How was 2018 for you?
Detroit Swindle: 2018 has been an amazing year. We’ve pretty much focused the year around releasing our second album, Highlife, in May, and have done a big tour afterwards with our new live show. We’ve done a hectic but amazing U.S. tour straight after the album launch with shows in all the major cities, have played our first (ticketed) concert shows, which was as exciting as it was terrifying, and have played with some of our favorite promoters across Europe. We’re almost done with the live tour for this year, and we’ll put the show on ice for a bit in order for us to come back with something new for next year.
Highlights?
I think the standout moment for this year in terms of DJing was our set at Wildeburg, an amazing boutique festival in Holland where the team have managed to turn getting lost on a festival into the most wonderful experience. We played the early morning set from 6 am to noon. Playing that stage – the only one with music on during these hours – with the sun coming up slowly, surrounded by so many friends, was one of the most heartwarming musical experiences we’ve ever had. There was a great mix in the crowd of people still going strong after the night before, and people who had gone to bed early, and set their alarm clock to catch our set. The musical journey was beautiful, and we played everything from 2000’s classics, to unknown Balaeric, slamming house and old disco gems. It’s a show that we’ll probably never forget.
Lowlights?
The heavy touring with our live show (without tour manager or roadie) really took its toll on our bodies and the summer (and especially our U.S. tour with eight shows in ten days) in that sense was really heavy. Imagine that your whole day gets eaten up by travel, build up, troubleshooting, soundcheck, playing and taking down the whole setup (which includes a big light show as well as five big flight cases full of equipment), all with a tired and sleep-deprived body for eight days in a row, combined with intercontinental travel and the accompanying jet lag. That’s quite draining. I’m glad the shows were all really special in their own way, ’cause that really gave us the energy to make it all work. But our lesson there was clear: we need more people on our team to survive heavy touring like this and give the best possible performance during the our shows.
Song of the year?
There’s so many great tracks, but I’ll choose one that was a standout track during our Wildeburg show and struck such a nerve that it literally made some people cry:
Noche Española – Domino (Outdoor Mix)
What’s your New Year’s resolution?
Stay healthy, stay grounded and dream big.
Image by Lauren Murphy