Name: Dillistone
Nationality: Danish
Occupation: Producer, songwriter
Current Release: Dillistone teams up with Medina for “Weightless,” out now via No3.
Recommendations: Book: The Culture novels by Ian M. Banks; Album: Insecurity & The Orchestrated Confidence by Diamant

[Read our Medina interview]
 
If you enjoyed this Dillistone interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit him on Instagram, and Facebook. 

For an interview with one of his collaborators, read our Katelyn Tarver interview.



For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work?

I feel like the process of creating changes and should change all the time as you evolve. I always think it's better to do than to think about doing.

I tend to have an overall sense of where I might like the song to go but it’s always important to leave space for happy accidents.

What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

The more practiced you are, the more you can let go and let spontaneity take over.

You have to know what you’re doing, then forget it when it is time.

What do you start with?

Typically the most important thing to cement first is the tempo as it tells you a lot about where we are going and what we are doing.

But often the catalyst is whatever energy is in the room that day and always random.

To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

I mean personally I hope I have some degree of responsibility haha. But I do love the concept of the ugly duckling that just needs time and care for it to blossom.

There is a tendency nowadays to stop working on something that doesn’t instantly connect, that - if given enough time, might be something great.

So maybe it’s both? You don’t discover if you don’t look?

When do the lyrics enter the picture?

Often lyrics come last, but not always. Sometimes a line inspires a whole song.

When there is interplay between melody and music, it makes for a much smoother writing process. How a melody might go with or against music will influence what you say and why.

Where do lyrics come from?

Everywhere and nowhere - life, art, movies, poems, a stranger talking on the street as they walk past you, a note from 14 years ago, a love letter from an ex, a new way of thinking, a happy moment, a sad moment, in a club.

I’m constantly writing my thoughts down to try to capture a moment or concept.

What makes lyrics good in your opinion?

Currently I’m deeply inspired by more abstract or less concrete lyrics. I think the more ‘guided’ listening experience of pop lyrics for example can be incredibly beautiful when it comes to telling a singular story.

But I think you find more shades of emotion and opportunity for connection if you let the listener derive their own meaning, show don’t tell.

I love writing lyrics and then moving sentences around until the words lose their original meaning and find a new one.

What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard?

I want listeners to be able to find themselves in lyrics, or find their own meaning.

The challenge is that this does not always make for clear storytelling. But I think it’s worth taking the risk.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it?

I think the key is to stay open to happy accidents or new avenues but at the same time trying to remember your destination.

Sometimes the destination can change, maybe the dance song you were making is actually not a dance song but a ballad instead. But the trick is make sure we all pull towards the goal together and the why/how is clear to yourself and the artists you're working with.

What do you do with these ideas?

I try them out, you know instantly whether or not something hits or doesn’t.

I’m constantly amazed how hearing a new attempt or variation of something can be felt and decided on in a split second. You only know if you hear it in the room.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally?

I think it can take many forms for me. Some days, it's the workout you don’t want to do but you know is good for you and will prepare you for the marathon. And other days it is a flow state so intense I don’t have any interest in eating or drinking the whole day.

My ‘workout’ moments are preparation for my ‘flow state’ moments. I think you need both.

Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

I think it is more a sense of purpose than divine. I have done and can do many other things with my life than music, but it is what I get the most life from.

Maybe that's the same? A calling?

When you're in the studio to record a piece, how important is the actual performance and the moment of performing the song still in an age where so much can be “done and fixed in post?“

In a time where you have complete control of the music, even down to individual millisecond timing changes or pitch drifting of a vocal, it is even more vital to capture the feeling. Perfect is not always interesting.

As early as I can in the process I try to record the vocal and more often than not the intuitive feeling of the first take, no matter how technically perfect, trumps the more refined takes that come after having recorded the same line until the life has left it.

Feeling > Technical until the sun turns cold.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on?

Some songs need to rest and cool down, others need to go straight from the studio to the listener. But the most important thing for me is just to ensure I feel that who I am now is represented in the music I release.

This is often is more accurately reflected if you are able to put a song out as fast as possible

How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece?

I’d rather have a technically imperfect song that feels incredible or speaks to an emotion. The goal post of technical perfection moves every year but the feeling you get from a song is eternal.

So if we get to the point where we are, as we would say in Danish, fly fucking - stop.