The hit maker for Tiesto, Zedd, Hardwell, Afrojack and Sebastian Ingrosso rocks Ultra and Coachella
Main photo : Piper Ferguson
8 Beatport #1s. 4 Billboard top 10s. A Grammy. Music in Hollywood blockbusters and at the Super Bowl. Not a bad year in the life for the man with the midas touch. Dan Prince gets the world exclusive…
Hey Matthew welcome to DMCWORLD You grew up in a very musical family I hear with your brother and father both performers…?
Hey Dan. Yes, I have been really lucky to be surrounded by music my whole life. Both my parents and brother live and breathe music to this day; from playing it, to listening to it. My brother plays drums with me and has toured with a ton of other artists; we’ve played in bands together since we could talk. My dad is a singer/songwriter and one of our biggest bonds is trading new songs, records, or artists we’re into, at least once a week. My mother has a beautiful, beautiful voice – her and my father sang rad Squeeze covers together when I was growing up.
You admit your parents had very cool musical tastes, what are the artists you can remember being played growing up as a child…
Man, so much music was played in our house and we went to see so many live shows too. I think my parents were always intent on making sure my brother and I were able to experience the classics so at the very least we could say “we saw it,” and have our own opinions, but Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Squeeze, Tom Petty, and Marshall Crenshaw were staples for sure that my parents introduced us to. My brother, who’s 9 years older than me, was really into the East Coast hardcore scene, so he was taking me to local hardcore shows since I was 6 or 7 and I really got to experience what it was like to be apart of that movement and scene. On a totally different end of the spectrum, those were bands like Earth Crisis and Hatebreed. The really early Victory bands….
Is there a sense that music chose you, do you think your life journey was already set out the moment you were born?
I think music is definitely something that chose me in a lot of ways. My earliest memories all involve plastic guitars, wanting to wear ripped jeans like Dave Pirner and listening to my brother’s walkman. It was never a “forced” thing though. In fact, I think my father, having been in the business himself, knew first hand what a potentially tough road it would be to pursue music as a career and always wanted to make sure it was fun and inspiring over everything else, but I think my parents saw at a really young age that I was already addicted to the circus and everything that came with it. My friends played with matchbox cars and I wanted a 4-track. I sucked at sports; God I sucked at sports. “When it stops being fun, stop doing it” was a common saying in our house about playing music though. It’s too precious of a thing to lose sight of why you love doing it…it’s magic.
An interesting fact on how you found your way into the electronic scene, you had friends who were into it…but you always felt the scene didn’t offer you any opportunities career wise. What changed?
Growing up in NY, I had a ton of friends who were into the electronic scene – things were just a lot more segregated then. It was rare to find people who weren’t trapped in a “this is my genre” box, but I had a friend named Noah who was obsessed with dance music, and ska funny enough. He was the first person to introduce me to different DJs. I can remember sitting in his car in Yonkers and listening to a mix and it feeling so different from anything I’d heard before. As time passes and technology has influenced music, the gap between genres has shrunk significantly and the idea of bridging different worlds together became possible and even desired. So, coming from the roots of singer songwriters and traditional rock band, there wasn’t the opportunity to “do what I do” within the context of a genre as different as dance music when I first started listening to it. And as the walls started to stretch, there was a an opportunity to help create a lane where those same kinds of songs I grew up writing and loving, could be married to a production model that I loved equally as much but belonged to a different Universe, and it felt really special when those worlds started to collide. It felt inspiring and fresh to deliver lyrics and melodies inspired by the classics, on the bed of a really forward thinking production foundation. Being a song guy first and foremost, I’m a huge fan of what dance music has evolved into and where it’s going. Before lyrics and melody were a driving force, the emotion was expressed solely through the music and sonics, now it feels like a double threat when you can successfully execute the power and passion of both.
How long did your album take and where was it recorded…
I recorded the majority of my record at my studio Dry Snack Sound. It was inspired by many nights of Japanese snacks, Goldfish crackers, Oatmeal and Skittles. It’s hard to say how long it took. I’ve been chipping away at it for a while, but the process NEVER ends. Until it’s out, you’re tweaking, adding, changing… it’s never done, you just stop making it. I write everyday whether I mean to or not, so a lot of the songs were born on the road and a lot of the tracks were started in headphones wherever I was on tour. Then I’d come home and tweak stuff out at my studio or with other producers I collaborated with. No two songs had the same process; they all have pretty unique stories and journeys as to how they were born.
How do you feel about some of the titles you are earning in the press at the moment…”Electronic Music’s Man Of The Year”, ‘The Man with EDM’s Golden Touch’…?
I feel like the world really needs to taste some of my kitchen invention; If you think the songs are good, wait ’til you have dinner at my place. It’s always nice to be recognized for your work and I’m really humbled and thankful people are connecting to what I’m doing, but it’s hard to ever take credit for something like a “golden touch” or invest too much in any sort of titles. Songs are “delivered” to you in a way, and you can’t take credit for magic happening. You can hone your craft all you want, but that magic melody or lyric coming to you – it isn’t up to you. And the real test is time; Consistently outputting music that effects people is what’s most important to me and it’s a long road. I want to do this for a long time so I try not to focus much on those sort of things because they could just as easily be negative as they are positive. And in reality, positive or negative, those shouldn’t be the drivers to be creative.
