D.O.D on Sweet Nothing, Still Sleepless, and Breaking New York

Transcript

Bobby: Yo, what's good? Today we're here in New York City with D.O.D. What's up, brother?

D.O.D: What's happening, mate?

Bobby: We need a proper dap.

D.O.D: Yeah, we can do better than that one.

Bobby: Hey, there we go. You hear the echo in there? We can edit that [...] in, it'll be like Godzilla back here. What's up, brother? What's going on?

D.O.D: Yeah, good. Just flew in from Atlanta last night. Well, this morning, really. Played Atlanta last night.

Bobby: Nice.

D.O.D: It was sick, dude.

Bobby: I've been seeing mad clips of you from Creamfields, actually.

D.O.D: Yeah, that was on Sunday. It was great. That's like a hometown kind of festival for me, so to be able to play the main stage was a pretty big deal. I had all my mates there. It was great.

Bobby: That's what's up, man. So where are you from specifically in England?

D.O.D: I live in a place called Lancaster, but I'm originally from Manchester, which is only an hour away from Lancaster.

Bobby: Nice. Doesn't, you know, SOSA?

D.O.D: Yeah, he's from Liverpool.

Bobby: Liverpool.

D.O.D: Yeah.

Bobby: I don't know him, but I know he's from Liverpool. He's got a heavy accent, bro.

D.O.D: Yeah, yeah. He's got that mixture accent, he was telling me what it was called.

Bobby: That's a Scouse accent.

D.O.D: Scouse accent. He was like, "I'm sorry, bro, if you can't understand me during the interview." I was like, "I can and I can't." The thing is, in the UK, and it's probably similar in the US, too, you can go fifteen minutes in one direction and the accent will be completely different.

Bobby: It's nuts, dude. I have a ton of friends who live in London, too, and they speak kind of like you, actually.

D.O.D: Yeah, well, we're from up north, so.

Bobby: Oh, we don't want to affiliate.

D.O.D: No, no, no, no, no.

Bobby: Yeah, if you're from London, dude, you're out.

D.O.D: No, no, no, we like Londoners. Just the accent's very different, though. I've got a proper northern accent.

Bobby: No, facts, facts. Well, dude, your Creamfields set looked insane.

D.O.D: Thanks, man.

Bobby: I'm seeing you all over TikTok, too, which is lit. Posting stuff about you on DJ Lovers Club.

D.O.D: Yeah, I appreciate it. I appreciate the love, dude.

Sweet Nothing and the Calvin Harris Co-Sign

Bobby: Of course, bro. One question I've got to ask you: you have a bunch of awesome tracks, but recently you were able to get this cleared as an actual official edit, right?

D.O.D: Calvin Harris's Sweet Nothing.

Bobby: So, by the way, I have two questions. One, what's the difference between a remix and an edit for that? And two, how did you get that cleared with him, for him to want to put his name with you?

D.O.D: So basically, I made the original idea in a hotel room while I was on tour, and I started playing it out, and the reactions were great for it. Fisher got hold of the track, I'm not sure how, I think management had sent it to him, and he started to play it. Then, off the back of that, Calvin got in touch, reached out, and we got the conversation moving. He was like, "I think we should put this out." He just seems like a great guy, he's been so supportive of the record from the start, and he wanted to put it out as D.O.D and Calvin Harris.

Bobby: Unreal.

D.O.D: Yeah, which is testament to Calvin, because that's a very nice thing to do.

Bobby: Yeah, not a lot of artists would take a record that's been really big for them and put their name on it with another artist. That's sick.

D.O.D: Yeah, exactly. So I'm super happy. The reactions are great, the streams are really, really picking up on Spotify.

Bobby: I saw the numbers.

D.O.D: Yeah, killing it.

Bobby: Yeah.

D.O.D: So I'm very happy, man. Very happy.

Bobby: Dude, the reason I discovered that song, too, is because Fisher played it out. I saw him post it and I went, "Whose edit or remix is this?" And then we found out obviously it was yours. Dude, it's a smash.

D.O.D: Thanks, man.

Bobby: I've seen him play it live in Ibiza, too, and the crowd goes nuts.

D.O.D: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's been opening his sets with it all summer, in Ibiza and Tomorrowland, bro.

Bobby: Oh, really? Sick.

D.O.D: Yeah, because he played his second set at the Crystal Garden stage.

Bobby: Seeing that, dude. So did you play in Ibiza this summer?

D.O.D: I did. Yeah, I was actually in Ibiza on Monday.

Bobby: Yeah, I saw that.

The Ibiza Residency With Sonny Fodera

D.O.D: Yeah, I played at Pacha. That was my second time at Pacha this year, with Sonny Fodera, for his night. It's an incredible night that he's got. I think our sounds, mine and Sonny's, are quite similar, and in Pacha it just works really well. So those shows have been great. And I've got one final show that I'm really excited about.

