Published: 9 Apr 2015
134
- Dan White

Dreamy outback vibrations from an Aussie live act on the rise.

If you were one of the lucky thousand or so who attended last weekends Inner Varnika festival in rural Victoria, the highlight of Friday night’s impressive array of musical talents on offer may well have been our next guest. Melbourne’s Rory McPike aka Dan White stole the show with his new live set, a hypnotic hour of lush layering melodies that moved freely between house, electro and techno, before finally landing on a mind melting slice of 90s infused jungle that is set for release on a Melbourne label later this year. In addition to recording this live set for us in the lead up to the festival, the Butter Sessions and Forbidden Planet producer has provided some insight into his setup, his jungle roots and a newly forged alias, apparently one of many we can expect from the producer in years to come.

You just got back from playing live at Inner Varnika festival over the long weekend, tell us about that whole experience and what you enjoyed most over the three days..

Pretty Intense weekend all up, little sleep and lots of partying. Dream to be on a lineup like that really, was amazing playing in the timeslot I had. Pretty speechless about the whole thing, the vibe was amazing from the beginning to end.. Seriously special. Too many highlights but the Sex Tags guys and Mr. Ties were up there, as for locals Moopie and Sleep D bringing in the fog..

In terms of the new live set and this podcast, how much of the material did you create especially for that gig? I know there’s a bit of forthcoming gear hidden in there as well.. What can you tell us about that?

All the songs were tracks I’ve made as demos or just experiments. Only 3 of them will see a release at this point I think. The last three tracks are all Butter Sessions tunes, the first of them being on the first V/A they released, the others are forthcoming..

Jungle and D&B has obviously been a massive influence for you – as it has the rest of the Loose Joints crew that you’re apart of. How would you sum up the state of the jungle scene in Melbourne at the moment, and do you plan to incorporate more of that in your live sets and releases?

Jungle and experimental DnB was probably one of my first dance music obsessions. It’s somewhat healthy in Melbourne but not so much for the style of jungle and DnB I’m into. There used to be a few producers floating about, Consequence and Joe Seven, who released on one of the biggest experimental DnB labels called Exit Records and they were associated with Instra:Mental which was Boddika and Jon Convex while they were making DnB or 170 bpm music. It was through a lot of their sets and music I discovered a lot of new music (Autonomic podcasts too), often their sets would go from Drexciya to Autechre to Photek etc etc. Definitely opened my eyes a bit at the time. Something I’ve taken from those guys is my approach to what I try and get away with playing to a dance floor (still clearing em weekly).

In terms of your current hardware setup, what are you currently running for live, and how much does that differ from your studio rig? What do you consider the main benefits of being completely laptop free?

The live setup is a massively refined version of the studio setup cause I cant really take the rack stuff on the road. I generally export my tracks from the hardware setups into stems then re-sequence them all into one live set in the MPC.. I could use a laptop I just don’t know how to use Ableton and honestly can’t stand the look of it. More or less just working with what I have and what I know, and personally, I think my Behringer Music which I use for live sets only, still sounds better then any PC mixer I’ve used. The plan is to get a whole lot of new gear which I can improvise with a little because at the moment it’s all a little pre-determined but it’s always fun playing live, the response is always amazing, it’s the most fun you could imagine.

Tell us about Rings Around Saturn, your latest alias.. What’s that all about?

I put together a mix for the Digital Tsunami guys of all my own ambient tracks, a friend of mine Andy (Kloke) who runs Hidden Waves approached me about putting some of the tracks out on his label which I thought was a great idea.. As most of them were ambient bits I figured a new name would be in order. At the same time the Analogue Attic boys approached me about doing something that was softer and deeper so it worked out to use the same name. Its only the beginning for this alias game.

What else do you have coming out next, and where can we catch your next live sets?

Lots of music forthcoming…
Rings 12” on Analogue Attic, just OK’d the test presses, shouldn’t be too far away. Butter Sessions record(s), Normals Welcome split 12” with Khotin, Cult Trip remix, Digital Tsunami 12” + lots in the works and some new projects.

Live sets: Pleasure Planet 2nd bday, 24 hour party and keep an eye out for forthcoming Alleycat Parties too!

dan white IV


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