While at Electric Zoo the other weekend we stopped by the Bingo Players’ set on the mainstage Saturday and briefly chatted with them after the show about Hysteria, new Bingo Players music and who would win in a DJ Faceoff. Check it out below…
Tag Archives: interviews
For several years now, under a variety of monikers, Joshua Harvey has been influencing the growth of electro in Europe, featuring heavily on the blogs and playing to packed out venues, all the while running a successful record label: Cheap Thrills. Whether it be as Herve, Action Man, Voodoo Chilli, Young Lovers, or The Count of Monte Cristal, Harvey has proven to be a versatile producer at the very height of his game. This month Herve and Trevor Loveys aka Speaker Junk, released their Loopmasters sample pack, giving budding producers the chance to replicate the o so sweet “Bass Heavy House” that Herve destroys dancefloors with. On Thursday we were lucky enough to catch up for a chat with him, and here’s how it went:
GottaDanceDirty™: You’ve had a phenomenal year, firstly let’s start with your record Mega, it was pushed back quite a bit. How long did it take you and Sinden to put together and do you see this as a relationship of multiple albums together?
Josh Harvey: Yeh definitely, we are like a band. We’re signed as a proper act to Domino, so we’re going be doing at least two more albums together.
GDD™: That’s great to hear, and of course you had ‘After Dark’ which was a massive hit this summer, how did your collaboration with Mystery Jets come about?
JH: Well basically, Kai [Fish] the bassist of Mystery Jets used to live two doors down from me before I moved to where I am now. Will [Rees] was always around Kai’s and Sinden is obviously always around mine recording. Both Will and Kai are DJs and they had a vague idea who we were, played our tunes and stuff, and we just became really close friends with them. We were constantly talking about collaborating: “We wanna get you on the album”. So it came to crunch time at the beginning of this year and we all said “come on then, let’s do it”, and although it was the last track we recorded for the Count & Sinden album, we released it as our first single because everyone just fell in love with it.
GDD™: Huge track man, we really enjoyed it. You’re known to have one of the most unbelievable work ethics of any electronic producer out there. I’ve not known anyone to produce as many tracks as you in a single year. How do you manage to pull that off and still run a label?
JH: I think you answered it right there. I think I just have a strong work ethic, I just force myself to get in the studio. There’s stuff that works out, and there’s stuff that doesn’t work out, but the more I work, the more proficient I get at creating my music. And when I’m not in the studio, maybe when I’m doing label work, A&R, stuff like that, ideas just come into my head of a style that I want to do, and then I’m off. I don’t really sit in the studio twiddling my thumbs, waiting for inspiration. I only go in there to make tracks, so its quite productive – I think about the tracks before I put them together a lot of the time.
GDD™: Do you have a specific formula for your tracks then?
JH: No, not really. Other than that 80% of the time I think of a concept or idea of how I want it to sound before I go into the studio. The other 20% is going in and starting from scratch, I don’t really have a formula. I just see what happens, and whatever comes out, I put under one of the names I record as.
GDD™: Right, so when you collaborated earlier this year with Fatboy Slim on your Machine’s Don’t Care project, how did that come about, was it just the two of you in a studio bouncing ideas around, or did you both go in with specific ones?
JH: He’d been listening to my tracks, and playing them a lot. He just got in touch with me and said: “I’d like to do some tunes with you”. I was like: “Great! I’d love to, that’d be really fun,” and it took a while for us to get together as he was really busy. But once he was free, he’d come over, and we’d sit in the studio every couple of weeks and throw ideas around. We did about 3 or 4 tracks, but this one was the one he really wanted to release. We had a really good time.
GDD™: A couple of us have wanted to know for a while now, how do you manage to keep all your aliases so consistent. Surely it would be easy to kill one off, or let a couple fall by the way-side?
