Warriors Of The Dystotheque: Music, The Driving Force...
- by The Lioncub
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
It often takes one song to get hooked on a new band! This is exactly what happened to me with WOTD. I asked the band members to telll us more about their journey.
1) Hello! Thank you for joining us here on the Balearic Breakfast blog! I always wondered if the band's name was directly inspired by the 2011 documentary dedicated to club culture! Can you take us through the birth of WotD?
Hi, thanks for having us on your platform amongst the beautiful people and music. Back in 2011, I moved back home to Ireland after 15 years in England where I promoted several nights and DJ'd across the globe on the Nu School Breaks scene. I'd sort of had enough and felt burnt out and had a very unhealthy drug addiction, so I thankfully made the wise decision to return home to Ireland and call time on my music career.
From 2011 til late 2014 I didn't even listen to the radio, let alone any music that I was into, and spent that time working on myself. By November 2014 I started to feel a calling back into music so I went right back to my first love in electronic music which was trip hop.
I laid down a bit of a groove and sent it to my good friend Sean in Coventry. He thought it was great and added a little to it. Around this time, I'd came across the guys The Brothers Nylon on Youtube, Mike and Nick – twins from NY – who were multi instrumentalists and all about the jazz and weird and wonderful. So I fired them off an email and we got chatting. They went onto put a 9 part bass clarinet harmony on the track along with loads more.
We did a few other tracks and, all of a sudden, had an EP of 3 tracks (The Future is Ours). I myself am a massive fan of the Warriors movie and Sean's a massive Dystopia movie fan so Sean came up with a play on Discotheque with Dystotheque. I went on to send the EP to BBC Radio 1 and my local BBC station, and, one monday night, I received a call from the presenters live on air asking was it a clarinet in the track, which was pretty crazy!
The following Sunday, R1 played a track from it. We went about another EP, Return To Coney which got picked up and played across BBC 6 Music by several different DJ's that month. So we decided to carry on as we thought we accidentally stumbled onto something and they've been supporting everything we've done for over a decade, and had us on the show to do a guest mix for the album release, and all this love has brought us to the attention of the lovely Colleen.
2) Your music has been played several times during the show, I especially loved the Hashish Dreams beatless mix that opened a recent episode of Balearic Breakfast! How was that version conceived?
Firstly, we're truly blown away but the love from Colleen and the listeners! So after playing at Cafe del mar at sunset, which was something I'd always wanted to do, Chris Coco heard the tune I played at Sunset On The Balcony at Sunrise and signed it to his DSPPR label. We chatted about another release and then decided on an album.
So we started getting some idea down, up till this point so 2014 - 2022 everything so 10 EPs and an album had all been done online, with us sharing music across the world via the net, and I'd never returned to england since i left in 2011. I jumped on a plane and went to stay with Sean for a weeknd and we came up with Korean Frequency and Hashish Dreams.
Upon returning to Ireland I sent it to my friend Stevie (Deep Division) who added a few parts before it went to Florida (Mike and Nick relocated). They added strings and some extra keys and it was completed and was the next EP and on the It's A Beautiful Thing album. We decided to do a beatless version for sunsets and those quiet moments for the summer, which just brings out the real beauty in it.
3) "Gone Sailing" on which you worked with Balaphonic, takes us right to the heart of the Balearic Spirit with a relaxed and very open minded musical trip. When working on it, did you try to keep a "Balearic" sonic signature or is it something you don't really think about, letting the song, on the contrary, be what it has to be?
I'd always wanted to work with Danny / Moodymanc and we chatted for a few years about it, way before even Balaphonic was a thing, but we never had the right track.
I'm a big fan of that guitar sound of Yacht rock, and just that breezy sonic feel of the live percussion Balaphonic brought to the track. It actually started out as the North version that you can hear on the EP, 3 different takes all with different lead guitar and percussion and a
trademark Chris Coco dub. It was a live studio sound more rocking that the East, & West versions which we slowed down. We just went with what was coming out of the sessions,
we didn't and never set out to fit into that "Generic Balearic" sound ever, but it feels right with what sounds good I guess, we're not too worried about fitting in really as we write for ourselves and always have.
4) Although keeping a "Balearic" Feel, your last issue, Everything's Fine with Delta 9, has a much more tense feeling both in the musical structure and in the sonics of the two tracks which sadly could not make the cut on your latest album, surely for technical reasons as the time is counted on this beloved format! How do you guys work on the 'flow' of an album?
So usually we just write it and what makes the album makes the album with no journey, story or concept, and it's just our music. But for this album on DSPPR, I sat down with Chris and we decided to make it sonically more together and flowing more. Sean, new Warrior Kevin and myself laid down 9 tracks and I was about to send them off to Florida, but I decided ya know what i'm gonna jump on a plane and get out to Florida and meet Mike & Nick and do the overdubs in the studio. Who doesn't want to be in Florida in March and meet the rest of the band and maybe come up with some magic out there? We got through the 9 tracks quickly and then did 3 more for the album and also 6 more got started.
When I got home to Dublin airport it was snowing and minus 2, so it was the right call as it was obviously warmer, and I had loads of music on my return. After weeks of listening and changing the running order between Chris Coco & myself, Delta 9 and Ghostship on the Foyle didn't fit sonically on the album and, also, we wanted to press it to vinyl so we were restricted to running time. But both were ace vibes so we released them in May before the summer started, as they defo didn't have that summer feel although everythings balearic right.
5) Last but not least, what's coming next for Warriors of the Dystotheque?
We've decided off the back of Gone Sailing that we're gonna start album 4, the second for DSPPR and Danny / Balaphonic is onboard with his vast array of percussion and ideas so we're literally just starting this now, and have not set time to finish or ideas of dates for the next single. But I'm sure we will be back on the release radar before the summer next year. And then there's the new WotD - It's A Beautiful Thing Radio show starting at the end of the month from Starr Radio in Belfast, as well as DJ performances going forward.
Oh and if that's not busy enough I've started a new project L.A. DYSTO alongside Steven Reid, Shay Whelan and the frontman Theo Suess on a more 4/4 groove but down in the slower and sleazier BPM's from 100 - 118! So a fun filled future for everything DYSTO!
WOTD on Bandcamp
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