Music might be the Refuge..

Next up on the Fabric One's & Two's are Metro Area: And it's pretty fucking special mix. If your a Disc Jockey you'll be scurrying off to your local record dealer armed with a long list of records to track down. If takes in some not so obvious disco, some quality house & finishes up with the new wave stylings of Devo. We were lucky enough to have a chat with Darshan Jesrani who filled us in on new Metro Area recordings, his penchant for soft rock & his take on the economic downturn:

JPP: Hi Darshan, congratulations on a splendid mix. One of the best I’ve heard in a long time.
DJ: Thanks a lot, we had fun making it.

JPP: What’s your DJ set up when you guys play?
DJ: It’s mostly vinyl records with some CD’s with unreleased tracks or edits that we’ve made. We normally play a couple of records each back to back.

JPP: Is that how you recorded the Fabric mix?
DJ: Yeah pretty much. We recorded from decks into our digital editing environment & edited the mix together. It’s a lot different to what we do in a club but hopefully it has a lot of the same energy but with cleaner mixes!

JPP: It certainly has the feel & energy of a live set, sounds like it’s just you guys having fun with some records.
DJ: That’s exactly what we wanted to do, give it a party/mixtape vibe.

JPP: Have you got any new Metro Area releases planned?
DJ: Yeah, we’re kinda taking stock of which tracks we’re gonna use on the new album & then writing new material in the first few months of next year. Hopefully we’ll have a release out in the second half of ’09.

JPP: How do you guys write?
DJ: All the finishing of the tracks is done together, in terms of starting idea’s we’ll normally come up with something independently & then we’ll get together & then try and flush it out into something.

JPP: What’s your favourite piece of studio kit?
DJ: I really like the mixing console we use at the moment, it’s a trident tri-mix a British console from the late 70’s. I really love the sound; it’s a very strong, clean musical signal. A lot of English Rock & Roll stuff, Queen for example, were done on trident boards & it has this really nice balanced sound.

JPP: Do you collect keyboards, do you consider yourself a gear head?
DJ: We both have some nice pieces but they’re pretty modest when you compare it to some studio owners. We both definitely are into our synths for sure. We’re not really like serious gear head collectors though; we tend to get stuff with personality that we can effectively use.

JPP: When speaking to producers they often comment that the most important part of production is the idea.
DJ: Absolutely, we made a lot of our original tracks by very basic means. Most of our 1st album was done on a 16 channel Mackie. It’s a good thing when you come up against the limitations of your gear.

JPP: Is there any artists/bands that you would like to produce?
DJ: Not at the moment, but it’s a direction we both want to move into. It would broaden our production & what we’re able to do. We’d like to work with songwriters & produce people in a live environment. I Think it would ensure more longevity in terms of the life of our catalogue, especially in this business were a lot of the music is seen as pretty ephemeral. At the moment I’m still finishing up building my studio & once all my gear is up & running I’m really gonna be scouting & see who would be good to work with.

JPP: I suppose it’s a natural progression for you..
DJ: I’m really interested in doing a soft rock record, I feel like I being pulled in that direction. Maybe like an Eagles or Steely Dan type of thing.

JPP: Which current producers are you into?
DJ: I love what Kelley Polar is doing, I also really admire what Escort do. They make live disco records from the drum tracks up. Also Tim Goldsworthy’s work on LCD & Hercules & Love Affair has a nice strong sound to them.

JPP: Can you name a few of your favourite records from the past year or so?
DJ: First is an older record that I’ve recently discovered: ‘Liondance’ by Hiroshima. It came out in the late 70’s & has an ethereal disco vibe to it that’s really nice. There’s a slower disco record called ‘Get up and Dance’ by Mynk, which is a great 12 on posse records. I also picked up the Electric light Circus album on DC recordings; I like all the stuff on that label Emperor Machine, Padded Cell, Goat Dance. That stuff’s really cool.

JPP: Anything outside the dance scene?
DJ: I just heard the MGMT album, I was a little sceptical as they’ve got a lot of hype but it’s really good. Got a good 60’s vibe to it.

JPP: What’s your favourite time of day:
DJ: I would have to say morning time, the old me would not believe it but I’ve come to appreciate getting up in the morning & getting a nice long workday in. Maybe it’s getting old.

JPP: How has the economic downturn affected you?
DJ: I’m definitely worried for the people around me, my loved ones. The stuff leading up to this economic problem has affected me, the cost of airline tickets has gone up quite a bit due to rising fuel costs. I feel like it will be a real mix of positives & negatives, maybe the economic pressure on NY will be eased a little bit because there isn’t much money floating around & landlords expectations will have to mellow out a bit & give us a bit more leeway to do some more creative things in terms of nightlife & music, that could be a good bi-product of the situation.
JPP: Whenever you speak to anyone from NY, the rent situation is one of the first things that comes up..
DJ: Towards the end of last year the rents were at their peak: Residential rent would be $2700 per month for a one bedroom flat, outrageous. Picture the commercial pressure for a venue were they have to clear $40,000 per month just on bills.
JPP: I suppose they have to book people that will definitely sell out the venue; it must be a lot harder for artists who are trying to break through.
DJ: That kind of pressure doesn’t give the people who may have a broad appeal the chance to get their foot in the door.
JPP: Hopefully it will come full circle, throughout history people have always wanted to dance their worries away..
DJ: For sure, Music might be the refuge

Metro Area- Dance Reaction (YSI)

Mynk- Get up and Dance with Me (Instrumental Mix) (YSI)

Devo- Freedom of Choice (YSI)

I recently made my debut on Blog Fresh Radio, you can listen to the episode here. As previously reported i make tunes as one half of Dognoize, we had a tune played on Huw Stephens Introducing show on Radio 1 the other night, go listen.
Have a tres bon weekend.