JH: Yeh, I mean, I’m sort of going to start slowing that down now, as I’m currently writing my Herve album and working out a deal with a big label for that. It’s taking up some time, so I mean the key thing for me is that I only release records that I think are good and that I feel will make their mark. I mean, as Action Man, I’ve done a few remixes, but I haven’t really released any EPs for a while as I haven’t really come up with anything that I particularly want to put out. Dead Soul Brothers (His side-project with Seba) again, we’re gonna be working on an album next year hopefully. But we did something three years ago that people really liked, it’s just that neither of us have had the time to do it since then. Hopefully soon, we’re going to clear the boards and that will be the next thing after my Herve album.
GDD™: Looking forward to both releases man, very cool. So is there one particular alias besides Herve that you enjoy producing under more than the rest?
JH: No, I think Herve is the one, that’s where it all comes from. That’s the root of everything that’s Herve, that’s the key persona but, I suppose that collaborations are good as they help to take you somewhere else, you know, like Dead Soul Brothers and Count and Sinden. But it’s difficult to say, it depends what mood you’re in, sometimes you’re in the mood for some strange new techno, and other times it’s all about psychedelic folk with multiple harmonies. It just changes every day, every week.
GDD™: So clearly a really versatile set of influences. The electronic scene is becoming increasingly popular in the UK, and starting to cross over into mainstream a fair bit.How do you feel about this, and where do you see electronic music heading over the next few years?
JH: I don’t really feel that electronic music is getting massive exposure, I just feel that there is a little bit more dance music on the radio. It’s not pushing any boundaries, it’s not a revolution at all, I just think you carry on making it whether it’s big or not. If you like making music, you’re gonna make music, I’m not even sure if it is any bigger outside of the rotating four tunes on the radio.
GDD™: Fair enough. Who do you admire in electronic music’s current climate – Someone who’s maybe doing something a bit different from the regular?
JH: There’s some stuff that I signed that I really like. There’s a kid that I signed called Baxta, who’s churning out some really good 4/4 stuff, and some dubstep. Loan, who we recently signed and just put an EP out of his, which is quite interesting. It’s a weird and a bit retro; sounds a bit like Aphex Twin meets 808 State meets UK Rave, it’s quite a bizarre mixture that seems to work really well. Steve Mason from the Beta Band’s solo album is one of the records I listen to most, at the moment.
GDD™: I’ll take a listen. You’ve got a big following in the US, and I know you don’t enjoy flying too much, but can you see yourself making it out Stateside at any point?
JH: I don’t like planes, so I just don’t get on them at the moment. But it comes and goes, sometimes I can get on short flights, I’ve never really been on a long flight for more than 3 hours. But I’d love to go to America, I’d love to go to LA, New York, and to all the good places in between, Canada also, I’d absolutely love it. I’m always trying new things: hypnotherapy, NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Program), and straight up therapy, just to find out how to conquer it. Nothing so far, but I’m always trying.
GDD™: We’ve definitely got our fingers crossed for you man, good luck with that. We’d love to see you out there. Taking things to a less serious note, but it’s still vital that you answer this one – When you’re on a night out and those Jagerbombs get flowing, do you dance dirty?
JH: Not really, I drink vodka and I kind of just sway about. Unless my girlfriend’s with me, in which case we just start doing bad R&B dancing, so it’s kind of semi-dirty dancing.
GDD™: Fair enough man, we’ll run with that. Thanks for taking the time, we appreciate it.
SweetFA
We chatted with North Carolina’s Porter Robinson over Labor Day weekend to find out more about this teenage prodigy who has been ruling Beatport’s Electro House chart with his hit record, “Say My Name”. Check out the rest of the interview, “Say My Name”, and two previews (one exclusive) of upcoming Porter Robinson tracks after the jump.
Gotta Dance Dirty: First, thanks for taking time out of your day to give us an interview. Traditionally here at Gotta Dance Dirty™, we would ask what your alcoholic beverage of choice is if the first round were on us, but since you’re only 18, would you like your Shirley Temple with one cherry or two?
