The East Coast superstars setting the world alight with two stunning new tunes
“We’re always looking to push ourselves to explore new sounds. We want to keep making music that we enjoy sharing with people and people enjoy hearing. The party never ends for us.”
Welcome to the world of The Disco Fries, two kids who met and roomed at college who were both into their music but unaware of what glory lay down the road for them. Nick Ditri and Danny Danger are quickly emerging as two of the hottest names across the globe with massive remixes, sell out shows and signature tracks that have been co-signed by the likes of Tiesto, Steve Aoki, Hardwell and Kaskade. This month they have set the world’s dancefloors ablaze with not one but two instant classics – Dan Prince gets the exclusive interview. And as for their name? Well you can thank the chef at some dodgy diner in New York for that…
Nick, Danny welcome to DMCWORLD – where in the world are you right now?
N: “Sitting in my home studio surrounded by six empty cups of coffee and a laundry list of “to do’s” before we head on this Canada tour next week.”
D: “On my couch recovering from a post-dinner self-inflicted food coma.”
Yet again you have the world’s dancefloors bouncing, this time thanks to ‘Parachutes’ – talk us through the tune…
D: “Nick and I actually started the melodic ideas for this track over a year ago, late night after one of our gigs. I had the melody stuck in my head so the chords and everything else came out really quickly. We worked until we got the instrumental to a good place and then sent it to our friend, Paul Brandoli who is a singer and a writer to see if he had any ideas for a topline. Once he sent that back, it all came together pretty easily and we’re super happy with how it turned out!”
https://soundcloud.com/thediscofries/parachutes
As easy as that wow! Well another mouth watering piece of Disco Fries production comes courtesy of your Tiesto collab ‘iTrance’ – it’s a track that many are saying has taken Tiesto back to his classic sound. Tell us the history of this little smasher…
N: “When Danny and I were first digging in on music together, tracks like “Traffic”, “Lethal Industry”, “Adagio for Strings” and “Bright Morningstar” were the greatest inspiration for us. These records are both melodic, energetic, and sound f*cking EPIC. That is the sort of music we gravitate to.
In July, Tijs reached out to us on Twitter about collaborating and we happened to be in Vegas the same weekend doing shows, so we met up at the MGM to discuss some of the ideas he had for tracks. We let him know which of his records were our favorites and once we jumped into the studio together, “iTrance” just seemed to fall into place with where both our heads were at. It all came together very organically and when you listen to the track, I think you can clearly hear both of our styles within it. Between the 3 of us, we really didn’t know what to expect since it’s a different record than what any of us have put out recently, but we’ve had over 460k+ listens within the past 3 weeks, so it seems like people dig it and that’s pretty rewarding.”
Okay, let’s rewind a little back to your Berklee College days when you first met. Danny – what was your dream back then before Disco Fries came along?
D: “Haha that’s a good question. I wasn’t super clear on what I wanted to do when I started college, but obviously knew it would be something in the music industry. I was really interested in the technology side of production, so I figured maybe being a mix engineer or something in speaker/hardware design would be cool. After a couple semesters though I knew I really enjoyed composition over everything else, and what I’ve fallen into is a perfect marriage of both the creative and the technical.”
And Nick, you already had a small label up and running before college, how much did you need a partner to bounce ideas off?
N: “Going into college I had no idea that I’d be walking out in 4 years making electronic music. I grew up a hip-hop kid that had a secret crush on making dance music. It just took being stuck in a dorm with Danny making synth sounds, for me to feel comfortable working on it.
Having a partner to bounce ideas off of is really one of the most important things for us. It’s not only checks and balances, it also helps us fully develop ideas that we may have come up with independently of each other. Those ideas may be 4-8 bar chord ideas that we’re not sure on the direction of, or it may be ideas for our live show & DJ mixes that need to be further thought out. Pushing doors open with 4 hands, rather than 2, makes everything work more efficiently.”
What were your first impressions of each other?
