On Record
Australian DJ and producer Flume’s early musical discoveries have helped him become of the world’s most dynamic live acts. We catch up with the rising star as he releases his latest album, Skin.
Words by Ben Olsen
Your bag is empty
Australian DJ and producer Flume’s early musical discoveries have helped him become of the world’s most dynamic live acts. We catch up with the rising star as he releases his latest album, Skin.
Words by Ben Olsen
After finding a music-making program in a cereal box at the age of 11, Harley Streten – aka Flume – discovered a passion that’s seen him emerge as one of electronic music’s brightest talents. Building on the underground success of his 2012 debut album, the sharp-dressing Sydneysider recently released Skin, a follow-up record that pulls in an impressive list of collaborators – including Beck, Little Dragon and Raekwon – and seen his shimmering take on dance music crack America and beyond.
Marking just how far he’s come in the industry, Streten took ‘sketches’ for the songs that would later end up on Skin out to Los Angeles and the album took shape as he roped in an A-list line-up of musicians to help supply the vocals. Finding new sounds is a key part of Streten’s approach and informs the music he produces. “I’ll spend days just working on creating new sounds that I then store away,” he says. “Then, when I feel inspired I’ve got all these places to start from – it’s like my ammunition.”
Back in the early days, he’d trawl Napster for his inspiration. “I was listening to lots of really bad trance music,” he says. “I had no money to buy records so I’d go on music-sharing sites and I guess they were my equivalent of Soundcloud. I had access to a whole world of music for zero dollars, which gave me a lot of my inspiration and formed my music knowledge.”
“I’ve been really curious about textures and tone palettes and finding sounds that don’t sound like anything you’ve ever heard before.”
Now Streten claims he usually discovers new artists through friends, although he says that with so much noise and hype in the industry, unearthing good music is harder than ever. “It’s difficult these days as there’s so much rubbish out there,” he says. “The amount of kids putting tracks out is growing exponentially, which is great but makes it trickier to come across really good music – there are some gems out there but you’ve got to spend time looking for it.”
One new favourite artist is experimental Venezuelan producer Arca, who produced FKA Twigs’ record. “I’m a sucker for a really emotive melody but what I’m excited about right now is sound design and I’ve been listening to a lot of odd-sounding stuff,” he says. “I’ve been really curious about textures and tone palettes and finding sounds that don’t sound like anything you’ve ever heard before.”
After taking a short break, Streten is soon to be “ping-pong-balling across the world again” to perform at a series of live dates and festivals – expect his fame to have reached ever-greater heights by the end of the year.
Skin is out now.
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