“I don’t play in the live band,” confesses Alex Phountzi, ringleader of Bugz In The Attic. “I'm much more at home in the studio and prefer to leave the live show to the people who love performing.”

The west London collective, also behind the influential Bitasweet records, is best known for two dancefloor destroyers: the addictive, self-penned 2004 smash, ‘Booty La La’, and their rousing 2006 revamp of Yarbrough & People’s last-days-of-disco anthem, ‘Don’t Stop The Music’.
So while the live Bugz boogie bus travels across Europe throughout the upcoming festival season, Alex will be busy completing a solo 12-inch release for the Archive Records stamp. It’s his first new project since the completion last year of the Bugz's long-overdue debut artist album, Back In The Doghouse.
“Having worked with vocalists for much of the Bugz LP, I really wanted a bit of relief from that and decided to do a purely instrumental release,” he explains. “It’s a double A-side with house on one side, and some more electronic, broken stuff on the other. I had a lot of freedom on this record and enjoyed it.”
As things stand, the Bugz have no plans to begin work on their second opus until later this year. But then their debut did take 10 years to surface.
“There are so many solo projects and spin-offs constantly on the go that I can’t see us starting work on it until at least the end of the summer,” Alex explains. “However, we've just done a remix of Shirley Bassey’s ‘What Now My Love’. That was an, em, interesting record to work on, to say the least.”
Jungle enthusiast Alex jets into Ireland next month alongside Roots Manuva – who will be flexing his DJ muscles – but he’s keen to stress his DJ sets encompass far more than just his drum ‘n’ bass roots.
“I’m a party DJ who likes to take in a bit of everything,” he explains. “I don’t believe in forcing stuff down people’s throats and I don’t believe in playing stuff that punters can’t get their hands on, so I don’t play a set of unreleased BITA remixes.”

Alex Phountzi plays the Corona Choice Summer Jam at the South William Bar, Dublin on May 4