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t’s hardly the most glamorous of surroundings. DJ Mag USA and Porter Robinson are in a pub around the corner from the grim industrial estate in North London housing the studio where the young American producer has just completed our photo shoot, and where the oily rain battering against the window is only just about drowned out by the maudlin Irish folk music on the jukebox. Porter though is contemplating it with the same curiosity many would a museum, clearly fascinated by what you could say is an authentic slice of


British culture of sorts. “So this is a pub?” he asks. “I’ve never actually been anywhere like this of my own accord since I’m not actually old enough to drink at home.” Indeed, the 20-year-old is also relishing an exotic British tipple he first sampled in Manchester last year. “Do they have something called bitter here?” he requests as DJ Mag USA heads to the bar. “I love that stuff! It’s so smooth.” Still, whichever way you look at them, the old blokes nursing their pints could hardly be more different from the cheering clubbers awaiting Porter for his set at the world renowned Ministry of Sound a few hours later, the whole pub far removed from the places to which he’s recently grown accustomed. Since he first emerged with tracks like ‘Say My Name’ in 2010 and especially since his ‘Language’ single went supernova earlier this year, you’d suspect you’d be more likely to find the EDM poster boy headlining festival stages, in Tiësto’s private plane or in the VIP room of XS in Las Vegas, where he has a residency. But that’s not where his heart really lies. For what’s really exciting Porter when we meet isn’t the prospect of his debut set at one of the world’s most prestigious clubs, but returning home to his bedroom in his parents’ house in North Carolina. “People think I fly in private jets, pop champagne all the time and have houses in six countries,” he laughs. “I totally don’t! My favorite part of my life is being in my bedroom writing music. That’s what I live for.”


That’s what Porter’s been doing ever since he was 12-years-old and his brother brought a copy of Japanese computer game Dance Dance Reaction home, which Porter claims “had the craziest music I’d ever heard! All I wanted to do was make electronic music after that”. So, with no club or DJ culture of any description to be found in his small and sleepy hometown of Chapel Hill, Porter turned to the internet, where he discovered inspiration in the music of Wolfgang Gartner, and an online mentor based in Portland whose stentorian attitude shaped Porter’s whole approach to production. “He taught me to work stupidly hard on music, so I’d send him something and he’d send it back saying ‘Here’s 25 reasons why this sucks!’’’ he recalls. “I judged music on how complicated it was, which is why I liked what Wolfgang Gartner was doing. My emphasis was on detail and intricacy just to show other producers how hard I was working.” So much so that when ‘Say My Name’ was released, it was dubbed ‘complextro’ even as it sat atop Beatport’s electro house chart. “That squeaky electro Dutch house sound was really popular then,” Porter explains. “But I was doing this hyper-detailed glitch sound which sounded different, even though it’s blown up now.”


It certainly struck a chord with fellow bass-mangler Skrillex, who released Porter’s follow-up ‘Spitfire’ EP on his own OWSLA Records, setting him on course to really explode with ‘Language’; a track whose trance synths and female vocal marked a musical change of direction for Porter. “‘Language’ really defied my expectations,” he claims. “All my music up to that point was aggressive, bassy ‘Fuck you!’ drop music, and I was so nervous to release


“‘LaNGUAGE’ REALLY DEFIED MY EXPECTATIONS, ALL MY MUSIC UP TO THAT POINT WAS AGGRESSIVE, BASSY ‘FUCK YOU!’ DROP MUSIC, AND I WAS SO NERVOUS TO RELEASE ‘LaNGUAGE’ BECAUSE I THOUGHT MY FANS WOULD THINK I WAS ABANDONING MY SOUND. BUT IT TURNED OUT TO BE THE BIGGEST SONG I’VE EVER RELEASED.”


‘Language’ because I thought my fans would think I was abandoning my sound. But it turned out to be the biggest song I’ve ever released.”


Porter’s new single ‘Easy’, a collaboration with British producer and fellow rising star Mat Zo, continues down a similar route, taking an earworm female vocal hook and throwing it into a pool of thumping beats and breakdowns, another highlight on what few — with the exception of Porter himself — would deny has been a spectacularly rapid rise. “I’d dispute that because I’ve been writing electronic music for eight years, but if you look at the actual trajectory of my career it’s been like this,” he says, moving his hands slowly sideways before suddenly shooting them skywards. “I guess I hit it right at the point when dance music really started getting going in the States and I was fortunate to put out the sound I did then.”


‘Easy’ is also the centrepiece of his forthcoming ‘Ministry Of Sound Sessions’ mix album, which showcases the DJ skills Porter has developed since the DJ bookings began to come rolling in along with the adulation at an early age. Something which bemused Porter, since not only did he not consider himself a DJ, but his debut DJ appearance in San Francisco was only the second time he’d ever actually been in a club. “It was certainly a baptism by fire!” he says. “I’m sure my first show was terrible. I feel like I’m learning more about it every day.”


He’s certainly getting plenty of practice in, having subsequently embarked on tours opening for Tiësto and Skrillex, playing enormous US raves like Ultra and become an increasingly regular visitor to Europe and Australia. Of course, some might carp that by hurdling right over the years of playing tiny venues to even tinier crowds, Porter hasn’t earned his DJ dues, although he argues that has also left him unencumbered by preconceptions about DJing, as well as giving him an interesting perspective on the current debate sparked by Deadmau5’s recent comments about David Guetta and Skrillex being “button pushers”. “I had no experience of how a DJ set is structured, so I just went in there and did what I thought was most interesting which was this kind of quick mixing style,” he elaborates. “I sometimes wonder if I’d been more exposed to it that I’d have a more typical approach to DJing. It’s not that I think the faster you mix the better you are, but it does mean I feel like a more active participant in the performance, which is important to me because I’m using Traktor, so people could just say ‘He’s just using the synch button, what kind of DJ set is that?’ “I don’t do a pre-recorded DJ set because that would be boring to me and I’d feel dishonest, but the most important thing is that the audience has a good time,”


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