Artist Profile: Alex Wilcox

A Texan-born artist, Alex Wilcox first fell in love with music through '90s rock, but his initiation into techno came during a visit to Berlin. Craving that energy back home, Wilcox found the local Austin scene lacking and grew restless. He decamped to Los Angeles to sharpen his production chops while immersing himself in studio work. Paradoxically, even as he was mic’ing up sessions for Tyler, The Creator and assisting pop producer Pinkslip in Hollywood, Wilcox’s heart remained tethered to techno. In search of those roots, he made a pilgrimage to Detroit, working at Underground Resistance’s headquarters under the mentorship of Mike Banks. The stint with UR instilled a militant DIY ethos and respect for techno’s political edge. By 2019, he had self-released an album of his productions that garnered quiet buzz in the techno underground. That album, Because the Sky is Blue, was part rave diary, part distortion-drenched hallucination. Little did he know it would set the stage for his breakout on the international scene. On Friday, May 23, Alex Wilcox will headline the return of Sqweez! at Control Club.

Wilcox’s big break arrived in 2021. A blistering track of his titled “Sleep Paralysis” found its way to French DJ Anetha, who signed Wilcox for a collaborative EP on her label Mama Told Ya. That record, It’s Okay To Cry, introduced Wilcox as a bold new voice in techno (or, as RA described it, “odd-ball”). DJs from Ellen Allien to Nina Kraviz and Mama Snake were hammering Wilcox’s tracks at clubs and festivals. The EP’s success put Wilcox on the radar of label curators worldwide. Soon, he was fielding offers from heavy-hitters, leading to follow-up releases on Ellen Allien’s UFO Inc and Nina Kraviz’s трип. Wilcox was suddenly everywhere, his tracks turning up in the sets of an extraordinarily broad swath of DJs, from Boys Noize to SPFDJ and Bjarki.

Having made a name for himself with his productions, Wilcox soon stepped out of the shadows of the studio and onto the stage. He relocated to Berlin, the city that first inspired him, with an outsider pedigree that became an invaluable strength. His official Berlin debut came at Ellen Allien’s infamous “We Are Not Alone” party, an underground event series known for blistering marathon sets and no-frills warehouse vibes. Over the next year, he lit up clubs across Europe and beyond, appearing at Paris’s edgy Nexus party, Shanghai’s Abyss, and even playing a set at the Steppe Arena in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Unwilling to be constrained by the conventions of a DJ set, Alex Wilcox has crafted a hybrid performance style that’s part DJ, part live act, and all theatre. He performs exclusively with his productions in the booth (or often on stage, as he refuses to hide behind equipment). He might drop an unreleased acid bomb, then warp it beyond recognition in real time, segueing into a half-time breakdown or a burst of breakbeats. These sets are genre-agnostic mayhem, careening from 128 BPM to 190 BPM and back within minutes. Hard cuts and jarring transitions are a deliberate punk-rock tactic to jolt the audience. Bursts of hardcore adrenaline follow moments of tongue-in-cheek melodrama. It’s an approach that has earned him a reputation as an iconoclast. That eccentricity on stage means you never quite know what’s coming next at an Alex Wilcox show. And as the scene navigates challenges from gentrification to commercialization, Wilcox stands out as a reminder of techno’s radical, countercultural heart. He’s not interested in VIP lounges or polished press shoots; he’s here to shake things up.

Even as Wilcox’s notoriety has grown, he hasn’t abandoned the DIY spirit that got him there. In fact, he’s actively sharing it. Between gigs, he’s taken time to demystify his production process for others, hosting an online masterclass through Seedj where he walks aspiring producers through the “peculiar characteristics” of how he makes a track. Culturally, this aligns Wilcox with techno’s oldest values, where knowledge is shared and the underground remains accessible rather than elitist.

Now, Wilcox is hitting his stride with a string of acclaimed EPs and a debut album under his belt. His most recent release, Sonny Gray, marks yet another turn. Released without press fanfare, the EP distils his live set volatility into four stripped-down detonations. His 2023 album BANG BANG BANG! epitomized genre disruption through eight tracks running the gamut from slow-burning to frenzied assaults. The record, released on Bjarki’s bbbbbb label, left even seasoned listeners grasping for descriptors. And Wilcox isn’t slowing down. Yet, through all the hype, he retains the scrappy, experimental attitude of the kid from Texas who just wanted to make techno fun and a little bit dangerous. Alex Wilcox is carving out a space where Detroit’s rebel spirit meets Berlin’s creative abandon. And where a punk kid with a DIY heart can reinvent dance music on his own terms.