Dusky Interview

Almost a year since we last caught up with them, there have been quite a few developments for house and techno duo, Dusky.

Regularly requested to play the best events and clubs in town and forging their very own label, 17 Steps, which has already seen releases from the duo, the future looks set to be extremely bright. At the time we speak, Nick is preparing a set list for the 20th anniversary party of Bugged Out, for which he has to choose his top five tunes of all time. “I’m trying to whittle down a very long list. I’m almost there; I’ve got about 10, including a jazz tune called ‘Superstar’, ‘Regulate’ for some hip hop, some jungle and then old school stuff.”

While this set list is considerably short, Dusky have set themselves a huge task of late to play much longer sets for their UK autumn/winter tour. “It’s the first time we’ve committed to playing long sets. Last weekend we did a party in London for Bugged Out and we played for six hours. We had some great people in the other room like Juan Atkins, Trevino and Will Saul, so it was like an old school rave: hot, sweaty and packed until 6am.”

BBM are more than happy to party all night, but we can’t imagine trying to keep a crowd happy for six hours. “It depends where you are. Sometimes the crowd will be up for a variety of stuff, so you can get away with it, but at other places, people just want you to bang it out. Playing longer, you get the opportunity to play stuff you wouldn’t normally, and it’s nice to have that freedom.”

Never mind the crowd, how do they keep themselves going? “We just bounce off other people. I tend to not even drink that much during long sets, because it makes me really tired. You don’t want to be standing there yawning, and it’s a commitment you’ve made so you have to put your energy into it.”

Following on from their UK tour, Dusky will be heading to the USA and Australia. After a quick reminder about their last visit for New Year’s, Nick explains why they’re paying a visit to Harbourlife on 8th November. “Last time we were over, everyone was telling us we need to play Harbourlife, so we decided to come back for that rather than do the New Year’s thing, so we can be home for Christmas instead of away. I’m looking forward to it; it’s supposed to be really good and we can play good tunes.”

Despite long sets and touring the globe, Dusky have committed themselves to their biggest project yet, for this year, they set up their label, 17 Steps, which he explains was based around the concept of 17 Steps of the Monomyth. An exciting move for the pair, Nick is quick to stress that it’s not a Dusky project. “It’s very much its own entity. We don’t want it to be forever tied to us, but that’s something that will take time.”

Even though they want to separate the label from the Dusky name, it was only right that the first release was their own, ‘Love Taking Over’, as it has great advantages. “It’s a platform for our own music and we don’t have to wait to put stuff out. Alfie and I have always wanted to do it, but we never thought it was the right time. We wanted to build up our profile as artists before we committed to starting a label.”

Now they have, there’s no getting away from the demands of owning and running their own label. Keen to know what they’ve learnt so far in its early stages, Nick rather sheepishly tells of his surprise of “how much terrible music we get sent.” To defend his remark, he explains, “People send stuff that isn’t ready at all. I did the same; I sent stuff to labels, which, looking back, just wasn’t the right thing to send at all. It’s hard to have that objectivity, but there’s so much stuff that is nowhere near good enough to release.” Let that be a lesson to all you avid music makers aiming to impress!

Listen to Dusky ‘Love Taking Over’

By Charlotte Mellor
@cmellor_03