Eclectic electro-popper Daedelus always puts his heart into his music
DETAILS
“The real thing is the situation: Are the kids upbeat or downbeat? Do they want bass lines or dance rhythms? All things are possible,” says L.A.-based composer Alfred Darlington, a.k.a. Daedelus. On the phone from Poland, Daedelus is reflecting on his live set in the midst of a European tour. “Music is such a wonderful thing and it can fit into multiple situations. If it looks like it's going to be a chin-stroking, stare-up-at-the-artist kind of audience, that has its own beauty. If it's going to be a reckless abandon, jump on the stage, stage-diving night, that's special too. Some situations just call for drunkenness and wild behaviour.”
That balance of party-starting good times and thought-out composition can be seen throughout Darlington's work as Daedelus. The project, which he has overseen since 2001, has explored various facets of electronic music, including IDM, hip hop, dubstep and electro. Through it all, he has shown a keen pop sensibility, a fact that fully manifests itself on his latest record, the heart-on-sleeve Love to Make Music To.
For Daedelus, the desire to put a soul into his electronic music stems back to his childhood. Raised by overtly academic parents who worked in experimental psychology and fine arts, he discovered the avant garde at an early age. “Their record collection had a lot of musique concrète and a lot of odd electronic manipulation stuff,” he recalls. “As a young musical explorer, I kind of flipped my wig a bit.” Even then, he just wanted to dance. “I connected a lot more with ’80s synth pop and Parliament-style funk before I was exposed to modern electronic music, which was a form of rave.”
The contrast of rave music with his parents' over-thought academia taught Daedelus a valuable lesson about his own approach to the arts. “It convinced me fully that I needed to be completely from the heart,” he confesses. “If you take a mental approach to music, you're doing a disservice to the sound itself. You really have to just come from the heart.”
Being emotionally attached to your art doesn't just improve the sound, but your life as well, Daedelus says. “Your artistic life is full of so many disappointments. You get a bad review and it just stings and there's no real consolation. When you're coming from the mind, it's a defence mechanism and you can ignore it, but when you're coming from the heart, there's at least some truth to realize.”
When it comes to performance, Daedelus takes a similarly visceral approach. A classically trained musician, he didn't want to fall into the trap of lifeless laptop performances that plague the electro scene. His saving grace was the Monome, a minimalist, open source Midi programmer that can be used for live remixing with its piano-esque design.
“It really just happened by accident,” he says of his unique performance setup. “I had been interested in different, non-conventional forms for performing. Coming from a live music background I really yearned for something more than a laptop performance. I've been really lucky to have the Monome in my life since 2003, and it keeps getting better with new developments.”
In a way, Daedelus’s live performances could be considered “open source,” with the set list and performance adapting to his audience. “I really like the fact that on different nights, the show can go in a wildly different direction,” he explains. “I hope as an artist there's a bit more of a mandate to be challenging. As much as I want people to have a good time, I also want them to be exposed to sounds that they would want to hear in a more open environment or constructive setting. I think they should both be happening, but my heart is really in melody.”
Not to correct him, but Daedelus’s heart is actually weaved through every aspect of his music.
Post the first comment: (Login or Register)