Dnte has been on our radar for a while now – no run-of-the-mill electro artist, he draws on classical music and pushes his beats in weird directions – but it works. He’s blazing a trail all his own and slowly gathering adherents. Recent releases have been Timetrap, premiered on RECORDER.BLOG.hu earlier this month and BillionOne – Monument Valley ( Dnte remix) was released by Pegdoll records th 6th of May. We corned Mr Dnte for an interview and this is what we found out.
indieberlin: Tell us a little bit about your musical background.
Dnte: Hi there, Classical music is my main influence but I am a big fan of Jazz as well. In my teenage years I was learning to play the piano and nowadays I have started to improve this skill again. If I have to choose between classical or Jazz music, I would go with classical, because that is my world where I can lose myself. I mean listening to Classical music is like refreshing the battery of my soul.
It’s a kind of meditation technique that helps me clear my mind by obliterating my sense of time.
Our mind is a tangled mess of thoughts, any kind of music can help to clear our minds, but I prefer to listen to Classical music. It’s kind of a meditation technique that helps me clear my mind by obliterating my sense of time.Couple of months ago I decided to focuse on the composition skill to express my feelings more specified way. So I am on the way to be a better musician.
indieberlin: How does the songwriting process work for you?
Dnte: Well it’s not the same how it used to be. These days I practice a lot, improve different areas of my knowledge and tecniques. My music writing process looks like I start to compose on the piano. When the time comes I sit down at the piano and start to play. After I have the main thing, I mean a backbone of the song, I write down on the sheet. From this point usually there are two ways to continue the work. First is that I feel the stuff and then I work it out. Second should be that I lost the flow so I just leave there for couple of days and then turn back to work on it.
I think it’s really necessary to understand the fact that not every chord sounds good in every kind of instrumentation
During the process of music making sometimes I change the original chords, because of the sound. I think it’s really necessary to understand the fact that not every chord sounds good in every kind of instrumentation. And sometimes the type of sound influences me to change the chord progression. It’s a kind of vice-versa situation. Hard to write down the creative part of the workflow but when you have the “loop” of the song and you start to play a lot with it, well I guess the result is what we call a song. There are tons of good books about it which were written by great writers.
indieberlin: If you had to describe your music to a deaf person, what would you say?
Dnte: Hard to tell you. In that case if he/she was able to hear before, I would try to make some refference points such as like x or y but if he/she wasn’t I woud try to use some pictures. My music is not really club/banger dance stuff, it is something which is able to trigger some switches in your mind and lead your attention into your inner world.
indieberlin: What artists do you listen to when you’re touring?
Dnte: Definitely the Survivor – Eye Of The Tiger hahaha, just kidding. Well, I would say not sad music. which artist would it be exactly? Hmm…some songs by Shigeto or Nils Frahm, some classic hiphop tunes and some others etc…
indieberlin: Which artists would you list as your greatest influences or inspirations?
From outside classical music I would mention J dilla or Bonobo as well their music influenced me a lot on my early stage of my works.
Dnte: Symphony No.7 by Ludwig van Beethoven or Chorals by Johann Sebastian Bach but Requiem by Mozart made a big impact on me as well as Erik Satie’s work. From outside classical music I would mention J Dilla or Bonobo as well; their music influenced me a lot in the early stage of my works.
Bonobo’s Ketto song is still timeless for me, such as RJD2’s Work it Out song or tunes by Amon Tobin, Olafur Arnalds, Robot Koch , Flako, Jon Hopkins. I can tell toyou ns of great artists who somehow inspired me a lot, so the list should be unfinished…
indieberlin: What was your biggest stage fuck-up?
There were about 200 people who was shocked like wtf and the dj played some tunes untill my laptop came back to the life…
Dnte: The worst situation was in Jena. After the released date of my Wake me Up EP, I had a small tour with Chris Medleigh from Resistant Mindz. After a couple of cities we arrived in Jena. The soundcheck and everything were perfect, there were a big crowd who were really deep into that future sound of music.So I started my live act and around the middle part of it, the light of my laptop changed, it went to really bright so I decided to turn down the upper part of my laptop and the sound had just disappered suddenly because of that. I opened as fast as I could but the laptop still was in the sleep mode. There were approx 200 people who was shocked like wtf and the dj played some tunes untill my laptop came back to life…but of course the flow was killed because of it.
indieberlin: Do you prefer to play big festivals / stages or smaller club gigs?
The artist should prepare the live set for the stage, depending on where it will be played.
Dnte: I dont prioritise beetwen big stages or small clubs. I think each place has its own advantages and disadvantages. The artist should prepare the live set for the stage, depending on where it will be played. I had good and bad experiences as well.
indieberlin: With whom would you never share the stage with?
Dnte: Backstreet Boys and some others from the 90’s (haha)
indieberlin: In ten years you look back to today and think:
Dnte: Dunno, that question sounds like from those questions of HR/interview for a job.
Interview by Noel Maurice
