Claptone

Interview by Jimmy Coultas

Hey Claptone, welcome back to DMCWORLD. My perception of your persona is about cultivating mystique and almost creating a barrier between an artist’s personal life and their work. Building an aura in dance music is nothing new, the mystery behind what records were being played was an important component of the early DJs, but in an era of social media dominance people often want to show more than the music. What motivates you to pull back from the way others present themselves as part of the way you present yourself as an artist?

That is a long question and it will lead to an even longer answer I’m afraid. I have the advantage not to be forced to make my personal life into an image. I don”t have to repeatedly show my fans what a ‘cool dude’ I am and what I eat and drink with ‘my buddies’. I was lucky enough to realize the growing importance of a strong image and story through performance quite early. This helps me today with social media dominating not only popular culture but spreading like cancer eating into all of our lives. I am in charge and by that I don’t have to make my life into an image, pretend to be authentic when i stylize my every move as a artist. On top of that taking me out of the equation as a person avoiding personal contact, not taking photos with fans, not accepting meet-and-greets, not signing CDs, not doing every little interview, not supporting all that ‘superstar bullshit’ allows the focus to be on my music. I love narrowing down communication so it happens mainly through my music also because music is so such a potent medium, so open for interpretation so indefinite without the listener. Saying that of course I know that my image does affect how people listen to my music, but I try to minimize that effect.
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Part of your get up is a very strong visual aesthetic, everything from the mask and your top hat down to the opulence of your masquerade shows. What motivates you to develop this side of your art?

As said above, there is no relevant musician without and image today, it’s just part of being an artist in the (social) media age. You just have the choice to take either have your life shaped into an image or shape it yourself. You might think Bruce Springsteen is real and down to earth but it costs him and his team a lot of effort to create that working class, ‘real sweat’ image believe me. And what would David Guetta be without his beautiful hair or Sven Vaeth without being the shaman that you think he really is? Even those long dead like Jimi Hendrix or Jim Morrisson are not without image.

Your project the Masquerade is very much about creating an experience within dance music, something which got lost in clubbing until recently. Why do you think there has been a resurgence in the kind of events which add an element of production and showmanship to a party, the likes of elrow and Glitterbox?

The state of the world, the state of politics, the distribution of wealth and power, the resurgence of nationalism everywhere, all that seems so backwards, almost unreal to many many people. So these people yearn for experiences that seem more real to them. An alternative reality. A world, a time, a space and music where they can be who they wanna be, look and dance how they want to and celebrate together with all kinds of open minded foreign, gay or boringly normal strangers.

Moving onto your productions, Your latest single utilises George Kranz’s classic ‘Din Daa Daa’, which for me has to be one of the best examples of leftfield pop music thrown up by the eighties. What was the attraction for updating the track for you?

I always loved it.
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You’ve previously shown a fondness for popular culture but from a different angle, the classic hip-hop on ‘Shook’, ‘Cream’ and ‘Wrong’, and then Lou Reed (and Tribe Called Quest) on ‘Control’. There’s this familiarity but people in the club might not know exactly what the sample is, being able to pinpoint it perfectly. My interpretation is that there’s quite a savvy accessibility in there that isn’t overly commercial, so do you find playing around with a poppier perspective gives you the option to lure more listeners in?

My aim is not to lure anybody in. Actually one of the taglines of my weekly podcast is “Don’t tell your friends about this, it’s a secret, it’s the Clapcast”. But seriously I love music and I love it’s rich history, all styles – no boundaries (apart from Nazi Rock i guess). Popular music especially Hip Hop and Club music has always built on the foundation and the remains of itself. Call me postmodern I have been called worse.

What producers and musicians are really doing it for you right now.
I have answered your questions so extensively up to here, but I think if I was to answer this one I’d have to write 100.000.000 more words just artist names and that would be so boring. Let’s keep it exciting.

Where else can we look forward to seeing you play in the upcoming months?
I’m constantly on the road and you can find all the gisg on Gigatols or my Facebook of course. With focus on the UK here’s a little summary. After playing Liverpool last week, i’ll be at Albert Hall Manchester with MK on thursday 13th of Apirl. I’ll also be doing Creamfields, We Are FSTVL, Reading and Leeds Festival, SW4 and Mass Festival in Jersey plus lots of Ibiza mainly at Amnesia this summer.

Finally what else lies in the Claptone future?
I’ll mixing the Tomorrowland Daybreak Sessions CD and I’ve just released my Remix for Gorillaz…
…actually the only buddies I really love to hang out with and feel comfortable to do selfies with.
Check out Claptone performing at Defected Croatia this summer…https://www.facebook.com/defectedcroatia/
More on Claptone here…http://www.claptone.com/