After bringing his signature sound to Lost Lands, Dr. Ushūu, is pretty much an unstoppable force. The Paris-based producer has built his career through experimentation, persistence and an insanely innovative mindset. Now, with “Camden Town” marking what he describes as the beginning of a new era, he’s settling into a sound that reflects more of his personal style than ever before.
Currently spending time in the US, we caught up with the man himself between shows, writing sessions and a packed run of dates. Dr. Ushūu is finding a new sense of fulfilment on the road. Known for his legendary flips and unmistakable energy, he’s showing no signs of slowing down, with a slew of forthcoming releases and projects lined up before the year is out. We chat about touring, venues, finding his sound, what’s coming next and the unlikely journey that took him from producing in his school’s PC lounge to stages around the world.
How’s Chicago been treating you?
Good, yeah. Hell yeah.
You’re based in Paris, right?
Yeah, I live in Paris full-time. It’s kind of funny, though—even though I’m based there, with the way I live, sometimes it feels as though I’m still in America.
Are you having a good time on tour in the states?
I’m trying. I have so much stuff to do that sometimes I think, “Oh, I need a break.”
Speaking of work… how about that new mix you just uploaded?
Yeah, yeah. It’s basically a mix series that they do on a French dubstep blog.
They’ve been homies for a while. And then they said, “Yo, can you do a 140?” and I said, “Yeah.” I’m not really into radio shows or doing mixes where I have to list out every track.
You’re thinking, “I don’t want to do that part.”
Oh no, I hate it…
Thinking back, it’s really funny that we bonded over pastries. I remember you posted this absolute monstrosity you’d found in Tampa, Florida, and calling it a pain au chocolat felt pretty generous…
Oh, wait. Yeah, I was in Tampa. It was supposed to be a pain au chocolat… it was so bad. I thought, “Why do they call it a chocolate croissant? There’s no way. Stop calling it that.” It cannot get any worse.
I feel like that too. I swear, touring America must be torture for people from other countries because the food can be so hit or miss.
I was talking to one of my friends from Europe because they’re all coming to Lost Lands this year. They asked, “Hey, what’s the best food?” And I said, “You know what? I don’t even know what the best food is because it’s so different all the time in America.”
And also, for me, if I want to order Uber Eats, for example, I need to scroll, scroll, scroll and work out which one is least likely to make me shit my pants. I wonder, “Is this one a good one? No. Is this one a good one? No, it’s not a good one. I remember that.”
You’re gambling with your health when you go on Uber Eats.
Especially when you get back from a show and it’s two in the morning, and you’re trying to figure out what you want to eat. Then, at the end of the day, the only places still open are McDonald’s or White Castle. None of that is going anywhere near my body.
We don’t want any cancelled shows…
Oh no. I mean, I’ll probably still play the show, but I’ll just be practically dead.
So, yeah, you’re playing Lost Lands. How exciting.
Yeah. I mean, I love Lost Lands. I kind of have—not a love-hate relationship—but a weird relationship with Lost Lands. The first Lost Lands I did, I loved it, but I felt super lonely. And then, I don’t know why, it kind of ruined my vibe for every other Lost Lands that I went to.
This time, it’s going to be different because I have a lot of homies and friends playing, but also a lot of homies from France. The usual homies that I see all the time are going to come over and just be with me. I’ve been in America since August, so basically, I’m just counting down the days until I see them and I’m thinking, “Oh shit, they’re finally here.” You know what I mean?
You’ve had some big moves lately. When did you first start experiencing negativity simply for creating music?
I mean, it’s not the first time. I’ve kind of dealt with it over the years. But I don’t know why, this time it’s hitting me differently because I’m just minding my own business, you know?
And don’t get me wrong—you can dislike me. You can dislike my music. I don’t care. There are artists I dislike, but I don’t really voice my opinion publicly or leave hateful comments because there’s no point.
