Trackitdown's Nick Coles caught up with Radio 1 champion Danny Howard this week ahead of a super-sized summer for him on the white Isle.
Your latest track that is currently being championed by the likes of Afrojack, Avicii, Sander Van Doorn, Tiesto & Fedde Le Grand, it is also now sitting in our top 10 on Trackitdown.net. Is this your biggest track to date and were you surprised at the response this time around?
It’s been doing amazingly! Both my previous collaborations with the Futuristic Polar Bears have done really well, but this is my most successful solo record for sure and to have the DJs you’ve named all supporting it is still surreal. For ages people thought it was by Sander Van Doorn! That was a bit of an honour really, we had to keep it a secret for ages but watching everyone on the internet guess who it was by was great, yet frustrating as I had to keep quite the whole time.
Bullet is probably the last track of that style that I’ll do, I’ve been playing much housier sets over the last 12 months and this will be reflected in future productions – I think people will be pleasantly surprised when they hear what I’ve been working on!
Artist: Danny Howard
Label: Spinnin Records
Genre: House / Electro (EDM, Progressive)
Release Date: 2015-04-24
Label: Spinnin Records
Genre: House / Electro (EDM, Progressive)
Release Date: 2015-04-24
This season in Ibiza will see you gracing the decks at Pacha, Cream and Sankeys, how did you manage to navigate your way around the Ibizan club politics to make this all happen?
I know, it’s quite full on this year that’s for sure, I think I’ve got about 60 flights booked already! Last year I had a weekly residency at Pure Pacha which was incredible, this year I’ll be back again for seven dates and then a few dates in-between at Cream, Sankeys and a massive weekend for Radio 1’s 20th year in Ibiza (spoiler: it’s going to be HUGE). The line-ups this season across the board are next level – everyone’s really gone to town to make sure every night is the best they can be, and this year I’m very excited to say I’ll be helping put together a party of my own… I’ll be taking my brand, Nothing Else Matters, abroad for the first time and to the terrace at Amnesia for Cream!
Please tell us about your brand ‘Nothing Else Matters’, how and why was this concept formed and what are the future aims under this banner?
It’s something I started at the end of 2013 as a platform to give UK talent the showcase it deserves, the full name is ‘Nothing Else Matters… But the Music’ – it’s about taking away all the gimmicks and making the shows all about the music. The first couple of gigs had guys like Josh Butler, Bontan and Hannah Wants, as well as Pete Tong, Disclosure and Mark Knight to give you an idea of the music policy.. From January – March this year we properly launched the brand by taking it on tour across the UK with 14 dates in some wicked little venues, with line-ups that included Philip George, Disciples, 99 Souls and GotSome. I can’t wait to take it to Ibiza, and to BCM in Mallorca where Nothing Else Matters will have its own residency every Tuesday.
We are of course just shy of the european festival season, where can we find you this summer outside of Ibiza? Are you a fan of festivals or do you prefer a clean club experience any day?
I’ve got three festivals lined up in the UK – Outbreak Festival, We Are FSTVL and Creamfields at the end of August. I don’t think you can really compare festival and club sets because they’re such different experiences. Obviously it’s much more personal and intimate in a club, a place where you can probably afford to be a bit more experimental with the music, but at a festival you get to play to thousands of people (hopefully) in the sun, and play all those big tunes you’ve been saving up all winter.
You are of course known for playing a variety of styles across the board, do you feel it’s important to be eclectic in this day and age as a club DJ? How do you ensure that you consistently appeal musically to all your fans old & new?
I think as with any career, being a DJ is all about adapting and evolving your style. Very few people like the same music at 25 that they did at 15, and in the same way it’s not unusual for a DJ’s style to mature over time. I’m in the fortunate position, with Dance Anthems, to be able to play music across the board every Saturday on Radio 1, but in my DJ sets everything is very much ‘house’. I think you’ve got to get the balance right of being eclectic in your sets but also fulfilling the expectations of the people who have come to see you – it probably wouldn’t go down well if I went out and played a salsa set, even if I was feeling in the mood for that!
Surprisingly this summer we will see you play 3 dates at Amine Edge & Dance’s Cuff night at Sankeys, please tell us more about this move towards the underground?
I’m really looking forward to playing at CUFF this summer, it’s also going to be my first time at Sankeys too. I’ve been supporting Amine Edge & DANCE’s music on the R1 show and on the podcast for a while now, so it’s going to be great to be able to play alongside them and hopefully challenge a few people’s expectations and show people a different side of what I’m about.
How are things going over at Radio 1? It’s obviously been a fantastic platform for your career, do you see yourself there in years to come
It’s still very surreal to be doing a show on Radio 1, even if it has been three years since I started. It all stems from being a fan of the station since my early teens… my 13 year old self sometimes pops into my head and thinks, ‘oh my god, how the hell did this happen?!’.
That said, the show has progressed so much in terms of style, listeners and cementing its place in the Radio 1 schedule. It’s crazy to think that it has just under 2 million listeners every week, something that scares me when I think about it too much. So I guess the answer to your question is yes, it’s all going great thanks and I’m working hard to keep it constantly evolving and on point with the biggest club and electronic music in the world.
I’ve got many goals I still want to achieve so hopefully I’ll be there for years to come!
On a production tip, what does the Danny Howard studio currently consist of? Any cool new plugins of hardware you can tell us about?
Well, I’ve actually just moved into a new studio space that I share with B Traits. The studio came with a large vocal booth so I just converted that into a second studio space meaning we can have two sets up running at the same time, which is great.
The studio set up is quite basic and just consists of my iMac running ableton, Apogee duet sound card, Midi Keyboard, Neumann TLM103 to record my SiriusXM radio show and obviously vocals… and I’ve just got the Focal Twin 6 Be Monitors which sound absolutely incredible!!
Theere's also soooo many cool plug in’s but the latest one I’ve been using and geeking out over is the Soundtoys ‘Little Alter Boy’. I was using it to pitch some vocals and it gets some amazing effects on them… the best results I’ve had for doing interesting, crazy things to vocals!
The annoying thing is that it’s not even been released yet… Soundtoys made it available for free for a limited time as a bit of a teaser, but when it comes out, I’d highly recommend!!
What else does the year ahead hold in store for you? Any albums, collaborations or tours we should know about?
Well, I’ve been working on my follow up to ‘Bullet’ which I hope will come out soon and then I have four more tracks that are nearly finished (at the time of writing this) which will be very much in line of what I’m playing in my club sets… straight up house goodness! The follow up I mentioned above is very much in between the big room sound of bullet, but with house elements… I suppose it’s a sort of bridge from one style to another but I know you won’t be disappointed; it’s been killing it in the club!
Album wise… I’ve been given the almighty honour of mixing the 20 years of BBC Radio 1 in Ibiza compilation album so I’m in the middle of selecting tracks for that, which is quite a hard task as there are so many classics to choose from!
Finally, what is the most rock n roll thing to have happened to you on your travels as a DJ?
I think the latest one was my gig in Dubai… It was a new festival that took place on the beach to a 6000 strong crowd, I landed in the afternoon, went on the decks that night after Mark Ronson and then had 1 hour from playing my last tune to my plane back to the UK taking off… I’ve never caught a flight so quickly or been to a place like Dubai for such a short amount of time! I suppose it’s what people like Tiesto & Calvin Harris are used to but it was basically like I woke up in London, played a sick gig in Dubai and then went back to bed at home that same night… casual.
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