INTERVIEW: Duke Dumont
We interview Duke Dumont before he touches down in Australia for Listen Out.
Imagine, you're just happily recording tracks and doing what you love and all of a sudden you're told your latest single has dominated the pop charts. DUKE DUMONT has been creating some fantastic music for the past few years, but it was his catchy pop track 'Need You 100%' that blew the minds of everyone who had a chance to listen.
DUKE DUMONT is now on everybody's radar, with his track 'Hold On' becoming extremely popular online, although it was just a simple recording done during a jam session. DUKE DUMONT has a lot coming up, he's a busy bee this one especially since he's booked in for Listen Out and various side shows here in Australia, so luckily he had time to squeeze us into his busy schedule and give us an idea if the life of DUKE DUMONT.
A few years back you did a show with our very own Purple Sneakers DJs and back then of course you were only just emerging on the electronic scene. Did you ever think your music would become as noticed as it is now?
I didn't think it would happen, but I think in my brain I thought it could happen. The only thing there is to do, is just work hard and hopefully if I could turn it into a full-time living then I would've been happy. So it's taken a while to get there, but I think it's safe to say that now I can pay my bills and back in 2007 I wasn't able to. I think a lot of people don't realise that I've been DJing and making music for quite a long time.
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I’ve read in an interview you did a while back, that people have described your music as sort of an electronic crossover, why do you think people have jumped to that conclusion?
I think because if people go back and listen to a lot of the remixes I've done, just older work, they'll notice it doesn't all sound the same. But as an individual song, not one song sounds the same so there's not because there's a contrast within the songs, but because each song is actually quite different. I think that's why people say it's a bit crossover.
Need You 100%’ was covered by Disclosure, but can I just say the original is amazing! Obviously it hit #1 extremely quick, so I was wondering how you put the track together?
Basically what was happening was, I wanted to get out there and DJ a lot more, so in order to DJ you kind of need to make music you need to entertain the culture and you know, to play. So what happened with that was, I'd finished a few EP's, like a few club EP's out of a few underground songs I'd done which did quite well, there's a song called 'Together' which did quite well. So basically I was just making music to go on the next record.
What happened was, I'd made the instrumental to 'Need You 100%' and I had a different vocal on it, but I knew that it was quite a pop, radio friendly song, so what I did was I called in a different vocalist who was more suitable and it sounded better for a radio song. WE recorded that and then kind of sat back and just saw it do what it did. Outside of the UK, the radio support in Australia's been very good, Triple J have really campaigned it so I'm very grateful to the Australian radio stations for taking it under their wing.
'Hold On’ featuring MNEK is also an awesome track, how did you two come to collaborate?
I've been recording a lot of music with MNEK and that song just came about from one of the sessions we had. With that song all I've done is just put it up on Soundcloud, just to put it out there, just so people can listen to it and not have it sit here on my computer with no one hearing it. I know from the type of song it is that it's not going to take over the world, but I think MNEK gave such a good vocal performance that I just want people to hear.
It's certainly, on a commercial level, not on the same level as 'Need You 100%' but I kind of want to show that there's a bit of diversity in the way that I do what I do and also demonstrate that there's a lot of good music I can write and it's not necessarily about being the biggest DJ or musician in the world, I just want to write some of the best music in the world, that's my intention. And that's why I put that song out to show there is a bit of diversity instead of just being the same song all the time, so that's why 'Hold On' is up on Soundcloud.
You seem to find a lot of wonderful vocalists for your tracks, are there any people you really want singing on a new mix?
Basically I'm in this stage now where I'm doing a lot of live shows, but the next few weeks are gonna be those live shows so I'm going to be in the studio working on an album, but the way it works is I want to record all the instruments, I want to record the songs and then depending on what the vibe of the song is, then I'll reach out to people.
