Dance evolution on the run

 Bacardi's new "You2Play Party Revolucion” series gets underway tomorrow night with a bash at Centre Point Studio. The guest of honour is Porter Robinson, a young American DJ whose hits have topped the Beatport and iTunes dance charts and who has also mixed songs for Lady Gaga and Avicii. 

Robinson kicked off the 2013 festival season by playing the main stage of Ultra Music Festival. He’s already fully booked for this year with dates at Bonnaroo, Creamfields, Mystery Land, Electric Daisy Carnival (Las Vegas, New York and London), Paradiso Festival and the Wireless Festival.

He took five minutes away from packing his bag to tell us what we can expect at tomorrow night’s gig.

 

YOU BEGAN PRODUCING AT THE INCREDIBLY YOUNG AGE OF 13. HOW DID IT ALL START?

When I was a kid, I was really into dance revolution music, like the hilarious Japanese Euro-beat. It really inspired me to start writing music. I’ve had a real love for electronic music ever since. But the music that inspired me to make high-octane, hyper-detailed music was definitely Wolfgang Gartner.

 

WHY WOLFGANG GARTNER? 

I think he’s one of the most advanced 

 producers on the planet. He’s been such an influence for me.

 

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC IN A FEW WORDS?

The music that I play in my DJ set is meant to be energetic, aggressive, and as thrilling as possible without being cheesy or too familiar. I try to excite people with something new. 

WHAT DO YOU THINK CONTRIBUTED TO YOUR SUCCESS?

There are a few factors, but I think it’s a mix of both art and craft. You must be creative and original, but you must also be willing to work diligently. The focus shouldn’t be on growing quickly, but on writing good music.

 

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON? 

I’ve been writing an album for the last year and only taking weekend dates has allowed me to do that. The album focuses on beauty, emotion and is earnestly pretty stuff with a lo-fi, sorta vintage-inspired edge. It knocks some times, but that’s always in service of emotion. I’m willing to go into harder territory if it drives the emotion home, I guess. It’s been my entire actual life for a year now. It feels like the most important thing I’ve done.

 

AS THE CONCEPT OF THE PARTY IS “REVOLUCION”, CAN TELL US YOUR REVOLUTION STORY? 

I’m not really sure I have one. I love novelty and newness as much as anyone else, and I think that’s an integral part of what I do. There must be an element of the ‘new’ in all that I do – I guess that’s revolutionary in a weird way.

 

DO YOU HAVE ANY SURPRISES FOR YOUR THAI FANS?

Well, I improvise at my shows, so every show is special in some way. The show in Thailand will be just as good!

 

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