BACK TO THE FUTURE
Tone of Arc on returning live bands to the dancefloor
PART of Crosstown Rebel’s current saturation of the underground dance market (an agency he’s signed with, by the way), Tone of Arc’s live, bass slapping, microphone heavy, rock n’ roll-like performances result in a very unique and refreshing twist on modern day deep house and disco.
“Damian Lazarus scouted me,” explains the San Fransisco-based Derrick Boyd when we catch up to find out more. “He got hold of my album (‘Corpus Animus’, released on Auralism Records) when I was Dead Seal. He had me come down to LA and play a live set in front of him and all of his friends.” There, he also hooked up with No.19 honcho and one half of Art Department, Johnny White.
That was just over two years ago, and after a breakout performance at 2012’s BPM, Boyd has had a “life changing” year, playing hotspots like Berlin’s famed Panorama Bar and Watergate club. “Being able to play some of the best gigs out there has just been next level. It opened up my eyes to what my capabilities are, and we’re not even halfway there with Zoe starting to come with us wherever we go.”
That’s Zoe Presnick, Derrick’s girlfriend and vocal partner, who tours as part of Tone of Arc when she can. Eventually Derrick wants a full band backing him, a sound he says would be a blend of techno and tech house with a dash of MGMT and !!!. He even wants to reimagine soul classics with an electronic twist. But to Boyd, the way back – using live instrumentation, having an actual band – is actually the way forward.
“If you want to really be recognized as a true musician, then that’s the direction you want to take,” Boyd argues. “It’s been all about this one person up there,
giving them all the limelight, but now it has come around where you have more group oriented acts like Pillow Talk. There’s a lot more dynamics.”
Next, Tone of Arc has a 13-track album coming out which Boyd describes as, “songs you wouldn’t play in the middle of your set. Real songs with bridges. Very lyrical.” It sounds par for the course for the man whose moniker means ‘the sound of the laws of creation.’ Create on. CHANDLER SHORTLIDGE
MASTERING THE DROP
CONSIDERING Daniel Wagner Cash, the Canadian- born producer known asNorthend, just learned to DJ in the last few years, he’s certainly been schooled quickly, finishing up his first real tour alongside progressive-electro stalwarts Michael Woods, Chris Lake and TJR last October. “I only played my first ever show about two years ago in a little club called Taboo,” he remembers. “It was a DJ battle. I was up against six other people. The sound cut out three times in two minutes, I just gave up. I think I got the worst score. After that I concentrated a lot on learning how to produce.”
He grabbed his laptop and some headphones and headed to London, hoping to find inspiration. There he began working on the optimistic, melody-driven progressive house — punctuated by Grand Canyon- sized drops — he’s now known for, catching the attention of a friend and promoter he knew from university. “When I started putting my music on Soundcloud, he played it for the guys at Provoke and they loved ‘Keep It Down’,” he recalls. “They gave me
a call, signed that first EP, and they manage me now.”
His newfound success soon sent him packing his bags back to head to Toronto, however. “It’s funny, I had to go all the way to London to find these people, but that’s how it worked out,” he says. And work out it did. The first track he ever finished, ‘Keep It Down’, and his second single, ‘Tabu’, both charted on Beatport, the former being named one of the Biggest Drops in Electro House of 2012 by the download store. His new single ‘Reverence’, a track he did with friend and vocalist Stereotronique, is out now. “He’s more of an electro act, the really heavy stuff,” Daniel explains. “I thought we could come up with a good combo. We were in the studio for five days straight. I’m really proud of it, it’s a really big song.” He’s also got an album in the works and another tour planned, all happening in the first half of 2013. Not bad for a guy who lost a DJ competition. CHANDLER SHORTLIDGE
How losing a DJ contest brought Northend production fame
djmag.com 007
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