Detroit Swindle Interview

Lars Dales and Maarten Smeets are the two Dutch Deep House producers behind Detroit Swindle, their newest project that has been making waves across social media and clubland. Since forming just two years ago, they’ve become well known for their live sets and energetic performances, and are about to release debut album, ‘Boxed Out.’ We sat down with them to find out how Detroit Swindle came to be, what fans can expect from the highly anticipated record, and what they have planned for their global tour.

Hi guys, how are you?
We’re jet lagged, hungover and very happy to be so.

What have you been up to recently?
Lars: Things have been crazy. We just came back from our North America/Canada tour, moved into our new studio back at home, finished the remix for Mayer Hawthorne and packed our stuff again to fly to Seoul as the first stop of our Asia/Oz/New Zealand tour.

If we go back to 2011, Detroit Swindle was a bit of fun for the two of you to experiment with music; how did you both meet and what were you doing before you decided to pursue the project professionally?
Maarten: We met when we were both programming our own night for the same club, lost sight of each other a bit and then kind of met again when Lars was programming a club where I played on the side of my job as a creative in advertising. Lars was DJ’ing pretty much everywhere in Amsterdam and the rest of Holland on eclectic and Hip-Hop parties. At some point, we were talking about cool music and found out we really liked the same, and weren’t really able to play it anywhere. So that’s when we decided to get into the studio together and from the get go, we really went for it.

What are both of your influences and how do they all help to create the Detroit Swindle sound?
Lars: There’s so many influences. Old school Hip-Hop like Dilla, Tribe, The Pharcyde, Disco and Motown stuff, but also modern Electronic Soul or Hip-Hop like Fat Freddy’s Drop or Kendrick Lamar. I think it’s mostly vibe and swing that draws us into certain tracks. Things like offbeat placement of certain elements can really add something special to a groove and make a track stand out. It’s those things that really draw our ears to a track, make us examine it and inspire us to create something special ourselves.

You’ve got a massive year ahead, taking your tour global and the highly-anticipated release for your debut album, ‘Boxed Out’; how have you both mentally prepared for the events?
Maarten: I think there’s no way we can prepare for the album release, other than just let it all come as it comes. We’re really excited to share this LP that we’ve worked on so hard with the rest of the world. We’ve already been playing out some tracks and the response has been good. So that’s great. On tour, you get a bit disconnected from the rest of the world with all the flying, hotels, and the fact that you just zombie your way through the day. So we made a bit of a ‘To Do’ list for ourselves as well to get some work done on the road and stay focused.

What can fans expect from the album?
Lars: A little bit of everything, and a lot of swindl’ing.

The additional vocals from American Soul singer Mayer Hawthorne and the UK’s Alice Russell are really exciting; how do you decide on which singer to work with?
Maarten: It varies. The Alice track was actually a sample we picked off the web and liked the outcome so much we thought it would be a shame not to work with the real deal. So we contacted the label with a cheeky email telling them we borrowed their track and if they were interested in a co-op. Luckily for us, they were.
Lars: With Mayer Hawthorne, it was different. We had this instrumental in a demo version ready for a while and we couldn’t decide on who we wanted for this. Suddenly, we thought about asking Mayer, since his voice is so silky, but gritty. We thought it would work well and we were lucky enough to get in touch with him since he’s a big fan of Electronic Chicago and Detroit stuff and really liked our music. So we got in the studio together when he’d written the lyrics and he just rocked the hell out of it.

You grew a huge fanbase from your EPs, remixes and live sets; was there added pressure to produce a solid debut album?
Maarten: Sure, we felt some pressure, but I think the actual pressure came from ourselves, more than from the public. We really wanted to show a broad perspective of the Swindle sound and that was the biggest drive we had in the whole production process. We really wanted to make something special, a collection that works well together but with tracks that also stand out on their own.

What was the process like? Do you work in a certain way or is it unpredictable?
Lars: There’s no fixed way of working for us at the moment. We usually just jam away with whatever comes up. That could be a cool sample we’ve found, or a groove that’s stuck in your head. We usually do our sketches apart from each other and discuss it when it feels like it could really become something cool. With the new studio, we’re gonna jam more together and see what comes out. Some of our best tracks are the end result of just messing around, so that’s gonna be fun.

You’re touring across the US, Asia, South Africa and Australia; what do you have planned for ticket-holders?
Maarten: We’ve got a lot of new stuff, including of course our album tunes, some of the remixes we got in for the album and some upcoming bits on our label Heist. So it’s gonna be loads of tunes no-one has ever heard in a club before. It’s exciting to see what the parties will be like, so whether we’ll do full House sets, play more Electronic or go more on the Disco tip, who knows?

It will be your first visit to Australia; will you have any time off to do some activities?
Lars: Yeah, luckily, we’ve got some time during the week. We actually have a lot of work to do, but there will be plenty of sightseeing and bumming on the beach. It’s summer there, so we might as well enjoy it and get our lobster tan going.

You bounce off each other very naturally on stage, but have you ever disagreed over anything to do with Detroit Swindle?
Maarten: [Laughs] Yeah we always have fun, but we can disagree, sure. We’re both really straight forward and blunt to each other, so any argument is like BAMBAMBAM and it’s over. Sometimes, it’s about what direction to take for a set, sometimes it’s about artwork, or a certain booking, but luckily, it’s never about girls. That’s the one thing we always agree about. That’s easy enough though, since I’m happily married and Lars is happily single…

Haha! How would you describe the sound you create in your own words?
Lars: Awesome.
Maarten: Yup.
Lars: We’ll let the genre-wordsmiths of the music press decide what our ‘sound’ is…

Do you have any weird hobbies?
Lars: Apart from my social media addiction, not really. I work out, like video games and enjoy going out. Nothing weird about that probably.
Maarten: I collect navel fluff. Is that weird?

Thanks guys!

By Charlotte Mellor