The worst part is that it’s not even about liking or not liking my music. If it were about my music, I’d be okay with it. Music is subjective, and everyone has their own opinion on it.
But here, it’s going after me personally. It’s going after Dany, not Dr. Ushūu as a whole. You’re hurting Danny. And that’s a major no-no for me because I think, “No, I don’t want to let them do that.”
You can ignore it, but ignoring it just feeds the monster inside you, pretty much. So that’s why this time I thought, “You know what? I want to speak out.” I don’t want to just ignore it and tell myself, “Yeah, I’ve got to ignore it.”
No. What’s happening? Why? What’s the problem here? I’d rather confront things than not talk about them because I feel you can tell a lot about someone’s personality by the way they handle confrontation.
Yeah. And I think that’s what stood out to me—a lot of people don’t say anything.
Yeah. It’s very unfortunate because, for example, the last one I had was not so long ago. It was three weeks ago.
I haven’t really talked about it on my social media. I wanted to. I wanted to make a video, but I thought, “You know what? I’m too tired. I don’t want to spend my time doing a video about whatever.”
There was this artist from Europe that basically called me an industry plant, saying that I was taking people’s space. And I thought, “What? What do you mean? What do you mean I’m taking people’s place?”
You can hate on me, whatever, but don’t say shit that you don’t even know what you mean. That’s crazy. That’s impossible.
It got me pissed for, I don’t know, about a week. And I was so pissed that I thought, “You know what? I don’t want to make a video because I’m just going to say dumb shit.” So I don’t want to do that.
But it is bad. I know a lot of girl artists who suffer the same thing. I know a lot of other artists, people of colour, who suffer the same thing over social media every time they make a song.
And that pisses me off because we’re supposed to make music, and then we have a scene that despises people for being themselves, and then goes, “Oh, we need more minorities in the scene. Oh, we need more of this in the scene.” Well, we need to stick together and protect whoever is in the scene already.
That’s something I’ve always believed. You need to protect the people who are in the scene instead of just bringing more people into the scene.
Because if we have 3,000 more Black artists in the scene, but everyone starts disrespecting them, they won’t make it.
That’s a really good point. But yeah, how have you been treated so far on your current tour?
Pretty well. I’ve been loving this tour. I feel this tour has been such an eye-opener because I was never really treated this way on the other tours.
Being able to do whatever you enjoy the most now, and being able to see people dance to it—not only enjoying it, but just dancing and smiling and sharing a moment with their friends—that’s literally what I always wanted to do when I wanted to be a DJ.
And that’s what I’m doing right now, so it’s really, really fulfilling. The shows have been great. We just did two shows in Phoenix and Las Vegas last week, and they were both incredible.
So yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing how the rest of the tour goes. I’m really looking forward to the upcoming shows. They’re all promising. They’re all cool. I’m super excited.
Everyone looks like they’re having a great time during your sets. Would you say ‘Camden Town’ was your breakout tune, or was there an earlier moment when you felt people really started taking notice?
Well, it’s weird because I’ve had a breakout anthem with ‘Quasar.’ It was funny because I made that tune because I couldn’t make heavier tunes anymore. My manager said, “Yeah, you should make more.” And I said, “I don’t know. I don’t know how to make it anymore.”
And then I played this one at Rampage. My manager was there and said, “Bro, finish the first one that you played because this is cool.”
So then I finished it, sent it out to everyone, and everyone started playing it. Then I released it, and everyone said, “Okay, bro, this is the tune.”
I remember I played Lost Lands right before I released the tune, and I would just go through every fucking stage and hear the tune. I thought, “Damn, this is crazy.” The thing is, I feel people were expecting me to make more of that tune, but that was supposed to be the last tune of that style.
Comparing it to “Camden Town,” “Camden Town” was a rejected tune. It was a tune that I played at the shows because I liked it, but it seemed like no one liked it until I made this Reel about it—a video with it—and then everyone liked it.
