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Artist Interviews
Q&A: Dirty Vegas
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 29 June 2011
Formed in 2001, house trio Dirty Vegas first gained above-ground exposure when they won a Grammy Award for debut single ‘Days Go By’, a standout cut on the group’s first self-titled album.
The more organic successor to which, 2004 LP ‘One’, spawned another major hit in ‘Walk Into The Sun’, which has since featured on various US shows including ‘One Tree Hill’. Despite splitting in 2005, the three members collaborated on a soundtrack for indie film ‘Boys & Girls Guide To Getting Down’, with vocalist Steve Smith releasing a solo record titled ‘This Town’ in 2008.
A reunion followed, resulting in new album ‘Electric Love’, a slight departure from the slick, dark electronica of their older work which was assembled via online correspondence between Steve, now based in New England, and his London-dwelling bandmates Ben and Paul Harris. Incorporating stomping bass-lines and propulsive beats with an extra injection of guitar-led jubilance, ‘Electric Love’ is out now. With this in mind, we caught up with the group to glean their thoughts on the album by way of our Same Six line of questioning.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
Steve: We were all in bands when we were at school, and we all fell in love with electronic music when the acid house explosion happened in the late 80s. We all knew each other from playing in clubs, Paul was a DJ at a lot of the great clubs in the early 90s, and Ben owed a great record shop. I think a lot of good DJs naturally progress into being good producers, so when Ben and Paul asked me to come and work with them, I jumped at the chance.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Steve: I think because we took a break from 2005 to 2008, that time gave us a chance to become music fans again. When you are in a band you are dissecting your work, other people’s work etc. So, when you step back from that, you begin to appreciate music for what it is. This was the inspiration for the new album, finding a sense of energy and excitement you get, like the first time you ever got in a recording studio. Electronic music is so prevalent today, and I think the internet has pushed it into people’s lives. We write song-based structures around electronic production, and in 2011 this is much more respected than it was ten years ago.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
Ben: The inspiration for a track can come from anything. It could be a guitar riff, a drum loop, synths, whatever. It might even start with a story or situation that happened to one of us. Once the idea is there, we’ll play around with it in the studio, adding each element until we feel it’s ready to road test at a DJ or live gig. That’s a great way to see what’s working or what needs adjusting. On this album we collaborated with a couple of good friends, Julian Peake and Simon Duffy, during the writing and production process. Having these two on board let us focus on making the album we wanted to make.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Ben: Our tastes are very varied from underground house and techno, to old rock bands such as Zeppelin and The Stones. Throw in some Latin percussion stuff, some dubstep, hip hop and singer-songwriters like Neil Young and Jeff Buckley and I think you get the idea!
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Paul: I would say it’s certainly a mix of all the music we have been influenced by over the years , we all came from the Baleric times, where an acid house record was mixed in with a hip hop record and then a rock record. DJs like Alfredo, Danny Rampling, Pete Tong, and Paul Oakenfold influenced us at the time with there selection of records. I would say for sure it’s dance music, but it’s been influenced by many things along the way. Now it’s people like The Killers, Pheonix, and Miike Snow.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
Paul: I just hope people listen to the album and enjoy it as much as we do. All three of us really are pleased with what we ended up with, so that’s the main thing. Looking forward, we want to do some great shows over the next year to help promote the record, and then, I guess we want the album to sell millions so we can sit on a boat for a while until we decide to make another one!
MORE>> www.dirtyvegas.com
