Pyramid, Faroa, Sphinx and now Kairo; you’d be forgiven for thinking that John Dahlback – despite his distinctly European name – was a child of ancient Egypt, given the titles of his last few releases. So what’s the deal? We caught up with the Swedish super-producer to delve beneath the shifting desert sands of his inspiration…
Your last few releases have followed a particularly Egyptian theme – any reason for this?
Well it all started with Pyramid a couple of years ago, which had an amazing melody/hook so it became a thing to use that theme for tracks I did with these kinds of melodies. I have ended the Egypt series now and will move on to the next country, for which I had a vote on my Facebook fanpage. The people decided that Algeria will be the next theme-release...we'll see how that goes!
When you approach a new track, do you have a distinct idea of what you want the end result to be?
No, I always start the same, with the beats. And when those are in place I move on to the next segment. Or sometimes – if I've been going around whistling a melody – I’ll start with that in the studio.
What was the idea/inspiration behind Kairo?
I wanted to end my Egypt series with a bang, and Kairo is extremely big on dancefloors so it was perfect.
It seems to be a track of two parts; a dark, driving ‘verse’ and a soaring, synthy ‘chorus’ – was this intentional?
It's my signature I guess, I've always blended different styles together. I think it’s very powerful for the listener to change it up like that, rather than relying on one idea through the whole thing.
How did you technically put it together (hardware, soft synths etc…)
I'm all about software synths, I have thousands in my studio, but I always tweak them to the max and adding extra modulation effects on it to create a, original sound. And I did a lot of drum programming to get the funk.
Do you have a ‘go-to’ bit of kit when you’re producing?
I created a template of mastering plug-ins that I use on all tracks, and I have a huge library of drums to chose from which takes a bit of time to find the perfect sound. I know quite instantly which kind of sound I want for a track, and if I can't find it I will always go around searching for that sound until I find the right one.
What are your plans for 2011?
I have loooads of stuff coming out soon; some new tracks and a few videos so I think 2011 will be a great year for me!
