Interview with Phil ”Dairmount” Darimont

Collecting records since his childhood, Phil ”Dairmount” Darimont (formerly known as Philarmonix by most) slowly discovered the world of spinning with his early heroes. With great encouragements and plays from luminaries as Jimpster, Atjazz, Laurent Garnier, Mr Scruff, Sasse or Jazzanova, he caught the virus trying more and more to escape his busy schedule to develop his production skills. This led Phil to become Dairmount, to the creation of his own production unit with his long time friend Marino Berardi and to the accomplishment of his long time dream, the launch of his own label, Room With A View, in 2009.

ELATE*: On your website you are saying that it was a one of your biggest dreams to found your own label. What were the hardest challenges you had to overcome in order to reach your goal?

Indeed, deejaying for more than 15 years & collecting records since I’m a kid, nourished this dream for a long time. The label is born from a very simple need and idea : to serve & express a personal vision, a musical “fantasy” that I’m carrying for more than 10 years. Everything I have done in and around my musical path seem to have prepared me to this project and this is simply this “vision” that is coming to light now. I often compare the position of a label A&R to a movie director as I see lots of similarities in these…

You need to have a strong personal vision, to think long term, to acquire good skills, to choose the right people to work with and to be able to deal with budgets & deadlines… You need to be able to overview a lot of different things to lead this kind of project and this is why I patiently worked hard & learned in & out of the music industry to be able to realise this project today.

I think my hardest challenge was at the end to “feel” ready myself as lots of my friends encouraged me to do this for years… This personal process was probably the biggest challenge.

ELATE*: Your portfolio contains a high number of international artists. How does your process from discovering an artist until deal closure work?

This has a lot to do with my music lover & dj behaviour… As a dj, I never managed to narrow myself to a specific genre or anything, always staying open to new sounds, discoveries & school of thoughts. This is pretty much what brought me to meet & discover a lot of people & artists from different background & musical scenes. I always have been fascinated by creative & cultural melting pot. This is why I developed naturally “bridges” with places like London, Paris or Gothenburg that are vivid creative spots. My network grew naturally over the years which allowed me to carefully choose the people I really wanted to work with. This is how the core of my artist roster developed : from friendship and common interest in developing quality music. But generally, I can also say that I’m constantly listening to new music through all possible ways on the net, in clubs, through friends…

If I’m excited about new music, I generally contact people spontaneously & let them know what I’m trying to achieve with the label & why I could imagine them taking part. I think that intuition & honesty always brought me excellent results. The important thing is to know what you want and to understand what the artist wants. From this common understanding & reliability, everything is possible.

“Nevertheless, it is still very important to me to release vinyl products as vinyl is fully part of my roots and history.”

ELATE*: Can you describe your strategy for publishing a new release? Do you release both the vinyl and mp3 at the same time or does it more or less depend on the case?

I’m totally believing in an healthy cohabitation of formats & ways to sell and represent music these days. Even if this digital era still needs to “mature”, I’m strongly embracing it and the digital way of selling and promoting music is very important.

Our output is released in a very dynamic & ”tailored made” way into the digital market. Nevertheless, it is still very important to me to release vinyl products as vinyl is fully part of my roots and history. Plus the vinyl product is dedicated to a community of collectors and records shops that are still very important “social music centers”. Producing vinyl today is mainly a question of keeping a certain culture & tradition alive. Records shops are still little “temples” in my eyes. A great deal of attention is also put in keeping both formats “special” by providing unique content on both formats. I don’t see competition between formats but more an interesting combination completing each other. Generally, our vinyls are already in circulation a bit before digital shops start to present our music but we could nearly say we released stuff in parallel…

ELATE*: As a DJ, A&R and producer you have pretty much seen all different aspects of the business. How do you will electronic music reach DJs and will it be financed in the future? There are online mp3 shops, but all know how easy it is to access them for free…

This is a very complex situation we are facing these days and there are lots of different parameters in this equation. I think this complexity is not limited to electronic music and dj’s but I think the electronic scene and its business are good example of how “out of control” the development went : too much average music released, too many unprofessional actors in the scene, old structures not ready to embrace the changes, no sustainable business models…

There is a lot to say on this and nobody (including myself) got the magic answer to this but I think that only the strong will survive in this new deal.

