Looking for a runaway success story of recent times?
Look no further than French firestarters Dirtyphonics…
Currently enjoying some major attention from every corner of the world’s dancefloors with their multi-genre album Irreverence, they’re repping bass music at its fullest and most forthright.
With their D&B roots still abundantly clear we thought we’d send them some questions. This is how it went down…
Dirtyphonics! Props on the album. I take it the title Irreverence is a cheeky dig at anyone who takes electronic music too seriously?
Not really…It’s a way to describe what we’ve always done – push boundaries, do our own thing regardless of what people are expecting. We do what feels good to us, what makes us vibe without compromise. There’s obviously a reference to the French history and to our music… To being Dirty!
Take your career seriously but have fun in the process. Right?
Of course. We’re doing what we’ve always wanted to do and we’ve worked very hard to get where we are…. And to be able to do it at this scale. Having said this, we’ve always had fun while doing it and it transpires in our music, on stage and in everything we do. It wouldn’t make sense to do it differently.
Tell me how you hooked up with Dim Mak.
We’ve released a couple things with them over the past years such as our Bloody Beetroots’ Warp Rmx and Tarantino/Oakwood… When we joined the Deadmeat tour last year with Steve Aoki and Datsik we felt a family vibe across the whole Dim Mak team that was very important for us. On top of this, we’ve kept 100% of our creative freedom and this was essential for us. They understand our music and decisions and every time we’re in L.A we go and visit and party all together, it’s a family.
How has such a big signing changed your lives?
It’s not so much about the signing itself but about what we do with Dim Mak. The album, the north American bus tour we’re doing right now – this is changing our lives. Everything is happening fast and big and we’re constantly wanting to do more and more…We love what do, we have no limits and Dim Mak lets us be creative and support all our crazy ideas!
Penning your debut album must be a scary prospect… did it scare you?
Scared, probably not but it’s obviously an important milestone in an artist career and we really wanted this album to represent us, our sound, our influences and doing a full LP is very different from writing a single.
How did you approach it?
Working on an album gave us the ability to explore, try new things and push boundaries once again. Since the very beginning we’ve always played with genres and tempos. We wanted to show what we are and make a statement that we’re not just D&B or dubstep…We love music and bass music in its entirety and we love to jump from one genre to another and keeping creating bridges between those sub-genres.
How long did it take from start to finish?
Over a year and a half…We’ve been really busy touring all over the globe and doing a bunch of remixes that we didn’t have much time for us. We started writing all the tracks of the album on the road, in planes, hotels, in Europe, Asia, Australia, the U.S and then eventually brought all the material back in our studio in Paris to finish it and record vocals, guitar parts…
Were there any complications along the way?
Not really. To be honest, the hardest part was to find time to sit down in a proper studio. But the four of us were on the same vibe and knew what we wanted to do so the music came out pretty easily. Some tracks didn’t make it on the album and there are many more things that inspire us so we feel excited and confident about the future.
I’m getting a lot of classical vibes from the album. Stuff like Prelude White… Is this intentional?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7343gR0Tpg
Yes, definitively. We’ve been listening to music for ever and we’ve played instruments since we were kids (guitar, piano, drums etc.). Obviously being four in the band brings lots of inspiration and classical is one of them. Opening the album with Prelude (White) was a way for us to catch the listeners’ attention, open our music to a wider audience, show the electronic music haters that this is music, only written with different tools and, of course, be irreverent…
Tell me about Stage Dive… Has Mr Aoki ever convinced you to stage dive?
We were playing in metal bands when we were teenagers so it wasn’t something new to us. We’d stage dived long before meeting Steve Aoki. What’s interesting is that he has a punk background himself so it just made sense to name the track Stage Divers as this is a sport we have in common.
The LP finale Walk In The Fire is a bit of a WTF moment! Are you guys Slayer or Machine Head fans? Is this a direction we’re likely to hear more of or just a bit of fun?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMATj6ca9gU
Both Slayer and Machine Head are big influences to us (amongst many others). It was a lot of fun to write and go back to our metal roots and yes, you may hear more of this in the future. We just can’t drop the guitars.
Anything else you fancy shouting about?
We’re very excited about everything that is happening right now: our north American album tour, the love that the album is getting and all the projects we’re working on…We’re developing our merch/fashion line, we’re planning a EU tour and an OZ/Asian one, our Linkin Park Rmx is coming out soon and we’re working on super secret collabs that will blow your mind.
Finally, please give us a Dirtyphonics fact that people may not know…
There’s no stopping us. Oh fuck, you already knew this.