It hasn’t been that long since French electronic producer and artist Pierre Alexandre-Busson, also known as Yuksek, performed on our shores, but this weekend he’s back for Splendour in the Grass and some sideshows. An adept performer both in a live and DJ format, Yuksek will be bringing his full live show to Perth, Sydney and of course, the Mix Up Stage at Splendour in Byron Bay. From France, Yuksek chats with me briefly about coming back to Australia for arguably the most anticipated festivals of the year.

For many artists, once you’ve made your debut on the Australian festival circuit, you may as well consider this country and its audiences a second home and a second extended family. Talking with Yuksek about his return, not only to Australia, but to Splendour in the Grass for the second time as a performer, he agrees with this sentiment.

“It’s really cool [to be returning].” Yuksek states. “I mean, I’ve played Australia many times over the past years. I played at Splendour in the Grass already I think, three years ago. It’s such a pleasure to be there; I’ve got a lot of friends there and my agent has been the same since the beginning of my career. Sydney especially, I always feel like I’m going home in some ways. It’s one of the cities I’ve been to the most in my career, I think. I’m always really pleased to come to Australia.”

Yuksek has made a name for himself, not only for his two successful studio albums (2009’s Away From the Sea and 2011’s Living On the Edge of Time), but also for his work as DJ, producer and remix artist. With remixes for acts including Chromeo, Gossip and our very own Gold Fields, Yuksek has shown his diversity and talent in working with others’ music in putting his own flair and spin on it. So, with so many remixes and collaborations under his belt, can we be expecting Yuksek to be giving solo performances a backseat in the future, in favour of these other projects?

“Everything’s just coming together,” Yuksek is adamant about informing me. “I’m doing music for myself, I’m doing music for other people; I’m producing other stuff and I’m doing remixes and playing live and DJ shows. It’s just a whole career! Everything is important and in context and I want to go on with all of this. I don’t want to make something more than I want to make something else. The main thing for me is the live shows, that’s where I’m more confident and it’s what I really like to do. I like to play my songs and that’s what the people like too. It’s fun to DJ sometimes, but it’s more fun to do live.”

With the debate over the different ‘methods’ of DJ-ing taking up many a-music blog and prompting some diverse and strong opinions everywhere, I thought it only appropriate to pose the question to him: is the negativity aimed at computer-based DJs justified?

“For me, DJing is playing CDs and discs; making it fresh so you never know what you’re going to play.” Yuksek explains. “I don’t want to prepare everything on the computer and just play everything the same every night. I think the people who do that are too afraid of accidents or making mistakes or missing something. It’s not really that fun then, it’s like everyone becomes like a control freak over it. Computers are good for making music at home, but it’s not a musical instrument.”

With this in mind, Yuksek’s Australian crowds this trip have a lot of fun to be looking forward to and just as our phone line drops out, I definitely get the feeling Mr. Busson can’t wait to get back here as well.

Yuksek will be performing at the Villa Nightclub in Perth on July 27, the Oxford Arts Factory in Sydney on July 28, and on the Mix Up stage at Splendour in the Grass on Sunday, July 29.