Tue, 29 Mar 2011 / Post a comment
When we discover a new artist we always try to put him into a genre, summarizing his features into a unique word. House, Techno, Minimal, Trance and the list could be so large, large like the number of the colors that form the musical rainbow. This labels not always are helpful, sometimes they don’t underline in the right way the nuances that compose the sound of an artist. What we just said is perfect for Danny Howells, an artist that was able to create an own particular style during his over two decades of activity. A sound that combines elements of progressive, house, tribal, trance and many more, brilliant combinations that sometimes are not worried about something bizarre. During his career he appeared on important labels like Renassance,Yoshitoshi, Strictly Rhythm,Bedrock and many more, but in the recent years he focused on his personal label, the Dig Deeper where he is ready to release his new album, Phase One. For the occasion we thought that would be a good idea discover something new about Danny and his new album.
Hi Danny, welcome on Soundwall
Let’s start this interview talking about you, how did you start? What were the influences that pushed you into the music world?
I started for me, back in the early 90s, as a hobby – I was into the “rave” scene, and bought decks and then spent all of my spare time making mix-tapes. My first few breaks, at Bedrock and at The Crypt in Hastings, came mainly from making tapes. I’d been into music since I was a kid, and was making tapes as soon as I was old enough to use a pause-button, but when I was about 19/20 and suddenly able to hear DJs like Grooverider, Weatherall etc, that’s when I decided that I had to have a pair of turntables.
You are an eclectic artist who has built his own style, can you talk about this a little bit? And what about your idea of music?
It’s a big cliche, but I really love all kinds of music and always have. The only style I can say I really dislike is commercial house/trance/pop. I loved pop music as a kid, but that was things like Bowie, T.Rex, etc. As far as my DJing style goes, I think I have stayed the very much the same since when I first started, in that I’m not really tied to one genre, I just like to play a bit if everything that excites me!
In your career there were so many productions, remixes and collaboration with many labels, is there something that you particularly remember or that you are very proud of?
Everything I’ve done has been a big thing for me, whether it was my first remix or compilation or my most recent. There are things I’m proud to have done, even though they may be something that I will never listen to again! I’m very proud of the new album, as it’s the first time I’ve done something like this on my own label, and with artists contributing to it that I really admire and who I feel have really been generous in supporting the label.
In the recent years you focused on your own label, the Dig Deeper. Can you talk us about this project, how was born and how is developing?
It was born as a way of being able to release my own music – I suddenly had a very productive phase of making music, and didn’t know how to go about sending it to different labels and so on, so releasing it on my own label felt like a natural and enjoyable thing to do. Previously I had done a club night, also Dig Deeper, where I would play all-night long, from downtempo and deep house right through to techno and whatever I felt like playing, so when I launched the label, I wanted it to reflect the same musical policy that the night had.
Talking about Dig Deeper we know that you are going to release your new album, Phase One. What’s the idea behind this album?
I started to receive a lot of amazing new music, from different artists all over the place, and originally I was going to release these as singles. But it got to a stage where I had so much amazing new music, and new remixes coming in, that it just felt like the natural step would be to release this as a compilation.
And what about inside this album? What can we find?
There’s over 40 individual tracks, from myself, and artists and remixers like Vadim Yershov, Alex Dolby and Giorgio Roma, Russ Gabriel, Benny Rodrigues, Deetron, Dave Angel, Total Science, and so on – and I’ve taken 18 of these tracks for the mix, where I really tried to include as many of the artists involved as possible, as well as touching on all the different styles and sounds that everybody has contributed.
There are a lot of names in your album, why did you decide to collaborate with so many artists?
Well, these are all tracks that are signed to Dig Deeper. Sometimes people approached the label with their music, sometimes I approached them, but in a very short period of time it just became clear that there was a lot of music, which was why the project evolved into a compilation rather than just releasing a few singles.
We know that you are right in the middle of your tour, a journey that let you travel all over the entire world, ready for the next American step. How is going?
Really good so far, thank you! I’ve been in South America, which was amazing, and then Europe and now I’m in America getting ready for my Miami gigs. There’s more European dates and then Australia and a big tour of North America, so I think the world’s supply of Red Bull will be going down quickly.
And in the end of your tour? Are you going to have a little bit of vacation or you just have some new project to work on? Reveal us something about your future.
I’ll be releasing some more bits on Dig Deeper … some vinyl samplers and a few standalone singles, and then there’ll be an amazing artist album from Art Bleek. I’m only really touring heavily now because I’m promoting the album – once this is done I’ll get back to having my occasional weekends off with my animals and Eastenders!
Thanks for the time that you spent with us. Good luck.
Thank you!!!
