Hammarica.com Daily DJ Interview: Diamond Pistols

10 years ago Beats and Music no Responses

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Fabricated in the Pacific Northwest, Bass Music’s new prodigy has arrived – Diamond Pistols. Under the explosive moniker, Christian Dold made his initial mark with two heavily blogged and downloaded giveaways, earning him the attention of Excision, Datsik, Run DMT, Helicopter Showdown, and Downlink, on the short list. 2013 kicks off with a debut EP on Datsik’s Firepower Records. Whiskey Pete’s new Switchblade Recordings also sees a remix of Kill City’s “Get It Gritty”. With a busy performance schedule, a growing discography, and remix requests piling up, the entire bass music community has their eyes and ears firmly fixed on this young producer.

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Datsik

Your debut EP will be released on Datsik’s Firepower Records. Were you surprised he signed it?

I wasn’t surprised per say, but the timing worked out really well. Troy had just come off the Deadmeat tour, and I had just began producing under the name “Diamond Pistols” and sending him tracks. Firepower was at the top of my list for record labels, so as you can imagine I’m extremely excited to be releasing tracks alongside some of my favorite artists.

What do you do to hype up crowds during performances other than playing the best suitable tracks?

I’ve been working a lot lately on building up the energy and breaking it down during my set, and trying to find the best points to do it. It’s interesting seeing how each crowd reacts completely differently to the stuff you play, which is why I never pre-plan my sets.

Does the USA have a better bass music scene than Europe in your opinion?

It’s almost impossible to compare them given the advances in technology since the UK heads started making dubstep. Both sides of the pond have their own unique sounds and I’m definitely influenced by the originators’ sounds. I’m really excited to see this music becoming as socially acceptable here as it is in Europe – it’s a great time to be an electronic music producer in the US.

Would you ever produce a pop record for a superstar just for the fame and money?

I wouldn’t produce it solely for the reason of fame and money, but I think it would be a great experience to work with artists that I’m not used to working with. There’s a lot of pop music out there that I’m not a huge fan of, but there’s also a ton of stuff that’s really well done that I’d love to be a part of.

Do you play guitar?

Yeah I do, and have been for probably 7 or 8 years now. I also play the piano and drums.

Name the best thing why we should visit your city.

I’d say the best thing about Seattle is definitely how responsive the crowds are at all of the shows here. Some of my favorite sets that I’ve played have been opening sets at small clubs here in Seattle.

What is your ultimate ambition?

Ultimately, my goal in music is to make stuff that I dig, and hopefully that other people dig too. The problem is, I’m probably the biggest perfectionist on earth when it comes to writing music, so I have probably 50 project files on my harddrive that will never see the light of day.

Why isn’t the number 11 pronounced as onety one?

The reason is historical. Up until about 300 years ago everybody used base 12 rather than base 10 numbers. Thus it was dozens, not tens in counting. The metric revolution plus Alexander Hamilton’s desire to get away from the English money system (which was 12 based) ended us with a decimal counting system to go along with our decimal numeric system. Not a real problem… except in base 12 what we call ten and eleven are single digits – with names! And twelve, (which was the roll-over equivalent to our ten). The old names stuck.

Do you record vocal samples of yourself for productions?

Haven’t gotten around to recording myself yet, but occasionally I’ll hide a sample of one of my friends saying something random somewhere in the track.

Are there any features you would like Beatport to have which are not currently available?

A cool feature that Beatport could incorporate is to have the option to have the key tag in the mp3 metadata be displayed as a camelot key rather than the true key (ex: F = 4A). This would definitely make things a lot easier for DJs, although it would probably put Mixed In Key out of business.

Who is your favorite female DJ and would you ask her out for a date?

Reid Speed has been killing it for years, definitely one of my favorite live sets I’ve seen. I would, but she’s married 🙁

Describe your best dance move.

Favorite dance move is definitely finger guns at the drop. A classic among DJs.

What wouldn’t you do without?

Caffeine. Lots of caffeine.

Is there a final thing you would like to say to our readers?

This past year has been an incredible one, and I’m really thankful for all of my fans, DJs that have been supporting my tunes, and especially Jeff at Kaos Theory who has been a huge help and a big support.