Say hello to Serbian-Australian producer-turned-film director Dirty South. His short movie With You – which he wrote, directed and scored himself – is the work of a man who’s taken a chance and created something unique, making him the perfect candidate for our Gamechanger series.
With the album released yesterday and the short film released this past summer, it’s no shock Dirty South had a ton of influential opinion about creativity to share with us. By creating music for the sole purpose of creating music and making something beautiful and meaningful has formed just another avenue that has proven how talented this guy is.
Here are 5 reasons why Dirty South has blown us away with his creativity…
He wants you to feel connected to the entire concept of both the album and the short film.
“I would love people to feel connected to the album, and not press stop or skip. Because the way it was made it was made like a story, in which there was a concept into a movie as well. So hopefully the idea is people watch the film that’s scored by this album and then go back and listen to the album and have the visuals to kind of understand it better. That’s why we released the film a couple of weeks ago giving people enough time to see it before the album is released.”
He realized he needed to take time to find new inspiration.
“With You is a reflection of me falling in love with film making for the past year and a half. That was my little break from music because I was getting bored of it, just for a second and I needed new inspiration. I was into the whole idea of film making and teaching myself about it. So I did that and came back and decided I needed to make a new album. As I was making With You and in the back of my mind I was making music for film without realizing it and that was really the concept of With You; making cinematic and beautiful music.”
The film is a dark and twisted love story and the album will evoke those feelings as well.
“I wrote the music at first. And when I was finished, the first 10 tracks that gave me the story and the feelings and the idea of what the movie should be like. So everything came from the music and definitely one of the main themes was that it’s a love story… But it’s also a little dark and a little twisted. The whole thing just translated into the movie like that because that’s what the music made me feel.
I don’t think I can directly associate myself with any of the characters in the film. I mean, people ask me like ‘oh are you a sensitive guy?’ I’m like ‘yeah maybe I could be the younger main character, but nothing directly.’ I think we all have a sensitive side to ourselves and we all fall in love and I think it’s more of a general thing.”
He wanted to make music for you to really listen to and understand.
“It’s difficult to play the album straight into a festival because it’s really not made for that immediately, but all the songs are very easily remixed and re-edited. I actually have a bunch of them, but they’re in slightly different form, maybe a bootleg or a re-edit, a little more energetic so it fits better on the dancefloor.
I am planning a tour. I’m putting it together right now actually. I’ve been toying with the idea of taking the album as it is and doing a whole thing with that. Maybe like 8-10 special shows. It would be very similar to how you listen to the album so a lot of live instruments and electronic stuff mixed in and the visuals would be from the movie and maybe live performance from people who sing on the record. It is a big project though.
That was my first and foremost idea, not to be caught up in any particular genre. Obviously it’s electronic music but it’s also quite live-based as well. A lot of indie bands, I play all the guitars and I just love to mix electronic instruments and live instruments. So at the end of the day it is electronic, but it’s just music and that’s what I wanted to make without falling into any holes or boxes. I didn’t want to be seen as just making an album to be in the dance section.
I just wanted to make music for people to listen to. If those tracks make it on a dance floor in any shape or form that’s great, if they end up in peoples cars, or when they’re having showers or whatever, I don’t really care I just want people to listen to the music.”
My advice for newer producers is to do whatever they want. Because ultimately they could become one of the pioneers and people will follow them eventually.
He knows how to stay unique and true to your own personal sound.
“I think it’s very important not to fall into any traps of what’s popular right now because if you look at people who are called ‘pioneers’, they don’t really think like that. They just make whatever they want to make and sometimes those things evolve and become trends. So my advice for newer producers is to do whatever they want. Because ultimately they could become one of the pioneers and people will follow them eventually.
I also think it shows in the music, if you do exactly what you want, it shows, and if you do something that’s following what’s cool, that also shows. So you have to think, if a song is really popular right now, because it’s very new and fresh, that song was made six, eight, maybe even 12 months ago. Back then, that producer or artist wasn’t copying anyone, they were just doing what they wanted and it took 12 months for the song to become cool and trendy. Basically you can’t copy something because it’s already become old.
I find it more inspirational to listen to older music rather than new. The new stuff is just going to influence you in creating something similar. I listened to a lot of old stuff, like Chemical Brothers, especially for this album, Massive Attack, Moby, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Doors; I’m a big fan. So a big variety of things that don’t go together but that are what I grew up with and that’s what’s inspiring to me.”
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