Dominating the realms of electro house, drum & bass and dubstep, French producers Charly, Pitchin, Julien, and Thomas tore up the scene with their filthy Irreverence Tour in 2013. The energetic quartet known as Dirtyphonics acquired the well-deserved “Best Newcomer Producer” title at the Drum & Bass Arena Awards in 2009, and the #1 slot on Beatport’s Electro House Top 100 Releases for their debut album: Irreverence.
They’ve also been destroying the remix game with other top names such as Kaskade (Last Chance), Linkin Park (Lies Greed Misery), Excision & Datsik (Deviance), The Bloody Beetroots feat. Steve Aoki (WARP), and Skrillex (Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites). Fans can catch them on their brand new three month-long tour with Excision and ill.Gates.
WhiteRaverRafting.com got down and #dirty with Charly and Pitchin after their dynamic set at Lights All Night. Delve into the mind of Dirtyphonics as they discuss their extensive influences, heavy metal beginnings, inspirations when producing and the explosion of the EDM culture.
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How do you execute four musicians on stage simultaneously?
Charly: Two of us are DJs and the other two guys are playing on machines such as Native Instrument Machines and Kaoss pads. What we do basically is Pitchin and I are on the turntables; we are the DJs. And we play, let’s put it like, a DJ set. When we play our tunes we only have the beat section on the CDs and the other guys on top of it drop all the basses and leads. So we are dividing it like a rock band if you want to put it like that.
How did you guys get started?
Charly: We are very influenced by that. [bands] We used to play in metal bands when we were kids. After that you’re playing guitar and you meet that friend who’s like “hey I have a drummer, let’s do something together.” That’s how it started; then we obviously got exposed to the electronic culture, and music, and we just f**king dove into this. We wanted to recreate that thing that we found in having a band. Pitchin and I were DJs before Dirtyphonics. We were playing anything from house to techno, and then we got into drum & bass. We were like wait a second, drum & bass has the energy of rock but within electronic environments. So we combined that and that’s how we all gathered and got into that kind of music.
Is that how you guys started? Drum & Bass?
Charly: That’s how Dirtyphonics started, drum & bass. Dirty–phonics. We tried a little bit of everything. We’ve been in music forever, so we’ve had influences from any kind of music from rock, metal, disco, house, hip hop – all of it.
Pitchin: At some point, it was never a problem, but it was hard to put our music into a section. We are house, we are drum & bass, we are dubstep. And because we just like to make any kind of music – because I think it’s exciting and more interesting to be able to play any kind of BPM.
Charly: I mean even now, he [Pitchin] calls me at 11 at night, you know, “hey I’m home dude, you wanna hang out?” And I’ll be like “alright cool!” So I’ll drive to his place, have a couple beers and whatever we feel like at the moment; it’s like all right cool, let’s play some music, have some fun.
That’s the real spirit of a band; getting together any time/any place to make music.
Pitchin: I mean, we are together 24 hours a day.
Charly: Met this guy five or six years ago, and out of it, we’ve probably spent about a month apart. Out of six years. (Laughs)
You guys have a really good connection on stage. You can tell everyone vibes off each other.
Charly: We know each other inside and out.
Is that how you exert so much raw energy when performing?
Pitchin: We have this energy on stage because we just LOVE the music we play! And the music turns us up!
Charly: We are our own party. When we play the music, we’re like “WOO!”
That’s what we all see on stage. You can tell that you guys genuinely enjoy the music you play/make.
Pitchin: We sing along, everybody sings along all the time.
Charly: It gets to the point sometimes when we’re playing, we get so into what we’re hearing as far as the music goes that we forget what we’re supposed to do. (Laughs)
Pitchin: Even when we are producing music, we make an intro and a buildup and we’re like, okay – how is this part going to drop? And we picture ourselves on the dance floor and what would we want to hear? What would I want to hear if I was partying in this party, festival or club? And how are we gonna be surprised on the drop? All the time, we picture ourselves raging on the dance floor to make music and to put it together. We were ravers for a long time.
Charly: We are part of this culture, we grew up with it. We’ve been the guys on the dance floor. Up to the point where you get to start playing and opening for other DJs and you know, you get hired on the lineup and all that.
How did you break into the industry?