Porter Robinson: Hey, I’m headed out to Germany not too long from now. But while I’m here, get me a coffee or something. Also, you guys are throwing me a free GDD t-shirt, right? I’m going to make sure you spend at least a little on me.
GDD: One coffee and one tee. As one of electro house’s youngest stars, you must have been producing from a very young age. Tell us about how you got your start.
PR: Yeah! I got started at age 13 just sort of playing with a program called ACID. My experience as a producer actually predates my discovery of ‘real’ electronic music. What inspired me back then was the music I knew from videogames and weird Japanese shit I downloaded from Limewire. So it’s not like I started off trying to emulate the most successful producers out there. I found out about electro like three years after I started producing.
GDD: You’ve taken electro, progressive, and dubstep and crafted them together to top the Beatport Electro House chart with your single, “Say My Name”. Would you mind sharing your influences and tell us how you started experimenting with your current sound?
PR: The iconic dubstep wobble. Damn, I love it so much. The wobble is an incredible bass sound and real electro house is driven by its basses, so it seemed completely natural to me to incorporate it. And I think the combination of soft, unthreatening progressive breakdowns with super aggressive-sounding hooks creates an awesome contrast. Those sounds just clicked and it worked, in my opinion, really well. As far as my influences go, there’s like 50 artists whose names I want to drop who are clearly putting enormous amounts of effort and detail into their productions. Wolfgang Gartner, Dirtyloud, and Noisia are the first producers that come to mind, though. Their priorities seem to be the same as mine: they emphasize power and complexity.
GDD: With that being said, any plans to experiment with dubstep?
PR: I’m open to the possibility, but right now I don’t plan to. Entirely different production skills are required of an artist for that genre. Plus, with all the collaborations and remixes I’m doing right now in electro house, it would be hard to fit in an experimental project. I have thought about giving breaks a try, though. That’s not too different from what I’m doing today.
GDD: Porter, it’s obvious to anyone who is paying attention that your future is very bright. With which artists are you looking forward to collaborating?
PR: It’s been mind-blowing – several of my collaboration fantasies are actually coming true. I just finished a song with Lazy Rich, a long-time favorite of mine, and also Dirtyloud, and I plan to do a song together since we both really dig each other’s music. But if I could really have it my way, I’d do a track with Wolfgang Gartner. I’ve come to idealize him as some kind of music production deity.
GDD: Looking forward to hearing that collaboration with Lazy Rich! What else can we look forward to from you in the near future?
PR: I work on music a lot, so I have just an enormous amount of singles that are awaiting release. I’m remixing Tim Berg’s tune “Bromance”. Today, I just wrapped up a remix for German deejays Heiko und Maiko, and I think that it really, really rocks. I’d say I have about ten completed songs that nobody’s heard yet, and I’ve put an enormous amount of effort into each of them.
GDD: Care to share some wisdom with any budding producers out there reading this?
PR: Yeah, I’d love to! The best advice that I ever got was just to make your music ultra-detailed to make it clear to my listeners that you’re working hard. Polish is what will set you apart. No section of your song should be easy to make – if it was, add a crazy fill to it. Set absurd standards for yourself.
GDD: Anything else you want to say?
PR: Shout out to Lil Jon. I’m obsessed with the guy. Two of my unreleased songs make references to him. I knew I was in love with the act Pance Party when I saw they had him as their Twitter background.
GDD: Last but not least, will you be dancing dirty at senior prom?
PR: I gotta!
Without further ado, check out “Say My Name”, Porter’s collaboration with Lazy Rich entitled “Hello”, and an exclusive peek at his latest remix of Heiko und Maiko.
