Interview – Darren Tate
Imagine you are out in the country. You’ve pitched your tent and you’re sitting back relaxing, you’ve started hitting the piss (as you do in these situations) and decide to put on a trance album. You love this music, so why not play it really loud out bush? This is your weekend after all. Suddenly, you’re surrounded by a pack of fugans (fucking ugly bogans), looking rather ominous and swearing that if you don’t turn off that ‘techno’ crap that there could be Trouble.
The problem demonstrated above, is that electronic music is all too often not seen as “real” music. It’s seen as something that you really only listen to out at clubs, or in the case of the country, at the one local club that plays it sandwiched between some dodgy RnB anthem and Loveshack. The definition of music, to some, is a very pure thing. To some of those who love bands, electronic music such as trance is nothing of the sort. But what if you aim to take that image, and rebuild it? What if you are, in fact, a musician and you want to try to get that sense of true music out using the electronic music medium?
Darren Tate is synonymous with the kind of electronic music that would have fugans up in arms. At the heart of things, he is known for his epic trance production and sets, but for this classically trained artist there does not seem to be any form of distinction between the various ways in which music is created – and he is attempting to move beyond the typical stereotypes.
“I started off my music life from the age of four when i started learning piano,” Tate says, addressing the issue of what it means to be “classically trained”. “I came from more of a classical music background. As I grew up I got into electronic music and dance, the two came together later in life. I was never very good at practicing the music I was supposed to, but I loved to write. I learned the instruments and it gave me the tools to do that. So naturally it’s a very big part of what I do as a producer, which of course lead on to being a DJ, so its a big part of it.”
In the world of electronic music, bandying around the word “classically trained” can often mean many things, and quite often lends credibility to a producers work from a more musical aspect, however Tate doesn’t rely merely on his background, or even the perception that others have when they note where he has most made his mark with his music – the world of trance.
“I’ve always approached things from a slightly different angle than a lot of people. for me, a record doesn’t necessarily have to fit in with a genre,” he explains, expounding a view that many DJs have begun taking in the past few years. “A good record has its own atmosphere, its own idea, and a great record is just something that jumps out at you. But regardless of that, I think that its the attention paid to a combination of great songs, emotional music, original ideas and great production that makes a record stand out and that’s all its kind of ben.. The trademarks that I’ve tried to follow in making music and I think that that’s why its worked over the years.”
With this view, it may also be that the willingness to constantly experiment is one of the only reasons why those who are interested in electronic music are able to keep making a living from it. As with many other DJs and producers, Tate keeps his hands in a lot of various different projects, and the advocacy and promotion of electronic music is also a part of his over-arching design.
“I’ve been committed to not just writing music, but I have to be a business man as well, thus we have a record label, a DJ agency a publishing company,” he remarks, explaining the growth of his label, Mondo records into a larger entity. “Self promotion is a great part of having a career in the business these days, but its getting more difficult because obviously revenues are less for record labels, there’s less to go around for artists in general, so you need to be able to self promote more in order to have a career. You can see that a lot of DJs, its almost like there’s a huge branding exercise that’s occurred, it may not always be about the quality, but teres so much marketing behind them that they have become consumer brands, and therefore they are more attractive to the public.”
As we’ve seen with breakthrough commercial electronic acts such as Pendulum, the term “music” as applies to the electronic realm really is not only subjective, but rather more of an elective, whether you like trance, bands or a mix of the two – because in amongst the beats, the bpm and warbling electronic notes, there is always the melody, the timing and a sense of cohesiveness which is the essence of any piece. Darren Tate seems to fundamentally understand this, and it is through the DT8 project that he has managed to profess it.
“The DT8 project has been a long running concept,” he explains. “It was originally signed to Pete Tongs label but unfortunately due to politics it didn’t score as highly as it should. The thing with the dt8 sound was that it was very song driven, and unlike the more euphoric element themes, DT8 was much more subtle, embodying still very much emotional music, but coming at it from a much more laid back or left of centre angles. The album really displays all of that, because it crosses many genres but it does it with that same sensitivity towards song and emotion that is a trademark of DT8 project. So in that you’ll see breakbeat, you’ll see some rock, you’ll see some electro you’ll see some house, trance and chillout . The whole thing across 80 minutes takes you through all of that, and I promise anyone that listens to it that they won’t think at any point that something just doesn’t belong, it all kind of belongs together, and that’s been the secret of the act.”
At the end of the day, it always comes back to the music. What hole will it be stuffed into? What is the flavour of the month? Does anyone outside of the record companies really care? Tate is more pragmatic than that, however, and realises that in reality, electronic music is a rhapsody of many different parts.
“We find that through territories in the world, one music genre is up whilst another music genre may not be so popular. You have to look at where you are talking about in the world to begin with,” and with this, you can hear Tate smile in a knowing, embrace the fugan-within kind of way. “Sometimes you’ll find that some records stick out suddenly like a sore thumb, Pete Tong gets really excited about it, and then the next thing you know every record label is asking for one of those mixes. That’s kind of how it works. So, you’re going to see all these spin offs, and that’s what going to keep this sound alive – this whole electronic music revolution.”
The website for the DT8 project is located at – www.dt8project.com
Tags: darren tate, dt8, fugans, pete tong