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 “We have a lot of young, new producers here in Sweden who are releasing more and more, producers are getting younger. I know seventeen year old kids who are making really great tracks, who are exploring new sounds and ideas, so I think producers are getting younger and younger. It’s easier now to release a twelve inch record because basically you just need a computer to make a track. So I think the opportunity is basically out there for everyone.”
With scores of acclaimed 12 inches, his own thriving record label and his debut album Man From The Fall already out in the shops, 20 year old tech-house-electro wunderkid John Dahlack already boasts a production resume more in keeping with a 30 or even 40 year old producer, and chatting down the line from his Stockholm studio his deep voice and seriousness means he sounds similarly mature.
“I love sitting in a studio and I do it from nine to five every day, just making new tracks and exploring new things. I don’t want to be trapped inside a tech house box or a deep house box, I want to mix styles together,” he explains. “I think people who buy my records can be both house DJs and techno DJs, because most of my tracks are like cross over between those styles.”
His vision has been superbly realized on Man From The Fall, an exceptionally strong collection of 15 club cuts with at least three standout, top quality dance floor hits (Ooh Oh I, It Feels So Good and My Love For Machines). Broadly sitting in the electro-house camp, the record has distinct mininalish elements (in keeping with many of his previous 12 inches) though Dahlback himself prefers the description ‘dirty but clean’.
“Dirty is a very rough sound,” he explains, “Normally that comes through on drum sounds and everything but on some level it’s also clean. I don’t know how to describe it, it’s all rough and clean.”
Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): I know you have made loads of tracks and loads of productions before, was it any different doing an album?
John Dahlback: “Yeah, because I went into the studio with this specific idea doing a dirty and quite dark album, whereas normally when I’m doing twelve inches I want every track to sound quite different, sound wise, but you can hear on the album that’s it’s quite dirty but it’s still very clean. That was basically my idea for the whole album starting with nicer stuff at the beginning and quite hard stuff at the end of the album.”
Skrufff: When you are making the music are you visualizing DJs or people listening to it at home?
John Dahlback: “I basically take the approach that I’m doing stuff that I can play when I’m DJing. That’s why when I make a track I burn it down to a CD and play it out at a club to try it out, so my thought is to make music for the DJs because house music isn’t really listening music.”
Skrufff: Two tracks in particular Ooh Oh I E and My Love For Machines remind me of Toefschwarz, are they producers that you have much time for?
John Dahlback: “I’m not very influenced by any other producer, so if the tracks sound like some other producer it’s just a coincidence. Sure I have a few favourite producers, but I don’t really get influenced by any. I just sit down in the studio and make tracks that I like.”
Skrufff: When you’re selecting other people’s records for DJing, who are the main people that you look out for?
John Dahlback: “Dominic Eulberg is a wonderful producer, and also Nathan Fake and James Holden, but mostly in my gigs I play my own tracks, because that seems to work out for the best.”
Skrufff: You’ve done the titles of the album in English and all the songs in English – how much time do you spend about the titles? How significant are they?
John Dahlback: “I’m trying to get a vibe out of the track and just write down whatever comes in mind when I listen to the track. So it could really be whatever, but it’s just my vibe out of the track, and of course to name a track Ooh Oh I E suggests that maybe isn’t that much thought behind it, but it’s kind of a playful track and the vocals have ooh ooh aah eee – so basically I thought it was fun to name it that way.”
Skrufff: Are you based in Berlin?
John Dahlback: “No, I’m based in Stockholm, Sweden.”
Skrufff: Carrie Lekerbush was talking to us recently about the drinking culture in Stockholm, saying it badly affects clubbing, how is the club scene in Stockholm from your perspective?
John Dahlback: “It’s really terrible because we have some of the best Djs and producers in the world living in Stockholm but we only have one or two big cool clubs. So I don’t know why, but no-one who is from Sweden who is a DJ ever really plays in Sweden; they are always going outside of Sweden and playing in Germany or London or wherever. The club scene in Sweden is terrible.”
Skrufff: Do you play at all in Sweden?
John Dahlback: “I have a few gigs now and then, but it’s not what it should be. Stokholm should have one of the best club scenes if you think about the producers and DJs who are here, but in reality it’s really terrible. It‘s a different culture here, I don’t think people really enjoy dancing to house music or techno music. We have a few clubs, in fact we had more clubs a couple of years ago, but I think the scene was badly affected by the Rave Commission who are against all raves and electronic parties. They come to the parties and arrest people just out of the blue, so I think people got tired of going to the house clubs, when they know that the Rave Commission is going to be there.”
Skrufff: Do the police really shine torches in people’s eyes to check for diluted pupils, has that happened to you?
John Dahlback: “No, because I’m quite young. I started going out to clubs two years ago. The Rave Commision is not as active today as before, but no-one really wants to start a house club. I don’t know why but people don’t want to.”
Skrufff: You’re nineteen years old?
John Dahlback: “Twenty.”
Skrufff: Are many of your friends also into electronic music? Of course your cousin Jasper is….
John Dahlback: “They all are into music and most of my friends are also producers and DJs or whatever. I still got a couple of friends who I went to school with, and they are not so much into music.”
Skrufff: What do people do apart from being into music in Sweden? Football…?
John Dahlback: “A lot of sports, actually and people are also always working like hell. The taxes in Sweden are outrageous, basically, so people really have to work hard just to make a living. Life here is centred around sports and many people start their own businesses all the time. It’s not as musical as I wanted it to be, but I shouldn’t complain.”
Skrufff: Do you find it easy making tracks?
John Dahlback: “It’s hard getting an idea, but I think it’s easy to complete a track and I always want to do it as fast as possible, because I want to do that as long as I still have that vibe from the track. So I want to finish it as soon as possible, but of course it’s hard to get an idea of a track, but when you do, I find it easy to complete.”
Skrufff: Where is your main market?
John Dahlback: “I think Germany has the best sounds. They have the best producers because they are into that minimal stuff and kind of more ravey stuff. They are not so much into the commercial things that the UK releases, and I like that underground feeling in Germany, where every place is kind of underground. In the UK it’s more mainstream.”
Skrufff: Are you making records thinking ‘I want to have a worldwide hit’?
John Dahlback: “Not really, because I’m not really interested in seeing my face in a video, or seeing myself in a newspaper. I want to be like a secret guy who produces great underground tracks, so if anything I want to be a star in the underground community, because I feel like yeah, that’s my thing. I’m not really into these commercial things. I like to be underground.”
Skrufff: Do you still collaborate with Jasper?
John Dahlback: “Yeah, we record together and we do a few remixes now and then. It’s really a laugh to sit with him in the studio, because he is a really great producer. He has a lot of good ideas and we fit very well together.”
Skrufff: How old is he?
John Dahlback: “I think he’s thirty.”
Skrufff: Are there any other Dahlback cousins or producers in the family?
John Daulback: “My brother is a producer in pop and my dad plays in an old progressive rock band who were popular in the sixties and made a reunion last year and the are playing a lot in Sweden.”
Skrufff: Does your dad like your music?
John Daulback: “Yeah. He thinks it’s really funny. He’s a bit amazed that I’m going out to different cities every weekend and playing. For most people it’s unreal. I’m getting used to the feeling of travelling every week and getting the flights and everything else paid for but when I tell a person they’re like ‘Wow, unbelievable’. Everybody is glad for me and of course I am too.”
Man From The Fall is out now on Systematic Records.
Interview by Jonty Skrufff
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