Make Believe Mailer 49: Diskotopia (A Taut Line And BD1982)
Make Believe Mailer 49: Diskotopia (A Taut Line And BD1982)
An Interview With The Co-Founders Of The Tokyo Label
Tokyo’s Diskotopia label has been a presence in the capital’s dance music scene since I moved here in 2011, with co-founders Matt Lyne and Brian Durr spotlighting a wide range of sounds from all over the world. It’s also a space where they can release their own projects — Lyne’s solo effort A Taut Line and his ahead-of-the-curve city-pop-referencing outfit Greeen Linez with Chris Greenberg, and Durr’s genre-hopping efforts as BD1982.
Last year, the label celebrated its ten-year anniversary…but given the ongoing presence of COVID-19 and the impact it had on the nation’s dance-music community, the revelry could feel muted…at least in a real world sense. Yet in actuality, Diskotopia released new albums from the imprint’s flagship acts, while continuing to spotlight new names from around the world.
I wanted to catch up with Lyne and Durr midway through 2022, to celebrate a decade of Diskotopia and see what was up with new sub-label Ashigakari. I called up the pair back in late May, months after Greeen Linez’ Secrets Of Dawn had come out and just weeks after Durr’s exhilarating bedroom symphony Initiation Insight appeared online. As so happens with my scrambled brain, I couldn’t find time to properly transcribe this until…uhhhh, now…but what luck! Lyne’s A Taut Line project just released new album Loss. Why not now!?
Ultimately, there’s no reason to tie this to any specific time. Diskotopia remains focused on unearthing fantastic dance tunes from Japan and beyond, and this year along has seen familiar names in the label’s orbit share new material, while new names like Georgian producer Sseq have also released via the label. A decade on, their situations might have changed, but the artistic aim remains the same.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
MAKE BELIEVE MELODIES: So whether personally or with music, how has 2022 been for you so far? I guess we’re nearly halfway through the year.
MATT LYNE: Wow, that’s crazy. Halfway through the year already…
BRIAN DURR: We’ve been a little more selective in what we choose to do, because we don’t have the time anymore, like we used to when we started the label, what, 11 years ago now. Matt and I were chatting a little the other day, we don’t have time — just literally, don’t have time, to do any of the extra stuff. We stick to the basics, let’s put out stuff that we are really passionate about and feel real strongly about. Would you agree with that sentiment Matt?
LYNE: Yeah, and at the same time we’ve started a sub-label to keep us even more busy. Neither of us have as much time as we had 11 years ago, for various reasons, but it’s one of those things where your mind is going crazy, and you want to do lots of different things, but in reality you can’t do them all. You try as much as you can, but life gets in the way a little bit. We’ve kind of honed down the main label to be releasing what we want, which is one reason we started the sub-label. We wanted to keep in touch with a certain kind of artist that is kind of creating fun, on-the-dancefloor material, which is what we kind of started off Diskotopia with, but shifted away from quite a lot. So we wanted to have a place where we could continue to do that and have connections with those artists. We started Ashigakari earlier this year, and we’ve done the first compilation. We’re working on the second one, and hopefully that’s going to come out soon. It’s a contradiction in some ways…we’re paring stuff down, but at the same time becoming busier. That’s where we’re at.
Do you remember when the idea for Ashigakari really started taking shape? Like, we don’t want to be putting this type of music out on Diskotopia, let’s do something else?
LYNE: I think we naturally moved away from that [sound]. So there wasn’t any conscious decision, we will no longer be releasing this kind of music on the main label. Over the years, we organically moved away from it.
DURR: I think with Ashigakari now, it’s kind of freeing in a sense. It’s that dichotomy we talked about, we’re really busy but let’s do this other thing to make us more busy at the same time [laughs]. But it’s less weight, I feel like. A few different artists from a few different places, totally different sounds, put them on the same compilation. I think it kind of brings it back to where we began with the free compilations we did at the end of the year for a while.
LYNE: We came up with the idea in the fall of 2020. I got caught up in the vaccine talk…oh the vaccine is coming, and things are going to change. It’s a new dawn, kind of thing. And it’s our 10th anniversary next year, let’s put the two together to start a new project ourselves. It just took a long time. The reality of it — that the vaccine rollout didn’t happen here [in Japan] until the summer — that was kind of part it. It’s not a new dawn yet. And also, we were contacting artists, and everyone was in a funny state. During the pandemic, people had waves of creativity, but also waves of anti-creativity. So many were finding it hard to agree to do anything. So it took time. But we’re happy with the first one and we have some great tunes for the next one on the way.
