‘Don’t play what you think the club wants to hear’ - Lakker Interview

‘Lakker’ can either mean two things: ‘cool’ in Afrikaans or the live Electronic duo that consists of Ian McDonnell and Dara Smith of Dublin, Ireland. The pair are now based in the underground music mecca Berlin, where they have both worked on their productions and paved a solid path for themselves in the techno world.

The Afrikaans term isn’t too far off describing the pair. Ian and Dara are certainly cool, but more importantly, have remained prominent figures amongst live techno acts over the last few years.

‘Ruido’ the debut album released in 2007 on Lazybird Records, showcased hard sounds blended with loud, industrial elements infused with what were essentially melodic noises. Thinking outside the box resulted in a signature brash sound while still containing a rhythmic scope. The album propelled them towards the singing of ‘Arc’ with the legendary Blueprint Records in 2012.

‘Arc’ possessed a dreamier aura than ‘Ruido’ but still remained bass heavy and ominous. Lakker’s ability to create a special and organic sound beckoned them into the open arms of R&S Records who signed the thundering album ‘Tundra’ in 2015. A trademark production packed with moody emotions combined with powerful groove, strong enough to shake the most jaded underground raver to the core.

Lakker have achieved wide recognition over the years for their limitless body of work. We can be chuffed that the R&S showcase in Corsica Studios, London will host one of their momentous live sets this Saturday, alongside prolific artists including Zenker Brothers, Renaat and Steve Davis to name but a few.

MOTZ caught up with Dara ahead of the showcase to talk about Dublin, Berlin, techno and what the future holds for Lakker.

Hi Dara. How are you feeling ahead of the R&S show this Saturday in Corsica Studios?

Super excited, it's always nice to do the R&S shows, it's like meeting up with your friends from different countries and having a good laugh. The music is always great so it's quite exciting.

R&S is a legendary label that has signed some key artists who have part of the recent rise in techno such as Blawan, Pariah, Space Dimension Controller and Tessela. Did you ever envision yourself being signed to such a label when you were growing up in Dublin?

It's funny because when we grew up we were listening to a lot of R&S, Warp, Birmingham Techno, Blueprint, Downwards and people like Surgeon, James Ruskin. Between that and R&S, I was blown away by these huge labels and their sounds. They went away for a while which was strangely parallel to the lull in our music making, but years later they re-emerged which was coincidental and amazing as we ended up doing releases for them both.

I never envisaged being released on them, I never really wrote solo electronic stuff when I was younger. I was in a band but was still making electronic music within that environment. We were certainly inspired by both labels, particularly R&S. Once they like you there’s no restrain, their extremely open and encouraging which is really nice.

Dublin is a melting pot of underground music at the moment with some notable artists such as Sunil Sharpe, DeFeKT and Mano Le Tough all hailing from the city. Why do you think Irish people have a special relationship with techno?

Because their fuckin’ wild! I don’t know though, there's just different atmospheres that come from different situations. In a romantic way it's nice to think that Ireland is a land of wild poets and that Irish people have a relationship with storytelling. This can filter through to music. It’s a small scene and indeed a mixing pot of genres but I think the early closing times can be annoying for Irish people, let alone the terrible licensing laws. Irish nights compared to European nights have such an energy - people get in there and burn brightly. In Berlin, it's a long term thing...you go out a lot later but might stay out all the following day. It doesn’t stop, you can go out one evening and come home two days later. It's a different type and level of energy. But if you're at an Irish club and witness the intensity, it's remarkable. Most DJs have never experienced so much concentrated energy in one place. There's an amazing amount of good music coming out of Ireland at the moment such as lumigraph, Bad Bones, Mmoths, Sunken Foal, Myler, Whirling Hall of Knives, Tinfoil as well as the guys you mentioned.

How do you and Ian approach a live set? Do you have a detailed discussion before your set or is it very much improvised in the moment?

That changes all the time to be honest. If we’re doing a purely live set, we operate in one way but if we’re doing a more AV show we operate differently. We just did a purely live set the other day in Vilnius and Ian had a lot of stems so he did live mixdowns of the tracks. Sometimes I don’t even know what Ian will play next but we’re still in sync via Ableton link. For me, I have loads of audio - samples and stuff loaded into samplers that I improvise on top of what he’s doing, so I really have to listen. It's like being in a band and listening to the others by reacting to it. It's a good way to keep our sets fresh.

Who encouraged you the most along your journey to get you where you are today?

Probably good friends really, a lot of different people along the way at different stages. Our friend Amy gave us a big break when she gave some of our music to Aphex Twin which he played at Forbidden Fruit festival in Dublin. That was a good step for us. Also Simon who released as Swarm Intelligence gave our music to Nico from Killekill, who got us our first vinyl release as Lakker. It's been a mix of good friends and good people from different labels like James in Blueprint, as well as Sam, Andy and Renaat at R&S. Also, as a duo we both help each other out and encourage each other one of us isn’t feeling inspired which helps too. Basically we've found that if you try to be honest open and friendly and have a laugh, good people with find their way into your life, and things just grow from there.

