INTERVIEW: Flume @ Parklife 2012

Sydney local Harley Streten, better known as his alter ego FLUME, is without a doubt the most talked about local producer in the country at the moment. But you already know that, right?

His face has been plastered across every tastemaking blog we have, his music has been racking up hundreds of thousands of plays on Soundcloud, his shows have been selling out and most importantly, his music is brilliant.

Now the 20 year old is on the brink of releasing his debut album, which is hotly tipped to be one of the best of 2012.

There really is no stopping this kid, and as so much has happened in such a small time, we only thought it was necessary to pull him aside backstage at the Melbourne leg of the Parklife tour. After playing his set with one arm (we’ll explain later), Streten took us through the blurry last couple of months for his alter-ego.

Tom Hutchins: We had a chat with you a couple of months ago, what have you been up to since then?

Harley Streten: Well basically I’ve finished the record; it’s all done, I’ve got physical copies in my bag actually [Laughs] - but that’s not out till the 9th of November. And I’ve finished the ‘Sleepless’ Re-Release on Vinyl and released a clip for it. But I’ve also been focusing a lot on the What So Not side of things - we’ve just finished an EP for that. We also have booking agents sorted for America and Europe, so next year we’ll be jetting over there at some point.

TH: Before we go on to anything else, what happened the other night at the Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs show in Sydney? You’re going to have to explain why you’re currently in a sling?

HS: Okay, so TEED was playing and it was his last track. A few of my mates got excited and lifted me up, after a few seconds everyone figured out who I was and before I knew it I was crowd surfing towards the front. So I got on stage, and was about to jump off before a big security guard came out of nowhere and knocked me into a steel pole and I smashed into it with my face [laughs]. I didn’t think it was much of a big deal at the time, but I woke up the next morning and I was pretty sore.

Gabe Glesson: You mentioned the album just before and earlier today you played a collaboration you did with Chet Faker that features on the release – are there any other colabs on the LP that you can talk about?

HS: I did a track with Jess, who sung on Flight Facilities’ ‘Foreign Language’. I’ve also done one with a guy from LA named T-Shirt, he’s a rapper. And I’ve done one with a girl named Moonlight Holiday, from Sydney – so there are a few vocal colabs on there.

TH: You also just mentioned that you are one half of What So Not, who are also currently blowing up at the moment, has it been hard to juggle the workload between the two acts?

HS: It’s been pretty full on, the second I finished the Flume album – it was like, “we have to get this [What So Not] EP done”. So yeah, it keeps me busy – but that’s kind of a good thing. What I do now is I will completely dedicate my time to Flume or completely dedicate my time to What So Not, and separate the two like that.

But now that both releases are done, I’m about to go on November, December, January, chill out time – so not too many gigs, which should be good.

TH: As you said earlier, you’ve just re-released ‘Sleepless’ and again it’s had a hugely positive response, how does it feel to be gaining so much praise for a track that was released a while back?

HS: I think that’s the best thing about it. A lot of songs are released, will be big hits, will be in the spotlight for two months and then they’ll fade and disappear. Whereas ‘Sleepless’ never got pushed very hard, so it’s been a bit of a slow burner – it’s slowly gotten more and more recognition over time. And that’s because, ‘Sleepless’ came out first and then I starting pumping out all these remixes – which would then give the original a platform.

So say a blog would post ‘The Anthem’ remix, but they then would say, “Oh, this guy also does originals”. Basically, they would post ‘Sleepless’ multiple times without the post actually being about that track - all those remixes really drove that track and I was really lucky to have it upfront.

TH: You’ve also just announced a remix comp for the track, are you excited to see what your fans will come up with?

HS: Totally, I’m just blown away with how many remixes there are already [Laughs]. I’ve been on the site and I’ve been listening to so many good ones…

GG: We had a 3am Hardstyle Remix made by Tomderson and Swick made last night…

HS: [Laughs] No shit! I hope they enter it. A 3am happy Hardstyle Remix!

TH: Has the constant touring take on a toll on you? Obviously, you have your shoulder in a sling…

HS: [Laughs] Yeah, I just end up drinking heaps [laughs], which is heaps of fun, but I am starting to get to a point where I feel I just need to chill out a bit. But yeah, it’s great – I’m only 20 and I’m going to make the most of it.

TH: The past 12 months must have been a whirlwind kind of experience for you; do you have a highlight of the past year that sticks out?

HS: Definitely getting The XX support was one of them, I was completely over the moon, they are pretty much my favourite band. That and the Splendour set, solely because that was a six or seven times bigger crowd than I’d ever played to before. I just didn’t expect it.

TH: You were booked as one of the DJ slots too, weren’t you?

HS: Yeah, it was one of the really early spots, which was crazy. Just seeing a physical massive audience is pretty cool, you see you have half a million plays and that’s great – but when you see all those people. It’s like, “holy fuck, this is real now” [Laughs].

TH: How has the Parklife tour been thus far?

HS: It’s been cool; they’ve all been super fun. Because I have friends now, in every state I’ll do my set, hang out for a bit and then just hang out with mates – it’s dope. Especially the Pilerats boys by the way [Laughs] when I was in Perth… Yeah, that was the biggest Parklife so far.

GG: How did the Pilerats stage go?

HS: Yeah, they did really well - I was hanging around their stage for a lot of the festival. They were really stoked they got their own little Golf Buggy to drive around out the back too [Laughs].

TH: And finally, do you see any changes or evolution with your future in terms of sound and style?

HS: I don’t really plan it; it’s more that I get inspired by something by someone else. It’s a tricky one to say, but I’m sure it’ll change gradually. In saying that, the album is quite different, it still has the same kind of elements - but it’s not like the stuff you’ve already heard. It’s always changing, but it’s almost out of my control. Whatever happens; happens.

Words by Gabe Gleeson & Tom Hutchins, check out their streets on POSSE.COM

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