Dale Howard

UK Deep House producer Dale Howard first burst onto the scene in 2009 with his debut EP on Neurotraxx Deluxe ‘Gotta Be Deep’. Since then he has been making waves with an array of releases on world renowned labels like Fear Of Flying, Loco Records, and many others.

In 2010 Dale launched his own imprint ‘Static Audio’, which is a hotbed for established and up and coming Deep and Tech House producers alike and features some of the biggest Deep House artists in the world. Support comes from artists like Nic Fancuilli, Mark Knight, Florian Meindl, Karol XVII & MB Valence, Ekkohaus, Robert Owens, Soul Miniority and more.

With his recent follow up release on Gruuv & his brand new EP on Underground Audio, both out now on Traxsource, Dale Howard takes some time out of his busy schedule to talk with us.

1) Firstly, thanks for taking the time out to chat with us. Tell us where you are and how you are feeling right now.

No problem.. I’m currently at home and I’m feeling great, as my remix of ‘Chalk’ from Bunny is doing well and I have a new EP out on Gruuv and an EP out now on Underground Audio

2) Let’s talk about your new EP: ‘Rhymes 365’ out now on Underground Audio – tell us in your words a little bit about how it came to be and what you were trying to convey to your listeners.

Well the whole EP has been a really long process. I initially made ‘Rhymes365’ and ‘Dig It’ quite quickly, as i knew exactly what direction I wanted the tracks to go in and I knew what kind of style I wanted to make before i’d even sat down; a really (to use a cliche) ‘raw’ sound that focussed on low frequencies as opposed to more melodic kind of stuff that i’d made in the past. I ended up keeping the tracks back for a while though as I was waiting for the right label to release them on; then when it actually came to mixing down the premasters, parts of the files had disappeared so I was only left with two tracks that had no drums (absolute F%&*ing disaster). This put the EP back even further, as i couldn’t even bring myself to think about having to redo the drums.. after a while though i sat down and redid the drum elements of the tracks, which turned out to be totally different (and better, in my opinion) from the original, so it worked out ok in the end. Then i’d recently finished ‘Hot Mess’ and both myself and Kal thought that it would work well on the EP, so that completed it.

3) What trax (apart from your own) have been really tearing it up in club-land?

‘Dark Chamber’ off the new the new Blunt Instruments EP on Dungeon Meat, I’ve been playing some old Slum Science tracks too which sound really current, also a couple of new tracks off Dominic Martin’s upcoming EP on Lost my Dog and One from Andrea Oliva’s upcoming EP on DFTD. All great tracks and represent the sound of my sets pretty well.

4) Share a few artists that have influenced your sound?

There’s been so many! Over the years from when I first started getting into early electro, it was people like Sebastien Leger, Dave Spoon, Switch, Swen Weber, Nick & Danny Chatelain’s ‘Is Killing Me’, whoever made ‘Nethercutter’ (can’t remember their name now), Discount Rhino’s ‘Kansas City Shuffle’, then to Audiojack, Gorge, Skudge, Ethyl + Huxley’s early stuff on Cecille Numbers and Tsuba, Maya jane Coles.. there’s been a load!

5) What is the one piece of kit that you simply cannot do without?

I need ALL of my stuff.. I do love my Native Instruments stuff (even though half of the stuff doesn’t actually work, which is very annoying).

6) What’s you’re opinion on the current state of house music?

Depending on your standpoint, I guess you can either think House music is in a really good place at the moment, or that it’s on it’s arse (i personally think it’s in a really great place). The commercialisation of ‘Deep’ House (which, looking at it retrospectively, is nothing at all like actual Deep House) has got millions of new people into House music, which is both a great thing and a bad thing; a lot of these new people getting into House music will develop a real passion for it and want to go and see as many different artists and go to as many different events as they can because they LOVE the music and thats great. But annoyingly, some are going to these gigs because ‘Deep’ House is the new ‘In’ thing and they’re going to spend 6 hours in a Warehouse with their back to the DJ’s, won’t have a clue who’s playing (or even care), will be checking in on Facebook to look cool and will be feeling annoyed that whoever is playing isn’t ‘playing something with words in’ Those people are there for the wrong reason and should go to an Avici gig (not sure if that’s how you spell it).

7) Any advice for your fans on how to make it in today’s fast paced game?

Just make sure you make time to make music. I only decided to put all my effort into making music after i got sacked from my job as a PT a few years ago and that’s when my productions seemed to turn a corner and things started to move forward for me. Prior to that i was only having maybe 3-4 releases out a year on unknown labels and that wasn’t working for me at all. The more time you spend doing something, the quicker you can improve.

8) Best gig of 2014 so far and why?

I played a class midweek party in Utrecht called ‘Nacht college’ earlier this year. You never know what the crowd is going to be like at midweek gigs but it was ace! Crowd was amazing, promoters were really cool, everything was perfect and I had such a great time. Also the Noir Music showcase with Straf Werk that I played a couple weeks ago was also great. Such a great atmosphere and it was good to finally meet René (Noir) and Sisse (Mrs. Noir) and get together with some of the other guys from the label like NiCe7 and Finnebassen. The Straf Werk parties are always awesome and all the guys involved with it are really cool too.

9) What’s next for Dale Howard?

I’m going to be featured in DJ Mag and playing for them later this year. My Rhymes365 EP is also being premiered by Mixmag, which i’m really happy about. Release wise i’ve got my follow up EP on Audiojack’s ‘Gruuv’ label, my Rhymes365 EP on Underground Audio, i’m remixing an Oxia track on Material as well as two of my own releases with them. I’ve also just finished a remix for Suol, so i’ve got a pretty busy release schedule coming up and a lot of things to look forward to :)