• Porter Robinson – Say My Name
• Porter Robinson and Lazy Rich feat Sue Cho – Hello (Preview)
• Heiko und Maiko – Wer Ist Sie (Porter Robinson Remix Preview)
In the past week, I was given the privilege to have a few questions with French House DJ Alex Gopher about his upcoming 2CD release titled ‘My New Remixes’. His reworks range from artists like Shinichi Osawa, Air, and Kraftwerk, and his distinguished style shines through in each track. The digital release of the album will be March 16th, and this will be followed by Alex’s first North American tour in 10 years that will start this May. Be sure to pick up a copy on Beatport or iTunes next week when it drops and keep your eyes out for a tour date near you. Now, on to the quick six:
Gotta Dance Dirty™: First of all I just want to say thank you for taking the time for this interview I know you’re a busy man these days.
Alex Gopher: You are welcome!
GDD™: You are releasing a new double CD this month. What inspired you to choose to compile a remix album as opposed to producing originals?
AG: Well, I released a few EP’s in 2008 (Aurora vol 1&2, Belmondo EP, Handguns) which were quite successful in the clubs so after that came a lot of requests for remixes. And remixing is something I really love, and it puts less pressure on yourself than when you make your own tracks. So I did plenty of them these last two years, and it was important for me to produce a conclusion with this compilation to say, “Here is what I did musically these last two years.”
GDD™: Which remix would you say is your favorite to play in a set?
AG: The remix I did for Shinichi Osawa “Push”. I’ve played it in all my sets since I did it two years ago.
GDD™: Where do you see your sound going? Do you think that it will evolve as new sounds are invented/reinvented?
AG: My sound is very different when I do a track for clubs or for album or listening. But I’m very pleased when I do a club track that can be listened to at home. Remixes let me try new directions in my sound, things that I wouldn’t do in my own productions. It’s like a laboratory of research, afterwards I can use it in my own tracks. That’s why remixes are often really fresh & risky. After a few years of producing tracks quite noisy & distorted, I’m back to a more mellow sound, back to something more late 90′s. That’s for the production, because my DJ sets are still rough & dirty! (GDD™ approves this message)
GDD™: What festival are you most looking forward to this spring? Will you be making it out to WMC in Miami this year?
AG: No, I won’t be at WMC. We are working on the summer tour these days. As a listener, festivals are great, but as a DJ, clubs are much better!
GDD™: What artists do you listen to in your downtime?
AG: These days I’m listening to Vampire Weekend, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Julian Casablancas. For real downtime, Nick Drake is my favorite.
GDD™: Who were your top 3 favorite artists of 2009?
GDD™: Thanks so much again for taking the time Alex. We at GDD™ definitely appreciate it and hope your release and tour go very well.
AG: Thanks a lot!
Here’s a couple low quality tracks from the album that I’ve enjoyed recently:
Last weekend was probably one of the most fun I’ve had in a while. Parties, pool parties, and oh yeah, a backstage interview with Calvin Harris at the Vanguard! David (Deeznasty) and I were lucky enough to have a few words with the contemporary king of pop/electronic fusion, and to no surprise, the dude was a legend. Humble and sincere, witty and friendly, tall and Scottish. Mr. Harris left his microphone at home for this show, but he played one hell of a DJ set, keeping the dancefloor completely packed for nearly 2 hours. So let’s get to it so all y’all dirty dancers can meet the man with the super sicky sparkly sunglasses.
Gotta Dance Dirty™ (jonahberry): So Calvin Harris how was your plane ride into LA tonight? Good?
