Interview preview (2/2): Danny Howells on the recent popularity of "Deep House"
/Danny Howells is one of those rare breed of DJ/Producers who has been around since the early 1990s who still retains a passion for the music while continuing to tour around the world to this very day. With a new 2-disc mix compilation series called Balance 24 and a mini-Canadian tour this week, I thought it would be a good idea to talk to him about his latest release while picking his brain on what he thought about the state of the current electronic dance music scene.
In the final interview preview, read what Danny Howells had to say about the recent spike in popularity of the "Deep House" category on Beatport:
EDM Canada: In the past few months we've seen an explosion of popularity in deep house on the Beatport charts – why is that?
Danny Howells: We have seen a huge explosion on what is labeled as deep house. To me it's not what I would traditionally consider to be deep house. Although some of it I would consider to be very good music, but a lot of it has spun out of this Dirtybird or Jamie Jones’ Hot Creations kind of sound. In the end of the day I think it’s exploding, because deep house is traditionally more underground and would appeal to a much more small amount of people but what would be labeled as “deep house” now is, to be honest with you, is more pop music. It's not necessarily bad, because I think there's a lot of good there but it is pop and radio friendly. If you take a deep house record from 10 years ago you wouldn't hear that in the radio whereas the deep house you are seeing in Beatport is very pop and radio friendly. There is probably a lot of deep house purists that are up in arms but like we said before, things change and move on. The most traditional style of deep house will probably get a new label and still be there in some form or another.
Very interesting response. To suggest that some of the recent "Deep House" chart toppers of Beatport to be anything approaching pop music is something that I've thought about ever since this interview took place last week.
Tomorrow I will release the full interview where we discussed things like his career, his latest Balance 24 release, extended sets, and even what Canadian underground fans can expect from Danny when he visits Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto this week.
Danny Howells will be playing 3 intimate gigs this week in Canada: On Thursday, December 12th, he'll be playing at the Habitat Living Sound in Calgary; on Friday, December 13th, Danny will be at Habitat in Montreal; and on Saturday, December 14th, he'll be playing the "Intimate & Underground" party at Toika Lounge in Toronto.
Bonus: This week Danny Howells was given the honours to guest mix on John Digweed's Transitions show, check it out: