Dirtyphonics Interview - Relentless Energy Drink Freeze Festival 2011 - French d

French outfit dealing in large quantities of drum and bass and dubstep head to Relentless Energy Drink Freeze Festival

Name: Dirtyphonics

Style: Drum and bass, dubstep, electro and more

If they could invent their own flavour of Relentless Energy Drink it would taste of: “Strawberries!”

Catch them at: the Energy Sessions Stage at Relentless Energy Drink Freeze Festival 2011 from 28-29 October.

It’s no secret that Relentless Energy Drink is all about a No Half Measures attitude. So when it came to choosing the line-up for the Relentless Energy Drink-sponsored Energy Sessions Stage at Freeze Festival (28-29 October 2011 at Battersea Power Station, London), only truly ‘live’ electronic acts would cut the mustard. Parisian bassheads Dirtyphonics fit the bill to a tee, bringing their innovative, chaotic, high-energy show to the stage – one that’s spontaneous, bursting with energy and truly reactive.

Flying the bass flag for France

Dirtyphonics’ homeland isn’t particularly known as a hotbed of drum and bass and dubstep talent, but this inventive four-piece are doing excellent work to change that. ‘Band’ members Charly and Thomas met a decade ago at design school, and hooked up with Pho a couple of years later at that great connector of like-minded people, a house party. “A drink in each hand, we spent the night talking about music,” the guys tell us. “And the day after we were all in the studio making what would become Dirtyphonics.”

The missing piece of the puzzle came in the form of turntablist genius Pitch-In, who joined the burgeoning collective three years ago, around the time the drum and bass cognoscenti really started to sit up and take notice of what they were doing. “We all met on the road and clicked right away,” they recall. Raised on a disparate selection of music, all characterised by high energy and innovation, the quartet cite Metallica, Daft Punk, Wu-Tang Clan, Rage Against The Machine and Beastie Boys as key influences – interestingly omitting anyone from the milieu they generally operate in.

Breaking through

It was a release on erstwhile Ram Records producer Shimon’s fledgling Audioporn label in 2008 that provided the spark for their career to explode. The release was characterised by hyperactive, intricate structures, ideas galore, and razor-sharp production, gaining them plaudits far and wide in a very short space of time. Such technical prowess didn’t come overnight, though; drum and bass is widely recognised to be one of the genres of electronic music with the highest production values. Think about it – it’s fast, loud and places the utmost importance on the tricky-to-nail bottom end.

With their combined prowess and patience however, Dirtyphonics have utterly nailed it. “D’n’B is definitely one of the genres that pushed and keeps pushing the production level,” the quartet agree. “Because of its energy, its tempo and the number of elements in a track, you have to be super creative and find ways to make all this happen without losing lots of volume.” Now with releases on labels as diverse as Chase & Status’ MTA Records, LA trendsetter Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak Records, Deadmau5’s Mau5trap and major imprints like Atlantic Records, their skills have been showcased and embraced across the electronic music board.

Drum and bass and beyond

That is also thanks to their diversity; although they emerged as a D’n’B outfit, they’ve shown their hand at electro, dubstep and more, always with stunning results. Remixes for the likes of Skrillex, Benny Benassi, Nero and Does It Offend You, Yeah? show the kind of demand they’ve been getting. Speaking of Skrillex, he is a “good friend” of the group, and they couldn’t be more happy for him – despite all the haters. “He’s a talented dude and a very loving one. It’s great to see people disagreeing; it creates depth and it means he’s doing something right,” they argue.

“Since the beginning of Dirtyphonics we’ve never shut any doors in terms of music nor directions,” they elaborate. “There are four of us in the band, we all have our own influences, so mix this all up and that gives you an idea of how wide our scope is. It would be boring to us to stick to one specific genre. Our lives are made up of many different emotions and discoveries… why should we only make one genre of music?”

Doing it live at Freeze

Drum and bass – Dirtyphonics’ bread and butter – is far from easy to do live, convincingly and viscerally. Only a handful pull it off – or even bother to try. Dirtyphonics are doing something truly special, and are guaranteed to have the Freeze crowd eating out of their hands. “Our live show is a huge dialogue between the four of us on stage and the crowd,” they explain. “Four decks, three MPCs, filters, an iPad and even a Game Boy sometimes. There are no computers on stage, no syncing at all. We like to be able to improvise …and to a certain extent to f**k up.”

Such a loose and seemingly chaotic set-up must be fraught with occasional disaster, and indeed the group have experienced the works – from total power blackouts to machines crashing and impromptu solutions having to be thought up on the spur of the moment. But they embrace these challenges and even suggest that they are a vital part of the whole experience. “These serendipitous events make every show unique which keeps it fun for us and the crowd,” they explain. An excellent attitude if ever there was one.

Crossing over

As for others doing D’n’B live and doing it well, they’re fans of Relentless Energy Drink-sponsored brand ambassadors Chase & Status, Pendulum, Camo & Krooked and Fresh, and think that it’s not about a “one size fits all” approach. “The thing with a live show is to do something that fits you, your personality, your music and your skills.” Do they have crossover ambitions like those aforementioned chart-crashers have realised? “If by crossover ambitions you mean ‘success’ then yes we do,” they admit.

We’ve no doubt they’ve got it in them to reach those giddy heights – it’s just a question of how it will happen and who the inevitable vocalist(s) would be to help them get there. Watch this space. You can rest assured they’d never make any crass attempts to cash in on the current vogue for bass music simply for the sake of it, though.

Their advice for aspiring producers is to “have fun, create something new, work your ass off and keep going”, which strikes us as a perfect No Half Measures approach.

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