PLAY-DOH PUNK: DORIAN CONCEPT

Dorian Concept went from a little Austrian ‘wunderkind’ piano boy to become one of today’s most coolest, talented, experimental yet funky producers. His production is a tour-de-force of creativity, cutting through a whirlpool of electronica, funk, techno, jazz, hip-hop and glitches, mixing it all together into beautiful melodic noise.

Seriously, we love this guy and getting our hands on a copy of debut album When Planets Explode got us doing little jumps of happiness. As hard as it is to believe, this cracking LP, released on Kindred Spirits is Dorian’s first so we linked up with the ‘zauber’ man to discuss the magic behind his tricks and kicks. Read on to learn about blending aluminium with Play-Doh, teleporting 70’s Herbie Hancock and that wicked take-away next to Plastic People we all now far too well.

Hyponik: Hello Dorian, how’s tricks? You’re originally from Austria which is famous for its 19th century classical music but has nowadays only seems to get press about Fritzl as oppose to its music scene…how did an Austrian boy grow up to make such incredible abstract music? What kind of music would you say shaped you most and when did the whole electronica hip-hop thing start?
Dorian Concept: Yarr, things are good. Just in this outside spot with a hammock and some wireless, so I can’t complain. Concerning my history, not sure how it happened really. Was pretty much trying to find something to do because I had too much acne to get girls, was too lazy to do sports and not really into this whole locking people up in cellars thing. So listening to electronic music, late 60s jazz/funk and teaching myself how to play chords on the piano was the only thing left to do.

H: You’ve started the whole production thing pretty early then and you’ve obviously come very far since… What does your studio look like now? Which piece of gear would you take a bullet for?
DC: I use a computer, my Micro Korg, the Elektron Machinedrum, a field recorder and sometimes sample bits and pieces to get my stuff together. My working place is surrounded by a bunch of CD’s including gems like some free-jazz from Steve Lacy, a French-for-beginners learning software and socks. I don’t think that I would take a bullet for anything really. Maybe for immortality and painlessness if I was able to get it before being shot.

H: Can you tell us a bit more about your past releases please-what have you done and have you worked with any interesting people?
DC: I did some digital releases in the beginning, just kicking stuff out to get some people to hear my stuff, then had my first two 12”s released last Autumn on Kindred spirits and Affine records. My album just came out about 2 months ago. I haven’t really collaborated much to be honest but I was fortunate enough to work with people like Mark Pritchard, Onra and Lukid on a couple of tracks. Definitely looking forward to doing more collab-bizz in a second though.

H: Now - congratulations on the When Planets Explode - that’s your first LP and it’s absolutely amazing, beautifully composed and every track definitely has its own unique identity You’re seriously zigzagging between genres or rather sticking two fingers up at genres - there’s elements of jazz, techno and all sorts of other crunked-up shizzle. How would you describe it to someone who’s never heard it and who would you say your main influences were for this particular release?
DC: I would say that it sounds like putting a bunch of aluminium in a blender and loads of Play-Doh in a washing-machine and then letting them run next to an ambient record. I think my influences ranged from more modal-jazz, and the approach of doing as much as you possibly can in one musical scale, to late 90’s electronica to weird-funk, hard to pin point really though, as some of the tracks are older and others are just about 5 months old.

H: If you could get anyone in the world to remix a tune from the LP-who would you choose and which track would you give them?
DC: Would be dope to hear a version of “Clap Beep Boom” from Herbie Hancock back in the 70’s.

H: Ace! What’s in store for you this year then? Any tours or special events coming up?
DC: Event-wise I’m slightly busy until July, and especially looking forward to doing some festivals like the World Wide Festival in Singapore, Wilsonic in Bratislava and of course Sonar in Barcelona. In July I will try to focus on making more music again though. And release-wise the next thing that’s up is a track of mine called “Be Tween” on the new Beat Dimensions compilation that’s coming out.

H:What do you think of the scene in London? Where’s your favourite place to hang out?
DC: London has a really intense scene. I can remember the last time I played, all the people that were approaching me after my performance all were either doing a radio show, producing music, DJing or having some kind of blog that revolves around music. So that just shows that most of the people are really on it. A place that I really like is this burger-place next to Plastic People and Plastic People of course too.

Interview by Maya M - ©Maya M