Calvin Harris: It was alright, you know, we flew in 5 hours ago, went to the hotel…I got some spaghetti bolognese…
GDD (jb): Nice! I was going to ask you what meal you had…
CH: You know the sauce was lacking to be honest with you. They did have big chunks of tomato which was good…quite a good move, but ya I was ready to sleep, but I was fighting it and fighting it ’cause I was coming here in a couple hours. I ended up just laying in bed with my eyes shut but not sleeping for about an hour and a half. And now I’m on the Red Bull and it’s OK I’m getting there…So I’m alright ya…
GDD (deeznasty): Awesome, well we know that you’ve done a lot of collaborations in the past with a lot of different, diverse artists and we’re wondering who you’ve been the most excited to work with and if there’s any future collaborations that you’re particularly excited about…
CH: Umm, I think the ones in the past that have certainly been the most successful as well are the ones with Dizzee Rascal. I did the two songs with him. The first one kind of took us by surprise it did really well in the UK, really really well…
GDD (deez): It was #1 for a while…
CH: It was. So that was really good it was kinda nice because there was no A&R, managerial, breathing over the neck situation. It was just us doing what we wanted to do. That’s why it did so well as a result, not having to change any parts of the song. You know when you do pop songs they always ask you to change. They always make the song, you know…they want to put their stamp on it and ruin it. That didn’t really happen with that track. We did another one and it just kinda gave us the freedom to do what we wanted to do.
GDD (deez): Ya it’s good to be on top (laughing). Is there anyone you’re looking forward to working with?
CH: There’s only one person I’m working with in the future right now and that’s Katy Perry. In fact, in December I’m coming back over here…
GDD (jb): Excellent. So you’re from Scotland, obviously, how did that music scene affect your style of music when you first started up?
CH: Well, where I grew up there wasn’t any kind of scene. I was in a very small town, a kinda agricultural town. There’s farms, there’s cows, and there’s a lot of pubs (laughing). But there’s no clubs, certainly no dance music scene, so for me I was very isolated in that world, you know, I had the radio and that was about it. I locked myself away in my bedroom and just did music…
GDD (jb): So do you see a lot of big differences when you come across the pond to the LA electronic scene?
CH: I don’t think so. It’s a much smaller world than what it used to be. There’s definitely differences in the crowds I suppose. Umm, but I don’t know…I’m better known where I’m from I’m obviously not that well known over here…
GDD (jb): I don’t know about that…(laughing)
CH: Well…I don’t know if it’s that or what…It’s all good though, there’s been no bottles thrown at me (laughing)
GDD (deez): In your new album “Ready For The Weekend“, was there anything specific you were trying to capture?
CH: Ya, well I wanted it to be a really pop album. I wanted it to be song-based. But I wanted it to kind of reference dance music that I listened to when I grew up, like when I was 14 or 15. So late 90′s, you know, either trance sounds or even more Armand Van Helden kinda…You know just big moments, big “hands up in the air” moments, but also pop songs so…it’s funny it’s definitely been embraced by the pop world back home but it’s also pissed a lot of dance purists off.
GDD (deez): Well you got those sexy vocals and those huge hooks, man, I’m a sucker for it…(laughing)
GDD (jb): So how did you come up with the Humanthesizer I’ve been very curious…
CH: Awww you know what this is going to ruin your day if you like it but personally I hate it. It’s what happens when you hand your music over to major record labels and they try to think of a way to market it. You know I go about my business in the studio. People who are paid to have ideas have ideas and they kinda brought me in ’cause I have to. That whole thing…I saw it and I thought “Right ok, that could be good. That could be good.” And I saw that it was written that there would be loads of girls and stuff…
GDD (jb): Did you get to pick all of them out?
CH: Well no this is the thing right, this is where I’m very misunderstood. This is a good idea right, but I didn’t think the girls should be in bikinis. I think everything should be really serious. I should be in a labcoat and I should have goggles on. But then I got there and they were all wearing pink wigs as well which I lost, and it was too late for the bikini thing. And so I stood there in the room and I couldn’t bring myself to say that and compromise my sexuality. So I went ahead with it but, you know, it was just a shitty little thing and I don’t like it one bit. You know it got so many views and I think ultimately the idea, the actual concept of the thing was amazing but it was kinda ruined by the tackiness that was brought in by the girls in the bikinis. But I was the one that got the blame for the girls in the bikinis. I was the guy that brought in the shit element of the video which I was kinda gutted about ’cause I hated that element. So it just pissed me off, and then you know I get asked about it a lot. At first I played along and pretended it was my thing, but now I just say “Look,” and say what I’ve just said.