Then people were asking for more of this, and I thought, “Well, that’s what I love to do.” So there’s a contrast between those two tunes because one was the ending of an era and the other one was the beginning of another era.
Both are really different.
“Camden Town” felt different. It felt more me. I don’t feel it’s more me in my heart, but it’s more me as a personality. I feel there are two types of art. There’s one that showcases your personality and one that showcases your heart. And I feel this one showcases my personality more than my heart.
Does that mean you have more music in that style coming out on the horizon?
Well, I have more in that style on the horizon. I definitely have a lot of cool collabs with artists that I’ve looked up to for a while, and that’s cool.
‘Camden Town’ was the breaking point of a new style, a new something. And now I’ve been releasing other songs in the same style. I’m literally just getting better and better within my style and exploring and doing other stuff that I actually enjoy—stuff that I actually enjoy more than anything.
I love that. Have you been able to write while you’re on the road at all, or are you not really into that?
Yeah, I have. Since I live with my friend in Chicago, every weekend I go and play a show, but then I come back home and start trying to make tunes.
Especially now, I’m trying to make as many tunes as I can for Lost Lands, as well as collabs and blah, blah, blah. So yeah, I write a lot on the road.
But I’m weird when it comes to actually writing tunes because if I want to really write one, it takes me time. That’s also the thing with this style that I’m doing right now. I wanted to create a style that was easy for me to work with without overthinking, because if you overthink, you fall behind. And I didn’t want to overthink. I thought, “Okay, I need something that I enjoy, and within an hour or two, I’m ready to work more and finish it.”
You were born in Portugal, right? When did you end up moving to Paris?
I was 11 years old. Yeah, 16 years ago. I was 11.
When did you start producing? What led you to actually opening up the DAW?
So I was 15 when I started. When I opened a DAW for the first time, I was 15, and I had no clue what the fuck I was doing. I just did it because I had a homie back in the day. I used to make music on this website—it was basically just arranging loops. And then he said, “Yeah, you should try FL.” I asked, “What the fuck is that?” He said, “Yeah, just crack FL.”
I actually downloaded the demo, but then I didn’t have a PC. So basically, I used the PCs at school to produce. I went to the library, installed FL on one of them and started learning how to produce there until I got my PC back, and then I started producing for real.
Nice. Are you still in Fruity Loops?
Yeah, I’m still on FL. My first love, kind of.
Sounds like you’re pretty locked in…
Yeah. I mean, it’s weird because it’s hit or miss. It’s easier to understand because when you look at the DAW, a lot of it makes more sense. But it’s not easy to tell whether you’re making good music or not.
Because you’re just so into it, you don’t really know whether it sounds good or not. Your ears aren’t trained yet. You don’t really know how to make actual music. So it’s a funny process at the same time, but it can also be boring. I remember every time I talk to my students, I tell them, “You know what? Just remember those times when you feel you’re just starting out, because those are the best times.”
You’re teaching? I didn’t know you were giving lessons!
I mean, yeah. I give lessons as a service. People take classes with me. It’s something that I love. I love teaching.
So going back even further, how did you come up with your name?
So basically, my grandpa always wanted me to be a doctor, and I said, “No, I don’t want to be that kind of doctor.” My old alias was D.C.R., which was based on my initials, but I wanted something better. So I looked up how to say “space” in Japanese. It was spelt with a C, so I just changed it up to make it a bit more unique, and then I added “Dr.” to it. So it meant “Doctor Universe”, because I love the stars and all of that.
I love that your name pays homage to your grandfather and ties into the universe theme. Do people struggle to pronounce it?
Oh yeah. I mean, there’s not really a right way to say it, I feel, because I don’t really know how to pronounce it myself. But at the same time, it’s fun because everyone thinks it’s pronounced one way, and then it’s another way, and then another. I’ve heard people call me all sorts of things, and I think, “Bro, what the fuck?” So it depends. It depends on the person.