DURR: It’s a totally different vibe at this point. It’s still unpredictable — I think even the main label is too. I don’t think we ever really have a game plan, like “this is what we want to do next and we need to steer it in this direction.” We just let it naturally takes its course. When Matt and I first met, we quickly found out we had a lot of common background interests and also a lot of differences, that made are friendship and partnership with the label really exciting. And I think that’s one thing that hasn’t changed since the beginning.
That’s a good transition to talk about the start of Diskotopia. How did it get going?
LYNE: We didn't meet until I moved to Tokyo, and Brian moved to Tokyo as well. So even though he was just down the road, so to speak in, in Kyoto, and I was in Osaka at the same time. So I was in Osaka, 2005 to 2009. And we were doing events there, myself and my wife. So the two of us, and some other friends in the scene. We were putting on events. And yeah, I mean, it was it was fun. It was it was events. We had fun with it. We didn’t stick to playing one kind of sound, which I think was something Brian was doing as a DJ when I met him. That’s what happened with the label, there are no boundaries of what we want to be releasing or playing. In terms of clubs, I think it was a little bit difficult for people to grasp on to. Things are different now, but in the early 2000s, things were in their own pigeonhole, and if they couldn’t be pigeonholed it could be difficult for people to understand it. “I can’t really dance to this and this and this.” We weren’t doing it as a label back then, just a DJ collective, but when I moved to Tokyo, we did a few events here under the name Diskotopia, and then I met Brian.
Do you remember the first time you met one another?
LYNE: I think it was Back To Chill [electronic artist Goth-Trad’s Tokyo-based party]. We were both playing it.
DURR: Yeah, and then our mutual friend Paul, who used to DJ and live out here, but now runs a really successful and delicious-looking ramen restaurant introduced us. We got to chatting, and we actually ended up working together for a bit too at Waseda University.
How did you guys get closer, especially beyond a shared workspace?
LYNE: I feel like before you started working we were DJing a bunch together, because it took a bit for you to start working.
DURR: Yeah, we started playing a lot together.
LYNE: We were coincidentally booked together a couple of times after that. I did an event at a very, very small place in Takadanobaba, and I invited Brian to play that. You remember that? There was a cage.
DURR: Yeah, yeah yeah. And there was a big crew of random people who came from…someplace…and sold out the whole place [laughs]. Whoa!
LYNE: They brought bongos and stuff.
DURR: [laughs] Live bongoing. I remember that. That was quite fun! From what I remember, me and Matt were very fast friends, and we clicked right away. Let’s…let’s go, let’s keep it moving.
I remember pretty clearly when Matt asked me, “hey I have this idea to change Diskotopia from a live collective into a label, would you be interested in it?” I was, up to that point, feeling like I was drifting away from the kind of people I'd been releasing with. No disrespect to any of them. They helped me out a lot back when I was starting out and everything, but I was just feeling like, really not trying to stay in this kind of bubble, and wanting to do more with open-ended genres, and just kind of thinking about starting a label on my own. And then Matt kind of came in and asked…perfect timing.
I remember the first few releases we had came together really quickly. We had Matt and Hong Kong in the 60s EP, like ready to go, basically. And then the second one was an EP of mine that was that came together like really quickly. And it just kind of took off very, very smoothly. Distribution set up, surprisingly easily [laughs].
LYNE: I felt that Brian would be a good choice to do it with because we had a lot of overlap, but we also had — and I think this is the key point — we had loads of differences as well. There’s a kinesis you can find there that helps the dynamic of what you are doing, and coming up with different creative decisions.
DURR: It especially helps too when we are getting demos from other artists, even now. If something comes in, and I’m listening to it, but Matt isn’t totally on board, it’s not going to go through. It helps to shape what the sound of the label is.
LYNE: It’s not about genre, but falling in the Venn diagram. It has to have something that fits both Brian and mine’s taste. It might be some of our overlapping taste, like early ‘90s jungle. For me, it’s the pads of jungle…if I hear those pads, I’m pretty floozy. A couple pads, and I’m ready to release it. But yeah, it has some kind of relationship to both of our backgrounds.
