Douchka: Together
“I like the name Douchka because it leaves some doubt about my gender. Many people thought I was a girl before seeing me during live sets. I think it’s pretty fun to have that surprise.” From that alone, it could be hard to decipher who Douchka is and what it is that they do, but Douchka is a DJ whose electronic creations are starting to take the world by storm.
By the age of 16 Douchka had already started to DJ. He would download tracks from Myspace, and released bootlegs and edits for DJ sets. This was how he first approached production, and subsequently started making music in a more serious way.
A few years later, Douchka released his debut track joyful on Nowadays Records.
Today, at 24 Douchka has released his debut EP Together, sharing his layered sounds and textured intricacies throughout the electronic scene in France and the world. But he doesn’t necessarily try to place himself in any particular category per se. Today, he explains, he tries to produce music that really touches him, and keeps him out from the technical aspect of what he calls ‘bedroom producers’. He does think, however, that he is getting closer and closer to a pop sound. “I’ve always tried to test new stuff in studio, taken some risks using inspiration from artists that I really like,” he says. “Sometimes people say that my sound is too similar to the sound of artists like Flume or Mura Masa, but my guess is that we’re so few to produce that kind of sound today, that people always try to compare artists between them. It’s not something that people do with Techno music for example.”
Douchka’s tracks demonstrate a certain ability to carefully layer sounds, textures and tones through beats and his own piano creations. Tracks off Together are a foray into a dreamy universe. The creation of these works, he explains originates from a specific idea that will evolve over time, starting by composing everything on the piano, and seeing where the sounds will take him. “Sometimes it immediately works, and sometimes it’s a total failure,” he admits. “I think I have about twenty tracks that aren’t finished yet and that I don’t consider good enough. I’m not a compulsive producer that needs to post something on Soundcloud every two weeks. I really take my time in the studio, and I’m rarely fully satisfied. But when I post a track it means that I accept it. I also test some new tracks during live sets to see how people react.”
He has also remixed a range of tracks most recently including an original mix of Even If by InClose and Kanye’s Wolves, featuring vocals by Fifa Rachel. Collaboration, he says, is important to him. “It’s really essential to me, you always need and external point of view on your work and your live shows. It also has to be honest. I would rather get terrible feedback than neutral if the person in front of you doesn’t want to offend you. Choosing the artists that he collaborates with is mostly a matter of feeling. “It has to be an immediate connection on the human side as well as on the artistic one,” he says. The artists that he feels good about are varied. “I would really like to work with Demo Taped, I think he has an incredible sound. There are also producers such as Gysley or Sable that really impress me. In Australia, I appreciate what Basenji or Charles Murdoch do,” he says.
As he looks towards the future, he says that he may release something before the end of the year. While there is also another project, Leska that he launched with his friend Les Gordon that should be out soon, his immediate future sees him touring and playing his first gigs at festival around the world. “I have the chance to make a living with it since a few months, which is kind of crazy for me. I’m also playing at more and more venues and I’ll play my first big festivals this summer. I can’t wait to be playing and partying with people out there,” he says. Whether he tours in Japan, which he loved when he went there, he would also be interested in touring South Korea or Taiwan. There are too many places where he would like to go to, and continue to surprise audiences about his gender.
Together is out now through Nowadays.
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