The Dälek of Enlightenment

From Massive Attack to Mastodon, Dälek (no, no – it’s pronounced 'Die-a-lek', Doctor Who lovers) have shared the stage with too many unusual suspects to mention in one sentence. The question shouldn’t be who, it’s why. What unifying properties does this New Jersey duo possess to attract fans from such disparate pockets of the musical spectrum? Known for their jazzy and abrasive industrial sampling aesthetic, they produce engaging hip-hop that leaves Lil’ Wayne looking like some gun-toting kid who slavers shite about lollipops into a vocoder. Here, their MC explains why theirs is no sound for the faint of heart.

First things first, how do you feel about everybody mispronouncing your name?
“I’m just happy that people are saying my name at all! I’m not a Doctor Who fan, but we’ve always said we’ll take those fans too [laughs], I don’t give a fuck. The first time we went to England, every question people asked me would be about Doctor Who. So now I know everything about that shit, and in all honesty I’ve never watched an episode."

Your songs aren’t the cheeriest and often deal in Orwellian nightmares that only offer brief moments of hope for respite; where do you take your inspiration from?
"Honestly, I’ve always said that lyrically and musically it’s been more about expressing myself and it’s become just like self-therapy. I’m a big fan of historical works; I think there aren’t enough of us learning from history, which is why I think we find ourselves in the position that the world is in today. I like to try to be at least a small voice for people that haven’t been heard throughout history."

Video:Tarnished

They’re also often pretty epic in their length and lyrical scope; does a certain level of perfectionism take over in the studio during the course of writing, or have you mastered the art of letting go?
"I wouldn’t say we’re perfectionists, because I do consider it a gift to know when to let go of a composition. Unfortunately, a lot of my favourite bands don’t have that gift, ie My Bloody Valentine – we’re still waiting for that follow-up, which will hopefully come out now. There’s a danger in that, though, where if you try to perfect something it’ll never come out. I feel as though you can never write a perfect song, it’s just a matter of knowing when to move on to the next one."

Has your perspective on what you might achieve in music changed much since you started out?
"You could say yes and no. I think part of the mystique is gone. For example, I never in my life thought we might do a show where Kool Herc is the one DJing that night. You realise that we’re all just people trying to make our livings and make our art. Within that paradigm there’s good people and there’s assholes. I think that once you see it like that it just becomes more a part of regular life. Then again, I could say that Kevin Martin [AKA The Bug] is a close friend of mine, but at the same time I’m in awe of the music that he makes. So there still is that mystique of it, on a day-to-day basis I hear people create unbelievable art, so I’m still very excited about music. The older I get, my pace may change a little and things that I used to be into I’m not into now, but overall I just feel very lucky and blessed to be involved in this as a career."

How do you stay fresh after 10 years? Oh, and what happened to hip-hop?
“I think the same thing that happens to every genre happened to hip-hop: it starts as a local underground movement, it catches on because it’s good, people embrace it, people make it into something that it’s never been before and at some point people will get tired of it and throw it away. And the people that love it will just keep doing it. It’s all a cycle. You could ask people that are into jazz what happened to jazz, or people into rock what happened to rock, same shit happens to everyone. As far as staying fresh after 10 years? I mean, honestly, I try to stay as true to myself as I can; I don’t expect to write the songs of an 18 year old right now, because I’m 33. I expect my music to reflect that. I think there should be a maturity to it; I think there should be a deeper understanding than there was when I was 18 or 22. Hopefully I can just keep growing, having people like Faust or the Melvins as role models has helped a lot because I see that they’ve carried on in the way they wanted to. They just keep making more innovative music, and they keep doing it over and over again. If I can apply that to my music I’d be a very happy man."

Video: Paragraphs Relentless

Was it ever your hope to take that idea to the next level and become leaders in your own right - creating a new template for other crews to follow?
"That’s never been an intention and I think that all we’ve tried to do – at least in our minds – is stay true to the core of what hip-hop is. Not sonically or record wise, but the mentality behind it, the whole DJ culture behind it, the digging through the crates idea - being into all different types of sounds and music – taking it all and making it into something brand new. That’s all we really have done. The philosophy isn’t brand new, it’s the same philosophy that Afrika Bambaataa had, that KRS has, that A Tribe Called Quest has. We’re just trying to carry it on, but our sound palette is different."

You’ve a new album due out in January. Can fans expect to hear some of that material debuted when you play Glasgow? Is initial crowd reaction important to you before releasing new music, or is the record-making process a little bit more selfish?
"It’s a lot more selfish, I don’t think we’ve done anything in our career because of what people liked or didn’t like, if that was the case we probably would’ve stopped writing records a long time ago because when we first started no one liked anything we did [laughs]. We definitely appreciate it when crowds are raised by what we do, but as artists, primarily you have to make music for yourself and I think people see that honesty in music and appreciate it themselves. This upcoming tour will primarily only be new material, so it’ll be nice to play new stuff."