You mentioned a Venn diagram…how has that Venn diagram changed over the past decade? What have you noticed?
DURR: I think because I’m not going out as much…even before 2020, I wasn’t DJing as much…I’ve gone a bit back to the sounds I grew up with. More punk and industrial and post-punk stuff. Electronic stuff still factors in, of course. When we started, I was always thinking about music that DJs would want to play in the clubs, I had to make sure that it was suitable for that environment. Like ticking off a box. As time went on, I just became less inclined to tick that box. I became more excited by trying to make something thatwas more natural. Which is hard.
LYNE: I think we’ve influenced each other’s taste as well.
DURR: Definitely.
LYNE: It’s constantly in motion. It’s like a 3-D Venn diagram [laughs]. We are always influencing one another.
DURR: I think Matt really influenced me. Hearing things I wasn’t really up on, or paying attention. The first time I was hearing the original Greeen Linez demos….ahhhhh, yeah. I was blown away, how the first EP was sounding. He gave me a background of where that sound came from, and that impacted me.
Something you both touched on a little bit…and something I think a lot about personally, just as I grow older…is I don’t go out as much as I used to. I don’t have has much a tight connection with Tokyo’s club and live house community as I once did, and it changes how I approach the music I like. For you guys, what is your relationship to the club community in 2022?
LYNE: Our first release was in March 2011, and as you know…something else happened in March 2011. And that had a massive impact on the club scene. I think people’s values started changing. And, older people stopped going out so much…they’ll naturally do that eventually, but even at the time I thought people a little older than us weren’t out as much. Maybe, I don’t want to die in a club with someone up on my feet, maybe I want to be around the people I love. I think that gradually changed things. Then you had the Fueiho thing, so clubs were shutting down, it was difficult to do things. Then we were just getting older anyway, and it was more difficult to get people out. Our friends were getting older too, they were less inclined to go out. We started getting smaller in terms of the club events we were putting on…which we liked, because some of the most exciting events were happening at the smallest clubs. At least in the underground. And we’ve just gotten older…it will impact us more if we get [COVID-19], and we have kids. It’s kind of difficult.
Last year was the 10th anniversary of the label, albeit in a very odd time. What was it like for you guys, celebrating that milestone? How did you reflect on Diskotopia?
LYNE: Brian did an album, and we also put out the latest Greeen Linez closer to the end of the year. So there were these key releases from key artists from the last 10 years. But all of those releases were looking in a different direction, moving in new ways from previous releases. It was a pivotal thing — this is us going forward in a different way. We had other releases too. It was looking back and saying thank you…and also looking forward, without closing any doors.
DURR: Matt touched on this a little earlier…there was a bit of trepidation, because it was right in the middle of the first wave of COVID. Should we be putting out music, now? I mean, it wasn’t 2020, but still…
I feel like time kind of stopped for like two years.
LYNE: When you’re putting out music, the planning is before, right? So we were prepping for 2021 in 2020, and so on and so forth.
DURR: A lot of people were having terrible times, but people were still listening to music, culture was still being created. That’s important. It’s easy to have things get swept under the rug. If it doesn’t get much attention because of how things are being received and consumed, that’s fine. Just doing it is what’s important. Putting it out for anyone who is paying attention, who is listening. And we’re going to do it anyway.
LYNE: In 2020, I just couldn’t work on music. I just couldn’t do it. My creativity was finished with everything going on, it was very difficult. Since it was the 10th anniversary year, though, I had the motivation to get back into it, because I felt like…it’s the 10th anniversary, I really want to do another Greeen Linez album to coincide with it. It’s not easy, since I’m working with Chris, and he has his own things going on. We have to be in the right mood to make it happen.
I was really keen to do this, but Chris wasn’t feeling creative enough to commit to it. So I ended up going through old emails. The way we create, Chris usually creates the melody and the chords, and he’ll send me the MIDI data. So I was going through emails from, like, 10 years back, about songs that hadn’t made previous albums. I had the MIDI data, and I created something, and shared it with Chris. What do you think? He was like, oh I really like it. From that, he got inspired, and he started sending me new data, and we got back into the flow of things. I know for the both of us, that creative process of having this fixed vision and working towards it, thinking about it, honing ideas…it was very helpful for both of our mental health. If you’ve got something to focus on that kind of keeps you moving forward towards the future with purpose…that definitely helped both of us.
