Finding Truth in Darkness, London Producer DVA Unleashes NOTU_URONLINEU
Long-time Hyperdub affiliate and London bass experimenter Leon Smart, AKA Scratcha DVA, has worked through nearly a dozen 12" and EP releases, not to mention his 2012 debut album Pretty Ugly, but he’s just released his most experimental work to date as DVA [Hi:Emotions]: his NOTU_URONLINEU album, a sinewy series of electronic exhalations on themes of technology, paranoia and bodies within space. In this excerpt from his conversation with Shawn Reynaldo for RBMA Radio’s First Floor, DVA talks about finding truth and inspiration in the dark, and the possibilities of the future.
Listen to First Floor on RBMA Radio here every Thursday at 1PM EDT.
The main thing that struck me about your new album is that it’s not really club music in the sense that the tracks aren’t designed for a DJ to play out.
No, there isn’t any club music on the album because it’s just not that sort of project. Even though there is one tune on the album that goes off in the club, the Sinjin Hawke collaboration called “DAFUQ,” it wasn’t a conscious effort to do anything for the club at all. I think at one time I tried to write tracks for the club, but now I completely don’t give a fuck.
You’re often been characterized of something as a joker, but this music seems very serious to me.
This is the thing. If I go on radio and I have to do a breakfast show – if I have to turn on a mic at 8:00 AM, and make everyone feel good while they’re driving to work or brushing their teeth – then yeah, I’ll do that. When I turn off the mic and go home, I am Leon Smart. Just because Kevin Hart says a couple jokes doesn’t mean that he doesn’t go home to some deep shit. I’ve always been this way – it’s just that people choose to not care about that. Way before I started this project I had a meeting with Kode9 and Marcus [of Hyperdub] and I was like, “I’m going to record this album because this is why I came into the game, not to bust jokes.” I don’t think people understand that.
Over the years you’ve released music as Scratcha DVA and just DVA, and you’ve occasionally used the name [Hi:Emotions] for some of your remixes. This album is all under [Hi:Emotions]. What is [Hi:Emotions]?
It just started off when I was doing some remixes for Ramp Records. I remember I was on the bed, smoking weed, and I don’t know about you but sometimes you smoke weed and start to feel emotional. I started to think about why didn’t I speak to my dad that year, or whatever. I finished the remixes, they sounded great and it was really deep for me. That was also around the time that I released “Natty,” so I called it the DVA [Hi:Emotions] remix and it just kind of rolled from there.
Looking over the track titles on NOTU_URONLINEU, and even the album name itself, there are a lot of references to the internet, technology and online culture. How do you feel about our current relationship with technology?
You can’t only think of it as a negative thing – if you do, you just end up jumping out of the window. I mean this is the way it goes – forward, not backwards. You roll with it. You’ve got to think about all the possibilities. It’s a bit mad how dependent we are on it, but that’s also the beauty of it.
With the rise of online streaming platforms like Boiler Room, some people have made the argument that the club as a physical space is no longer as essential as it used to be.
Definitely. I had this vision of people being able to go into a space. Say there’s a warehouse or a club, and you’ve pre-chosen on a Facebook group which DJ you want to play in each room. People chose the rooms, they pay online and that DJ gives you an exclusive set. That DJ doesn’t have to be there – that DJ could be anywhere – but they can project the set into room exclusively for you. That also means that the DJ can also be in Italy, doing a set for someone else. It just opens up possibilities. I’ve been offered to do this thing in January where I’m going to be playing either at the studio in London or in my living room, and there will be people at a festival wearing VR headsets in Canada, raving to my set. This is happening.
When it comes to presenting the album, are you going to be doing a live set with visuals? The music really seems to lend itself to that.
Yeah, it’s only a live A/V show. I’m not DJing it at all. The current show is only going to be played in the pitch black, because I made the album in the pitch black. When I can, it’s going to be played with the guy who’s put together the visuals for the whole live show. His name’s Roca and he lives in Barcelona. I have some shows with him, and I have some shows in the dark as well. I won’t do the show in any other ways.
What was appealing about working in darkness?
I get writer’s block sometimes and when I’m trying to find different ways to stay creative, I have to remember how I felt when I was listening to and enjoying music. The main one was when I was at school and my mum used to tell me it was time to go to bed, but I wouldn’t. I would turn the lights off and lie in bed with my headphones on – listening to pirate radio, or Goldie – just sound, in pitch black. When you take away all the visual distractions, you’ve only got the sound. I want to do that when I make my own music. I want to give into that experience. It’s just a suggestion but I think that when you listen to this album for the first time, you should listen to it in the dark.