Don’t fool people, give them quality products, communicate efficiently, offer them quality performances when artists play in clubs, build your fanbase with care, make it convenient for people to find your products, fight piracy…

These are some of many “good sense” thoughts if you want to be part of the future as artist or label, in my humble opinion…

ELATE*: The technical instruments for producing music are now easy accessible for everyone. How do you think did this affect that overall quality?

It is as much of a curse than it is a blessing! I mean it is obvious that too many people think it is easy to make music these days and consider that playing around with some plugins give them the right to share it with the world and not always for the best of course… Technology has made its contribution to this as much as it allowed fantastic projects & evolutions to be done. But it is also the case that everyone got the chance to create more easily these days and this is a great opportunity for lots of talents out there… There is a lot of great music made accessible constantly, besides tons of crap & unnecessary things. This is a natural process that brought also a natural selection. Again I believe that our responsibility is to filter it and to bring it to people in the most appropriate way. This is pretty much what every A&R and label should focus on and learn from our “past teachers” of the music history…

“Playing music to people is my first love and will always be. I love it!”

ELATE*: Let’s take aside all the work associated with your own label and producing new tracks, what are your plans as a DJ for the future?

Playing music to people is my first love and will always be. I love it! Even after 15 years of deejaying, I managed to not feel tired about by being able to protect myself of bad side effects of the nightlife & the club scene.

This kept me from seeing the dj thing in a more cynical way & keep the passion alive. Today the main difference is that I got something more to represent than myself, I’m there to promote & represent the label and this make me feel more like an “ambassador” of sounds than before… I nearly feel as fresh as a beginner but with lots of experience…  Representing the sound of RWAV on the road is an essential thing in my eyes. this march is our first label birthday and we will celebrate it with big nights in Madrid (at Goa Madrid) & Hamburg (at Baalsaal). More to follow this year…

ELATE*: What do you enjoy the most djing or producing?

As I just say, djing is my first love and is uncomparable when it comes to share a moment with people. You need to be open & play with energies around you…

Producing is a much more intimate process, being in your own studio bubble & sound world. For me, it represents also a kind of playground to break from the heavy work routine related to other activities. It is also the opportunity to have a lot of fun with my old friend Marino Berardi with who I built our own studio & produce as Dairmount & Berardi. Working with a close friend & interact is the only way so far for me to be happy to create music…

ELATE*: Is there an all time favourite track you wish you had produced?

That is an hard one of course… I never thought about great pieces of music of the past in these terms, something I wished I would have done myself, no…

Lots of people inspired me on the way, that is for sure, people like Pete Rock or Dj Premier back in the days who brought the sparkle… Charles Stepney, Deodato, Leon Ware, Quincy jones, Patrick Adams were always big inspiration to me when it comes to producers.

In contemporary club music, Carl Craig, Pépé Bradock, I:Cube or DJ Koze are always very inspiring & outstanding for me & are always pushing the envelope.

“I think that Hamburg got a much more vivid scene that it is sometimes said comparing to the overcrowded offers of Berlin -  the kind of usual Hanseatic understatement, you know…”

ELATE*: What’s your favourite Hamburg club today?

I’m not really going out a lot generally as I’m playing myself or making music but if I do, I always enjoy to go at The Golden Pudel for its unique character, atmosphere and musical versatility. It is a timeless classic place… But Hamburg got 2 high standard places these days which sound systems, identity & programming are highly respectable : Baalsaal is a lovely intimate club with great guests & residents (I’m looking forward to celebrate our label birthday there this month) and the recent Ego Club run by the DIY family is fantastic too, really what a club should be : great sound, great atmosphere, good crowd and great line-ups… I think that Hamburg got a much more vivid scene that it is sometimes said comparing to the overcrowded offers of Berlin… the kind of usual Hanseatic understatement, you know…