You made your US Festival DJ debut on Ultra’s Main Stage last month. How was it?
It was really exciting to be apart of the festival. I’ve been a fan of for so long. It’s been rad to go to Ultra and hear my songs played by different artists, but it’s going to be different to be on the performing end of it. To deliver these songs and get to experience that connection first hand with the audience was really special.
The whole DJing part of your life, how old were you when you learnt to mix?
When I was 16 and in my first band, we worked with these producers who also DJ’d and that was my first introduction into mixing. It was a totally different world than I was used to and really exciting to think you could share your music that way. It’s a totally different release from picking up a guitar and playing a song. I could perform a song acoustically, as a DJ or with a band and it would be such a different experience, and fulfilling for totally different reasons. Plus, it’s a ton less pressure than worrying about singing a two hour set and all that goes into keeping your voice in shape on tour. You really get to just let loose and have fun.
Who are some of the DJs around the world you are giving props to right now?
Man, there’s a lot of great stuff out there right now. Pretty obsessed with Munk and Caribou. I think Mitch Murder is producing some rad stuff, and I love what Oliver Heldens is doing. There’s a ton of great music being made, everyday.
Kelly Clarkson has a new album out ‘Piece By Piece’, you have written the track ‘Someone’ on the long player, what was it like working with Kelly?
It’s such a unique and special experience to write a song and then have a voice like Kelly’s deliver your words and melodies. I feel spoiled. If she could sing back to me every song I write, I’d be perfectly fine with that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=051YoZjuQeg
What is your perspective on songwriting…
Songwriting, to me, is the greatest place on earth. It’s the ultimate no-rules, anything goes, safe haven with a canvas as big and blank as you want it to be. You get to create something out of thin air that’s driven by emotion, experience, pain, happiness, loss, and love. It’s something that I feel so lucky to be able to do on a daily basis. I don’t think I’d survive without it; It’s a drug.
A beautiful post on your Facebook a few weeks ago, from a 14 year old kid claiming to be your “biggest fan”. Your music changed his life, it “lifted me up”. That’s what all these long hours working are about huh?
I mean, I know the songs and artists that changed my life. They’re the same ones that still give me chills and remind me why I wake up every day. Music is that important to me and holds that much weight. To think that I could have a fraction of that meaning in someone’s life, is just absolutely mind blowing and the biggest honor in the world. That’s absolutely what it’s about, to connect with people. To know that a 14 year old kid is taking my songs with him somewhere on a journey and they mean something to him? I can’t even wrap my head around it.
A big gig for you in New York last week playing with Stong at Webster Hall in new York for Cherry Tree Records’ 10th Anniversary. It must have been great to have just the stage with your voice and a guitar?
Definitely. It’s one of my favorite ways to perform. Bare bones, you can’t hide a song’s face when it’s standing naked like that. It’s a different kind of connect. I love it.
When you meet people for the first time and they have no idea who the hell you are, what do you say you do for a living? A musician, a DJ, a songwriter, a producer, a singer…?!?!
I usually want to avoid the topic and tell them I play professional soccer.
Will you be touring the album later this year?
Hell, yes.
What other studio commitments are in the diary for 2015?
There’s a ton of stuff I’m working on at the moment that I’m really excited about, from collaborations with guys like Steve Aoki and Dillon Francis, to stuff on the totally opposite end of the spectrum with Shania Twain, Bruce Springsteen, and Britney Spears. Sort of all over the map. It keeps me on my toes. I just wrote a few tunes with Rivers Cuomo from Weezer that I’m stoked on too. And a new Twitter romance with Brett Detar from The Juliana Theory who I’ve always been a huge fan of; Maybe we’ll write something together.
You will be performing at Coachella’s Sahara Tent later this year. For people in Europe who haven’t been to this infamous festival, how does it differ from other festivals in the States?
It’s one of the best festivals because there’s SO much variety. You have the Sahara Tent which is the exclusive home to dance music for the weekend, and then you can pop over to the other stages and see Bad Religion, Ryan Adams, or ACDC. It’s wild.
The last GREAT live gig you went to?
Dawes. This band blows my mind. I drove about four hours to see them play a show where they were playing songs from their upcoming release before they got in the studio to record them. It was next level. I could write a book on how great that band is, from songs to musicianship to sincerity to perspective. They’re something else.
A great new band you have discovered?
My buddy Tim Pagnotta turned me onto this band called WATERS that our friend Carlos de la Garza worked with. I think it’s really rad. Look out for them. And Lunch Money Lewis, his single BILLS is going to take over.
Have you ever been starstruck working with an artist?
Anytime I work with an artist, I sort of get into this “work head space” and it isn’t until after I have that moment of “woah”.
Let’s skip forward 12 months – what do you hope to have achieved by this time 2016?
Sanity. Hashtag wishful thinking.