Charly: We come from the vinyl culture. So back in the day we would go to the vinyl shop, the record shop, and every Monday was promo day. So we’d go in there and fight with each other to get THE promo vinyl. There was always only one or two of each, so you gotta grab it. And then you had all the flyers for the parties, so you’d be like “oh cool! This English or American DJ is coming to town, I have to be there!” And that’s how it started. We started helping other guys promote parties, he [Pitchin] had his own parties…
Pitchin: We went through every step of the music [industry] promoting parties to producing music, DJing, flyers, making videos, pictures, everything.
Charly: As we said, it’s not just a party. It’s a culture. There are many aspects of it and we live for dance music. We wanted to do it all.
And how do you feel about the culture?
Charly: It’s great to see it evolve as well. We’ve been in the scene for what, 10-15 years? It’s definitely changed over the years and it’s evolving. It keeps evolving and it’s very interesting to see what’s happening or how the kids are reacting to the music, or the fashion, or the production on stage. We’re lucky enough to play all over the world, so we are seeing this on a global scale. What’s happening in Japan, Australia, France, the U.S. – it’s at different paces, and different things are happening. So it’s awesome to be able to watch this experience and be part of it.
Pitchin: Electronic music exploded so much. We were playing drum & bass, electro and house in clubs and I was like wow – it’s taking over more and more and it stopped being underground. And now, it’s so big. Especially in the U.S. Like EDC Vegas.
Charly: It’s 90,000 people every day.
Pitchin: I was just dreaming, not even thinking that it was going to be that crazy. This wave is getting bigger and bigger and we’re all surfing it. We’re building this f**cking wave and surfing the wave.
Charly: We wanna do this and we’re gonna do it no matter what. There have been times where there was no money in it and we did it with the same passion, and today we can live off of it. So obviously, we are very excited that it’s our job. We’re like kids. Every time we get a call from our agent or manager, “hey, we’re throwing out this on tour if you wanna do this?” We’re like “WOO! COOL!”
Pitchin: Simple example. Tonight, we are out of the stage and our manager says “okay, so we’re gonna play, show up for an after party for a two hour set–”
Charly: No no no no she came and she was like “would you like to play an after party?” And we’re like “yeah!” And then we were like “but we wanna play two hours.” And she’s like “really?” And we were like “yeah!” And she was like “alright, I’ll make it happen.”
After already playing a crazy set at Lights All Night?
Pitchin: Yeah! Let’s do it again!
Charly: More!
Photo Credit: OhDagYo
What do you think of the state of drum & bass?
Charly: It’s pretty interesting. We’ve been in the drum & bass scene for the past 10-15 years and there’s always those concept waves where people think drum & bass is dead, and then it’s the next thing, and then it’s dead again. And you know, for us, it’s not really a matter of is it gonna work or is it not gonna work; there is an energy within the music and no matter what, people can relate to it. What’s interesting and probably just a personal point of view, is that over the years I’ve figured out that if you tell people “I’m gonna play a drum & bass track for you,” they’re like “meh not really my thing.” Now if you don’t tell them and you’re like “I’m gonna play some music for you” and you play a drum & bass track, and they don’t know drum & bass, they’re like “that’s cool.” So maybe there’s that image that has stopped drum & bass and I’m not sure what it is. I cannot define it. But related to punk back in the days. People were like “punk, what the f**k is that?” And now everyone’s like that was the bass of punk – and drum & bass was the bass of punk and dubstep. And to an extension of what’s happening in trap today–
Pitchin: –and even electro. Everything is, you can relate every single genre of dance music pretty much to bass music.
Charly: Yeah, it’s called bass music. That didn’t exist five years ago. Obviously drum & bass is a very specific genre in terms of production, writing music; there are so many elements and so many frequencies…I’m not gonna bore you with the technical aspects of it – but it’s like a nerd thing to do. And that’s how we started. As we’ve said before, we’ve had so many different influences. Sure, we’re a drum & bass band but we wanna play dubstep and then electro because we have this culture from the house culture in French house, and then now we play some trap, and some twerk…But we’ve always wanted to put that energy, that raw energy, that you find in drum & bass in all of those genres. It doesn’t really matter what the tempo is at, it’s all about the groove that it goes from.
Pitchin: If your’e down for it, f**k yeah.
Charly: You can play liquid drum & bass, it’s smooth and it’s sexy. And then there’s neuro. It’s like rock, right in your face! And that covers the whole palette of emotions and that’s what we’re about.
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Connect with Dirtyphonics on Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube & Instagram.
WhiteRaverRafting.com would like to thank Dirtyphonics for taking the time to chat with us, and we give them mad love on their current tour. Also, a huge thank you to Ellee, Trey and Tyler.
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