Bobby: Fire.

D.O.D: Yeah, that's amazing. I'm ready to hit it out a little bit harder before him.

Bobby: Yeah, dude. So you and Sonny, first of all, I want to go back to that. You guys have great synergy. Somedays, that track you guys made, by the way, you know New Jersey's right over the bridge, right? That's the state anthem. All my boys from New Jersey, I'm from Jersey. I went to a bachelor party in April, and they played Somedays with Sonny twenty times on repeat in the kitchen, for a [...].

D.O.D: Bumping up those [...] Spotify numbers. I like it.

Bobby: New Jersey's got you, dude. Love it.

D.O.D: Nice. Yeah, love it.

Bobby: So, dude, we're here today in New York, in Brooklyn. Is today technically your biggest headline show ever?

D.O.D: Five thousand tickets.

Bobby: Yeah?

D.O.D: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've done nearly five thousand presale tickets, which is insane, really. Like I was saying in the car on the way down here, I don't know how it's gotten to this point. I just make tunes in the basement of my house, and I'm so thankful, because this is everything that I've wanted, and I'm actually here now, and it's amazing, man. It really is.

Bobby: So you earned it, man. Me and my brother were talking about you earlier, we were going through your whole discography. You just make great music, dude.

D.O.D: Thanks, man.

Bobby: And that really ends up going to show, great music.

D.O.D: Yeah, I just do my thing. I make the music that I like, and it's been resonating with people, so I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing.

Bobby: Absolutely. I feel like you make what I'd say is a UK favorite type of sound and music, but people in the States love it, too. Something's right.

D.O.D: Yeah, I'm just trying to stay in my lane and not be influenced by anything else, apart from what I want to do, because I think ultimately that's what's got me to this position now, just making the music that I really like.

Bobby: Yeah, no, it's great. Now, I know we don't like to pigeonhole ourselves with genres as an artist, right? But we'd say you lean more towards a subgenre like piano house music, right?

D.O.D: Yeah, I need to hear from you first. I don't like being a one trick pony.

Bobby: Here we go, bro, I already knew it.

D.O.D: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't like being a one trick pony. I'd say it's more just vocal, feel good vocal house music. It just is what it is. Not all of my stuff is, I mean, some of my biggest records are piano led stuff, but stuff like So Much In Love. I've actually got another track coming out.

Bobby: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

D.O.D: And I've got a new track coming out, another one with Sonny Fodera, and Poppy Baskcomb, and I'm going to open the show with it tonight.

Bobby: Oh, we're going to love that for sure.

D.O.D: Yeah, and that's been working really well all over the world for me, and for Sonny as well, in our DJ sets. So very excited about that one.

Bobby: Yeah, no, I love Sonny, too. I actually found out Sonny's from Australia.

D.O.D: Yeah, I think he's from Adelaide.

Bobby: Yeah, dude, I thought he was from England the whole time, and then one day he corrected me because I said online in one of my videos that he was English. He was like, "I'm not English." I was like, "What? Don't you live there?"

D.O.D: He's an honorary English man.

Bobby: That's what I call an honorary English guy. He [...] lives there.

D.O.D: Yeah, he lives there. I think his management is.

Bobby: I don't know where he lives.

D.O.D: I don't know where he lives either.

Every Step, Still Sleepless, and the COVID Origin Story

Bobby: But no, dude, can I tell you the song that I discovered you on? I discovered you on Every Step. And I was in Amsterdam three years ago, and someone played your track at one of the ADE parties, and I went, "Who is this guy?" That's how I discovered who you are.

D.O.D: Okay. Yeah, that track just keeps growing all the time. It's been one of those real slow burner tracks, it's a real fan favorite, too. When I was playing it, I remember the first year, it hadn't quite connected on DSPs like Spotify or Apple Music, and then all of a sudden it started to get loads of traction.

Bobby: Delayed.

D.O.D: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was.

Bobby: No way, bro.

D.O.D: But I always really loved that record, and it's been really nice to see the organic growth of it, because I feel like that track really deserved that.

Bobby: When did you release that track?

D.O.D: I think that was 2021.

Bobby: Yeah? What?

D.O.D: Yeah, I actually made Still Sleepless in September of 2020, and this was during COVID.

Bobby: No [...] way.

D.O.D: This was during COVID, and I was playing out in Asia a lot. So I was making music that was fit for those kind of clubs, and then obviously all the clubs shut down. I was like, "Okay, I need to do something different now." And Sleepless, because it was originally just an instrumental, that was the first track I made when I was like, "Okay, I'm just going to do something different." Thank [...] I was in the studio that day, because that track would have never been born if it weren't for the knock on effect of COVID and all that.

