Closing out our 5 for 15 series we have a man who made considerable waves in 2014. Championed by the likes of Berlin’s Steyoyoke and budding London imprint Bade Records, Dahu has emerged as one of the finest talents we’ve seen in the deep & tech domain these last twelve months. What’s more, he’s kicked off 2015 as he finished, in fine form, featuring two productions on Steyoyoke’s twelve track album ‘Equilibrium’. Today, we’ve got the lowdown on the release, his plans for 2015 and much more, not to mention a standout hour of deep, brooding techno straight from the Dahu vault. It’s all waiting for you below, enjoy!
WWD : Philip, great to have you here, thanks for taking the time to chat!
Dahu : My pleasure, thanks for the invite!
WWD : 2014 saw you firmly entrenched in the Steyoyoke family and you guys have been making big strides in recent months, can you tell us a little bit of how you got involved, the crew and your role with the imprint?
Dahu : Steyoyoke is a crew of like-minded music and art enthusiasts based in Berlin. Mpathy and Soul Button started the label together in the beginning of 2012. I got involved early on through a mutual friend and ended up releasing my debut EP ‘Deep in the Woods’ as catalogue number 002 back in march of 2012. We’ve grown together over the years and I’ve come to regard Steyoyoke as my musical home. All the artists and the management do an amazing job. I’m mainly an artist on the label, but i help out with A&R and label nights where i can. Right now Steyoyoke consists of 9 Artists from all around the globe: Soul Button, MPathy, Aki Bergen, Nick Devon, Blancah, Ran Salman, Animal Picnic, Aaryon and myself.
WWD : You guys recently released a 12-track album ‘Equilibrium’, what will one find on there?
Dahu : Equilibrium is sort of the logical conclusion of whats going on at Steyoyoke internally. All the artists on the label collaborate a lot and work closely together, so it was just a matter of time until we decided to release an album under the Steyoyoke banner. All the artists on Steyoyoke have contributed tracks for the album and 9 out of the total 12 tracks are collaborations between Steyoyoke artists. Working this way has been a lot of fun and we’ve received a lot of great feedback so far, so you might be seeing this sort of thing from us more often in the future.
WWD : Aside from your productions obviously, can you give us your favourite two tracks from the album?
Dahu : Blancah – Ripple Effect is my definitive favourite, with Aki Bergen & Daniel Jaze – Natural Order as a close second.
WWD : You finished 2014 strongly, releasing the ‘Sedated EP’, which was very well received. One of our top 2014 releases by the way! It won support from the big hitters like Huxley and Maceo Plex, was that the icing on the cake?
Dahu : Thank you very much, I’m very pleased with how ’Sedated’ has been doing. Receiving support from heavy weights like that is fantastic of course. I’m a fan of many of these producers and to have my output recognised in that way has been a huge boost for me personally. I’ve yet to hear Maceo play one of my tracks though 😉
WWD : ‘Abyss’ is your new collaboration with MPathy coming out January 26th. How did you guys go about putting the track together?
Dahu : We had an extremely old school approach i would say. There was no division of labour involved at all, we just met and jammed out until we had something we really liked over the course of a few weeks. We produced on a single machine and pooled our instruments so we could both work within our comfort zone. The track had a phase where it was completely techno, then it was completely chill, and finally we ended up with ‘Abyss’.
WWD : Looking at 2015, where do you plan on taking things over the course of the next 12 months?
Dahu : I’m working on a live set that I want to start performing in the second quarter of 2015. A new Ep should be scheduled for about July and probably a second one for the end of the year, but i haven’t started work on them yet. My priority right now is to get the live set up and running and tour with it as much as possible in the near future. I also have a few remixes in the pipeline that are set to come out over the next few months, most notably for Aki Bergen’s ‘Helix’. There are also a few new collaborations in the works but it’s too early to say what will come of them.
WWD : You’ve been kind enough to mix an hour of music for our readers, can you tell us a little bit about what’s in there?
Dahu : I would probably describe my sets as melancholy techno. This one features some heavyweights such as Hunter/Game, Tale of Us and Len Faki, but also a few tracks by up and comers that i play quite frequently such as Krink or Bedouin. I’ll say a few words about Tracks 2, 5 and 8.
Track 2 is Krink’s Remix of a track of mine called ‘North’. It will be released on the Steyoyoke Anniversary LP in March on vinyl only. The track is a deep hitter and a great take on the percussion and the bassline of the original. It was just finished last week, so this might be the first time it airs!
Track 5 is my Remix of Aki Bergen’s ‘Helix’. I just got it back from mastering so this one is a first as well. I tested it last weekend in Copenhagen and it got great response from the crowd. The first time playing a new track out is always a very special moment for me. ‘Helix’ was extremely difficult to remix because the original is at 113 bpm and the synth line is extremely complex. I wrestled with it for a while but im happy to say that im quite satisfied with the result.
Track 8 is a Len Faki Remix of Rødhåd’s ‘Mines of Mars’ and its probably my favourite track at the moment. The atmosphere, the percussion, the energy progression in the track, the entire thing is a masterpiece to me, and I just had to include it in this mix.
Follow Dahu : Facebook / Soundcloud / Steyoyoke