Brian, you recently put out your newest album as BD1982, Initiation Insight. How did that one come together?
DURR: I was kind of making the most of the little pockets of time that I get, based on how the last few years have been going. I was just exploring a bit more where the previous record, Distance Vision, had gone. I had the chance to sit with it and criticize it. Like, what would I have done differently [laughs]. I was kind of trying to one up and do a sequel of what that release was, at least in the back of my mind. I should have been more direct here, or more quick to decide here. It’s also been really freeing, as I mentioned, to be making music not concerned about the club. I’ll just jam with one instrument for a bit, get an idea going. Then just get a lot of sketches, and take my time adding to them. And oh, these tracks are done. They all kind of work together as a record.
I was reading some books on the occult and UFOs, and ancient aliens and the sort [laughs]. I don’t totally believe it, but it’s interesting to read. Especially with all the Congressional hearings on UFOs and all those Navy videos that have been released. And just going back to music that I really would have loved to make when I was younger. Which is something that Greeen Linez inspired — Matt told me that was the music they wish they could have made when they were younger. So this is what I’d want to create when I had a little four-track recorded in my bedroom, and a guitar, and I’d be trying to make songs. Could I translate that to now?
How long have you been into aliens?
DURR: [laughs] It’s been a long time. I remember when I was nine or 10, I had this incredible book. Like, an Encyclopedia Britanica of Cryptozoology. Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, more obscure stuff, and aliens of course. I remember being terrified, like with alien abductions or reports that they would draw cattle blood, from the fields. I remember drawing pictures of that in elementary school, and being scared. Why am I drawing this? [laughs]
I remember reading tons of alien abduction stories online when I was in elementary school, and for like three years being terrified about going to sleep.
DURR: Fire In The Sky, that film? It’s scary! But I’m still intrigued by it.
Matt, thoughts on aliens?
DURR: Are you a believer?
LYNE: Am I believer in aliens? I liked The X-Files a lot in the ‘90s, the first three seasons. At the same time, I didn’t really believe. I don’t know. Ummm, yeah. I don’t know. My wife is much more interested in aliens and ghosts, and things like that. More than me.
DURR: I have some reading material to pass on [laughs].
Getting back on track…how has your relationship changed over the past decade?
LYNE: We communicate with one another everyday.
DURR: I’d say we’ve grown closer as time has gone on. I love Matt, he’s one of the best friends I’ve ever known in my life.
LYNE: Well that’s very nice, thank you.
DURR: And I’m very lucky to have such a nice friend.
LYNE: Actually, talking a little more deeply about this, when there’s two people working together on something, you are going to have disagreements with one another. That’s the name of the game, right? I think that what has changed over the years is that we can be more honest with one another, and we can find the solution to a problem much quicker. And we understand that we are going to have different opinions we have to work through. When you’re much younger, when you have disagreements with friends and you have that huffy-puffy silence with them? We’ve never reached that point, but it happens to people. I think what we’ve managed to get through is we got past that stage, and we try to listen to one another and try to respect where one another is coming from.
DURR: We wouldn’t be continuing doing a label together if we didn’t have that kind of solid foundation. If anything jeopardized that foundation, it would have to be fixed.
LYNE: It’s an issue of trusting one another. If you’re not going to be honest, you can’t build that level of trust in one another. I’d say now, when I’m working on something and Brian is working on an album and we ask one another “what do you think,” ten years ago when you don’t really know one another you can’t be as honest. You can’t say “I think you should do it like this.” If you are doing that for ten years, I think you’d reach a point where you’d snap. But we’re at a stage where we can be honest with one another. That allows us to have our best interests at heart.
DURR: Those kinds of exchanges, the constructive criticism, is really important. We’ve been successful in taking ego out of the equation. I try to take that out of daily life as much as possible, even though it’s hard. But because we have that trust, this collaborative process is always going to yield results. If you can get a person, or people, to bounce ideas off of and build and learn…Matt and I have shared lots of mixing and production techniques with one another over the years, we’re all trying to help one another. It’s great to have such a good partner.
LYNE: Well thank you very much.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies