Interview: Digitalism Talk New Music, Games & More

2007 was a year that was unforgettable for many people. Justice released their first album, going down as a huge success and a cult classic amongst electronic music fans everywhere. Daft Punk departed on their Alive 2007 tour, which technically started back in 2006 – but it’s Daft Punk… We’ll let them off the hook.

Most importantly, however, Digitalism released their first album: Idealism.

Tracks like Zdarlight, and Pogo, would be forever known as the tracks to start a revolution of sound-making and partying under the ‘bloghaus’ moniker. It’s a distant memory of the past, but Digitalism’s new single, Holograms, seeks to bring back the days that we once remember.

Directly below, is an interview that we conducted with the German duo. We hope you enjoy.

FS: Hi Digitalism! It’s a pleasure to talk to you. We want to start off this interview by asking: What have you two have been up to recently?

D: We’ve just been finishing off the release of our last EP, 5KY11GHT, in November and decided to have a month off over the Holiday Season. We had been releasing new music every month since September, so we wanted to make sure people have the time to take it all in and take a breather over Christmas. It’s been quite intense! Now we’re back in our studio, with the release of the new single.

FS: Speaking of your new single, aptly named Holograms – Can you explain the creative process behind the track for us all?

D: Yes it’s finally out! We’ve been excited about this release… Jence is back on the vocals on this one, and musically it’s something that is a bit new but at the same time feels familiar to us.

It’s very Digitalism, but it also has that 2018 coating on it. We started writing it at the end of last year, and we wanted to have a look at the digital world — you know, where you don’t know if you chat with a bot or you’ve fed the internet with so much data that it can pretend to be you if it wanted. Virtual, digital personas versus the real world. It’s an idea that fascinated us.

We had a few chord ideas and synthesiser recordings ready that we really wanted to use and started writing on them. It only took a few days and we were done… It was a lot of fun to record it actually. We wanted it to be light and airy but also very heavy when you listen to it on a big system.

FS: When creating tracks, where do you get your unique inspirations from? (whether it’s from movies, games, other music etc.)

D: It’s hard to tell because we absorb so much stuff that surrounds us and blend it all together, that the question of origin is a tricky one. For instance, we like to recreate certain moods or moments that we experienced on the road with our music.

Or sometimes we just try out a new technique or piece of equipment and it sparks a bunch of new songs. our studio is in a concrete WWII bunker, so it’s very faceless and neutral in there — unless you create something!

There’s a lot of music and loops that we have from those initial ideas, and that in a second step does inspire us to write lyrics… The music usually comes first for us. Only a few songs have been written and scored at the same time — Holograms is one of them!

FS: The fact that you record and create your music in a WWII bunker is unbelievably cool – it might possibly one of the most unique studios out there!

We’ve been a fan of Digitalism for as long as we can remember. We played a lot of video games back in the day, and we feel like having your music in the soundtrack of a video game can be a bigger marketing tool, say perhaps compared to Soundcloud reposts etc. A particular example could be your track Pogo on Need For Speed: Prostreet.

Do you think that video games provide musicians with an extra outlet to promote their music more efficiently?

D: Of course! We love video games and grew up with them, so it’s nice to have our own music on some of those soundtracks. We’ve been fans of game music for ages now, because for us it was the replacement for radio. It’s another outlet that you can use as an artist — and a real good one for us as soundtrack addicts!

FS: What’s your favourite video game, that has your music in the soundtrack?

D: FIFA! It’s our go-to sports game. It was cool to have Shangri-La on FIFA 17.

FS: You’re touring the US soon – is there a date that you’re looking forward to the most, compared to any others?

D: Not really, being on tour in the US itself is a great thing. It’ll be ace to see all our friends again. We’ve not been since our Mirage tour in 2016. It feels a bit like we have too much energy building up here… DC should watch out! It’s the kick-off show.

FS: There you have it DC – you have something monumental to be looking forward to! 

Have you got any good tour stories to share with us all?

D: Of course, but those stories would fill a library. One that keeps on popping back into mind is when we had a day off in Australia and we went jetskiing in a shark-infested cove with Flava Flav.

FS: Can you name three up and coming musicians that may possibly take 2018 by storm?

D: Digitaldrang, GoDigital, Louisahhh!!!

FS: Lastly, you’ve been a staple of electronic/electro music for what seems like forever. Is there one artist that gave up or quit the genre, or music itself, that you’d still like to see produce today?

D: It’d be nice to see Le Knight Club back!

FS: Rightly so. We really miss the old school French House genre that captivated us back in the day. Although, to be fair, it is making a resurgence in a new wave of music from labels like Savona, and Montaime.

Digitalism’s new single ‘Holograms’ is out now via their Magnetism imprint. The New EP ‘Zdar C1u6’ is out in March.



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