Although festival season is coming to a close there is always time to up your gear from next year. If you were lucky enough to attend Electric Forest this past July you may have seen attendees walking around wearing awesome hoods like the ones pictures above. While I was in the Forest I came across Alan Joseph, the vendor selling the hoods and immediately purchased one. After speaking with Alan for a few minutes I learned that he designed the hoods and travels around to festivals selling them himself. He seemed like a great guy and I appreciated his entrepreneurial spirit so I decided to reach out to him to try to help him get his name out there.
During our correspondence he revealed that he also produced music under the name Electric Dandelion. He described it as “bass heavy ethereal dub” and as soon as I heard it I was reminded of older Bassnectar (the highest of compliments). I wanted to learn more about this multi-tasking multi-talented man and asked him to elaborate on his experience in the scene for the last 13 years.
I started with his roots, asking him about his background in music and the scene,
“At the beginning of 2001 I moved to San Francisco. It was an amazing time to be in SF. The underground scene was really inspiring musically and spiritually. There were these small gatherings in warehouses where it was about art, spirituality, music and connection.”
Back then (2001) Alan was making music but wasn’t focusing on dance music. He was into this genre called “Shoegazer” which I’d never heard of before. It was the San Francisco gatherings and Burning Man that shifted his attention to electronic.
“I was making music but not dance music. I was more into shoegazer music like Slowdive. The music was more guitar and vocals with some beats but not dance friendly at all. SF gatherings and Burning Man really had a huge impact on me in so many ways. I started to get into IDM and breakbeat. Breakbeat was really big at the time in the underground. I also started discovering IDM that had ambient textures. The IDM I was listening to was ethereal textures with electronic beats and glitches. It was the marriage of shoegazer and beats that I really liked. I liked Massive Attack back then too but shoegazer was the biggest influence back then. Massive Attack was a huge influence on me when writing Metamorphosis (his latest album)”.
With the mention of Metamorphosis we moved from his roots to his current project, Electric Dandelion. He had been DJ’ing as Dandelion and added the “Electric” to his name in 2009. We spoke about the album which has has experienced huge success since its release a little over two months ago. He had been working on the Metamorphosis album for three years before finally releasing it in June. It is currently #17 on Additech for most downloaded albums of 2014. Alan spoke about it saying,
“It feels good that people are liking the album especially after working on it for so long. It’s my first under the Electric Dandelion name. I’ve produced a lot over the years but never felt that the music was ready to be shared until now. I am fortunate to have a highly respected label for support of my first album. Muti Music has been amazing.”
Although we could have spoken about music, and more specifically his experience in electronic music, for hours it was getting late so we made our way to his other project, hoods. I inquired about his background in design and of course couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hear his opinions on festivals he has attended as a vendor.
“I got a bachelor’s degree in Art from Southern Methodist University (Alan is from a suburb outside of Dallas). I’ve been designing clothes since 2004 but didn’t get into the hoods until later. I started designing hoods in 2006 but got sidetracked with lots of other things. I revisited the hoods over the past few years and realized I had a passion for them. The past 2 festival seasons have been pretty solid. My favorite festivals are Lucidity, Sonic Bloom, Lightning In A Bottle, Enchanted Forest, and Electric Forest.”
With the hood talk out of the way, I wrapped up with a question about his future. Where does he want this journey to go? What are his plans for Electric Dandelion and his hood business?
“I feel like the journey for both the music and the designs will continue to lead me on a wonderful adventure. I just want to be the best artist I can be and continue to share it with people. I’m grateful that I have platforms and support for me to do that.”
Thank you so much Alan for taking the time to do this interview with me. It was a pleasure to talk to someone who has been so deeply involved in the movement that I love so much. Check out his album Metamorphosis below and enter to win one of his dope hoods as well! Support an artist who is truly talented and doing things organically.
Giveaway
Win a hood designed by Alan Joseph and up your festival swag!
Visit AlanJosephDesigns.com.
Connect with Electric Dandelion:
http://electricdandelionmusic.com/
https://www.facebook.com/electricdandelionmusic
https://soundcloud.com/electricdandelion
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