GDD (jb): So we can go on record with that? (laughing)
CH: Ya of course! I can talk for hours about that…
GDD (deez): Besides this interview right here, do you have any specific pre-gig rituals?
CH: At the moment, Red Bull is as standard as turning up. It’s ridiculous.
GDD (deez): What kind of mindsets do you get in? Is it just like “I’m gonna blow the socks off of these kids?”
CH: Ya it’s more just like “Wake up, wake up, wake up.” (laughing)
GDD (deez): I’m sure you get up there and get high off of the crowd…
CH: No it’s good. It’s nice. I don’t really get that hyper when I’m DJing though to be honest with you. I find it really difficult to go crazy. In the UK, I do shows with the band a lot and I do a lot more than DJing. It’s a lot easier to feed your ego that way because they’re your songs. You can go crazy to your songs…I feel comfortable with the fact that I did the whole thing and I can go, “Yes, look at me. I’m amazing.” But when it’s this kind of thing, although I know a lot of DJs go crazy, you know they crowd-surf, they go nuts which is amazing, but I could never justify doing that to myself. I just can’t do it! No, honestly I would love to go mental. I’d love to do the crowd-surfing thing but I just don’t have that personality so…
GDD (jb): So what would Calvin Harris be doing if he wasn’t a DJ?
CH: I imagine I’d still be stocking shelves right now…
GDD (jb): You used to work at Marks and Spencer right?
CH: I did a number of jobs. And it wasn’t fun.
GDD (jb): Ya I bet your job now gets a little more excitement…What did you want to be when you grew up?
CH: I went through a fireman stage. I think everyone does at some point.
GDD (deez): Did you get in a lot of trouble as a kid?
CH: No! I was shy. When I was much younger I was funny. I was the funny kid. And then I went to the next school with the bigger, funnier kids. And I was like “Shit!” So ya I just kind of went “Oh shit, I’m just not gonna say anything,” so I didn’t say anything for ages. (laughing)
GDD (jb): Alright so we got one more. Our blog is called Gotta Dance Dirty. What do you think about dancin’ dirty? You think you gotta at some point?
CH: Dancing dirty? Well what do you mean?
GDD (deez): Whatever you want it to mean…
CH: Like R. Kelly style?
GDD (deez): Like peeing on girls? That’s his style. (lots of laughing. obviously)
CH: I don’t know. You know I think if there’s consenting adults involved in dancing dirty then go ahead and do that. (laughing)
GDD (jb): Well Calvin thank you so much we really appreciate it and you are definitely loved in LA.
And as always, here’s a few oldies but goodies to get you through the day…
His mashup of “Warp 1.9″ and “Shake it Down” was one of our top tracks back in May and his new remix of the Tron Legacy Theme by Daft Punk is going to blow you away. Without further ado, ten questions and two exclusive tracks from Canadian banger prodigy John Roman.
Gotta Dance Dirty™: In the spirit of Gotta Dance Dirty tradition, if the first round of drinks is on me, then you’ll have…
John Roman: If I could have anything, there’s nothing better than a Carling Lager or a Lakeport Pilsner (everyone from Ontario knows what I’m talking about!), but more realistically, I’d take a gin and tonic. Thank you.
GDD: So when and how did you start producing? Name some of your major influences.
JR: I started producing hip-hop when I was in Grade 9, so 13 or 14. I was absolutely terrible. I feel sorry for any of my friends that had to nod and act like anything I was making was half-decent because, at that age, I really had no idea what I was doing. Back then I was all about DJ Shadow, RJD2, Dilla, Madlib, RZA, anything Native Tongues – that sampled sound. But about two years ago, I just went headfirst into electronic music, and man, there’s just so much out there, so many genres, you can always find something. Right now, the biggest influences on my electronic work are The Proxy, Boys Noize, Justice, SebastiAn, Mr. Oizo, Nadastrom, but there’s just so many great acts out there, and I don’t want to sound like a Facebook Favorite Music section, haha.
