(Internationally Recognized) New Kid on the Block: Sitting Down with Blake Strange
If you’re part of Sydney’s underground techno family, you’ve probably heard of Blake Strange. A new kid on the block, Strange is one of those rare Aussies in a scene dominated mainly by internationals and expats. As a Moonshift Resident, he’s played at various events, mixed live on Orbital Radio, and successfully ingratiated himself into the scene. His notoriety, though, transcends the city limits.
Dropped alongside a gorgeous accompanying video, his first major release “Rainbow Road” put him on the map. But it was “Shadow” that really established him as a tour de force. Snapped up by Stil vor Talent, “Shadow” got to #19 on Beatport’s Electronica top 100 and was added to Oliver Koletzki’s Personal Tracks: June. His next release, “Flow” was signed by UK label Capital Heaven and again got featured on Beatport, this time on Best New Breaks/Breakbeat & UK Bass: June and Opening Fundamentals 2021.
As we spoke, enthusiasm oozed out of him like goo. There was a faint madness in his eyes which glimmered with uncontrollable passion. He spoke with wild gestures, using a childlike curiosity to shimmy through the conversation with flare and pizazz. If there’s one thing about this man that’s clear, it’s that he loves music. He drinks it, snorts it, sleeps with it, and carries it with him everywhere he goes. Like August Rush, he can taste it, feel it, and hear it—always.
“Some people just know they wanna be an Olympian bike rider,” he told me. “Some people just know they wanna do building and construction…they click with it…I just knew and still know that [music is] that thing that gets me up in the morning, and I’m super excited to do it.”
His take on performing is refreshing, unique, and counterintuitive. While one might think that a DJ gets off on watching a crowd go wild and sending the masses into hysteria, Strange plays to the individual.
“At a bushdoof or rave, [I’m] playing to that person who’s just absolutely fuckin’ frothin out of their mind. He’s just really enjoying the music,” he told me.
Asked to elaborate, he spoke about a set that he was playing in an industrial kitchen somewhere in Sydney’s gritty underbelly.
“There was this one girl [at that party], and I could see she was just into it. I was playing techno and it was building to this filthy sort of plateau, but I could just see the way she had her eyes closed and she was enjoying absolutely every second of it. Afterwards, I went up and spoke to her and said ‘Did you enjoy that? Did you have a good time?’ And I said: ‘I was literally playing that set to you.”
Asked what tips he has for new producers, Strange had one thing to say: “Finish your music.”
While putting in the time and effort to rigorously study different aspects of music production day in and day out is necessary, according to Strange it is not sufficient. “Number one tip, if you could put it in a sentence: ‘Finish your music,” he told me candidly. To him, that’s the most important piece.
As to the future, we will very soon see the release of his new EP, “Human Error,” the first track of which is called “Rabbit Hole.” Beyond that, he hopes to embark on a world tour, bringing his sound to different people in different countries. If he could pick, his first stop would be Tokyo.
Socials:
LT: https://linktr.ee/blakestrange
SC: soundcloud.com/blakestrange
BP: https://www.beatport.com/artist/blake-strange/897711
