Vikter Duplaix Interview

Emm: Who worked with you on the album?
VD: I produced all the songs with someone except for a couple of tunes. Most of the songs I did with my partner James Poyser who has worked with everyone from Erykah Badu to Common to Angie Stone. I co-wrote two of the songs with Marc Mac from 4 Hero out of London. Two younger guys from my production company, Julius Irvine and Anthony Bell, co-wrote a couple of songs with me as well. Each song was guided by my direction, my concept for the album, and the energy I wanted to put forth to the world.

Emm: Did you write all the lyrics?
VD: I wrote all the lyrics and on most of the tunes I did the music as well.

Emm: You have enjoyed some success as a DJ and producer; what compelled you to explore your personal artistry?
VD: When you're doing a lot of production it gets to a point where you have to dig down and become a full-fledged producer and go after as many projects as possible, or do something else, if you have a kind of creative split in your head which I did. I wondered whether I was happy spending all my time and energy trying to make someone else's career successful, or if I wanted to spend more time developing my own ideas and taking chances to try and discover something fresh and new. It's a bit easier to develop songs that are less pop friendly if you don't have the pressures of considering the artist's and label's opinion of the song. That can become a complicated part of production work until you break through to have a top ten. Instead of just beating my head against the wall and trying to convince people to try different things, I decided to do my own thing and see what would happen.

Emm: What other projects are you working on?
VD: I have a label with my partners James Poyser and Chauncey Childs, and we're developing acts. We have a spiritual group called Greater Anointed which is our first project. I'm also just doing more music for myself, going forward and seeing what I can do and how far I can push myself. I'm going to do collaborations with Roni Size and DJ Marky from Brazil, and then jump right back into another album in the next 12-18 months.

Emm: Do you have plans to tour?
VD: We hope so, but it's a down economy, and everybody's dollar is a lot shorter than it used to be. So if touring comes it won't be soon, but it should be sometime this summer.

Emm: Will you be performing live, DJing or both?
VD: I would do both, depending on what kind of event is going on. My preference would be to perform. There's a much more intimate connection with the audience than as a DJ and I want to explore that side more.

Emm: Will there be any remix projects from "International Affairs"?
VD: We're doing remixes, little by little, but even though I've made money from remixes, sometimes I think remixes keep people from listening to the original song and I want at least a period of time where people can listen to and understand the original music before it becomes someone else's version of my idea

Emm: you had a big release some months ago with "Sensuality"; why isn't that song featured on the album?
VD: "Sensuality" was on a different label and that label has some other ideas for that song later on in the year. They plan to put that song and some other 12"s out with remixes. It will be eventually be out on DJ.

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