Published: 17 Feb 2015
130
- Daze

Rugged, stormy techno from Lobster Theremin's secret weapon.

With only one EP to his name to date, and another soon to drop, Daze is breaking all the rules. Currently on tour all over Europe, the Ballarat based Melbourne regular has wasted no time after taking the world by storm last year, thanks to a collection of tracks from the vaults that would go on to feature in a number of best-of year end lists around the globe, including ours. That record, last year’s Lips EP – featuring two lush breakbeat–house fusion workouts and two slices of throbbing acid – was the work of a clever producer with an unmistakable sound, primed for further sonic explorations. With Lobster Theremin HQ his new home away from home, the latest Daze excursion is soon to be thrust upon us, and its commanding saturated drums, epic pads and off kilter breaks provide another perfectly rounded weapon for late night club demolition.

If we’re not mistaken this marks your first official online interview? Can you first give us a little bit of a background on yourself, and how you came to producing electronic music in Ballarat – a town not exactly known for its Techno..

It is! I hope I don’t say anything unsavoury. Ballarat isn’t known for its techno, and probably never will be. There really isn’t any connection between what I’m doing and my surroundings; except for the fact that perhaps my lack of inspired surroundings means I spend more time inside making music. I’m not at all disappointed by this though, if anything it has given me the time and freedom to explore different sonic themes and ideas without the external influence of a particular ‘scene’. Perhaps this comes across in my releases, which for now have been hard to pin down idea-wise – I certainly take a lot of inspiration from scenes afar through the internet (of course).

You’re currently on tour in Europe on the back of your Lips EP on Lobster Theremin, orchestrated by Lobster’s own Jimmy Asquith – how are you settling in in London and tell us about where you’ve played so far?

I’m loving London so far – so many parties man, it’s honestly hard to keep up. I played Corsica Studios for Find Me In The Dark with Function and Florian Kupfer, which was pretty heavy; also we did a label showcase in Glasgow with Jimmy, myself and Imre Kiss. Since the FMITD night at Corsica I’ve had some downtime to enjoy London, so I’ve mostly been wandering aimlessly through east London drinking beer and buying records.

You’ve got your second Lobster Theremin EP Neuromance out in a couple of weeks, what can you tell us about how those tracks came about, and your creative process in the studio more broadly?

Those tracks are a bit hard to pin down, because again they’re taken from different stages over the past couple of years. Neuromance was made pretty quickly after returning from a party where some guys closed the night with AFX’s Rhubarb from ambient works 2. In that moment the sorrow of that track in a techno context slammed me and I wanted to do something with kind of ambient like pads but really driving drums. Death Whirl was done from borrowing a friends 303 Bass-bot, I’m really into the acid sound so look out for more of that when I can finally afford my own. Compton was made around the same time as Lips, we decided not to put it on the first record as it might have been too breakbeat heavy. It’s a little subtler than lips, definitely more an after hours lounge vibe anyway.

In terms of my process in the studio it can be all over the place, it really depends when and how inspiration strikes. Often I’ll be playing around with synths until I find a sound I like, at which point I’ll begin to expand on the idea. Having the MPC recently added to my setup has given me more flexibility and an improved workflow, so now I’m finding that ideas can be expanded upon much quicker. My workflow and process will be quite dynamic moving forward because I’m constantly adding to my hardware setup with one eye on a live set down the track. I’m in no rush to have the live set ready, I want to make it something people really want to dance to.

What can you tell us about this mix? Who are some of the artists featured?

Trying not to sound too boring, this set is a pretty good indication of what you will hear with me in the club. The mix spans some ambient, old berlin techno, Detroit techno into newer stuff from some friends, the label and myself. There are some previews of upcoming LT material from 1800HaightStreet, Steven Simpson, Privacy and an already released weapon from Chicago Jim. Amongst others there’s tracks from my man Florian Kupfer, Daywalker + CF, DJ Richard and that well good Frak remix of Tuff Sherm on the new Butter Sessions.

What is coming up next gig wise in Europe, and what’s the plan when you get back to Aus? Do you have any other forthcoming music we should keep an eye out for?

Next up we have another label showcase with the TIPP! guys in Bremen, I think that one is in an old train station. Next up on a solo tip for me is Cairo, Brussels, Paris, Barcelona, Leeds, Laussane (Switzerland) with party pal Route 8, Budapest, Lyon and more, including a special as yet unannounced party in Germany on the 2nd of April.

In terms of new music, my new record on the core LT label is about to come out, pre-orders are up now. I’ll have a release on the black label arm of LT with some basement/dark room focused techno sometime soon also. I’m always tucked away in my “completely analog hardware professional recording studio” (bedroom) with a cup of tea tinkering with stuff so I’m sure you’ll hear more soon.


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