N: “I wasn’t sure if Danny ever got out of his house growing up. It’s pretty awesome that he’s still very much an indoor kid.”
D: “Haha the promo pictures on his website made him look pretty intimidating, and I didn’t know if I was actually supposed to call him DJ Piklz or not.”
Tell us about the early productions you were making together back at college…
N: “We made an ass ton of 80s rock remixes. Everything from Eddie Money to Asia. There was plenty of hair band mixing going on, but honestly, some of those 80s records had such great songwriting and structure. It was an awesome way for us to learn how to wrap our heads around taking a finished track and making it into something completely different while still maintaining some of the integrity of the original song. That’s something that I think people still gravitate to in our remixes.”
What did your families think of your decision to pursue a career in music?
D: “I can definitely speak for both of us when I say that they’ve been super supportive. Both of our wives and our parents have backed us up while we’ve trekked across the globe and spent long days in the studio. It’s still pretty hard to explain to my mom exactly what we do for a living, but she’s starting to get it…I think.”
Tell us about your studio relationship – who excels in what department?
N: “Danny is the synth guy for sure and we both work on the melodic/arrangement ideas together. While he is working on making some sort of cranked up drop sound, I’m typically going through a stack of emails & demos for our Liftoff imprint. If you walked into one of our sessions, you can usually expect to see organized chaos.”
You have a cool remix roster under your belt in such a short time, Flo Rida, Chris Brown & Benny Benassi, Snoop, Usher and Nelly Furtado amongst the early artists receiving the Disco Fries rework treatment. Producing your own material allows you to start with a blank slate, how do you approach a remix for another artist?
D: “Totally depends on the song and what the artist/label is looking for. Sometimes we are hearing a big nasty drop, but the label’s goal is to get radio play that they weren’t getting with the original, so we’ll dial it back a bit. Other times the artist hits us up because they’re fans of what we do and they just want us to do our thing. Both are fun though, because it forces us to approach things different ways. Usually we’ll find the part that inspires us most in a track as a jumping off point, whether it’s a particular vocal phrase or the chords. We try not to over-think it and just do whatever sounds right.”
How important is it for you to make records for the clubbers AND the DJs? Most up and coming producers forget about the DJs role in making a record successful…
N: “I can only speak on our experience and for us, having the DJs in our corner is one of the main reasons we’ve been able to have a career. If it wasn’t for the club, mixshow and SiriusXM DJs, we really wouldn’t have had as much growth as we did with the labels to get commissioned remixes. It wasn’t up until late last year that the labels really started to catch on that blogs were just as important as radio in breaking new records, so up until that point, the main way for us to get in their ear was by making records that appealed to DJs. As an electronic producer, having DJs play your tunes is not the ONLY way to break your sound, but it definitely opens a lot of doors that otherwise may have been closed. Just something to consider.”
Who is the 1 artist dead or alive you would love to make a tune with?
N: “Quincy Jones.”
D: “Ahh I hate these questions…Weird Al Yankovich?”
What is the current top 10 you are spinning…
D: “In no particular order…
12th Planet, Protohype, KillaGraham – Brick
Yellow Claw – DJ Turn It Up
Galantis – Smile
Damien Anthony – Sneak Attack
John Christian – Gunshot
Kill The Noise – Rockers (Bro Safari & UFO! Remix)
twoloud – Big Bang
Aire Atlantica & Burban Gold – 51Sick
Jimi Few – Aqua Frost
Disco Fries – Lose It (Them Lost Boys Remix)
Interesting thing you said a while back… “Moving forward we’re looking to really develop the sound of our music and keep bridging the gap between the EDM world and the Top 40 world.” Discuss…
N: “Well, now that EDM is Top 40 music, that conversation is moot, but being that we’ve been labeled as one of the contributors of helping to bridge that gap, it’s incredibly rewarding to hear. There are plenty of people who absolutely hate what’s going on because they say that the music is suffering. I couldn’t disagree more. With any commercialization of music, the major releases usually get diluted, but that doesn’t mean ALL of music sucks across the board. For us it just means there’s more choices on things to listen to (which is awesome). You have more artists to pick from on Spotify and there are literally hundreds of thousands of people becoming fans of this music everyday. So really, what’s wrong with any of that? Without this commercialization and rise in popularity we wouldn’t have the ability to fill almost ever major venue with some sort of dance music festival throughout the year. It’s only going to get bigger from here, and those who complain about it have 2 clear options. They dig in on the growing underground scene or they get left in the dust. Take your pick.”
