Calvin Harris blew up on Myspace and was discovered by some Sony executives, and then released one of the best electro dance albums ever with I Created Disco. For his sophomore album, Ready For The Weekend, as the anticipation grew, so did Calvin Harris’ pressure on himself. When an early 2 star review came out, Calvin went a little Twitter crazy and used more capital letters than Diddy, while tweeting to the world about his hate for reporters. But then the next week the album debuted at #1 in the UK and put Harris’ chart-topping obsession to some rest. In the wake of the album release and twitter drama, I talked to Calvin on the phone while he hit a press tour in London. We talked about his pop music obsession and desire to make the next Backstreet Boys album.

Boy Kings: So, where are you right now?

Calvin Harris: I’m in London. I’m sitting on my bed. Just got back from doing a signing and just doing a bunch of interviews. I’m happy to be home.

BK: You must be feeling good about the album debuting at #1 last week. Tell me about the album and how it’s all going.

Calvin Harris: It was kinda unexpected for me to debut at #1 with this album. It’s definitely removed from anything I’ve experienced before. It’s a step in the upward direction. And the record is essentially a party album—it’s meant to be fun. The kind of thing you can throw on when you’re driving somewhere or while you’re running.

BK: After making I Created Disco, what was going through your head that led you to make Ready For The Weekend?

Calvin Harris: Ultimately, I didn’t want to make another record that sounded the same. And I didn’t want to make something that I felt I could have done better. I spent extra time on it—a huge amount of time on it. Besides that I didn’t want to make anything that was shit. I wanted to make something that was pop music. I’m not ashamed of the album being pop music, but it also has a lot of dance music references.

BK: What did you set out to do differently?

Calvin Harris: I always do pretty much everything differently. The equipment I was using on my last album was so old that is was limiting. It was impossible to even think of using the same things for another album. It would have sounded exactly the same, and ended with me jumping out a window with frustration. I just changed the whole way that I work, and that I make music for the better…in my opinion.

BK: So if you’re completely changing, where do you think dance music is moving towards?

Calvin Harris: I don’t know. There’s always been two strands of dance music: the very commercial side of it and the extremely underground side of it. And I think the underground side of it is healthier than it’s been in a long time. Which, is thanks mostly to people like Boyz Noize, Tiga. But the commercial side of it seems to have spread itself over loads of different genres. Hip-hop has basically turned into dance music this year, and the more obvious commercial dance music seems to be taking over the world more than ever before. David Guetta’s new album is quite significant this year. And the influence he seems to have over people is just extraordinary. But it depends who you ask. A lot of people are going to be hating on David Guetta, Bob Sinclair and probably myself. Even though I haven’t experienced the success they’ve had. I think a lot of underground supporters of the scene don’t seem to realize that commercial dance music is so important to keep underground dance music alive and keep people interested and bring new people into that genre.

BK: What drew you to the more commercial side of dance music?

Calvin Harris: When I make music I like making music with melodies and musical hooks. I like making pop music, and I love dance music of all kinds. So, when I’m making music I like to combine both. I’ll never make an album that isn’t pop music or trying to be pop music. When I’m DJing, for example, I won’t be playing any of that pop music. But I don’t want to hear pop in a club. I want to hear the more underground and interesting music, but not hooky remotely in anyway. The kind of music that makes people go crazy, but that you’re not going to find on the radio.

BK: What have you been listening to these days?

Calvin Harris: As a product of doing so many DJ sets recently, I’ve only been really listening to things off Beatport. It tends to be studying Eric Prydz and Boyz Noize and Deadmau5. The list is literally endless.

BK: Yeah, because everything that comes out about you says that your whole life is music.

Calvin Harris: Yeah, I don’t really do anything else.

BK: So, there’s nothing else that you do outside of music?

Calvin Harris: No. Music used to be my hobby, and then it became the thing that I do all the time, and I never replaced that hobby element of my life.

BK: Has music changed for you since becoming a job?

Calvin Harris: Nahhh. It’s not a job. I think a million people say it, but the second it starts to feel like a job it’s time to stop doing it. At least stop doing it in public. People can tell when you’re not enjoying doing something.

BK: Since you’re always working, what collaborations are in the process now?

Calvin Harris: Besides the one I’m doing with Katy Perry, I’m doing some Kily Milo tracks. Those are both in early days, but Kily and I put some things down. But besides those two I’ve got nothing. Nothing going on because I got this album coming out and I’m trying to tell the world that it’s out, or as many people that want to listen to me. We’re doing some live shows in the UK, and for some of them we’re using a full band. In October I’m going on tour for that, and the preparation for that is well underway.

BK: How long have you played with a full band?

Calvin Harris: We’ve been doing that ever since my very first single. We’ve been playing live for almost three years. We’ve made it to America a couple of times, but just to New York and LA. We lost many fans in the process of doing it, so we’re going to keep it domestic for now on. It’s great fun. The shows are incredibly epic. The new songs are more about getting people’s hands in the air than the old ones, so it’s taken a leap to the next level.

BK: But you don’t want to bring that out to America again?

Calvin Harris: We can’t afford to. I’d love to, but we just can’t do it, and I can’t justify it. I would even be happy if we broke even doing it.

BK: You said how you’re trying to tell everyone in the world about the album, and what would you say to them?

Calvin Harris: I would tell them it’s an album to play at a party. It’s an album to get people to get their hands in the air. It’s an album you can go to the gym and play front to back and do the best work out of your life. I like to do little tricks in there. But ultimately I think it’s an album that will last. It’s good for car journeys as well. Car journeys that are 52 minutes long.

BK: What are you looking to accomplish as an artist?

Calvin Harris: I really have no idea…at the moment. I’m not really thinking about the future. I made this album as sort of an idea to play for people who like it, and maybe the concept of it would appeal and people would be happy. But as far as a wider idea as what I’m for, I have no idea.

BK: So then what’s next for you?

Calvin Harris: Well, after the tour and little production things I can probably go to do one of two things: I could make another album, I don’t think I’m going to do that, or I could move house—move to LA and try to be a producer. I think I’m going to try and do that at the moment—I’m going to give that a shot.

BK: What kind of songs would you want to produce?

Calvin Harris: Just pop music. Like the fucking Backstreet Boys. I’ll just do that and shave my head—produce the next Backstreet Boys album.

BK: Where did your love for pop music begin?

Calvin Harris: I don’t know. I suppose it happened when I was much younger. I wasn’t really into pop music until I started releasing songs commercially with Sony pretty much, and that’s when I started paying attention to the charts. Watching these songs, listening to these songs, watching how they perform on the charts and trying to work out what it is with these pop songs that makes them so commercially viable than these other songs that I consider better. I could listen to the complete works of Outkast for the rest of my life. But you could put most of their songs out and they wouldn’t perform particularly well—with the obvious exception of “Hey Ya.” It’s just the charts and graphs side of it appeal to me. Mainly I’m interested in hooks and how that works and how a song can be successful worldwide.

Calvin’s new album, Ready For The Weekend, [Ultra] is available now.