U:Move

u:move caught up with Dave Dresden, formerly of Gabriel & Dresden.  Listen to excerpts of this interview on u:move Rotation Podcast 001.

u:move - Obviously you are very ambitious, what musical influences fueled the fire in the early years for you?

Dave - My tastes ran the gamut when i was young. Since i grew up in the New York area, i was exposed to New York radio, which in the 70’s, was very progressive. There was WKTU playing disco, WRKS playing the music that was the foundation of hip hop, and Frankie Crocker on WBLS playing the hottest cuts at the Paradise Garage, i was exposed to dance music long before the masses were. In the 80’s i was extremely fond of nu romantic, new wave and power pop music. I loved Depeche Mode and the Cure just as much as I loved Journey and the Clash. I didn’t really like punk per se, but i liked all of the offshoots of it. I think a lot of the music that is hot on the dancefloor today has a lot of roots in the early 80’s disco punk scene. Around 1986 i first heard house music, and i thought it was really awesome because it just sounded so new and fresh, and that’s what forced me to be a DJ. I mixed up the styles for the first 10 years of my DJ caereer, and that’s what i feel really helped me become a good producer, combining ideas that you wouldn’t think work, and that’s one of the things i strive for when i make music.

u:move -  Since your division from the great Gabriel and Dresden duo how do you think you have grown creatively?

Dave - It was very interesting, when Josh and I were discussing going our own ways, Logic 8 and Ableton 7 were introduced. It felt like the hand of some force was descending upon me and guiding me to my next endeavor. Especially Logic 8, it has helped me get the ideas i want down, and worry more about making the music and less about setting things up so that I can make music. Working with Josh was an amazing experience where i just learned a whole bunch of crazy secrets to making great music. It was like going to college and getting paid to learn Logic. I have started and finished quite a few tracks since we parted and have been playing them in my sets to great response. I know in five years i will clearly hear the limitations of my purely solo tracks, but you can’t expect to be making the music that two industry veterans with tons of ideas can do on their own. Neither of us can do what we did together alone, but that’s what this break is about, finding our sounds so that when we do work again, we will forge ahead something new and fresh and appealing. I am excited for the future!

u:move -  I am sure that functionally things are different both on stage and in studio with one person rather than two, but have you come to notice any particular advantages of being a solo act?

Dave - For sure. One is that i don’t have to confer with anyone but myself when i’m djing. Josh admittedly has a very limited scope of what he deems good music, and i am a lot more broad. I like to play music that is both dark and serious, and i also love a fun track every so often. So, my solo sets have felt a little lighter than G&D sets. As for the studio, I am really loving just discovering new ways to do things which working solo on my laptop has afforded me. Making music is like problem solving. There are so many different ways to arrive at what is right and wrong, and i’m loving the challenge of thinking of a sound and then getting it down as i wanted it. I also am enjoying working with other producers and gaining new ideas from working with them and of course some new tricks .

u:move -  What is the most crucial part of the creative process for you?

Dave - Making what you hear in your head happen. When you start a track, you get some sounds in and then slowly you start getting a perspective of where the song is going, what the to-die-for moments are, etc. The challenge is to make sure you don’t lose a sound if you like it. To know when enough is enough and implement what you are doing. But i think the other most crucial thing to making good music is to listen it it from an outside perspective. A lot of times in the creative process you start to believe your own hype, so you need to be able to check yourself and make sure that what you are feeling is real or imagined.

u:move -  You are well known for your work on the Tong show as well as your work at Billboard.  How did you develop such a keen ear for fresh talent?

Dave - I think it stems from the fact i kept an open mind about music as a kid. I never liked things because they were fashionable. I liked them because i liked them. So it was okay to love Bon Jovi and the Communards and not feel guilty. I look for hits when i listen to music and i can spot hooks a mile away. That’s the only criteria for me when listening to music. Do i like it and why? This helps me listen to demos and know right away what is good and what is not.

u:move -  If you had to pick a favorite piece of hardware what would it be?

Dave - The Moog Voyager. It is such an interesting piece of gear with so many ways of tweaking a sound. The fact it has real voltage controlled oscillators gives sounds a warmth that you just can’t find in modern instruments. I think Deadmau5 has really extolled the virtues of this piece of gear, and it’s all over the G&D debut album. All the hottest sounds on that disc were from this keyboard.

u:move -  You have mentioned recently that you are working to develop a new application for the creation of music, can you give us any more information on this project or possibly a date we can expect to see it?

Dave - No, this is Josh’s thing. Josh started in software with his program called Mixman, and I know for a fact that Josh wants to do things outside of directly making music in the future. He has these ideas that when he tells you them, you’re like “yeah right,” but, for example,  he was talking about video games being instruments back when i started making music with him in 2001, and now look at how popular this concept is. He is definitely an innovator and i believe that he will change the world if he gets back into software creation. He had a side project while we were working called “Soundmail.org” and it’s this really cool app for emailing sound files between each other. You can see the waveform in your email and then click anywhere on it for a live stream and it was pretty seamless with very little buffering. I think he plans to sell it to someone who can market and develop the idea further.

u:move -  It’s peak time, the crowd is primed, what songs are big for you right now?

Dave - I’d say for going for the jugular at my shows right now, there’s about 4 songs i play every set that go off

1. Deadmau5 - Not Exactly (Dave Dresden’s Exactly Not Remix)

2. Serge Devant - Sweet Harmony (Dave Dresden & Trent Cantrelle Sweet Guitar
Remix)

3. Andain - Beautiful Things (Gabriel & Dresden Unplugged Mix)

4. Filo & Peri - Anthem (Dave Dresden’s Anthem For…Remix)

u:move -  Where do you see the future of dance music going?

Dave - Dance music will always borrow the great ideas from other music and make them work on the floor. That’s the one super great thing about dance music. It accepts any other music source to be inside of it. And as long as there’s producers who are pushing the boundaries, it will continue to capture people’s imaginations unlike many other genres have been able to do for as long as dance music has

For more info on Dave Dresden, check him out on Myspace