GDD: What have you been listening to these days?
JR: Other than the acts I mentioned above, a lot more techno and minimal artists. Oliver Huntemann, Renaissance Man, Noob, Afrojack, Popof, among others. At the same time, I’ve kind of been getting back into hip-hop. MF Doom is in SERIOUS rotation right now.
GDD: Just lurked your MySpace and was surprised to see an empty calendar. Any plans to tour in the near future? Hopefully down to the United States, land of privatized health care?
JR: Well hopefully I’ll be down there before it becomes universal, haha. I’ve just been a serious hermit in the studio this summer. A lot of people are whispering about the ‘death of the banger’, which I think is true only the sense that the ‘banger’ as we knew it before will die, but there will always some new form of fist-pumping music – we all need it. So I’ve just been trying to re-invent myself, make something more musical, original and closer to my influences. Also, at 20, I’m still in school for about 8 months of the year, so touring during the school year is a little tough, haha.
GDD: A myriad of producers tried their hand at remixing The Bloody Beetroots’ “Warp 1.9″ but nothing came close to the original. What made you instead decide to not only sample “Warp 1.9″, but A-trak and Laidback Luke’s “Shake it Down” for your smash hit, “Warp it Down”?
JR: Like you said, nothing came close to the original, and I knew that from the on-set. “Warp 1.9” works so well because it’s just that ‘Dominator’ synth and drums, adding to that would just take away from it. I just didn’t feel comfortable playing “Warp 1.9” live because EVERY DJ was doing, and I knew clubbers were getting sick of hearing it OVER and OVER again. The same goes for “Shake it Down”, so decided I’d just combine them, that way I could play two of my favorite tracks from the past year without coming off cliché.
GDD: Tell us about this remix of the Tron Legacy theme that we’re premiering here on Gotta Dance Dirty.
JR: Tron – one of my favorite movies. Daft Punk – one of my favorite artists. I had to. I thought the Legacy theme was cool; I just wanted to expand on it. It’s a bit more electronica, and slower than my usual work. I wanted to make a remix that felt just like the movie. Picture yourself standing alone on a never-ending computer grid, surrounded by nothingness, eerily quiet as though you know something is about to happen…does it sound like that? Haha.
GDD: A penny for your thoughts on the future of electro.
JR: The speed that electro is developing at is just incredible. A sound can go from praise to criticism within a matter of months, which can definitely be frustrating for a producer, but that’s the nature of the game. I think the producers that will have the greatest longevity will be those that work on being original outside of the trends rather than playing catch-up. Imitation gets noticed, originality gets remembered. As well I believe the lasting producers will be good musicians. Only those that know what they’re doing musically will be able to change with the times.
GDD: Any advice or wisdom for aspiring producers?
JR: Study your instruments and synths! The weakness I find in a lot of new producers is that there’s too much guesswork in their composition and sound design. Part of being an electronic musician is being a musician. Practice, practice, practice. And figure out what everything does in your DAW. Understanding your software doesn’t end at figuring out how to sidechain.
GDD: Anything else you’d like to say?
JR: Expect a LOT of new material in the fall, some original, some collaborations, and not all under the “John Roman” name. Gotta Dance Dirty™ is the best electro blog in the world. 704 Fuck Shack for life. Shout out to super-fan Matt Peen Prior.
GDD: Last but not least, do you absolutely have to dance dirty? Is there really any other way?
JR: There’s absolutely no other way. There’s a crazy party here in Toronto called “Dance Like You Fuck”, and I hope that’s how everyone approaches dancing to electro music.
Bravo.
