DAN BERKSON & JAMES WHAT
Dan Berkson and James What have only been making music together for four years, but their outrageously fresh, deeply musical brand of tech-house released on the widely respected Poker Flat and Sounderground labels has been grabbing attention from all the right quarters and combined with their innovative live sets utilising all manner of technological trickery to keep an improvised intuitive feel, their star has been firmly in the ascendance of late.
Hyponik.com caught up with the pair ahead of their headline slot at Gramaphone’s Neu to talk Boston, drum machines and death Metal…
Hyponik.com: Hi there boys, how’s it going?
(Dan Berkson) all good, thanks. I’m in Chicago this week.
H.com: You’ve been in cahoots for a few years now, how did you guys hook up?
(DB) We met at a kind of after-party in my old flat off Brick Lane one night. We had some mutual friends and both had sort of similar backgrounds of playing in bands and then getting more interested in electronic music.
H.com: Who’d win in a fight?
(James What) Me.
H.com: There’s a massive jazz influence on your music, as well as being deeply rooted in Chicago. Where does this come from? What were your early inspirations?
(DB) I grew up in Chicago, but to be honest more of my musical influence comes from when I was living elsewhere. Both of us studied music in Boston - musical inspiriations are really vast, lots of jazz, dub, disco…
H.com: What sort of music have you got playing at home?
(JW) A little bit of everything really…
H.com: What do you make of the scene here in the UK? And what do you think about the shift in recent years from heavier, darker material to more light-hearted, uplifting stuff?
(DB) I think the UK scene is really great. It always seems to be moving very quickly as the crowds really demand things to be fresh and cutting edge. It seems like over the last year or two the deeper, more Housey sounds have been thriving which is great. Like I said before though, things are constantly evolving here so maybe we’ll all be listening to death Metal whilst raving next year!
H.com: You play a very technology heavy set, using laptops and various bits of hardware, what are your favourite pieces of kit?
(DB) Thats kind of a tough one, I’m sure our favourite bits of kit we don’t really take out to gigs - we’re huge fans of old drum machines, space echoes, that kind of stuff.
H.com: So you’re playing at Neu this weekend, which is a party seemingly made with you two in mind. Have you got anything special up your sleeves for the night?
(DB) We’re really looking forward to it, it’s always nice to play a new party where you don’t really know what to expect and you can play off the crowd.
H.com: You’ve had a very busy year tour-wise. Where’s been your favourite place to play?
(JW) It’s tough to say, really. We had a few nice gigs in the US this summer - New york and LA, we always love playing in Berlin - Panorama Bar was great a few months back.
H.com: Any debauched stories from the road?
(JW) Yes ; )
H.com: Which artists are you excited about right now?
(DB) There are SO many. Recently really been digging Motorcity Drum Ensemble, the Underground Quality guys, Floating Points and The Revenge.
H.com: Which labels are doing it for you at the moment?
(JW) We have to mention Wolf and Lamb who are really rocking it these days, Dial has been great this year too…
What would you be doing if you weren’t making music?
Scratching my head.
Catch Dan Berkson and James What playing at Neu this Saturday, along with Leo Neelands, Treefrog and Yugen Blake.
Interview by Chris Lawes.