Last year was a huge year for you out on the road DJing. Are you the kind of producers who can work on tour or is it a case of there’s nowhere like your own studio?
D: “We do our best to work on the road but sometimes it’s really tough. Unless we have an idea pop into our head that really gets us motivated, we don’t do a whole lot of our original productions on the road. We try to do a bunch of bootlegs/mashups so we’re still being productive though, and we spend most of our time at home in front of our computers working on originals and remixes.”
Best ever DJ gig?
N: “We had some real highlights this year, but rocking at Roxy in Orlando, FL & El Hefe in Scottsdale, AZ, were definitely the most fun for us. Literally getting an overwhelming reaction to almost every record we play is a ridiculous thing to watch. It’s incredible.”
D: “Opening for Tiesto at Hakkasan a few months back was unreal too!”
You spend so much time together, if you could change one thing about each other what would it be…?
N: “I wish Danny would show me more of the random scrap ideas that he doesn’t think are worth a shit but are usually f*cking gems…I usually have to heist his computer to find these.”
D: “I wish Nick weren’t always down to get food whenever I want to on the road (which is all the time) because this beer gut I’m developing is getting out of control.”
What is the 1 record you wish you’d have made?
N: “Everytime We Touch – Cascada.”
D: “ Jackson – Thriller *insert pic of Quincy Jones’ 27x platinum plaque*
What is coming out next from you guys?
D: “We have a few new records that’ll be coming probably early next year. Don’t wanna spoil the surprise, but they’ll be on labels we’ve wanted to work with for a long time…”
The best and worst thing about living in New York…
N: “Well I live in Jersey…so the drive to New York sucks. #traffic”
D: “Best…bagels…worst…landlords/neighbors/the crazy guy that goes through our trash at 7 AM cursing up a storm.”
What is the craziest night you have ever spent with Tommie Sunshine…?
D: “Haha every night we spend with Tommie is a crazy one. We just got back from ADE (Amsterdam Dance Event) where Nick and I shared a hotel room with him all week. Our karaoke rendition of ‘I Like To Move It’ at Melkweg was one for the record books.”
Nick – your new tune is called ‘Parachutes’. True or false, you are afraid of heights…?
N: “Terrified. I’m alright on a plane though, not sure how that makes any sense.”
Who is the person from history you would most like to have a beer with?
N: “Freddy Mercury.”
D: “Bob Moog.”
Anthem of the summer?
N: “TJR – Whats Up Suckaz.”
D: “Martin Garrix – Animals.”
Stand out gigs from the summer…
D: “Roxy in Orlando was hands down my favorite gig of the summer.”
I interviewed Paul Oakenfold last week, he said that Las Vegas will always be about the party and never about upfront music. Discuss…
D: “I definitely agree. We’ve played there enough over the past year to know that most people aren’t there to have their minds blown with new music. We get spoiled headlining shows where our fans come out and want to hear us do our thing. Vegas actually makes you read a room and you have to play a lot “safer” than you would in some other places. I can’t see that changing anytime soon but I don’t think it should. There needs to be a place where anyone in the world can go and just have a good time and Vegas fills that role.”
And finally, not many people know this but The Disco Fries are really good at…
N: “Booking travel and finding good deals.”
D: “Giving you heartburn.”
Thanks guys, great interview…
“Thank you again Dan. We’re super psyched about this and very much appreciate it!”
www.facebook.com/TheDiscoFries
www.DiscoFriesMusic.com
www.youtube.com/discofriesremix
@TheDiscoFries
