FUSION:For the viewers in Japan and around the world that do not know you yet, can you please introduce yourself?
Alan Walker : Hey! I’m Alan Walker, I’m 26-years-old and I’m from Norway. I started making music when I was 14 or 15. I had a breakthrough with a song called ‘Fade’ when I was 16. I later remade this song, and it became known as “Faded” when I was 17 or 18. Since then, I’ve been working with music and traveling around the world. So my career has been relatively short.
FUSION: Talk to me a little bit about the success that you’ve been having from all the music and you know how important being inspired with your music is.
Alan Walker : Being inspired by music is great. You can find influence from other artists and real-time events. For example, I believe music is a fantastic way to transform emotions into melodies. For me, having the opportunity to work on this full-time is incredible.
FUSION: Now, you’ve recently released a new track, and from what I understand is it’s a very first cause there’s someone special as a guest that I want you to announce who it is for all the viewers and how did that come about?
Alan Walker: The new track is called ‘Unsure’, and this song is featuring Kylie Cantrall. How this came about was that a vocalist called Jax made a TikTok. Once she had written a sort of top line, we started working on the song together. Then we thought we could maybe pitch it to see if we could find someone else that we want to feature on the song, and then we released it. We are all here today. The new track called “Unsure” featuring Kylie Cantrall is OUT NOW!
FUSION: What was the inspiration of this song and how did that come about?
Alan Walker: So, inspiration for the song is pretty much that I want to go a little bit back to my roots. Coming like my past like making music with a very distinctive sound and style and that is what I’m trying to portray in the song with the drop. And then have a really, like, suiting vocal, which I think Jax and Kylie did really great. I think overall the song has become a really good Alan Walker sound.
FUSION: So now we wanna know, because, you know, a lot of viewers have been asking us. What inspires you as far as what are the challenges that you have now from before. And how do you overcome those challenges?
Alan Walker : I mean my biggest challenge is sometimes finding the perfect vocal for a song but in very many scenarios, it’s either the first demo vocal or the next vocalist that you find that is just like pitch perfect for a song. Also, sometimes you would also have a writer’s block. It’s sometimes so hard to get out of listening to other music, trying to experiment with new styles and new music. It's sometimes the way for you to kinda get yourself out of the loop. I don’t know. I really enjoyed how I can just travel the world and take in a lot of inspiration and moments and joy, just take it in and then convey it to music.
FUSION: A lot of artists are performing as producers. I don’t want to name them but when they perform at big festivals, they always kind of have the drainage that they travel around the world and then they’re tired and they kind of need a little break. How do you challenge that for yourself when you’re traveling around the world and you need to keep inspiring yourself?
Alan Walker : Yeah, of course. Like when you travel so much and it does become really exhausting. There are a lot of people who see all the joy on Instagram. But it’s not always joyful. But still like for me, it’s really important to make the best out of everything. And I mean, I really enjoy having the opportunity to travel the world and play the one language that we all know, which is music. And to see how much it can change someone's life, it brings me so much joy in the show. I think it’s really cool. And also, you get to see the world and also touch through a playing window. But still, it’s a really cool experience.
FUSION: I noticed that you have a big tour coming up around the world and you’re coming to the US again. And then you’re going to India. So is this to promote the new song release that you’re having. Or is this just like a tour that you normally do every year?
Alan Walker : So we’ve already been doing the Alan Walkerworld Tour for a while. We’ve been touring primarily in Asia and now we’ve announced the Walkerworld Tour in India. We have more dates coming up. I will most likely do it again next year, to take it further onwards. But we'll primarily focus on Walker World in Asia. For now, I think it’s necessary to promote any songs. It’s just to bring Alan Walker to those territories. And then, yes ,again, spread of music that we all love and share.
FUSION: So Alan Walker now this is the part where it gets a little bit more deeper. Because our roots are based in Japan. Japan really loves you a lot, and they’re always very excited when you do come into Japan. What do you like about Japan?
Alan Walker : It was amazing. I can’t remember the name of the venue, but we did the Lencho and the crowd was incredible. The energy, the passion and I had so much fun. I really hope to be back very soon. And Japan is one of my favorite countries to travel to, because the passion from fans is something else. Lot’s of energy. I think it’s gonna be really cool!
FUSION. In your free time when you’re in Japan, what do you think is cool? What is cool Japan for you, besides the crowd and beside the music?
Alan Walker : Sightseeing. Sightseeing in Japan around Tokyo. I would love to go to Osaka, for example to explore more and just to see and experience more of the culture. It would be very cool. And yeah, because like people there are so lovely and very welcoming to foreigners too come and experience the culture and everything.
FUSION: So talk about the mask. What’s behind the scene, how did the mask come about?
Alan Walker : So when we released the song ‘Fade’ together with Sony, we were discussing how we are going to portray Alan Walker to the world, to make something that’s unique from every other DJ and artist that's out there. We thought that we can take my personal interest, which was like graphic design programs, gaming and all of those having common interests. Personally, you’re more in the background, which also pretty much resembles me very well at times, I don’t always like to be in the spotlight and the center of attention. We came up with this idea; like gamers and programmers - cryptic.
