Brand new album ‘Destination Unknown’ set to surprise the world
Interview : Dan Prince
Away from the techno they’ve produced for labels including Cocoon and their own Elevate imprint, Pig&Dan have compiled an album honouring the musicians and singers they’ve met and who’ve inspired them throughout their career. The album entitled ‘Destination Unknown’ holds no boundaries, fusing together genres and styles far beyond electronic music’s own (increasingly broad) spectrum. Released on John Digweed’s Bedrock label, ‘Destination Unknown’ breaks out from Pig&Dan’s roots and pushes their personal envelope of influences to a wider audience who may not have been exposed to downtempo, funk and the (almost) anything goes philosophy of Balearic music….
Igor, Dan welcome back to DMCWORLD. Where on Planet Earth are you today?
“Hi there Dan, we are in Mallorca…fortunately our home and place of residence.”
Well what can we say, you think you know someone and then boom, they go and do something totally unexpected! A brand new album entitled ‘Destination Unknown’, 21 tracks honoring the musicians and singers you have met and who have inspired you throughout your careers. Dan, I believe your father was a massive part of encouraging the evolution of this project…?
“Absolutely, my father Molly Duncan (founder of 70s soul band Average White Band) is on sax adding a lot of funk to the whole album. He’s worked with many of the grates over time including the likes of Marvin Gaye, Chaka Kahn, Dire Straits etc. We also have Tim Cansfield, one of the top boys on guitar worldwide in the session world. He blessed the album with his amazing grooves and we are super honoured to have him on board.”
So 21 tracks to enjoy, please give us a few words on each of these new musical treats…
I Feel Love
“Says it all in the title.”
Urban Armchair
“Asian roots, triply flows…”
Dub In It
“Subsonic Rastas.”
Friday Freaks
“Old school grooves.”
Freefall feat Malcolm Duncan
“Liquid flows…”
China Doll
“Trip Hop meets Chinese cuisine.”
Unplugged feat Joan Bibiloni & Malcolm Duncan
“Latin vibrations.”
Too Much
“Dirty but groovy.”
Charas
“A smooth trip to the moon.”
Silk feat Malcolm Duncan
“Glides throughout…”
Windchime feat Malcolm Duncan
“Laid back like a mofo.”
We’re Cooking Hard Work feat Giacomo & Aqeel
“Back to the roots hip hop.”
OneTwoSeven feat Aqeel
“Jazz meets poetry.”
Es la Vida
“Latin lounging…”
Magic Wake Up Call feat Werner Niedermeier
“Rubadub Dub.”
Tokyo Twilight
“Trip hop in its purest form.”
Rimshot Shuffle feat. Malcolm (Molly) Duncan
“Funking in Jamaica.”
Positive Vibrations feat Paul de Swardt & Valentine de Moreda
“Good time smiley faced music.”
Supersonic Slow
“Drum & Bass meets leftfield.”
Rasa Blasta
“A real trip with a lot of sub bass.”
Destination Unknown
“The tittle track is full of spice.”
How long did the album take to create and was it a smooth process?
“The album has taken around 14 years in the makin. We didn’t really decide to make a downtempo album to release, it was more like us making tracks through time and slowly the album took shape – until John Digweed heard some of our ideas and loved them. That sort of gave us the last push to glue all the tracks together and the result of this is ‘Destination Unknown’…”
Other great news this summer is the launch of your brand new digital and vinyl imprint Elevate, what are the plans for this new label?
“We have some very exciting releases of our own coming up on ELEVATE such as SANDSTORM, POWER or GOD IS A DJ plus releases from artists such as Steve Parker, Dantiez Saunderson and Tom Hades. Also we are celebrating our first ever ELEVATE event at ADE which we are extremely excited about.”
This will be a series of Elevate events right?
“Yes that is the plan, it only seems like the logical progression and the start of this like we just mentioned is ELEVATE presents in the club Undercurrent at ADE the 16th of October…”
October 4th – Brixton Academy. Bedrock16 with John Digweed, Josh Wink, Spencer Parker and yourselves. Off the fucking Richter Scale right?
“Absolutely, it’s so exciting to play with our childhood heroes like John Digweed and Josh Wink, still have my ‘Higher State Of Consciousness’ vinyl hidden somewhere!”
Hidden? Get it out!! So, the big 5 records in your box right now…
Sandstorm Pig&Dan
Doch Hinz & Ruhmhardt
Creepin DVS1
Loleatta Makam
Innocence Terrence Dixon
Best festival experience of 2014?
“Exit Festival Holland was epic, also of course Ultra in Buenos Aires was one of the highlights of year for sure!!”
“Experience can sometimes hinder artists because if you’re succeeding then you don’t want to lose that”. Discuss…
“I think the advantage we have is living on a small island means you’re not often influenced by the current trends, like if you live in London or Berlin. Success is a strange status because sometimes it enables you to get away with more. We are super critical about what we do so I can’t see that we will ever accept releasing something we are not totally happy with. Success can mean you can become lazy, but we do this for love first and foremost, I think that should help us in the future and I hope that we remain with our feet firmly on the ground as success isn’t ever a reality after all, it can just be a faze – and we both don’t want that. We just want to create what we like to play out there and I hope people will remain followers!!”
Ibiza is in full swing, Sven’s Cocoon is yet again proving to be one of the best nights on the island whilst his carry on’s are ridiculous. Let’s take you back to that first time you played at Amnesia for the great man, after endless nights on the other side of the ones and twos, what was it like…?
“Absolutely nerve racking!!! So nervous I could hardly hold the pitch and get the records in time. We have both been on the other side of those decks looking up at the DJ dreaming of the day we make it up there. So obviously it was daunting when we actually did!!”
The tune of the summer…
“’Doch’ by Hinz & Ruhmhardt.”
And finally, what are the next plans studio wise for Pig & Dan?
“We are remixing for Deadmau5 currently which is really exciting. Plus cracking on with more genres and experimenting as usual…”
