Check out the great interview Kara Bertoncini (Vulture Magazine) has written on Melbourne's very own DJ/Producer, Throttle:
Fresh from graduating high school last year, this 18-year-old DJ/producer is not your regular teenager. Right from the start, Throttle gained worldwide attention on SoundCloud by remixing tracks from artists like Usher, Avicii, Sam Smith and Conrad Sewell. When he was 14, he told himself he wanted to be the best DJ in the world. Well, today he’s mates with the likes of Martin Garrix, Avicii himself and other top dogs in the industry. Having just come back from sunning his buns in Bali, Throttle ever so kindly met up with us for a cute breaky to chat about his first original vocal track ‘Together’, and what it’s like to be a part of a new wave of young DJs.
Vulture Magazine: Do you prefer making remixes or making your own originals?
Throttle: I prefer starting with a vocal whether it’s for an original or remix. I find it easier to have a direction that way. When I write an instrumental I’m already singing the vocals in my head. I like to mix and match what the writer has created and what I hear in my head. My songs do have a mash up feel about them cause I started doing mash ups when I was 12 or 13 so my head sort of works by combining all these different elements and I guess this is where the dirty disco sound came from.
VM: We love the sound of this dirty disco. Can you elaborate on this?
T: It’s a combination of disco and the modern dance sound but it really is a mash up of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and the 90s; all the music I grew up with everything from Michael Jackson to Justin Timberlake. My work draws bits from everywhere, so at times it sounds like a 2015 dance song but when you listen to it, there are all these hidden elements. That’s what makes these tracks so special. A lot of music these days have lost the human touch cause it’s so overproduced and rigid, so I try and bring life back to it.
VM: You started making music very young just like DJ Black Summer. Are you all trying to outdo each other and see who can be the youngest DJ?
T: I remember when I started there was Madeon and he was one of the reasons I thought I could do this. I started with the Ministry of Sound compilations and I would listen to them in my room every night on a shitty little speaker system that only played CDs. So I was hooked on these dance music sounds. Everyone’s just getting hungrier and hungrier for success and wanting to start early and spending way more time on the internet. Music is so accessible now. In line with the growth of sound is the growth of technology, and that’s what allows these young kids to get hooked.
VM: Avicii was a really instrumental part in your early success. What happened there?
T: He was where it all kicked off really. I put these videos on YouTube and that caught the attention of some of the bigger blogs and then someone introduced me to Ash, Avicii’s manager, about doing a remix for the album. It was like a dream come true. From there I did the ‘You Make Me’ remix, which was when I was doing my year 11 exams. That remix was the game changer, that’s what got me from the online to the live setting. They debuted it at the Hollywood Bowl and that was when I was like, wow this is getting legit. That was also the first time I saw something I’d made in my bedroom come to life on the main stage. Since then I’ve been working with Avicii’s management team and they’ve been a big player in getting me Future Music Festival last year and they’re really pushing the new single ‘Together’. It’s pretty crazy.
VM: ‘Together’ is your very first original single. Did you feel any pressures releasing this, knowing that fans had high expectations of your work?
T: A lot. It’s been in the works for over a year now cause I’ve been trying to get a balance between all of the works to date. I’ve had original releases before but not with vocals; this is my proper vocal release, so I wanted it to be a mash up of everything I’ve done, which is what dirty disco ends up as. It’s more progressive than a lot of my stuff and has a lot more of a funk influence than it did 12 months ago. My sound has evolved over time and I wanted to keep changing the song. Nothing’s ever finished.
VM: It features Canadian vocalist David Spekter. How did you boys come to working together?
T: That was through Avicii’s management. When we got in touch he just signed to Pyramid Publishing, so it was all happening for him. He’s done a lot of writing for other pop artists as well as his own stuff. He’s one of those guys who’s an incredible writer. A big problem for singers today is they can’t write; we are a generation of talent show contest winners unfortunately, and those who can’t write just fall away really quickly. But he’s one of those guys who’s gonna make it. He’s got a gift.
VM: The lyrics say, “We’re all in this together”. What is the big message of this song?
T: It’s super uplifting. It’s mainly about joint adversity; something anyone can relate to. The line I like most is ‘We’re lost but we’re alive/ We’re all in this together’. It’s more the idea that everyone goes through a struggle at some point and we can all relate to it; it’s such a broad song. I find with a lot of songs these days they’re too one-dimensional. All of David’s songs are about something bigger, which is something I love about his writing.
VM: Are you working on an album?
T: Kind of. I’m working on an album worth of content but not necessarily an album at this stage. I don’t want to rush around until there’s enough hype and demand for it. I’d rather put out singles at this stage and have a few tours under my belt before I do an album to give me at least six months to test everything out in the right setting and get inspiration, not just from my bedroom, but from a world tour and meeting new people. For an album, I think there needs to be more of a story and you can’t get that from sitting in your bedroom. I think you need to experience a world of music before you can do that.