People would always like to wear hoodies and sometimes disguise their face. We came up with the idea of just putting on a face mask, a hoodie, and sometimes like a backpack just to create a different kind of artist image for Alan Walker. I think it worked really great because we’ve been sticking with it for eight years. I don’t think the mask and hoodie will be going anywhere soon. But for me also the mask and hoodie was also a way of resembling the idea that anyone could be in my shoes. Anyone could be doing what I’ve done. Anyone could be achieving the same success and following in my footsteps throughout the music scene. I think it’s just a way to show that everyone's the same and we are all united.
FUSION: When I first knew Alan Walker, I had this feeling of like, it was more like a kick ass kind of character. Someone that doesn't want to be known and I really like your story and concept. But I heard that you were actually maybe revealing yourself without a mask. Is that happening today?
Alan Walker : So what we’ve just announced, here in Vegas at the live show, we’re gonna do something very special. Throughout my eight years as a DJ, I’ve always been playing with a mask. So together with LIV we thought we could have fun with it and be a little different. I wanted to do something that will stand out from anything I’ve ever done. And that is to do with Alan Walker Unmasked Show. And I think that’s different and hopefully the fans and the audiences going to the show will like it. It’s just me for playing as the normal human being Alan Walker and not necessarily as the DJ Alan Walker.
FUSION: Now, if that’s a way to put it. Now I know that I don’t know how sensitive this is for you. But if it’s too much to ask, there’s so many great producers out there. You know that they are also performing . Is there anybody that you enjoy the most that you would like to work with or you already worked with?
Alan Walker: I mean there’s an ocean of names you could have like anyone bring up as potential collaborators. I think today, like there’s so many up and coming young people as well that are learning to make music at such a young age, that also opens up a whole new market of potential collaborators. So I think if I were to pick big names, I think Martin Garrix or like Tiesto would be cool for a change. Like you could list names endlessly, there’s is, a lot of people would love to collaborate with and that goes both for producers and vocalists.
FUSION: When you sit down in the studio and you actually are thinking of what’s the next track to think. How much time do you need to get inspired, like, to create a track. You know I mean, I’ve talked to several other producers and they said that they actually need to kind of explore and kind of you know do things that are like regular and basically random stuff so they can get inspired. What and how do you get into that?
Alan Walker : I mean, sometimes I can just sit down on the piano, play around, come up with a melody and sometimes you just start making a song and you tweak the melodies and suddenly, it just hits it and suddenly you have the best melody that you’ve made in maybe months. That is a great feeling. But there are a lot of different ways you could go on about. Like making a song and there's no necessarily correct formula on how to make a hit or like how to make it specifically good. It is just for me, I always try to kindly put emotions into melodies and try to make that. If I was sad , the melody would be sad. If I’m happy, the melody will also be happy. Soo it’s like a song that’s very melancholic in a way.
FUSION: Now let’s talk a little bit about your feelings towards music itself. Are you normally inspired by Because you talked about games? Do you ever get inspired by listening to actual video game soundtracks? Or are you more of like, ok, let’s just see what comes into mind?
Alan Walker: Like I can be inspired by almost anything I could listen to, rock and hear a part of the song that I think we think is really cool and that I could see if I could take that somewhere else. And sometimes I could be listening to movie soundtracks, which also could fall into the game soundtracks. Like there’s a lot of great pieces out there that could inspire and influence you to come up with something new.
FUSION: Speaking of sound tracks, because there’s a lot of stuff that we cover in our magazine with the movies. Do you ever think you can collaborate with musicians that you know just in Hollywood. But also around the world. If are you kind of picking your eye, anyone that you might be thinking of reaching out to?
Alan Walker: I mean, I am none for the time being but I am always open to collaborating with anyone from any markets really. Music is universal so anything is possible. Like I’ve been working with different artists from India to make more local traditional Indian music for example. And there’s a lot of opportunities to make music elsewhere, like something else where you can easily combine electronic dance music with something like traditional Japanese , for example. So any works within music.
FUSION: We’re almost wrapping up because this was a really great interview. I just wanted to basically touch a little bit more about what we can expect with Alan Walker throughout the entire year. And you know obviously right now you have a really big track coming. But is there anything else that the fans can expect in the next couple of months?
Alan Walker : Well, for the fans there will be definitely more music coming out throughout the year. We have aimed to release music every single month. Only new music every single month. We’ll primarily try to do that still just gotta find the right tracks and find not only the right vocalist but more shows. We’re aiming for around 75 to a hundred concerts throughout the year all around the world. I think that’s also gonna be quite incredible for other than it’s gonna be a lot of music, a lot of shows. Most likely more also fan interactive projects that you can find in the Walker community.
FUSION : Now, because you are gonna be on the front cover of FUSION magazine. I wanted to know what’s the best advice that you can give people out there that are reading that maybe they’re having the thought of what it's like to be in your shoes and how can I get a little bit of that? Can you give a little bit of inspiration kind of feedback?