Bobby: So everyone's got COVID to thank for Still Sleepless.

D.O.D: Facts.

Bobby: By the way, before you put the vocals on it, it was still a big track on its own. Then when you put the vocals on, people are singing it at your shows.

D.O.D: Yeah, exactly. Screaming it in the crowd at shows. We had like thirty different versions of the vocals, and then we landed on that. I think we chose the right one.

Bobby: Oh, dude, you crushed it. I literally see videos of thousands of people singing that all the time.

D.O.D: Yeah, it's amazing, man.

Bobby: I've got to ask you this, because I ask everyone this. You're in the trajectory of succeeding right now as an artist. What do you think would have been your career if you weren't taking the route of being an artist?

D.O.D: That's a really good question. Well, and nothing to do with music, I don't know, I probably would have worked with my brothers, being an electrician or something like that. I don't know, really. I've just always been into music, so that's hard for me to answer. I think I just always knew I wanted to be involved in music somehow. I was a promoter for a while. So, yeah, that's a tough question.

Bobby: Context, because I did this with Chris Lake, too. Chris Lake actually worked for his dad in a fishing factory. He would peel fish skin off, so that they could make fish stuff in the fish factory.

Before the DJ Booth

D.O.D: I mean, I've done a lot of jobs leading up to this.

Bobby: Yeah, let me hear, let me hear.

D.O.D: So, I used to work in retail, in clothes shops and stuff, and I [...] hated it so much, I really, really hated it. But I was doing it because I wanted a car, and this was when I was young, I was like sixteen, and there were things I wanted to do. Then I started DJing locally in bars and clubs, playing commercial music, playing for like eight hours a night, and I was doing that so I could earn a living, so that after university I could focus on making music every day of the week. I was just playing these super commercial shows at the weekend, working towards being a better producer.

Bobby: Yeah, it's incredible, bro. I mean, dude, your music. I'm going to do something else. I'm going to do something called This or That. I'm going to tell you two songs, and you have to decide which song you're going to play in your set.

D.O.D: Of my own songs?

Bobby: Yeah, two songs, bro, your songs. You ready for this?

D.O.D: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bobby: All right. All Mine or Set Me Free?

D.O.D: Set Me Free.

Bobby: Set Me Free or Love Money?

D.O.D: Set Me Free.

Bobby: Set Me Free or Wrap Yourself Around Me?

D.O.D: Set Me Free. Yeah, it's just got a lot of energy.

Bobby: Set Me Free or Every Step?

D.O.D: Is this just like DJing, playing it out?

Bobby: In general, bro, you've got to pick a track.

D.O.D: Every Step. Every Step.

Bobby: Boom, we got a switch there.

D.O.D: Every Step, yeah.

Bobby: Every Step or Like You Do?

D.O.D: Every Step.

Bobby: All right, Every Step or your Sweet Nothing edit?

D.O.D: Sweet Nothing.

Bobby: Love that one, I'm excited to see that live today.

D.O.D: Yeah.

Bobby: Sweet Nothing or Somedays?

D.O.D: Somedays. Oh, no, no, no, I don't know, actually. I was quick to say that. Do you know what, Somedays for me, it's been my highest ever charting record in the UK. I got a UK number one dance single from it, I got a Brit Award nomination. So it achieved a lot of stuff, on a personal level. But then again, I never thought I'd have a collab with Calvin Harris.

Bobby: Which one are we doing, bro? Which one are we doing?

D.O.D: I think because there's been so much traction already with Somedays, I'm going to go Somedays. I think lyrically it means quite a lot to me as well.

Bobby: I get it. Sweet Nothing was a recent edit release.

D.O.D: Yeah, it's recent.

Bobby: Maybe in six months from now we do this again, we get a different answer.

D.O.D: Bang.

Bobby: All right. Somedays or So Much In Love?

D.O.D: Do you know what, I'm going to say So Much In Love, because it was the second record I had that was a hit, and I had in the back of my mind, after I'd made Still Sleepless, I thought maybe I'm just a one hit wonder. But this is just what every artist experiences. And when that became a hit, I was like, that record changed a lot for me. Because one hit record wasn't enough, but two hit records really changed a lot for me. So I'm going to stay with So Much In Love.

Bobby: So Much In Love. All right, well, now you're going to be in a real predicament, because you've got So Much In Love or Still Sleepless.

D.O.D: Still Sleepless. Yeah, I thought Still Sleepless, because that was my real breakthrough record, and I feel like it's still growing. I made the track five years ago, and it's still growing to this day, and that record completely changed my life. So, Still Sleepless.

Bobby: Well, listen, dude, I'm about to see you play for the first time ever right now. Big fan of all your tracks. So let's [...] rip it, dude. Let's go. Much love, brother.

D.O.D: Nice one. Cheers, man.