I was recently asked if I was interested in conducting an interview with none other than Dan Black himself. After waiting a whopping 1 second, I replied, “Hell Yeah!”. For those that don’t follow this blog, I love Dan’s music. He has a knack for taking different genres and mixing them at will and creating something that isn’t easily pigeoned holed but all the while fun, dance-able, and just down right solid.
Got to pick his brains about the music process, bands he’s into at the moment, and his take on the music business today. So thank you Dan for taking the time to field my questions amongst your very hectic schedule!
AD: Any new Collaborations on the horizon?
DB: I do, but boringly I cant say in at this moment – lame I know…!
AD: How did your collaboration with Kid Cudi come about?
DB: It was really simple – a mutual friend played him some of my tracks, he really liked it, hit me up for an instrumental of symphonies, I mailed him it, 2 days later he sent me a done vocal, bish bash bosh done!
AD: If you could collaborate with any current artist, who would it be and why.
DB: God, all kinds, strong charismatic . Lovefoxx from CSS, T.I., Angus from Liars, Rihanna… All kinds…
AD:What current groups are catching your ears?
DB: Well let’s see – jj, YACHT, Sleigh Bells…
AD: What is your take of the current state of the music industry in terms of distribution. For example, do you think the concept of full length albums are dead?
DB: Woah – that’s a big question. Music and technology have always had a very dynamic relationship, from printing sheet music, being able to record and mass produce it, to now being able to get any song anytime you want. Each time people freak out, bemoaning the loss of something whilst others see it as a new dawn. It just is what it is and either evolve with it or basically you’ll get “naturally selected” out.
AD: What’s your current setup when making tracks? For example, what software and virtual instruments can you not live without?
DB: Well on the road – a laptop with ableton live and logic. Those are my key “tools”. For soft synths I have a bunch, I like the arturia vintage emulations – their all fun.
AD: Who produce your album and can you briefly describe the process?
DB: Me. In a cellar in an old apartment in the middle of paris. I decide to try and just do the whole thing alone, which meant at some moments I skimmed the edge of madness, in not a good way, but having been in bands for years, feeling like I was compromising a lot, I wanted try doing it as “pure” as I possibly could.
AD: On “Alone” what did you use to get that gritty bass sound?
DB: As far as I remember, I parallel processed it, mixing a bit-reduced version with a more clean one. And then mixed them together through a fairchild emulation.
AD: What advice do you have for up and coming artists trying to make it?
DB: Be patient in finding your “voice”. That’s kind of the most important thing and it can take a long time, maybe years. But you can’t rush that.
AD: What was the turning point in your musical career that lead to your current success?
DB: I’ve done music for a long time now, in many different projects, so there is no one big earth shattering moment really. It was much more a case of bloody-minded persistence!
Dan Black – Symphonies (remix ft. Kid Cudi)
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