There is a certain sect of producers and DJs who believe the club should be a challenge, a place where you must feel a hint of uneasiness to enjoy all that drunken debauchery. Drippin is one of these producers. His goal when performing is to "have you on the edge of being uncomfortable." With his debut EP Silver Cloak, premiering here today, he accomplishes the industrial clubland of his dreams. It's an album you need to work to listen to, and by the end you're happier for it. I talked to Drippin, who's from Norway, about his home country, the internet, and not being very good at the piano.
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Drippin: The most popular is the disco scene. It's been rooted for a long time, like 15 or 20 years. All the older people do this. Older DJs like Prins Thomas and also some new guys coming up now like Andre Bratten. Then underneath there's me and Cashmere Cat and Slick Shoota. Me and Cashmere Cat are in kind of a similar lane with music, but he was actually doing this disco stuff before Cashmere Cat. I guess the internet is to blame for everything. The lack of this culture in Norway makes me want to seek it out. It gets you curious about digging deeper on the internet and SoundCloud to find stuff that you haven't heard before. It's curiosity. You'll probably see more and more producers who make sounds similar things to us. The internet affects you without even thinking. It affects your visual preferences, how you listen to music, what kind of music you like, how you find music…Do you remember the song that drew you in?
I think the first thing I liked on SoundCloud was a DJ Rizzla mix. I was like, OK, this is sick.It blended mainstream music and club music into one thing. I'm fascinated by that. I was a DJ for like four years before I started producing, so I think I have a different perspective. For many people it's the opposite. That definitely shapes how I make music. I make music for the club. I make music so I can control how the club's going to be. That's my motivation. I want to make club music that's interesting, but still easy to understand and easy to dance to. Not too inaccessible, but still interesting. The best club music has to be challenging, but still not rejecting.A lot of the your style and sounds comes from other places, like Jersey club or Jamaican dancehall. Is there a big dancehall scene in Norway?
I live in Bergen, but I'm originally from Stavanger. There's a dancehall scene there and there's been a dancehall scene there for many many years. A reggae dancehall scene with sound systems and everything. I definitely drew from that culture.Your club night Ball 'Em Up started about two years ago and has become a space for your sound to thrive and spread. What's your ideal club experience?
The most fun club experience is when it's actually elsewhere, not in a club. Like when you see a club in a parking lot. Making it your own—that's the most fun. There's hardly that in Norway. There's no empty buildings. Everything is new.A lot of your music sounds like machinery. Why do you think machines and the club belong together?
Machines and electronic music have this long relationship since probably Kraftwerk. There's something about when you play something in a concrete space that's usually a club and you have these stark metallic or hard-hitting sounds that make sense and sound scary. It just makes sense in a basement. It's the total opposite of the glossy pop music and that's also the reason club music is more metallic and edgy, and not that glossy. It's just a feeling that works in the concrete space where we work. Club music is a little bit perplexing at the same time as being pleasant. Having songs that aren't really pleasant to your ear but intrigue you,is important in club music. They have you on the edge of being uncomfortable. That makes for the best experience.Follow Lauren Schwartzberg on Twitter.