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Dillon Francis on Working with Diplo, Crowdsurfing with Ham, and Sticking Two Fingers up at the EDM Haters
House | Thursday 30th October 2014 |
Since exploding to fame 3 years ago with his Diplo collaboration "Que Que", and his genre-defining massive moombahton party track Masta Blasta, Dillon Francis has been pretty busy. He's released on the likes of Skrillex's OWSLA, Steve Aoki's Dim Mak and of course Diplo's Mad Decent. He's played headline sets at major festivals and clubs across the globe, as well as having two headlining North America tours. Luckily, he's still found time to release comedy cat-related productions alongside Kill The Noise as Meowski666 and release a credible house mix for the BBC as German deep house alter-ego DJ Hanzel - who also retains a regular presence on Dillon's Instagram alongside fellow alter-egos DJ Rich As Fuck and Becky. With his debut album Money Sucks Friends Rule out this week, Dillon is living it large and having a blast, all whilst sticking two fingers up to the critics, chin-strokers and EDM bashers of the electronic music world. We caught up with him on a rare trip to London to find out how he does it.
Thanks so much for talking to us today, how are you enjoying London?
It's pretty good, I’ve already managed to eat an English breakfast, the only thing I haven’t done is get fish and chips yet. I did ride the Boris bikes in Hyde Park and went to see the Queen but she wasn’t answering my text messages…
As you come from California, do you enjoy playing shows here in the UK? Is the crowd different?
Totally, nobody wears furry boots here so that’s a bonus! On a serious note, everyone’s been so into dance music for such a long time that I can play older stuff over here like deeper records. Over in the States some places really don’t get it yet.
So I have to bring up the topic of DJ Hanzel; I listened to your mix you did in character for Annie Nightingale and was surprised to find it was really good! Where did DJ Hanzel came from? Was it a bit of a "fuck you" to people who criticise EDM and say you guys can’t make music?
Well, in a way it’s a "fuck you" to some of the deep house producers, cause I must say some of them are douchebags. It’s weird, some people get mad so easily. For example, on Twitter I tweeted that Woz’s song Cherry Hill is amazing and some fan boys replied: “don’t listen to these records, stop trying to promote them. Fuck off and go listen to your EDM bullshit”! I've always been a big fan of underground music but I always wanted to be pushed into the mainstream. It’s funny that when kids see that, they try to push it back into something that’s underground. I think it would be really funny if deep house got super famous and all the kids that were trying to be douchebags, couldn’t be anymore.
Actually people in London are already starting to get funny about deep house, you’re right - it can be a circle. Ok so speaking of the Annie Nightingale mix, and your experiences of the UK, would you say that the BBC has played a big part in your career?
Definitely, Annie Mac and Mistajam were the first people to play my song Masta Blasta. Then I got Zane Lowe’s Hottest Record in the World with a remix that I did for Toddla T, and I think this is the first place I ever came to when I started touring. So yeah Radio 1 has played a big part in my career.
Actually I think the first time I heard your music was when Mistajam played Masta Blasta! Do people know about the BBC in America?
Yeah it’s pretty big... well, I think a lot of people my age do. We consider it the coolest radio station cause it plays music we actually wanna hear, and we also watch BBC news, because it’s the only news that tells it like it is. American news is more like "oh is Kim Kardasian’s ass ok?"!
Ok so obviously the main reason you are here right now is to promote your new album “Money Sucks, Friends Rule”. How long did it take to get to this point in terms of creation?
It took so long. I’ve been working on it for two and a half years now. It’s weird to have it finally finished. The hardest point was a few weeks before it came out on iTunes cause that was like, you have to be perfectly happy with this because it’s going out to people! It’s also weird to have that big of a body of work that I have held on to for so long. Because before then when I made a remix it would go out immediately.
It must be a relief to have it out there now then. Looks like it’s enough to keep you busy for a while! Continuing on the subject of the album, you have a lot of collaborations on there ranging from the more expected Major Lazer to a song with Brendon Urie. How did those come about?
Brendon Urie, to me that was the coolest collaboration cause I think everyone can tell it’s a really truthful collab. Like I wasn’t trying to find some high profile artist to feature on the song, I actually genuinely really admire Brendon.
Panic at the Disco! Those were the days…
“I Write Sins not Tragedies” is literally one of my favourites.
Me too! So do you have any more dream collaborations that you would love to work on?
I’ve already been working on a dream collab - Ben Gilbert from “Death Cab for Cutie”. Also the lead singer from the band Broken Bells. Like most of the indie stuff I used to listen to growing up.
So you have a bit of a tour coinciding with the album’s release. What can people expect from one of these shows?
A huge monstrosity of a stage with a weird LED wall thing, where we video map all the stuff on the front. And there is also a video on the back that pushes these cool lights through. I’m going to play re-edits off the album that you will only be able to hear on the tour.
Ok well that’s a good selling point. You’ve done stuff with Dim Mak before and Steve Aoki is famous for throwing cakes and stuff into the crowd, so have you or would you ever think to throw anything into the crowd?
I don’t plan on it. Maybe some T shirts. But in the past I crowd surfed with a ham at a show in Tennessee. It was around when that song by Kanye and Jay Z came out, H.A.M so you know! It was a good one at the time but now a lot of people ask me to bring ham to my gigs.