But my intention is to work with the most talented vocalists I can work with, as opposed to working with the most famous vocalist I can work with because I just want each song to be the best I can possibly make it. But if it happens to be a big vocalist who has recognition now, so be it, as long as they can perform it better than anybody else. That stage I think will be around November/ December. i'll be recording vocals to finished instrumentals, which I'm working on at the moment and there are so many people out there who I'd like to work with.
There are so many great producers emerging out of the UK at the moment, do you think that the UK are ore influenced by dance music these days?
Yeah I mean the way it's been.. well, firstly there's producers. I'm a really big fan of Flume, he's making some of the most interesting music out there and I can tell he's very influenced by good music from the internet. I really want to get it into people's heads that it doesn't matter where you're from, I think if you have wireless connection, even in Antarctica, you can get onto the internet to listen and make music, it doesn't matter.
The one thing the UK does have is the club history, we've had dance music as a main part of our culture for about thirty years, and only about ten years ago it really took over the UK pop charts and eight of the top ten would always be club tracks. The last ten years that hasn't happened, it's always R'N'B and EDM now. Now the time is coming back around where you have people who DJ or club music, such as myself, Disclosure, Rudimental and some other acts and club music's starting to come back to the pop charts again and Australia has it's own club/rave scene and it's been around more years than I can understand it.
Let's think, I think in Australia it really exploded around, I mean it's always been there, but it really took off with XY, Justice and a lot of the guys in around 2006, that's where all the major festivals kind of came back around. On a club level I think things are different but on a talent level, there's no difference. There's talented people there, everywhere, lots.
Since you’re coming over to Australia for Listen Out, I find it quite cool that you’ve been covered by Disclosure, and have remix AlunaGeorge who are playing the festival as well. Have you ever had the chance to meet those guys yet?
Oh yeah. I was recording with Aluna last week and I've met Disclosure two or three times. I think we cross paths a lot because we play the same festivals, we did a show in London called Lovebox, so I just chatted with the guys and we also did a festival in LA and they were playing after me and we had about fifteen minutes to have a chat.
I'm actually looking forward to the festival there're a lot of acts who I've kind of met along the way, there's a guy called Miguel Campbell, who went into house music and I've met him a few times so it'll be nice doing this tour and rather than not knowing any DJs before you tour, like it has been in Australia, a lot of us will be going there. It'll be fun, we all travel together on this tour, so I'm sure it'll be a good tour and I'm sure there'll be a few stories to tell, or not tell, at the end of the tour.
I’ve seen you’ve been touring a lot recently, how are you finding the constant travel?
I'm kind of strange, in a strange way I don't mind airports. because for me, when I'm actually on a plane it's the only time my brain can fully stop working because I can't email, I can't make phone calls, I can't record in the studio and I know all I have to do is just sit on this plane, travel to a place and DJ. It's actually quite a tranquil experience, as soon as that's done, I'm at home, but my mind never stops.
I enjoy performing, it gets me out of the studio, I have studio time towards the end of September after the Australian tour. When it's winter here it's too cold and people don't get out as much. The odd thing is this year is the really the only time I've ever really toured and one thing I think I've got to learn is to get in better shape, just be a little bit healthier, apart from that it's a good job, it's a good life. I love it.
Other than playing Listen Out, are there any major plans for your Australian visit?
I'll be doing sideshows certainly, I don't have all the details. I'll be doing all the big festival shows but outside of that I'm sure there'll be venues of anything between a few hundred to a thousand people, just large capacity venues I'll be doing so maybe it'll be a different vibe to the big festival show but, I'll definitely be doing club shows as well.
After your visit do you plan on recording, or will you be taking a much needed holiday?
I'll probably need it, but I won't take a holiday until the record's done. I'm thinking maybe February/March next year, hopefully I'll be on holiday. But the way it is, I'm only doing shows at the weekend, on Fridays, Saturday, Sunday as opposed to the week so it frees up my time to record from Monday to Friday so I won't actually stop working, i don't actually have a day off, but I can make time to make the record I want to make.
Words by Lauren Payne
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