Heaven or Las Vegas - Digitalsim Interview

Digitalism’s debut album, Idealism, is already one of the most highly anticipated releases of the year. Although it’s still early days for the Hamburg-based duo, with just three EPs under their belt (released on the Franco-Japanese label Kitsuné, and featuring “Zdarlight”, one of last year’s hottest club anthems) plus several critically acclaimed remixes (of tunes by Depeche Mode, Klaxons and Daft Punk, among others) and a series of organic live performances, Digitalism has built itself a solid reputation and stands ready to ride the new electro wave currently breaking over dance floors worldwide (sparked by Justice, Does It Offend You Yeah?, MSTRKRFT and more).

The group has chosen to release the album on Labels/Virgin Music, no stranger to the electronic music scene with such top acts as Daft Punk, AIR, Chemical Brothers, Moby, LCD Soundsystem and Depeche Mode.

HOLV caught up with Digitalism ahead of their gig at T in the Park to discuss the album, tour and musical influences amongst other things.

HOLV: How Are Things?

DIGITALISM: Yeah, very well thanks. Our album has just been released, its festival season at the moment and of course its summer, so everything is fine actually.

HOLV: You are getting a lot of attention at the moment. Has life changed for you?

DIGITALISM: Of course things have changed because we are doing lots of press at the moment; it’s different from what we’ve done before because now we have a full album being released globally. It’s a big step for the band so there’s more attention on us of course.

HOLV: Have fellow countrymen The Notwist, Mouse on Mars and Kraftwerk been a big influence on your music?

DIGITALISM: Well, we haven’t actually listened to these bands a lot. We have a lot of influences, mostly soundtracks for example. We listened to loads of different music over the years while we grew up whether that was hip hop, U2, The Verve or even early 90’s eurotrash dance. If you live in Germany you have to listen to a lot of techno as well. There’s a bit of Joy Division in there also, but mostly our influences are soundtracks and a punk attitude that you can find throughout many musical genres – it could be 60’s rock bands or even music by Dr. Dre or Snoop Dog. Daft Punk are another example, as they were kind of respectless and rude – they’d sample stuff from ten years ago and not care about the kind of reception they were going to get.

HOLV: You did a great remix of the Cure’s ‘Fire in Cairo’ and Depeche’s Mode’s ‘Never Let Me Down Again’, what UK artists do you admire?

DIGITALISM: Actually, with the Cure it was just a re-edit at first. Depeche Mode was a proper remix and it was a great honour because we really like them of course – but it’s not like Depeche Mode or the Cure have been our idols at all.

HOLV: What about Scottish electronic artists like Boards of Canada and Calvin Harris do you like their music?

DIGITALISM: We don’t know so much about them, but we do now about the party atmosphere in Edinburgh and Glasgow. We had planned to play there before, but somehow the schedule just didn’t let us so we are really looking forward to finally play in Scotland.

HOLV: You have a load of live dates on the cards this year, including the T in the Park, Bennicassim and Reading/Leeds festivals. Exciting times ahead then?

DIGITALISM: Yeah, it’s always fun to play in the UK – people are very nice and they are real also. The people don’t just stand around and watch - they really wanna have a good time. The UK has always been good for us and we are looking forward to playing there.

HOLV: I see you are also due to play in Portugal with the Chemical Brothers this summer, which should be good fun.

DIGITALISM: Yeah definitely, it should be as we really like the guys and also Lisbon is one of our favourite cities - we also have lots of friends over there.

HOLV: How easily can your music be done live?

DIGITALISM: We’ve played live for almost two years now. At first it was really embarrassing and we didn’t know what to do when we played out first gig in France – but it was fun anyway! I think as an electronic band you have to be creative as it’s not so obvious what to do. Now I feel we have found a good balance with just the two of us on stage with visuals, synthesiser controllers, e-drums and microphone. We do a mixture between techno and noise generation for the band setup – but with just the two of us on stage. We are quite confident now after we have found out what’s best and what’s not.

HOLV: What would you say has been you best gig and worst gig?

DIGITALSIM: Well, I think that our best and worst moment was actually our first concert. I talked loads of shit to the crowd and I was totally spaced out after drinking so much alcohol before going on stage. We really just thought we were in the wrong place. After we had done it, we felt so good though - I would probably put that down as being our best and worst gig. But there have been loads of great concerts in front of 10,000 people here in Germany. We’ve played festivals in Japan and Australia which were really good also. The small, intimate club gigs that we’ve done were really cool too, so we haven’t had any really bad moments. We are lucky In that the people accept us as a band rather than just a producing/editing duo.

HOLV: If you could have done the soundtrack for ANY film ever made which film would it be?

DIGITALISM: We haven’t really thought about it but actually it would be quite cool to do a soundtrack. Back when we hadn’t anything to do we had even thought of making a movie just do a soundtrack to it. I think one day we really should do a soundtrack. We love to make music to go with pictures, pictures that come when people just open their open their eyes or when they are dreaming.

HOLV: What are your plans for Digitalism?

DIGITALSIM: What we are doing at the moment is really just concentrating on the tour. We really just want to improve our show – its not 100% finished so we are really working on that at the moment. We have a few singles coming out and we are also doing more press. We haven’t really thought about future plans too much, so we are really just concentrating on what’s happening now.

HOLV: Nowadays we are in the age of the internet, with people downloading music at their leisure rather than buying cd’s. To an extent bands like Depeche Mode have got round this problem by doing great live shows and selling many tickets. Would you agree that the live show has become more important than ever?

DIGITALSIM: Definitely, it’s so much more important than many years ago. We don’t care so much about out record sales – actually it’s more important that people come to our gigs. If people like what we do on stage and they are having a good time - at the end of the day that’s good for us. Nowadays that’s more important than selling millions of records. Today you can also be popular without selling many records as people know you through the internet. That way you can even build a fan base without selling too many albums.

HOLV: In recent years, there has seemed to be a force bridging the gap between indie/rock n roll and dance/electronica - bringing the two genres together. Artists like Moby being one of many examples. Was this a wave that you’ve tried to catch at all?

DIGITALSIM: Well, a mix of rock and electronic music is what we do but it’s not exactly been a new direction for us. People have been quite surprised by our album in that they didn’t know it was quite rocky and indie as well. They didn’t know all the stuff that’s been lying around in our studio for years – there are some tracks on the album that are three years old. We started working with music instrumentally as we were kinda bored with the records that were being released. We had to create a kind of music that we really liked ourselves and this was the kind of music that really gave us a kick. We have an electronic background but there are also elements of a band in there. We like the fact that scenes and audiences merge nowadays. An electronic act can now play at an indie party for example, and you can include techno in your songs today and people don’t really mind.

HOLV: We’d like to wish you all the best for your upcoming gig at T In the Park where you play the slam tent on Sunday. We’ve just had a great festival up here called ‘Rock Ness’ which included electronic acts like Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk. I’m sure your brand of electronic music will prove very popular in Scotland.

DIGITALISM: Yeah, we really wanted to go (to Rock Ness) but we had to play elsewhere. It must have been great - the line-up was amazing. I have some friends from Scotland and I’d really like to visit Loch Ness, so I have to go there in the future.

HOLV: Ok, thanks for talking with HOLV, and best of luck for the upcoming tour.

DIGITALISM: Yeah, thanks we hope to see everyone at T in The Park on Sunday. Bye!