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British-Norwegian DJ and YouTuber Alan Walker has a lot on his plate. He’s been releasing music such as the hit track ‘Sweet Dreams’ and putting out a steady stream of videos on his YouTube channel, where he has over 40 million followers. Now, he’s branching out with the launch of a new laptop — ROG Zephyrus G14 Alan Walker Special Edition.
The powerful device is described as having “exclusive design touches that bring together the best of gaming and DJ cultures.” In a Zoom interview with Gulf News, Walker talks about when he was in Dubai to film his music video, his new venture, and his signature mask.
Could you tell me a bit about your collaboration with ROG and how it came about?
We got to talking and were planning everything we were going to do. Fast forward to a few months later, we got this beautiful Alan Walker ROG laptop ready to present and ready to launch for the world.
You’re involved in video games and music production etc. What are the top three things you look for in a PC or laptop?
What I mainly look for in a PC or laptop is, one, the design. Two, the portability — [so it’s] easy to bring it with me pretty much anywhere I go. And number three, probably like the most important one is also the performance — can it handle hard-core music production and also hard-core gaming.
What’s the most exciting part about this product?
The most exciting part about this product is most likely the box that comes with it... What makes it so exciting is the fact that it’s custom built and also comes with a custom software that’s specifically made for that box. What you can do with the box is play music with it. It kind of works like a DJ equipment, so you can mess around with music... So it’s really exciting for me.
What are the video games that you’ve been playing recently?
Video games that I’ve been playing lately are ‘Call of Duty’, ‘Modern Warfare’ and also ‘Warzone’.
You wear many hats; you’re a YouTuber, you make music... Which role are you most comfortable in?
I love making music and I love pushing out videos and vlogs on YouTube. I like being creative and putting out content and work that listeners can consume.
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You’ve been on YouTube for a while now. Would you have any advice to someone who wants to do YouTube or pursue a career in that?
To be a YouTuber, or like me — a musician on YouTube — it takes a lot of creative work. What I would mainly say to a person is just be yourself and find what defines you as a creator and a musician. And most important is to develop your own sound.
If you could make a video game yourself, what kind of video game would it be?
I think it will be a first person shooter or something involving guns. That’s the kind of game I’d play myself.
I read about the fact that you wear the mask to put the focus on your music and your work. How does it feel to be in a pandemic and now everyone wears masks?
That’s kind of an interesting concept, right? Suddenly everybody around on the streets are like Alan Walker fans. [Laughs] Walking around with a mask — for example, in Norway where it was not normal to wear masks — it kind of feels good because it feels more normalised... So I think the pandemic has brought like at least something good by making masks more normal.
Speaking of the pandemic, how do you find inspiration for your work during this tough time?
Well, creativity is not necessarily something you can just flip [like] a switch whenever you want to... creativity just comes and goes. If you’re too late to hop on the train there goes your chance for the next song. Sometimes I just sit down and play around on the piano and try to come up with a melody... sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s just bad.
Is there any recent project you’re really, really proud of?
I think my song ‘Sweet Dreams’ that I did with Imanbek was really exciting. Mainly we worked over the internet, but we met for the first time in Dubai when we were filming the music video. It was the most exciting thing that has happened to me in the past months throughout the pandemic.
Once the pandemic is over are there any things on your bucket list that you want to achieve?
I would love to go back out there and work [on] concerts and everything... and try the performance [of the PC] and see how good [it is] to bring around on the road. It’s mainly designed to be very portable and very high performance. So I really hope that I will the ultimate experience when it comes to working with music and also preparing for live shows on the go.
Check it out
The ROG Zephyrus G14 AW SE is available in the UAE from the major retailers. Price starts at Dh8,499.
