As a way to get out of the studio environment, Irish artist Daithí got his collaborators away from big cities to concentrate the energy of the EP into isolated spaces in the West side of Ireland, using elements of his daily life to create a perfect synergy between organic and electronic sounds. “Falling For You” is one of the first tracks he created using this technique and we are naturally impressed.
Featuring the vocals Sinead White, the track is ethereal yet very pop and efficient. This is the first extract of his EP “Holiday Home”, a 5-track piece where he used the same process. Daithí took some of his time to explain it to us and tell a bit more about what we should expect in the future.
Highclouds: What can you tell us about your EP “Holiday Home” and how the process started?
At the start of this year I started travelling the west coast of Ireland with a field recorder, trying to build a big library of natural, self recorded samples. From there, I started renting out houses along the coast, and brought a makeshift recording set up with me. I tried to record and produce everything in these remote parts of the country, to build something unique and very representative of where I’m from. The results where pretty surprising, because this EP sounds very different to my previous work, much more natural and atmospheric.
What were the inspirations for this EP?
I take a lot of inspiration from Irish culture, we have a very unique history here, and it’s pretty un-tapped when it comes to electronic music. I’ve lived in the west of Ireland my whole life, and have a unique vantage point, coming from a family with a strong history of traditional Irish music. Combining that with the actual natural sounds was definitely the main inspiration for this EP.
What can you tell us about “Falling For You” in particular, the video and the collaboration with Sinead White?
“Falling For You” was one of the first tracks I made for this EP. The bell sounds are from a wind chime, the sea sound is from a beach in County Cork, and even the shaker sound is from a jar of rice in one of the cottages I was staying in. Sinead and I have worked together a lot over the years, she has this amazing Irish style in her voice which suits really well with what I’m doing, she’s incredible. Making this track we were talking a lot about people like The Cranberries, Sinead O Connor or traditional Sean Nos singing and how that vocal style hasn’t really crossed over to new artists in our country. The video was made by my friend Brendan Canty, from Feel Good Lost. We travelled along the coast for 3 days filming all the weird things we could find, trying to find the beauty in the mundane.
Daithí:”Mixing your culture, background and history into the music gives it a lot more meaning to both you and the audience.”
Your music sounds anchored in the past yet very modern, even futuristic. Was it part of the idea?
It’s definitely one of my aims. It’s sometimes kind of hard to put a lot of emotion into dance music. Mixing your culture, background and history into the music gives it a lot more meaning to both you and the audience. It makes you value each release much more. As for the modern side, I really love dance music, especially performing it live. That shapes a lot of what I write; imagining a live audience listening to the song.
What part do you think nature and physical sounds can take in an electronic production?
It’s a very effective way of putting someone in a certain place, if you listen with headphones to track with sea sounds in the background it can transport people away from wherever they are. You can really create an atmosphere, which is one of the hardest things to do with just synths I think. Apart from that, each of my percussion sounds now has a backstory from where I recorded it, instead of just a random snare sound I downloaded from the internet. Each sound means more to me.
The EP “Holiday Home”sould be out in March 2017. For now, you can follow Daithí over Facebook, Twitter and Soundcloud.
Living in Brussels.
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