West Canadian producer Simon Doty has caught the eye of the industry’s elite as of late, a sudden rise for a special talent after honing his skills grafting behind the scenes. The producer’s emotive compositions and compelling grooves emerge from gritty analog synths; the Moog One, Prophet 6 , Sub 37 and Elektron Analog Rytm are at the heart of his productions. This year he’s already dropped 3 releases, including a remix of Marsh on Anjunadeep, and most prominently ‘The Beacon’ on Knee Deep In Sound. We caught up with him around this record, which marks his return to Hot Since 82’s imprint to talk us through the music and what’s up next…
Hey Simon, thanks for chatting with DMC! Congrats on your new EP out on Knee Deep In Sound, ‘The Beacon’. This will be your second release on the label, how did the relationship with Daley and KDIS start?
SD: Hey, thanks so much! My late manager Ben Sutin was very close with Hot Since 82. Ben had been a promoter prior to managing artists, and he actually brought Daley to Toronto for his first ever North American show, then they stayed in close contact. When Ben started managing me a few years ago he was keen to send music to Daley for Knee Deep in Sound, but at the time it didn’t seem like a great fit soundwise. Over time though, mine and Daley’s sounds started to align quite naturally, and we signed the S4 EP. Tragically Ben passed away last June in a drowning accident while camping, we all miss him terribly, but ultimately it brought Daley and I closer together and gave us even more reason to continue working together.
You’ve used a pretty epic sample in the title track, from Ananda Project’s ‘Cascades of Colour’. Is there a story behind that, and do you think it’s risky sampling something iconic? Obviously when it works (like in this) it’s mega, but do you find yourself overthinking how you’ll work with it when you’re in the studio?
SD: I was always a big fan of the original, and I had kept a copy of the acapella on my hard drive knowing I wanted to use it at some point, waiting for the right fit. As I was working on the instrumental for The Beacon I just threw the acapella in there and it happened to fit really well right away. That was lucky for me! And then of course we were also lucky to get the license cleared with the rightsholder. It can definitely be risky and you certainly don’t want to use something that has been re-done a ton of times, in this case to my knowledge there weren’t many versions of it that had come out so I thought it could be worthwhile.
Do you find this with vocals generally? Or is it just as natural from a production side as the rest of the track?
SD: Yeah I mean vocals always add a totally different feel to a track. I’m really picky about vocals and lyrics; I want them to be saying something meaningful and in an accessible way, but without being cheesy and obvious. It’s a difficult balance to strike.
‘In Your Feelings’ brings a different vibe, which is a bit of a trademark for you now, you’re always bringing lots of varied styles and sounds to one EP. What was your intention behind this track?
SD: That’s always a bit of the intention for me with all the EP’s I release, offering something a little bit different with each track. I think with In Your Feelings I wanted to just do something that stays somewhat musical but is more groove focused.
Where would both of these tracks be the perfect soundtrack for (e.g. DC10 garden, 4pm on a hot sunny day/ CODA at 1am for peak time…)
SD: That’s a great question! I think naturally they both have kind of a summer/daytime sort of vibe to them. One thing I also strive for with my tracks is for them to be versatile, to work in a number of different situations and I think that’s the case with these two. The Beacon also has a surprising amount of drive and edge to it that you really notice when you play it loud at a club so it definitely works in a night time peak hour type setting as well. I think because I pull a lot of different elements and styles into my tracks it often makes them good as transitional tools as well. The Beacon is great for going between melodic tracks and more housey tracks and vice versa.
You’ve also just released a remix of Marsh ‘Beech Street’ on Anjunadeep. How do you find approaching a remix, do you have a point you always start at or do you just get in the studio and just see what happens?
SD: I personally love doing remixes and I think the role of the remixer is to take the sound and style of the original artist and blend it together with your own sound and style. I think that’s definitely what happened in the case of the Marsh remix. It still maintained all of his trademark atmosphere and emotion and then I put kind of a clubbier dancefloor edge onto it. You typically have an idea of where you want to go with the remix when you start but then it mostly just comes from messing around with all the different elements and seeing what you can come up with, and always a bit of luck.
What’s up next for Simon Doty?
SD: My next release will be an EP coming in June on Anjunadeep. It was originally going to be released in April but we decided to back it up a bit closer to clubs being open. Then I have a couple remixes including my remix of Hot Since 82’s Eye of the Storm that will be out in the summer on Knee Deep in Sound, that’s all I can share for now!
Thank you for having me DMC!
Simon Doty ‘The Beacon’ is Out Now on Knee Deep In Sound, get it here: https://KDIS.lnk.to/KD121