Manchester b2b Melbourne. Ancoats b2b Adelaide. The Northern Quarter b2b The Northern Territory! Episode 11 is coming all the way from Sydney thanks to nu-disco producer and party starter Downunder Disco.
Downunder Disco aka Steve Cooper is fast becoming a regular fixture on labels such as Masterwork Music, Thunder Jam Records, and Hot Digits music. He’s put together a mix which shows of his signature sound and also chatted to the blog about his set up, sound and clubbing in Oz.
You must be really pleased with your recent inclusion on the Masterwork Music bag of tricks compilation and you’ve released several tracks on Thunder Jam records. What that journey looked like for you? And where do want to see more success from?
I’ve been Blown away with the support from the likes of Thunder jam records, Masterworks Music, and more recently Hot digits music. They’ve all welcomed me on to their labels from really just posting tracks up on Soundcloud and the response I got from there. Obviously not all my submissions have been taken but I have always had great feedback from these guys on what I can improve on and even a few production tips! This Year I’ve reached out to a few more labels for possible releases. All in all very exciting times.
Can you talk us through your production setup? Are you a hardware junky or more of a soft synth type of guy?
My setup is changing all the time as I add different bits to the studio. I use midi lots with plugins. I’m using an Arturia keyboard at the moment with analog lab, and the Arturia spark drum machine which is heaps of fun and I’m using Ableton as my DAW. Lots of my tracks are four to the floor I get that from my first start at djing which was in the early 90s, I’m a big fan of disco too and this genres doing great right now so I try and combine the two, basically, I love most music new and old.
Can you talk us through your mix? How did you approach the hour? Did you plan it out or was it more ad-hoc? Rocking up to the decks and seeing what happened?
To be honest I listened to the previous mixes on AMF series to get a feel for the blog. Then I just started the mix with some tracks I thought would fit in, you always have tracks you want to put in and always try and slip one of mine in somewhere.
Finally, is there anyone in Australia you’re really excited about at the moment? Any producers making waves or club nights doing something a bit different?
I’m a massive fan of Dr. Packer over here in Australia and have been to see him play here and in the UK. His production skills are unreal. There is a couple of guys here (Tony Garcia and Andy Donaldson) that have been putting a night on called Rotary Disco which is awesome and they book the best international and local DJs. They are really pushing the nu-disco scene here with the likes of Ron Basejam, Dr. Packer, Eli Escobar to name a few as well as being Great DJs themselves!
If you want some more warm disco sounds check out JETZT! episode.
