“House time is anytime. And anytime is house time.”
The signature catchphrase of Dutch DJ Don Diablo perfectly describes his mantra and co-incidentally, his spinning style. According to online music store Beatport, Diablo is classified under House, but that doesn’t stop him adding drum and bass, trap and deep house into his sets, catapulting his name into the 30th spot on DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs List this year. That is a considerable achievement considering the countless number of DJs popping up all over the speakers.
Don Diablo has definitely come a long way, as he reminisces the time when he only had one hit under his belt. “I remember that a few years ago, I only had one record that did well. It was like, oh when am I gonna drop it? Wait, wait, not now… now!”
Now it’s a luxury position for him, with a whole repertoire of hits to choose from.
Diablo’s latest singles this year have been super catchy, all with his signature future house sound that is hard to put into words. We had the opportunity to have a chat with the man himself when he was here for the Siloso Beach New Year’s party in Singapore.
Diablo certainly had a busy year, pushing out 10 original records and eight remixes, not to mention jetsetting all over the world. It can be tiring, but then excitement of DJ-ing still burns strong in him.
“The excitement of DJ-ing is in the improvisation. 75 per cent of it would pretty much be the same, since I play most of my own songs. I can’t completely change my repertoire. I have my hits this year, and the foundation of my sets would be built up by those,” Diablo shared excitedly.
Sure enough, we heard Chemicals, and On My Mind that night.
Diablo certainly couldn’t pick his favourite hit, as he mused through a list of “On My Mind, Origins, Back to Life” amongst others. I guess it would be similar to asking which child you love best. But we certainly reckon that the crowd favoruite would be “Starlight (Could You Be Mine)”, a collaboration with fellow DJ Matt Nash. The entire beach was raving and singing along to the beat, and Diablo certainly looked at home behind the DJ console up there on the stage.
Home or not, it’s still hard to separate work and fun when they are the same thing. With nightclubs and raves as your workplace, you certainly don’t want to go back if you can help it, and Diablo echoed this sentiment. “When I’m not working, I would like to spend time with my mom and friends rather then going to work again. I do check stuff online. I don’t need to stand in the crowd or on stage to listen to the music.”
No matter where he is, Diablo’s energy on and off stage is contagious. Dangling new stuff in front of us, Diablo shares more about what he is currently working on. “I’ve just finished working on a Birdy remix. You might hear it tonight if the mood is right! I’m also working on an EP, that would be dropping around March. I’ll be singing on one of the tracks. No chance of me singing live because it’s pretty intense. There’s a lot of emotion and it cannot be reproduced here on stage. So yeah, I’ve got a lot of exciting stuff going on!”
Exciting certainly describes Diablo, who gave a little Star Wars surprise during his set, being the huge Star Wars fan that he is.
Peering a little into the creative process, we asked Diablo on where he gets his inspiration from. “I used to have these trilogies [of concepts], and I might do another one. You know, there was a batman trilogy. It started off with Origins, then it was Black Mask, then Knight Time. Those were connected. Then it went into the Time series, made of Anytime, Out of Time, and back in Time. And so the inspiration comes from the name.”
He added: “Batman was inspired by me growing up and looking up to superheroes. And for me, that’s what I do. I’m a nerd; I sit behind this computer all day, but when I walk on stage and put on my Don Diablo suit and rock up in a batmobile and jump on stage, and rescue the planet one record at a time! That’s how I see it, and that’s how it came about.”
“The Time series is more personal, I lost an important person in my life, my dad, so I really started to think about the concept of time, of what does time mean, and how little time we have on this planet. So that was my main inspiration. But now it’s just a little bit all over the place. Now I’m touring and meeting new people, being in new countries and working with new ideas that fly into my head. Even ideas from imaginary friends that talk to me. Inspiration is everywhere.”
When asked about the importance of being a producer as well as a DJ, even though they aren’t synonymous roles, Diablo remarked: “Artistic integrity when you don’t have your own songs is a little bit difficult to deal with, cause you’re depending on other people’s music, so you throw out whatever is out there, and it would be mostly hits, if you have no vision. Having said that, last week I played in San Francisco and other places in America, and there were really good warm up DJs that played some really good house stuff, and this is really important because it sets the mood. People come in looking for a great night, and I come on and it’s like, everything hits the spot, and we hit the ground running.”
“DJ-ing is all about building the night. You can’t just go in and burn the house down and then have a party in it. You gotta have furniture in it. You need to go in, and build it up first.”
Diablo’s creative mind roars into action and he describes a night out with a burn-the-house-down allegory that totally hits the nail on the head.
“Here’s a chair. And here’s the bed, and here’s a pillow. After you’ve completed the house, then you can burn it down. The important thing is that you gotta build it first, and a lot of people are forgetting that. And when people playing before you already burnt the house down, its just a black hole left. Then you have to freaking throw dirt into the ashes before building it up, which takes you like 30 minutes.”
