John Dahlback is a 30 year old Swedish DJ/Producer who’s been at it for over half his life. A decade ago he put out his first album Shades of Shadow and he hasn’t slowed down one bit from the fast-paced touring and music making lifestyle. Would you if this was your job? We had the chance to briefly chat with John Dahlback on where he came from, where he’s at and where he’s going.
1) You’ve been producing and DJing for quite sometime now, how would you describe the evolution of your sound? Where did it start and what is it currently?
JD: it started when I was around 13. My cousin Jesper gave me his album “Stockholm” and I really didn’t like it first but then grew more and fonder of it. At the time, I was making music on my dad’s computer so I just sort of switched to house music after that. I’ve jumped between genres during my whole career. I started really deep and jazzy, moved on to tech house, to acid, to techno and then to house music. My sound is much more in your face now. I try to scale it down in terms of elements in a song. If you have a great melody, just bring that out and not too much else.
2) I recently heard Raven and dig it. It’s got a sort of future house feel to it while still retaining that signature John Dahlback style. Is Raven a track from an upcoming album you’re working on?
JD: It is! Raven is the first single and we decided to go with a club track. I love it too! I was really surprised when I first played it out because on the laptop it’s cool but on a soundsystem it’s massive!
3) The video for Raven is pretty ridiculous, are you friends with any of the other people in it?
JD: Haha no! It was an idea me and my manager had. Sort of play around with Raven and rave. So why not have the Raven turn people into ravers?
4) How has the response been when you’ve dropped this track during your sets?
JD: like I said, really surprising! In a good way. First time I played it and saw the reaction I was like “wow!!”.
5) You have many different aliases – hug, huggotron, Jetboy of Beckster and Kaliber – why so many andwhat are the stories behind the names?
JD: This was during a time when everyone used different aliases if you were doing different kinds of electronic music. Each and every one of those names represents a different genre!
6) You’ve been producing for a while and have a prettyextensive catalogue of originals and remixes – if youhad to pick 3 of your tracks to share with somebodywho’s never listened to John Dahlback, what wouldthey be?
JD: difficult! I guess:
“Everywhere”
“A little more (with Kaskade)”
“Atlantis” – from my new album, this is also the next single
7) In another interview you mentioned you’d like toscore video games – what games are you currentlyplaying? Xbox or PS4? Do you have a favoritedeveloper or studio you’d like to work with most?
JD: I used to play a lot of different games on PS3! But after i switched to PC, I decided just to play Call Of Duty. The old games tho, I hate all the new call of duty ones.
8) You travel all over the world to DJ – what are someof your favorite foods from places you’ve visited?
JD: I love America for the many different options of food there, or Asia because you eat stuff you can’t get hold of in Sweden!
9) What’s the rest of this year looking like for John Dahlback?
JD: After finishing this album, I guess I’ll just move on to the next one! The tour schedule looks great also so I’m gonna have a fantastic end of the year!
With the way it’s been going so far, there’s no doubt about that. To hear some of John’s singles and mixes and see where he’s gonna be on tour next, click here.