Interview Series pt.1 - Dirty Fire Project
Hello again, friends!
I am pleased to bring you the beginning of an interview series with some of the remixers and people who have helped bring ‘From Unity To Segmentation’ into being. It serves as a vital cog in the massive promotional machine that is this blog [ahem]. Stick around to the very end for an exclusive preview of dfp’s remix of ‘Beside You Through The Wires, Forever’.
Today i’ll share with you an interview i did with one Adam Christie, aka Mouse, of Dirty Fire Project. He and I sat down on ye olde instantmessenger last Thursday to talk about a variety of subjects,
here’s the gist of it:
Chris Todd [phylum sinter]: Hello adam, thanks for taking part of the promotional machine for the upcoming EP! maybe you’d like to introduce yourself a little?
Adam Christie [Dirty Fire Project]: sure - i’m adam, otherwise known as ‘mouse’ of Dirty Fire Project.
PS: Correct! i first found your music as a result of being a part of the Xynthetic ‘Statement Of Purpose’ Compilation, whom soon after released your EP ‘Too Many Teeth’ — How much had you released in terms of tracks before then?
DFP: The Xynthetic release was my first actually released body of material.
Before that I had been posting individual tracks on download.com, soundclick and myspace. I got in touch with Xynthetic via another artist, Angina P. They did a ‘mass mail’ of her friends list on myspace and I replied with a link and an invitation back to my page to listen to the tracks that were up there. At the time they included ‘Never Been To Tokyo’ and ‘Examination’, both of which ended up on the “Too Many Teeth” EP. Xynthetic asked me if I wanted to do an EP and I practically ripped their hand off 
PS: So that was your first encounter with a label?
DFP: Yes - and I’ve been pretty impressed. Definitely got lucky with dealing with those guys. I like where they’re coming from with regards to hoping to help change the way music is distributed. They’re quite outspoken and I believe in what they’re doing.
PS: We’re on the same page in that respect… they’re very much about what they’re doing, and more importantly i believe that they believe in what they’re doing.
DFP: Just finding out that people like the tracks is one thing, but people wanting to release it is another Then there was such good feedback at the time of the release and a good figure of downloads. Surprised the hell out of me
PS: It was actually the first track off of ‘Too Many Teeth’, ‘fuff’, that had caught my attention as the album i agreed to release with Xynthetic started taking shape - I’m very happy to have your participation! Any thoughts about the track you remixed? …It occurs to me you may not have heard my arrangement of it yet, but based on the pack i sent what are your thoughts?
DFP: Heh, “Fuff” is such a weird track. I’ll come back to that — The original version of ‘Beside You Through the Wires, Forever’ is such a meloncholy, detailed track. it’s pure electronica and I really like it. My weakness, however, is beats, and it was the beats that you sent that really pricked my ears and made me start to play about with them. The way i heard the track parts was by putting all the loops from each part into fruityloops, and starting them all off. so no mixing between, but i think it was enough to get the feel for the way it was going.
PS: The remix pack was probably about 90% of what is in the final arrangement, but you did definitely nail the feel based on your remix. let’s go back to ‘Fuff’ for a moment - what makes it a weird track?
DFP: ‘Fuff’ started as just a scratchpad of ideas i’d been playing with. but it was one that I kept coming back to. When I was doing the EP, I realised I needed something to start things off with, so after much deliberation, I put a load of work into trying to link a couple of ideas together using the scratchpad as source material. It was pretty organic I guess. Then I hit a massive mental block on how to finish it, after the break. Eventually managed to solve this by thinking about how I’d play the bassline on a bass guitar, so that led to the syncopated bass in the final section which really rounded it off. I’m really glad people like that track as it was quite strange to put together (but it was also the one i was least sure about, overall).
PS: I find that sometimes a song will lead me to its end more than I can end it consciously - i really dig how that song it turned out in terms of distortion and flow, it sounds as if it comes to the ears in a way that it fills in it’s own blanks and then gradually opens them back up…
DFP: Yeah, I agree about the filling in of blanks - that tends to be how I work. Then you can break them down, put the different parts together, make patterns that weren’t there before and bring out different parts of the sound, then try and bring them all together again. I like to make music that you can pick up different things from each time you listen to it.
PS: Absolutely, it’s one of the keys to replayability i think… many layers and subtle details.
DFP: That’s also the thing which can leave you tinkering with a track for weeks though… gotta watch that, hehe
PS: ! tell me about it, some of the stuff that’s coming out now i actually started over two years ago -
DFP: Hmm, that kick drum’s not quite right, how about now? hmm, no. How about now? Not quite - ooh, but it’s doing -this- thing now. ‘Tokyo’ was like that, I think I started that around 2003!
PS: Like a fine wine, then. Changing focus slightly - When it comes to your style, how would you characterize it? Can you consciously trace your main influences when it comes to what you generate these days?
DFP: Not consciously, as far as I know. I’ve always had a kind of idea as to the sorts of sounds that I wanted with dFp. I guess it’s somewhere in-between dirty electronica, breakbeat, minimalist stuff — even some ambient thrown in for good measure. I’ve always wanted to give it a certain flavour… that part is hard to describe. I’d like to think that the tracks do the talking for that bit - people can make their own minds up about it. Certainly, there have been bands that have influenced me. All sorts of stuff, really. Drum ‘n’ bass - Technical Itch, Photek, Ed Rush and Optical, Angina P; electronic - Murcof, Aphex Twin, Nine Inch Nails; metal - Filter, Curve; breaks - Hardknox, Hybrid… I try to keep my ears open. When I was learning bass guitar I was always listening to Rage, Tool, Chili Peppers and Primus. Things have broadened a bit since then.
