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Flux Pavilion Interview
Tuesday 23rd July 2013 | Keshav
Flux Pavilion sits down for a chat after his EDC London set !
This weekend the biggest electronic acts from around the world gathered in London’s Olympic Park to bring in the inaugural EDC London. Artists such as Tiesto , Madeon and Rusko took the stage to wow enthusiastic crowds with sublime DJ sets. Among the performers was Englishman Flux Pavilion. The British DJ has had a meteoric last few years with his song ‘I Can't Stop’ being sampled by Jay Z and Kanye West for ‘Watch The Throne’ and appearing in the film ‘The Great Gatsby’. He sat down to talk to us about his new EP, the state of Dubstep and Crowds around the world.
You have just come off stage at EDC, the first ever EDC in the UK ! What a day we have been having with so many great artists. How did it feel? : Yeah pretty good, just got here an hour before I was supposed to go on. Had some lunch and then straight on stage, was pretty good I think!
I was in the crowd 10 minutes ago and it was crazy. I can imagine the reception being twice as crazy for you . Was it what you expected?: Yeah , Always great to be back in the UK. Spent loads of time in America this year so I’m pretty happy to be performing to the UK crowd.
Dubstep has obviously gone through a bit of a tough time recently. Skream a big DJ in the genre has said he’s ‘ uninspired’ by the genre. Last week I listened to Rusko’s new EP which is veering towards drum n bass. How do you feel about that? : Rusko’s new EP is drum n bass. To be honest I don’t really know people are doing their own thing I suppose. I feel genres are just ways of putting music in holes by saying that’s that etc. I don’t think I’m sort of a single genre guy. I suppose Rusko is making the music he wants to make , Skream is making the music he wants to make and so am I !
As a big fan of the genre I personally feel the comments ‘uninspired’ are not true at all. I still think its very much in its infancy and still has a long way to develop : To put it simply if your not uninspired by the genre then why do you give a fuck if Skream is uninspired by it . Know what I mean? He’s just a guy who’s not inspired by it so I guess that’s cool. If he wants to make funk then good luck to him !
‘I Can't Stop’ what a big tune. Everyone I speak to only has positive things to say about it. The song was also featured on the ‘Great Gatsby’, how did that feel?: I didn’t really know much about it ! They used the Jay Z , Kanye West version and yeah it kinda just happened! I think I was on a plane watching the film and my track played. I was like woah cool haha !
It was featured in a big Leonardo Di Caprio film who dosen’t love the guy?: To be honest I’m more of a Matt Damon guy (laughs). I think it’s weird how they have a kind of similar face. Do you not think?
You worked with Childish Gambino on the massive ‘Do Or Die’. Gambino is obviously massive at the moment. How did that come about?: Umm I tweeted him and said do you want to do a tune. He messaged me saying yup and I got his email address. I then basically started writing the beat sent it over , he did the vocals. Since then we’ve got in the studio together and been working on some stuff hopefully that should be out soon!
Speaking of new music , have you got anything planned for the rest of this year?: Well I hope to be putting a 4 maybe 5 track EP for October sometime. My deadline for get it to go to mastering is next Sunday. So very close to it being done! In all honestly I shouldn’t really be here, should be working haha !
So what can expect for this new EP. What is the direction your taking it in?: I guess over time I have found myself really listening to my old music. I’ve been finding out what really made me kind of tick in the first place. Rather than listen to the world and go forwards I think I’ve kind of gone backwards in myself. A forward step for Flux Pavilion but a backwards step for me as a person.
What do you think was the reason that you decided to go back to your old music? : I think it was just natural really. I found myself listening to all the styles like trap, and I was like wicked I’ll write some of this some of that! I was moving further away from my musical comfort zone so to speak. I don’t want to be chasing genres all my life. There is a thing that I do that got me here and I need to keep doing those things rather than just being someone who does the same as everyone else.
In terms of playing live sets. Where do you think there are better crowds the UK or the rest of the world?: The rest of the world is a bloody big place. But I reckon it would be very silly of me to choose, anything I say is bound to piss someone off ! So I’ll say nothing
The electronic music scene as a whole is really blowing up now. Receiving more radio play and chart success. Why do you think this is?: I don’t know! I think people are making better music. But if you look at it people like Prodigy and Kraftwerk were always making great music. I think electronic music is a lot more refined. Anyone can go into it so it’s easier for anyone to be involved. Which means it’s great for the next great artists to be involved with electronic music. As a composer I think it’s changed. Before writing music was a lot harder however over time it’s become a lot easier. I think there is some really good stuff right now and it’s just so accessible! Anyone can do it
So just to finish off what are the three tunes you are listening to this summer? : Dark Matter – Brown and Gamma ( Such a good fucking tune) , Endless Fantasy –Anamanaguchi, Champagne Bop – Doctor P
Cheers Flux enjoy your day mate !
Keshav Kapoor
