially in Buenos Aires... So after a while I became Seph, in homage to the character Sephiroth from the videogame Final Fantasy VII. I played it more than 10 years ago and I can say that the game's soundtrack is a major influence in what I do musically.

We hear on your Melbourne show you'll be playing live? What sort of equipment will you be using for the show?
Seph: I will be using my laptop, soundcard and midi controllers, and maybe my drum kick and bass synth Mbase 11.

We've spoken to Dumb-unit honcho Cesare Vs. Disorder a couple of months ago on his coming to Australia. How did you first get involved with the Dumb-unit family? Got any dirt on Cesare you can share with us? :P
Seph: Jeremy first contacted me when he wanted to license an already released track of mine, Voiddiov, for his last DJ compilation on Dumb Unit. After that I released an ep with Jorge Savoretti as Geoph Serge and from then on it has been my main label. Jeremy Caulfield and I became good friends quickly and now we work sharing the same horizons. Im sure he loves my delays in handing in tracks!
Cesare is awesome. We met a while back actually, he took me to London in 2007 for a gig, and Im pretty sure that the contact was through Dilo.
His music is my favourite of Dumb Unit and in my last chart Ive put in one of his tracks. His mixture of italian, portuguese, english and spanish personalities is a mixture to get you wasted pretty easily. A guaranteed laugh!

Is this your first visit to Australia?
Seph: Yes it is, and im really excited about it!

What future releases of yours should we be keeping an eye out for?
Seph: This year I will release a remix of Pablo Denegri and Mekaz for the argentinian label Igloo-rec, one for Tim Sensient, for the australian Open Records, and one for Elvis T, for the chinese label Acupuncture Records. Im working on a bunch of other things, my upcoming album, one or two EPs and a noise project, with details to follow soon. The album wll be released this September on Dumb Unit and the other things, well, to be confirmed.

What equipment do you use while in the studio to make your most twisted of noises?
Seph: I only use software and Ive just recently acquired my first piece of equipment, the jomox Mbase 11. I have a pair of Genelec monitors and a Motu Ultralite sound card. VSTs and programs have come and gone from my usual deck of fruits, such as FM7, FM8, Reaktor, Reason, Ableton, Logic, Zebra, Livecut, Ronin, to name a few. I think the important thing is to keep your tools fresh, trying out new ones all the time.

If somebody comes up to you at LAB event, what thing could they say that will put a genuine smile on your face?
Seph: Oooh, what a question. Please dont say anything about Maradona or Evita, its the same thing everywhere you go and I just end up saying "oh, yes, ha, maradona, great...yes, hand of god, aha, aha" or they tell me "dont cry for me argentinaaa". I dont know what will put a smile on my face, but anything related to Star Wars and videogames will get a thumb up! And of course if they like my music I will be very, very happy.

When you're not DJ'ing, where/how do you like to get Dain Bramaged, and how do you recover the next day?
Seph: Me and my friend Pablo Denegri sometimes make intimate parties in a secret musical hideout in Buenos Aires: Aula Magna. We used to make parties much more often though, and we even had international friend guests playing. Here we like to push our techno-noise-glitch-dub-space-n-bass sound with all our friends...And then our home club is Cocoliche. Here we have an underground club that is constantly putting new artists on the table, with an old school but forward looking techno attitude, which is for me the most important thing. Ive seen many friends gone to the 'light side", following the mass trend that is now house music. Which is great, but sometimes its just too "fashion tv" and you call tell that right from the go that theyve lost any artistic inspiration, driven by an obsession for sucess. This is all relative anyway, trends come and go and it depends on which part of the world..

How do I recover from hangovers? World of Warcraft and milanesa sandwiches...

Thank Seph!
Catch Seph at LAB Friday 12th February, and keep up to date with his antics via his Myspace