PS: I notice that distortion is ever-present in your work, often adding to the percussion giving it a certain edge; what are your other favorite tones and what defines a usable sound to you?
DFP: It’s true, I loves a bit of distortion. Especially distorted drums… It just tickles my ears in a particular way. As far as other tones go, and usable sounds - it’s been a slow process but I’m gradually learning more and more about headroom and how different frequencies can layer up without crowding other things out. I tend to spend alot of time getting that balance. I’m also trying to force myself out of the habit of doing track elements in a particular order - i.e. not rushing to get a bass sound once I’ve got some drums started. Sometimes I’ll just have an idea in my head and need to get it down into a sequence as soon as possible, but always doing things in a particular order like that can kill it.
PS: That sort of thing can certainly be habit-forming, i’ve been there too — most of what comes out of me starts with an outline now, as in mood and keywords and even sometimes a short story. The album i’m working on has an overall arc but hopefully the intentionality of the music itself doesn’t suffer. Do you think music fulfills a purpose?
DFP: Yes, in that it encapsulates an idea or moment, or longer. A piece of music is a symbol for something else, and that can be detailed or vague as taste dictates. A well written song or tune captures the essence of something and that is important.
PS: …and it is that fact alone that i think makes overproduced or very pop music stand out — it’s written to merely satiate an artificial need or otherwise feels empty to me. You can always tell when a producer has fallen out of themselves or their priorities come down to money. Do you have any gripes with the world of music?
DFP: I feel strongly about Country & Western.
PS: hehe… who doesn’t? but strongly how?
DFP: I think I’ll leave it at that Gripes… hmm… At the end of the day, even Gabba has its place. Preferably in a really dark club, and when I’ve remembered my earplugs.
PS: Our preference is similar in this case then, too — maybe some favorite songs or albums of the moment?
DFP: Okay… at the moment I’ve been really overlistening a few things. NIN’s album “year zero” for starters. Really enjoying that, especially “Zero Sum”. Radiohead’s new album has got some amazing tracks on it too. Imogen Heap - “Speak For Yourself” - she’s a genius, self-produced, electronica, great songs and an amazing voice. If you don’t know her stuff then check it out! Er, let’s see now, LCD Soundsystem - “Sound of silver” which has really grown on me. Angina P - “8 Rooms” - really crystalline drum ‘n’ bass and IDM. It’s an awesome album and well worth a listen. Aside from that I’ve got a couple of albums that are great for falling to sleep to - Dj Rap “Learning Curve” and Murcof “Martes”. I know both the albums inside out now, so I can just drift off when they’re on… Oh, did I mention Curve? I love Curve. Always have. I listen to their stuff a lot when I’m at work.
PS: Heard and enjoy most of those myself — the Angina P album is a new one to me, will seek that one out definitely though. Let’s talk a little more about the concept of remixing versus writing from scratch; do you think the way i presented the track to remix [merely as parts] influenced the way you approached the remix?
DFP: It seemed like a pretty accessible way to do it, to be honest. It was quite brave of you to send it completely unmixed! …and certainly, without being able to get to each sample it would have been different. Plus, the way you recorded the beats - there were markers within the wave files that ‘Cool Edit’ switched between really easily, which made adding effects to invidual hits straightforward and very quick. I had a lot of fun altering the beat tracks. I don’t know whether you would have heard the beats layered up on each other like they are in the remix. hope it was a nice surprise
PS: It was! I tried not to play it too much until the original was fully arranged, i didn’t want it to drift too much into my processes. I’ll be remixing ‘Manifest’ as a return thanks as soon as the album is done being arranged.
DFP: i’m looking forward to hearing what you do with ‘Manifest’.
PS: what are your plans for the year, what’s in the works for dfp?
DFP: So far it’s looking good. Xynthetic are interested in a full digital release - another EP but via distribution channels like Beatport. I’m gearing up for that at the moment. Eventually I’d like to try and get something together to do a live set, but that’s still quite far off.
PS: I could see the sort of thing you’re doing translating very well to live spaces, the beats you work with have a definite tweakability to them that would get heads nodding…
DFP: Yeah It would be fun to be able to play with an audience too and keep them on their toes. Some live sets i’ve seen tend to get quite self-indulgent at times, so i’d like to try and avoid that if possible… because the whole point, surely, is to have people feeling involved, not merely witnessing.
PS: An audience’s participation can be a tricky energy to bring about, i look forward to seeing you try it out though, as well as hearing your next album — thanks again Mouse! any closing statements?
DFP: I’m really flattered to be approached about the remix project, and I’m tickled that you like it. The whole process was really interesting for me and perhaps we can go through this all again sometime! Good luck with the album, mate, and I look forward to hearing it after all the work you’ve put in I’ll be doing a blog for the next dfp release — working title: breaking the robot.
PS: much obliged! cheers and stay tuned 
…And there you have it! Feel free to comment on the interview, i’ll be archiving and hopefully answering some of the feedback here… maybe Adam will join in too, who knows?
As promised, here’s a bit of dfp’s remix of ‘Beside You Through The Wires, Forever’ -
The next interview will be announced sometime next week - keep yer browser pointed at the blog for details.