London has recently seen an unsettling change in nightlife and underground culture with the closure of Fabric and many other smaller but equally important clubs. What institutions (at home and abroad) were essential for you both to grow and develop as live duo?

We just submitted a track for the Fabric compilation recently as Rob Booth has been really good to us over the years. He is the backbone of the scene, an unsung hero who has worked tirelessly throughout the years. Always encouraging and without asking much - big shout out to Rob. A similar character in Dublin would be Sunil Sharpe, another guy who puts constant energy into the scene and is doing really well. It’s about people who give more than they take and these guys do exactly that.

I

n terms of clubs, The Kitchen and The Funnel in Dublin had amazing line ups back in the day, particularly drum n’ bass and techno in The Kitchen everyone from DJ Krust, Ronie Size, to James Ruskin and Oliver Ho. The weirdy beardy stuff was in The Funnel, the Umak guys had Warp, Reflex and Planet Mu stuff. These places shaped our early years. The Twisted Pepper was great too. We did lots of live gigs in Dublin before we released on vinyl so that experience was great to understand what works and what doesn’t.

Here in Berlin, Suicide Circus, Arena, Stattbad and Berghain have been great as well. Different energies in different clubs is how you learn to read the place but stick to your principles. I hear stories from promoters at Berghain , about some acts they book, and then the artist comes along and plays Ben Klock style techno - what they “think” the promoters want to hear. You get booked for Berghain because of your music. Play what you usually play and what makes you passionate, excited - don’t play what is usually played, do your own thing. You’ve been booked for a reason as an artist, that’s why you're there!

Ian and yourself are primarily a live act as Lakker. Can we expect a vinyl set from you both anytime soon?

Ehhh not sure about that. I don’t tend to play vinyl anymore. I enjoy listening to records and still buy them…maybe I’ll do a vinyl set at some stage. Mainly we work off CDJs because we play so much stuff that isn’t released on vinyl and we don’t tend to play just one style of music. We might play unreleased tunes, stuff from Bandcamp, found-sound, unreleased promos, and our own edits unreleased tracks, mixed over things. It's easier and more necessary for us to play in a digital format - we can finish something in the studio that day and play it later at night. We play our friends promos too so it's a really good way of getting fresh music out quickly. But who knows, maybe I’ll do a vinyl set in the future…

Where are your favourite spots to go record digging along your travels?

I don’t buy much records when I’m away, I do receive some though. We just carry all our gear with us so our bags are packed to the brim so there’s not much space to bring home records. If I do buy records, I rummage in old second hand shops and find weird ones that you can’t buy digitally, which is the exciting part. I bought an Irish language record in New York as well as a cooking pan off this random guy selling things on the street. That's what I enjoy about crate digging but I don’t tend to do it when I’m on the road during gigs. I usually buy them in Berlin because of easy access.

You are both based in Berlin. Nowadays, do you think moving to Berlin is expected in order to fully dedicate yourself to production and make a career out of producing techno music?

No definitely not. We actually released a lot of our stuff in Ireland - Stroboscopic artefacts, R&S, Blueprint all backed us when we lived in Ireland. In ways, that's a bit of a misnomer as there's loads of guys based in Ireland like Tinfoil, Myler and Sunil Sharpe releasing and touring from there. I enjoy the quality of life in Berlin but being in Ireland certainly doesn’t hold you back in any way, especially with RyanAir - you can tour anywhere! Where you are living shouldn’t make a difference in music production.

Playing a live set is an adrenaline fuelled experience. How do you and Ian wind down after an energetic show?

Occasionally we used to have a little sip of beer (laughs) but we’re more professional now, especially if we’re doing a few gigs in a row. You can’t be firing it into you all the time! I find it easier to chill out a bit and chat to a few people before calling it a night. It depends, if its a big festival, I’ll go and see other interesting acts. There's a lot of talk these days on DJing, touring and mental health. Once you start doing a lot of gigs, you’ll see the difference in people who balance it well and those who don’t. Those who party way too much…I don’t think they’ll last. There's too many long term effects on physical and mental health.

Final question, have you come across any new producers who have caught your attention as certainly 'ones to watch in the coming months/2017?

In my DJ sets, I’ve been playing a lot of ‘Whirling Hall of Knives’ so that's my tip at the minute. Ian has some secret weapons up his sleeve for his new label Eotrax as well, I can’t talk about that but keep a look out. We’re both working on some solo stuff ourselves..keep an eye out!

Lakker will play this Saturday at Corsica Studios for ‘R&S Records x Timedance : Clock Strikes 13’ Tickets https://www.residentadvisor.net/event.aspx?875026