The Mix 050: dogheadsurigeri

It’s only been a year since you put out your debut single, ‘Fluid Matter’. Things have moved quickly for you since then, has it been a bit of a whirlwind?

Yeah! I must say, I didn’t really expect it. I moved to London two and a half years ago from the Netherlands, and when I moved, I just felt like it was a really good moment to start making music and being connected in this scene, because it’s the epicentre of the music industry and a lot of different sounds and genres. I released my debut single and it just suddenly caught wind, which I’d never really expected. It was a self-release, I didn’t hire anyone to help me with it, and I didn’t have a publicist back then, so it was all very DIY.

I was positively overwhelmed and surprised with the reaction, and that’s how it led to this new EP that I’m releasing on KI/KI’s slash label. I was at home in my room and had just released this debut single, and I was like: ‘Okay, maybe I can send it out to some other producers so they know that I make stuff’. But when you send out a promo to people who are so big or have so many followers, it almost feels like you’re sending it into the abyss, and that they’re never gonna be read or responded to. When KI/KI came back to me, she was like: ‘This is a great tune, do you want to release it on my label?’. I was shocked, I’d literally just released one single and she was asking me to release on her label! Like, what if I don’t even know how to make music?! She really trusted me with this, which was absolutely incredible. It’s really snowballed now.

How and when did you first learn to produce? Are you self-taught?

Yeah, I’m self-taught. I graduated from art school, but in visual art and design. I was a DJ first, then at some point, I had this idea to actually make music, exploring how to put a composition together, what an arrangement is, and so on. For a long time, I had this barrier or obstacle in my mind. For some reason I had this thought that production is very technical, it’s more about frequencies and physics and sound engineering, and that it was extremely difficult. But when I graduated from art school and I was already doing creative stuff, I thought: ‘If I can make a painting, I should probably also be able to make something in Ableton’. I knew it was my time to start doing it.

It takes time of course. It’s not like you just open a software and immediately make bangers, it’s a learning curve definitely, especially when you’re self-taught. I feel like you have to just pursue it, and you have to be a bit delusional and believe that your next track is always gonna be better than the last. You’re gonna see the progression. A friend of mine gave me some really good advice once, they told me that you just have to mix one track after another, and you always have to finish them. Then you eventually arrive at the point where you make something and you’ll be like, ‘Oh, I like that, I can release it’. After a year of making tracks, I arrived at ‘Fluid Matter’, and I knew it was something I could actually release.

Your debut EP, ‘Silver Current’, is out next week. How are you feeling about it?

It feels very unreal because when you make music, you release it in a different chapter. You wait six months or sometimes longer for it to be released. It’s a weird comparison, but it’s like being pregnant and waiting for the child to be born! I’m really curious about who I’m going to be after the release both as a DJ but also as a music producer. Will there be new opportunities? There’s a lot of unknown areas, and I’m very happy to explore them all. It’s exciting, but also a bit stressful.

Can you talk me through the production process on this one, how did it come about?

So when KI/KI first reached out to me, it was just after I released my debut single. I was working on new music, gradually producing new tracks and trying to develop my sound. Then at some point, a few months later, she reached out to me again asking if I had any new material to show her. I showed her what I had already, and she gave me a deadline to show her the rest. I’d never worked to a deadline on music before, so it was a new experience, but also good because it helped me to focus.

In terms of production, I don’t really work with any hardware, I’m very much an internet Ableton kid. I like dropping things out and in, having lots of sample packs connected, almost like a collage. It’s like piecing a lot of things together, my music production leans toward trance, making melodies the main aspect. I dedicate most of my time to shaping the synth lead. I don’t limit myself to hardware, and that might change in the future, but at this point, I love the fact that you can just find a sample of a bird singing and quickly place it in.

The EP is out on KI/KI’s slash imprint, what’s your relationship like? Are you close? She’s sung your praises in the past!

Yeah, we first met in London at The Archives when she was headlining the show. It was really nice, because sometimes you just talk with people on Instagram, but you don’t really know what they’re like in real life. Obviously she’s very busy and it’s not like she has time to have the deepest conversation at 2:AM in the green room, especially when she’s touring quite a lot, but we had a great chat. She’s just very welcoming and has a positive energy which I really liked. The entire atmosphere was really positive, good vibes, you know. She later invited me to her Club Raum residency in Amsterdam, curating a night in December where I had the chance to open for her.

What I really admire about artists like KI/KI is that, despite already having an established position in the scene, she actively supports emerging talent, giving them a platform and space to thrive. She plays their music, boosts their careers, and gives them a spotlight, and I think that’s really important. I’m very glad and grateful for that opportunity as well.

Your style is quite nostalgic, you’ve really nailed that ‘90s trance and techno sound. Is it something you grew up with and pin a lot of sentimentality on?

Actually, that’s funny, because I do and I don’t. Obviously nostalgia always sticks with you. I remember sitting in the car with my parents, listening to the radio, a Tiësto tune playing in the background. It follows you to some extent. But when I started DJing, I was into weirder experimental stuff and club sounds, things I still love to this day, but I was playing different things. It took years to refine my sound – I was more exploring fast techno, hard dance, all of that. Then at some point, I just landed on trance.

I always used to mix stuff like Tiësto and Paul van Dyk, even like seven years ago. Back in the day, if you would play Tiësto in a club, people would think it’s really cheesy and commercial. I think the ‘90s and ‘00s were a golden era, producing incredible music from countless great producers. The scene was absolutely insane, but there was a little bit of shame to it, you know?

Two years ago, I released my first 2000s Ibiza Trance Mix for TANK Magazine, and it quickly gained traction. It was even named one of The Best Mixes of 2023 by Mixmag. Last year, I revisited the concept with a ‘Vol. 2’ mix for Free From Sleep, and both mixes received great feedback. People really loved it. It’s great music, so of course it defends itself, but sometimes there’s this weird, almost pretentious approach to music – what’s fun and what’s not, and what’s acceptable to be played in the club. I want to go against this. So, to some extent, this trance sound was always around, but now I’m really happy that I can spend more time digging into it. There’s plenty of compilations where people combine all of these tunes and play weird radio edits and pirate versions, there’s thousands of remixes. The digging process is great, because I wasn’t on the planet back then, or I was really little, so obviously now for me, this music sounds very fresh even though it was made 25 or 30 years ago. It’s also cool to bring a bit of that heritage back as well, I think that’s how I arrived at this trance and techno nostalgia.