Under 500 Spotlight & Interview: DMTR -

We are sooo stoked for our next spotlight today on Belgian bass artist DMTR. DMTR produces all things bass music with a focus on the experimental side. I first came across DMTR by way of his track Recovery featured on the 2019 Widdfam compilation. Recovery is an unrelenting halftime banger with a great flow throughout. He has already proven he is a man on a mission with an impressive catalog of diverse tracks. This past year he deservedly won the L*o*J remix contest of Moontoys, flipping the track completely upside down into a wonky banger with multiple switch-ups included. His latest track Transmorgify was dropped just last week and is an amazing journey. The track morphs from a dark rhythmic beast into a peaceful cosmic tune, hence the name Transmogrify. Dimitri Joris is the man behind the music and we broke through a language barrier to chat with him about his journey, the Belgian music scene, influences and more! We are positive we’ll be hearing much more from him in the future so check out the interview for yourself and give DMTR a follow!

How did your electronic music journey begin? Do you remember the first show you attended? When did you begin producing?

My Electronic Music journey started with my dad. He introduced me to house music from the 90’s at an early age and ever since I’ve always wondered how these Electronic genres were made. I took my first steps towards production around the age of 13 in an old copy of Cubase my dad used along with a Roland mc 505 Groovebox. At this age, I started to discover my own taste in music and this is where I came across Noisia, Skrillex and the UKF channels which heavily influenced me throughout my first years of production. The first Electronic music show I attended was a Skrillex show in 2012 which blew my mind. I decided back then I wanted to have more experiences like that so I started going to RAMPAGE every year from 2013 onward until the last one I attended in 2017.

Whats the Belgian music scene like? Is bass/halftime music popular?

The Belgian music scene is dominated by techno. There are huge techno parties every week with line ups that consist of multiple international headliners. Besides that, there’s a variety of drum ‘n bass (mainly jump up), house, disco and hip hop. Halftime/bass music isn’t so big sadly in our country. We do have acts like SHADES and Ivy Lab playing at the big festivals such as Dour, Pukkelpop, and others. Besides that, there aren’t a lot of opportunities to hear halftime tunes being dropped except for the occasional banger at some deep drum ‘n bass parties.

You recently deservedly won the remix contest for Loj Moontoys. Can you talk about the process going into remixing that song?

Thank you! I accidentally came across the remix competition when scrolling through my Soundcloud stream back in October last year. For me, it felt like a fun challenge to take on as I was starting to take producing a little more serious and looking for my own sound. I started out by taking the flute sample they used and putting it through loads of distortion. This basically formed the foundation for the intro and after adding a couple of elements, I started working towards the drop. At the time I was listening to a lot of halftime music, which gave me the idea to do a halftime drop with a couple of switch-ups to keep things interesting. I felt really happy with the project and I kind of leveled up my production in a sense during the process of making that remix. This made me decide to submit the track because I never expected it to turn into a track I’d actually enjoy.

What DAW do you use to produce?

I’ve used Ableton for almost the entirety of my production and I absolutely love it. I kind of learned to do everything in Ableton, with Ableton. So I would say 85-90% of my projects are made using stock Ableton stuff. It might seem very limiting at first but once you learn how to use certain things in certain ways there are almost limitless possibilities using just stock plugins/effects etc.

Any tips for producers starting to make the musical journey?

I guess the first tip would be referencing. Referencing music you like or music you aspire to make can give you so much information on both the creative and the technical side of production. Looking at how people you admire arrange their songs, mix their songs et cetera can give you great insight into what you are doing different than them and what you’re doing the same. The second tip would be something that has helped me personally and that is joining the producer community on twitch. Streamers like The_Widdler, MussarMusic, Shroomhead_one, AlckemysLaboratory and many more offer great platforms and communities where you can share and discuss your music as well as learn directly from them. I improved more in the past 1.5 years when I joined these twitch communities than the 6.5 years I’ve tried producing on my own. My last tip would be: put in the hours. This might be hard sometimes but try to be in the DAW at least every day or every two days can make your productions improve in no time. I do not mean that you have to be writing songs every day, just doing challenges, analyzing, sound design, mixing et cetera. all contribute to your skillset as a producer/artist.

What producers do you think are pushing the boundaries at the moment/inspire you the most?

My inspirations come from all kinds of places and artists but most recently there have been a couple that really sparked my interest. There are three artists that specifically inspired me recently and influenced my production in a couple of ways. Hezen is a vocalist/producer who mainly makes dark pop and electronic music. Her music is very unique and her music mainly influences me into creating dark and omnious atmospheres for my tracks. Lordel is a side project of Halogenix that has really inspired me with his latest EP to try and transcend genres, experiment and do my own thing. Ital Tek’s LP Bodied kind of made me push my boundaries sound design and rhythm wise.

Any upcoming Belgian producers we should know about?

First of all 2CB, he’s a friend of mine who mostly creates hip hop and trap beats. I’ve worked with him 2 times so far and I am confident we’ll get a collab ready sometime in the future. Next up there is BassDubbers a Belgian producer/dj duo with a focus on deep and rolling drum and bass. Lastly I have a special mention: Abyssal Music, an upcoming record label ran by my good friend Blanko. I’ve heard some of the music that’ll be released on there and all I can say is that I’m super stoked for him.

What can we expect next from DMTR?

My goal is to balance out both the more accessible bass music and experimental stuff. The next project I’m working on is an EP I’ll be releasing myself on Bandcamp. It’ll be 5 experimental tracks, each completely different from one another but at the same time, they’ll fit together. The EP will act as a gateway for me to showcase what I’ll be doing in the future: my own thing.