Coming from a musical background, do you think it gives you an advantage over producers who are more computer and tech based?
3LAU: Advantage is a weird word. A lot of artists do view the industry as competitive, simply because there are slots on a bill for a show and someone’s gotta be at the top and someone has to be paid more. But that’s not how I look at it. I started making music when I was 19, and I want to be doing it for the rest of my life.
Advantage is an interesting thing though because you can have a classically trained Julliard pianist, like Alex Seaver from Mako, who is a better musician than any DJ I’ve ever met in my life, and yet, those guys aren’t huge. They’re not at the top of festival bills. But their songs are better written, musically speaking, than anything else out there. I lose my mind when I hear their stuff, it’s so damn good. Their remix of “Shadow of the Sun” could be my favorite dance music record of all time.
To be completely honest with you, the biggest advantages in this industry are having a lot of money and having a team that understands your brand. You also have to make people like you as a human being. That’s more important than even the music.
There’s a divide though that’s forming in regards to the type of artists there are in dance music. There are the musicians and there are the producers. I was a musician before I was a producer. Same with Drew from The Chainsmokers. Oliver Heldens, on the other hand was a producer before he was a musician. At the end of the day though everyone’s succeeding. Yes, dance music is competitive from an industry standpoint, but that’s not how a lot of artists see it. Like for me, I see The Chainsmokers now and they’re killing it, and I’m so fucking proud of them. They deserve it more than anybody. Those guys work so hard and their music is so interesting.
And that’s what I’m striving for now actually. I’m trying to make music that will surprise people, and show my musicianship. I want to show them that more than I want to show them my skill in the studio, because I’m not the best producer, I’ll tell you that right now. I know that. I’m just not, and I probably never will be because I’m not in the studio 24 hours a day experimenting with shit. But I’m a great writer, so why not do what I’m good at?
Drew’s the same way. He’s not the best producer, but he writes fantastic music, and he shows that through all of The Chainsmokers’ songs. To me, there’s no advantage when it comes to being a producer or musician first. Yeah, I can write great songs, but Oliver Heldens is going to play a set somewhere in a basement club that will be way cooler than anything I’d be able to do in that setting.
Do you see a shift then towards electronic dance music that sounds more like real songs, rather than just big room or main stage bangers?
3LAU: I’ll tell you what’s actually happening. What’s happening is that people are starting to realize that they like something different when they’re listening to music live as opposed to at home. People are just understanding moods in terms of genres now.
Exactly, like you can’t listen to big room music at home.
3LAU: Right. Maybe in the gym, but even then, it’s kind of weird. Big room music is meant for the main stage mostly. Right now, the dance space is confused. People still don’t really know where things are going.
That’s because the scene has had such a massive boom in such a short period of time that things haven’t really had a chance to settle and people haven’t caught up yet.
3LAU: That’s exactly it. I’m not really thinking about all that though. All I care about right now is someone getting pumped to put my new music on their iPhone. That’s all that’s on my mind: what are my fans going to think about when I release my new record? Are they doing to want to put it on repeat and listen to it all the fucking time? If not, then I’m not releasing it. That’s how you create longevity, by not putting out bad records. So many artists are influenced by radio play and making their music sound a certain way, and that ends up hurting them at the end of the day.
I mean, you do have to make stuff that’s accessible, but it also has to be artistic. And that battle is an interesting one because accessibility comes with being cheesy, to an extent, and creativity is usually associated with being less accessible. But look at people like Porter Robinson and ODESZA, they’ve bridged that gap insanely well. For me, I care about my songs impacting someone at a level that no one else’s music can. And even if it’s only just one person, then I did my job.
You tour quite a bit and play a lot of shows, where do you get your energy from?
3LAU: That’s a really good question. It’s exhausting, and in the past 8 months it’s really been hitting me. Don’t get me wrong, I love playing shows, but I’ve realized that I like being in the studio more and writing and making music. But playing shows is important obviously, it’s my way of exposing my work. I do feel like it’s put me a bit behind, though. Like you said before, there’s been this “pressure” on me to make original music, but I’ve been touring for so much of my career that it’s been hard to find time.
So many producers have had years in the studio making music before they became a known name. I’m on the road so much and like I said, I can’t really produce on the road. So if I’m rarely ever at home in the studio, how am I supposed to get better? For the future, I’m going to try to focus more on the music. The stuff I’ve got coming up is really interesting. I actually just emailed Tiësto my new song and he loves it. Here, check out what he said [Justin shows me the email on his phone from Tiësto]. I’m pumped for it to come out, my fans will really like it.
That concludes our interview, but we’d like to thank 3LAU very much for his time!