Coloursound Resident Darius Syrossian on fads, and staying true to your style

Leeds' Darius Syrossian ran a vinyl store in the city for years, so has an unrivalled knowledge of house music from all eras. 

As a producer, his tech house vibe is one loved by the likes of Heidi (who signed Darius to her recent Jackathon comp) but also Steve Lawler who holds him as one of the key cogs in his VIVa Music wheel.  

This winter he'll lay his cap at the Coloursound decks, as a resident for the string of events which begins this weekend.

We caught up with him for a quick chat ahead of a hectic season of parties. 

How has your year been? What's gotten you most excited musically?

It's been an amazing year. I've already done three trips to America and Canada to play, two weeks in March, three weeks in May and ten days in August. I've also played at Sonar, and played in Italy, Romania, Bulgaria and more places, so it's been great for seeing loads of new places. Musically, it's been great, I've featured on three compilations, and there are loads of new artists out there making amazing music that's keeping everything exciting. 

How important is your association to VIVa? What have you learnt from it?

Well I've had a lot of guidance from the guys at VIVa; not only Steve Lawler but also his brothers Adrian and Simon who work hard behind the scenes. The association is important because I get to do a lot of the world tours with the other artists on the label; Leon from Italy, David Pher from Germany, and Detlef from Greece. We take it in turns and share the gigs, you do some and sit a few out, but it's great doing these because you're sometimes away for a few weeks at a time and you learn a lot from them.

Is it not in any way limiting working within a certain sort of aesthetic all the time, constantly playing alongside similar people?

Depends how you look at it. The music I produce has a certain style, a certain sound - and I have done that on purpose. I want people to be able to identify my sound. But this doesn't mean I don't make other types of music for myself that isn't meant to go out on the market. Also, I travel a lot and I'm listening to music the whole time, and very rarely it's house music. On my mp3 player, I listen to classical (and I'm not just saying this, I actually do!), a lot of 70's funk, 80's stuff and jazz downtempo, and it keeps my ears fresh. It's funny, I was on a recent ten day tour in America with Steve and Leon and our tour manager Matt Kilcullen. I got killed for the music on my mp3 player, we travelled to eight different cities in ten days, and some of these were six hour drives in a limo from city to city, and on one occasion I had music on from Ennio Morricone, also the soundtrack from the Hannibal film, and chilled stuff like that. I like to keep my ears fresh.

Tell us about your label – what's the outlook of it? What makes (or made) it different to the hundreds of others?

It's going great. The last release from Leeds' James Barnsley called 'Acid Tambourine' got amazing feedback from the top jocks and came with a huge Tom Demac remix. The next few releases have been featuring in all my sets and there are great tracks of all genres. I've got something great from Camiel Daamen, and also there are full on jacking tracks as well as a deep prog number. The point of the label is HOUSE MUSIC of any genre that we like, no following fads or trends. Not what we are about.

Tell us how you write music. Do you set time aside or do it on the fly or…?

A bit of both. Ideas are done when I'm at home in the studio with a lot of my hardware; I build basslines, drum patterns, chop up vocals, then store these, and when I'm travelling I may get some bits together, then I come back to the studio and do the serious stuff and put it all together. But it's mainly done in the studio, as I'm not just a laptop producer.

And are you a quick worker? Is that important to the creative process or are you a tweaker?

I am a perfectionist so I don't rush things, but I believe if you're forcing something it won't happen, so some people who keep working on the same project but it's not happening need to learn to give it up and start again. No point flogging a dead horse. I learnt this myself a few years ago, and when I did, my work improved 80%. Get your vibe and bassline right first and then move on. If you have that bit only half hearted and then carry on you're wasting your time.

Do you think there are connections between certain sounds /drums / pitches /melodies and certain emotions? Are those connections in-built do you think or can they be toyed with so new musical ideas  can conjure new or different emotions?

Again a bit of both, of course there are certain sounds that will always create that deep vibe and give off the emotion deeper music does. And drums programmed in a certain way can work well on the dance floor to send you into a frenzy, get that tribal instinct we have as humans out of us. That's why I think house music has been around so long; it's a natural instinct to dance to the beat of the drum. From the Africans in the most remote parts of Africa, to the nomads in central Asia, or the kids dancing in Watergate Berlin, it's inbuilt in us to dance to the beat of a drum. But yes with electronic music you can always manipulate sounds to create different moods.

Is that something you think about when making music? Or do you have other goals or things you want to achieve with each track?

Sometimes you have to let the track flow with you. Don't force it; the music is inside you. When you have a beat going and you're making the bassline, it's instinct, let it come out. Don't sit there saying "I want a bassline exactly like this track I want to copy". Never never do that. It's not natural. Sit there, get your drums going and you other elements and then close your eyes and play the bass, see what comes out. And when it does, boom! You're in. No better feeling than when it comes together.

And what are your goals overall? Do you set yourself targets?

(Laughs) No, I only do this because it makes me feel relaxed, I can only do what I enjoy, otherwise I'm bored. I have to always be occupied and don't like my own company, or sitting watching TV too much. I've been told I'm mental a fair few times recently. Maybe I am. Maybe this is my medication; music makes me relax, painting makes me relax, cooking makes me relax, I'm only relaxed if I'm creating something (laughs). So my only target is to make music for myself that I enjoy, then if a label takes it, bonus. I'm a simple person, I don't drive a car, I don't own a house,  I've never had an iphone or a smartphone or whatever you call them, my phone is from 2005. I don't even wear a watch. Any money I have I save for if I ever have kids. My only target in life or music is to be content doing what I love; that's it.

How important is it for you to move forward as much as back? I mean your most recent track paid homage to jack, right?

Music is music. In no other style or form of music do people talk about forward or back. They don't do it in jazz, or funk or whatever or classical, but for some reason in house music people are obsessed with what's new, the new fad, and jumping bandwagons. To hell with that crap. I've liked house music that is jackin, tribal, tough, deep from day one, and that's what I like now, so that's what I make. I'm not deliberately trying to make a retro sound, it's what I've always liked. You know to me it doesn't even sound retro, everyone says it but I don't really see it. To me it sounds like house music. Maybe cos I'm not hung up on making the latest fad. You wont catch me taking a disco track and sampling it and thinking I've made music and should get respect for it, noooooo way!

So you're playing at Coloursound in the coming months… what should people expect? What you playing at the moment?

House music, house music, house music, zero disco edits, plenty of house with these elements, deepness, jacking' vibes, tough grooves, lots of snares, complex drum programming, it's been my sound always and it's what I like so it's what I play in clubs. If I'm playing in a bar or a lounge, I'll get my Mark Farina mushroom jazz funk vibes out, but I'm not gonna suddenly start dropping disco edits in clubs because it's the latest fad (laughs).

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