So why not do a thing with Steve Aoki where he brings cake and you bring a ham?
Basically a meal for the crowd!
One of the things I was also wondering about, is that your press shot is with a cat. Why is this?
Because I love cats.
Is it a random cat ?Is it a cat that’s like a model and already does ads for cat food?
It’s my friend’s cat. Yeah, it was not happy. That’s why that face looks like it’s seen some shit.
Was it just kind of like wiggling all over the place during the press shoot?
I was trying to put it up but then it would like crawl and jump off but luckily we took the shot somehow!
You do kind of look quite surprised in it too, is that just surprise that the cat is staying?
Yes haha!
It’s a good shot you know, it sets you apart.
Thank you!
So I heard that you’re playing at Amsterdam Dance Event?
That’s right!
Well having mentioned earlier that you can take it a bit weirder with European crowds, what’s the plan for your ADE set?
Playing hard style!
At ADE? Really? I thought you might want to whip out a bit of Hanzel?
I will totally go deep for sure, I’m going to play everything. Amsterdam is always the weirdest crowd for me, I think they can be a bit music snob-ish; they get a lot of music, so they're a very hard crowd to play for and especially with my music being as slow as it is… I don't think they generally like it that much. There’s certain people that do that are like my fan base, but then there are other people that want different beats so I'm definitely going to play a really weird set.
Ok, sounds like it’s going to be interesting. Could you come on in character? Or just channel a little bit of Hanzel as your spirit animal?
I might, I’ll have to see what I feel like in that hour!
Ok so an hour to play with, that’ll be good. Have you ever played Berlin or anywhere like that?
I have actually.
So how did you find it, you didn't play at Berghain or anything like that?
No, but I have been to Berghain before though… it is an interesting place, they open the shades and everyones like ahhhh! And then they close it and everyone just keeps dancing. But yeah Berlin’s amazing actually, a lot of people like my stuff there.
Ok so can you tell us a bit about your relationship with Diplo? Do you work very closely with him and go on tour together very often? What’s it like?
It’s definitely hard to go on tour with him because we’re kind of in the same realm: we’re both like headlinerish, so the only thing that would work would be like a coheadline tour. We haven’t done that yet but I want to, I love doing all the shows with him. That’s why we do the Mad Decent Block Parties though. It’s so much fun to hang out with him, like he’s the coolest person, he has so much music knowledge, always has the best records, and yeah we’ll definitely try get some tour going. We’ll try to do a reunion tour!
Would you bring a Mad Decent type party to London at some point?
I think it should happen, yeah!
I think it should happen, I reckon it would go down quite well at Carnival.
Well we just did it in South Africa so why not!
Ok so you know we do have such a stereotype in Europe, as you said, people are a bit more used to deep stuff and we have a bit of a stereotype of all these rich American EDM DJs who take themselves way too seriously… but one of the things that’s great about you is that you take the piss out of that with DJ Rich As Fuck and DJ Hanzel and you do have a sense of humour, so you can kinda like parody the whole thing. So what would you like to say to the snobs who criticise you? For example, I remember one thing I read recently was Seth Troxler’s attack on EDM festivals. What’s your opinion on that?
Oh yeah I read that too, that was so funny. There was a quote in there that was kind of like about some person did coke off someone’s tits or something. I don't know, saying that that happened at a festival, but if it happened at Berghain it would be normal. It’s about freedom, I don't really see the difference… I mean, so its ok if you’re doing it at a nightclub where no one’s watching? That shit happens everywhere, period, so I don't really get why they can’t just have fun and stop nit-picking... It just seems like a person that’s jealous of those people being able to express themselves however they want to, I mean the person that’s doing coke on whatever person’s tits, that’s not affecting anyone whatsoever!
Well I think it’s good that you literally do not give a fuck.
Nope, I don’t!
OK so obviously we’ve mentioned the crowd surfing with the ham, do you have any more standout funny or weird moments that have happened when you’ve been DJing?
OK weird stuff... I remember this girl, coolest girl ever ok? I think it was in Minneapolis, she crowd surfed onto the stage, did that like weird dance you know, where your head’s back… and she walked on to the stage tried to like express herself on it, fell over, got kicked out through the back area, somehow got back into the venue! Crowd surfed AGAIN onto stage, tried to do the express yourself again, got kicked out again, got in again and crowd surfed again! She didn't make it on stage again for a third time but the fact that she got back in twice into the same venue, amazing!
That’s determination!
And she was so wasted!
How did she manage that wasted?
I have no idea! Probably just literally confidence. I gave her props too on the microphone, like you know what that girl’s just got back in twice, amazing!
Impressive! Ok time for the last question - the classic Guestlist question, because I think it does reveal a lot about someone’s personality. If you were an ice-cream, what flavour would you be and why?
Hmm, I would be dulce de leche.
That’s a good one, why?
Because I love vanilla, I’m super white but I am caramel inside!
Soft centre?
I dont know, caramel’s maybe my Mexican influences even though I’ve got no Mexican in me whatsoever… but i do make moombahton which is derived from reggaeton…
Ok so the caramel in dulce de leche is like the moombahton?
Also I guess being from LA you know I guess you’re quite close to Mexico. So yeah!
Money Sucks, Friends Rule is out now:
