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![]() diplo interview
Beautiful cut’n’paste beats from Big Dada’s big kid. “‘Diplo-DOC-us’ is the British pronunciation,” points out Wes Pentz, the English word sounding incongruous in his cool, East Coast American accent. “It’s Di-PLOD-ocus,” he corrects, using the American pronunciation. “I kind of like that better than ‘Diplo-DOC-us’. It goes back to when I was a kid. I didn’t want to be a producer, I wanted to be a palaeontologist. I used to dig out in the back yard. We had a big red clay field in South Carolina, and I dug up trash and roots but I used to think they were dinosaur bones.”The image of young Wes engrossed in the search for remains from the Jurassic period is a good indication for what the hip-hop DJ’s debut LP, Florida, sounds like. The album takes its title from the state where Wes spent his childhood, the main inspiration for the record. ![]() “When you go there when you’re older, it’s a pretty boring place,” he explains, “People go there to die. But when you’re young there’s so much to do, it’s one of the most diverse states in the country. All the things I did there - going to the everglades, going fishing, seeing alligators in sewers - I feel that gave more to my imagination and the way I create than anything else. So I kind of felt I owed it. I live in Philli now. I do shows in New York and London and Tokyo, but every time I go back to Florida that’s when I feel like my ideas come.” And then there’s the digging. Wes has switched the red clay field of his childhood for crates of wildly varied records, but the compulsive searching remains the same. Florida is an album pieced together from samples he stumbles across during his day job (or should that be night job?) as a club DJ. “It’s really hip-hop music but I’m trying out lots of different things,” he says. “The things on the record are the ones that worked. Every track is a different style.” ![]() Styles include the chilled cut’n’paste soundscapes of Big Lost, the grime-influenced Diplo Rhythm and a beautiful, almost Lamb-like track, Into The Sun, featuring the vocals of Martina Topley-Bird. “I’m really happy with that song. It has a bit of me in it: psychedelic rock, guitars turned all backwards, really lush music, a booming 808 drum and a dirty south stutter drum. And her vocals are so sweet on the top of it.” It’s a charmingly individual record, eclectic but held together with a strong personal vision so that it sounds like one piece of work. “I was just making it for myself and trying to be as creative as possible,” says Kevin. “And I guess that’s as much a reference to my childhood as you can get, because all kids are creative. They’re always making things.” Let’s hope he never grows up.
Matt Walton
Diplo – Florida, released 13 September 04 on Big Dada.
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