Dekko’s ‘Party People’ sounds like something you’d hear resonating from a rammed back room in the wee small hours, soon to draw you in and soon to make you part of that crowd pretty sharpish. It’s so infectious.
Time to get the lowdown quick with the elusive Dekko about the new release on Flexout – as well as some awesome music selections – especially as he’s waiting for the buzzer to sound…
Dekko, how’s things?
I’m good, I’m working on a sample packs and waiting for my takeaway at the moment.
What inspired ‘Party People’? I love it.
Thanks, it was pretty much inspired by footwork. I’d been listening to a lot of Rashad at the time, I’d say that was the biggest influence.
I’ve also been wanting to work with some old school jungle breaks for a while, so happy I managed to jam some in there!
When do you work on stuff, late night?
Late night studio sessions are when I get my best ideas down. There’s something about working at the dead of night, can’t beat that silence.
What inspires you in general?
I don’t take inspiration from a singular thing, sometimes it’s as simple as finding one sample I really like and writing a tune around it. Other times I’ll get an idea in my head and get it down as best I can.
I like all sorts of music really, been getting into my wonky hip hop and footwork in the past year or so.
Hopefully I’ll be uploading some of it on my soundcloud soon.
I feel you’re really prolific and enjoy the production process a lot.
Yeah, ‘Chalice Anthem’ was definitely a lot of fun to make. I guess I decided to give ‘Party People’ more of a serious edge to contrast the release.
How did the linkup with the lovely Flexout people happen?
Mate of mine introduced me to label manager Tom Bassi a couple of years ago. I had a spare D&B track going called ‘Shook’ and he was compiling his first Logarithmic LP at the time. Then later down the line I wrote ‘Chalice Anthem’ and thought I’d send it over to him. He loved it and was instantly up for putting it out. ‘Party People’ shortly followed and the rest is history.
Can you tell us more about ‘Chalice Anthem’, with Ren? WICKED.
My mate Ren had been wanting to write a jungle track for a while, I had never really anything with a jungle edge before so I decided to get involved. He brought round a couple of samples that he’d found and by the end of the night we had basically finished the track!
Like I said before, it was great fun to write and it seems to go down well whenever it’s played.
What’s some tunes that you are especially fond of? As if they are siblings.
OK…
Voltage & Nicky Blackmarket ‘Jazz Tickles’
Splash ‘Babylon’
Stray ‘Professor Popper’
DJ Rashad ‘Pass That Shit’
… and Calibre ‘Second Sun’.
Random one: can you cook btw? Got a recipe?
I like this one, nice and simple. Get strips of chicken and lay them on a grill tray. Get a tub of natural Greek yogurt and throw in finely diced chillies, ginger, garlic, coriander and some cumin powder. Mix it all up and spread across your chicken. Put it under the grill until yogurt has dried and chicken is cooked.
Serve with Jasmine rice and tabouli, nice!
Any shouts, Dekko?
Shouts out to Ren, Retraflex, Subterra and my Mum for the recipe!