Alan Walker: Yeah, so for me, what should I usually say if you want to try and become a DJ or a music producer is to pursue both. Like don’t just start DJing , start making music too. Because a lot of people mix up the two as the same. But it is really good to do the same as like, if you would be able to build a DJ career, you can also easily build your music career. But when it comes to both Djing and making music, I would say find your style, find what sets you apart from everybody else and most importantly, never ever give up. Because you never know what success is around the corner.
FUSION :Now when you first started your brand, the Alan Walker brand, I’m sure that you were going through all the jobs all wearing all the hats by being a promoter, a marketing person, a you know, a producer, a DJ. So for something like that when you look back, do you feel like something could have changed from before to now? Or do you feel like everything happened how it was supposed to happen?
Alan Walker : I think the puzzle pieces have fallen in place the way it’s supposed to be like I would never have predicted that I would be sitting here today. If you asked me 8,9,10 years ago. I would never have expected my music to go anywhere. I just pursued what made me happy and I made music for fun and it had no financial intent of either making money or getting a huge following worldwide. But it was just a pure passion for the music and having fun. But I was doing what I do. And it’s still the same for today. Like I love working with music and I love traveling the world and playing music for the people and the fans all around.
FUSION : Let’s go back to the early days of Alan Walker, when you grew up and you got inspired to get into music, what were your favorite artists that you were listening to growing up?
Alan Walker: I was listening to a lot of different genes. Like for example, I had a huge punk, rock era. Like Lincoln Park, Green Day, Metallica and those kinds of music. But then we started listening more to Tiesto and David Guetta, such classics from back in the day that we all grew up with. Then I started looking into how to make music and I started learning everything on YouTube. From then it was pretty much from there and the ball started rolling.
FUSION : So there’s a difference between liking somebody, like when you grew up and liking someone like a musician, and then when you actually work with that person from my experience, you know, I feel that there’s a big difference. So for you now that you’ve stepped into the light and you’re actually, mentioned David Guetta and Tiesto, so I’m sure you crossed paths or even your acquaintance to them somehow. But how do you see that from a different perspective and a different light?
Alan Walker : For me, I growing up when I listening to the Tiesto and David Guetta music. I think it's really cool, quite honorable that I'm able to call in my colleagues these days. Like getting to cross paths with them at every other festival and we’re all like good friends and that’s what I like. But the EDM community as well, like everyone is really nice to one another and David Guetta and Tiesot and so many others, Steve Aoki like great people, great inspirations and they’re doing a lot to help the up and coming artists and producers within the industry.
FUSION: There’re a lot of festivals happening around, I’m not asking you to choose the favorite festival but which has been the most memorable festival most recently?
Alan Walker : Well, most recently, I think Ultra that I just played the other last month was pretty cool. It was my first time back in a few years.
FUSION : Are you talking about Ultra Miami?
Alan Walker : Yeah. I think my all time favorite is probably Tomorrowland, like for its unique design and the effort that they’re going through to make it unique and different for every single year. And all stages are seamlessly in the same universe style and very very cool. If anyone wants to go to a festival, I would highly recommend Tomorrowland.
FUSION: So looking at your videos, they seem very futuristic. It reminds me of cyberpunk somehow. It just kind of gives me that cyber punk vibe. Is that the goal that you’re trying to kind of make it more like a gaming kind of concept or is that just like the Alan Walker concept?
Alan Walker : I would say it’s a very mix of gaming and cryptic, like you, whatever future futuristic in way. But it all started with the faded music video. And then we had the idea of making it kind of. It’s a short series that follows a story and you can follow the storyline over many many episodes. And each music video is hopefully following a red line throughout and continuing a story that all the Walkers can follow if they watch the music videos. And I think that’s what makes music videos very unique. It’s like, it’s a very different story told throughout the song in comparison to flexing money or cars or anything.
FUSION: We’ve been talking about video games, but we haven’t really highlighted the video game section now. Because Japan is really big in video games and we’re also really big in eSports. What are your favorite games and which ones do you like and which ones have you tried most recently?
Alan Walker : I’ve mainly played Call of Duty. but I have tried Apex, Valant. For example, there are a lot of different games, but I mainly play Call of Duty because that’s the game that the majority of my friends play.
FUSION : Do you own a game console that you can take on the go like the new ones such as the RG Ally or anything like that?
Alan Walker : Yeah, I already have one, but I usually play just on my computer or physically. RG Ally is great. It’s literally like a desktop computer and in your hands so you could play a lot. But the issue for me is that if I want to play with Friends then the distance from wherever I am on the road to Norway has a lot of Internet lag. So it’s not always the most convenient. So I would just stick to offline games.
Fusion : For Alan Walker, because you're from Norway, right? So is there any Norway artist that you think the world should check out that you know. You want to give love out to?
Alan Walker : I mean, my fellow colleague Kygo, he’s been practically my neighbor, he is an amazing talent. LIke he’s been touring all around the world as well. I think it’s really cool to have another fellow in the region from just like the same city in Norway that is doing really well. I would definitely like him, like he is doing great. So if you have, if he is in Japan, you should go check out.
