**No time to read today? You can listen to the interview here!
Dillon Francis is a DJ/producer from Los Angeles. Currently on tour with Flosstradamus, Francis has previously worked with artists such as Diplo, Calvin Harris and A-trak, works in the moombahton and trap genres and has remixed acts from Steve Aoki to Chris Brown. With support from multiple record labels like Fool’s Gold, Dim Mak and Mad Decent, Dillon Francis has become a sensation in the electronic music scene.
DC: I’m going to start by complimenting you on your hair. I’m a huge fan. I mean, what do you use in that?
DF: Thank you, man. I use this hair gel called Suavecito. The thing that’s really good about it is it like holds really harsh, but it washes out like its shampoo in your hair. If water touches it, it’ll just like disappear.
DC: So everyone knows you as a moombahton producer but you’ve also kind of branched out into other genres. What are your views on the whole trap movement?
DF: Yeah, I mean I love it. I think the reason why it took so well, is because it’s a breath of fresh air from everything that sounds very “Skrillex-y” and its very, you know, it just has a lot of screaming stuff in it. This is a nice break for everyone to just make 808 type of music. And it’s funny because it’s pretty much like old dubstep so I love it, and I’m going to keep making more of it.
DC: You released a video for “Masta Blasta (REBIRTH)” recently, mind sharing how that one came about?
DF: Well, I made the song and I sent it to my manager and he was like “Whoa, this is the ... coolest thing you’ve ever done.” He was like, “This is amazing we should do a video for it and just give it away for free, and make it a song for the fans.” And that’s pretty much what it was. We wanted to try to make it like kind of Blink-182/Eminem style of music video.
DC: I thought the whole “Tiesto” written on the girl’s cleavage was clever. I mean even your troll on that newspaper…
DF: Oh my god! Yeah! Some newspaper posted a picture of me but it was not me, it was Tiesto and they thought it was me. I feel like I really won that day when I found out about that.
DC: Well going back to the whole trap movement, do you think we’ll ever see any collaborations with any trap heavy rappers? Some 2 Chainz, Waka, Gucci?
DF: I’d want to do something with Waka, for sure. That would be amazing.
DC: What do you think about people calling trap the new dubstep?
DF: I don’t mind. People can call it whatever they want as long as they enjoy the music and not get mad about it. I see a lot of people getting really mad that the whole trap movement got really big and like a lot of people are like “Oh, there are so many bandwagoners.” It’s not really bandwagoning, it’s just that’s what’s big right now. It’s just trying to stifle the movement of music and what’s popular and what’s not.
DC: So you have this huge sense of humor, or at least I’d like to think so, and your tweets are hilarious but I mean you DJ-ed in the past with your pants down. Can we expect to see anything like that in Madison?
DC: Maybe, I hope so. I hope I think of something to do but it’s funny how that came around just because when I was in Sweden with my manager and I was about to play a show where there wasn’t a huge amount of people. He was like “yo, you should pull down your pants in the middle of the set and I’ll film it for you.” I was hesitant there but then when I was in the gorge by myself and I saw how many people were there and how high up I was, I asked this photographer, I was like “Yo, you need to take a picture of me with my pants down with my hands in the air.” It totally just made a joke of people not knowing what I’m doing behind the DJ booth.
DC: It’s not only fun to watch you on stage, but it’s also fun to watch you online. You released a recent viral video spreading the cheer of Doritos tacos and DJ awareness. Do you mind sharing what DJ awareness is?
DF: It’s just making people aware of DJs and their touring and… Avicii… and Afrojack. Making everyone aware of us through tacos. They got to know, man!
DC: You also made another viral video, or I should say “A-trak” made a viral video where he promoted one of your singles that you worked on together. How was it working with A-trak on “Money Makin’”?
DF: It was just all through social media. On Twitter we said we should work on a track and then my manager set it up, and we worked on it in New York. We finished it in like a couple of weeks and then just put it out. It was really easy and fun. We both have the same sense of humor so we made the track really fast and then we were like “We’re gonna do a music video for it.”
DC: So pretty generic question but where do you want to be in the future?
DF: I kind of want to be at the same level as Calvin Harris. I’ve been a huge fan of him for a very long time. I want to make an album that’s like Calvin Harris style, but infused with the style of my music.
DC: Are you afraid if you hit the top 40 that you’ll lose fans?
DF: Yeah, I know I’m going to have to be careful about it. I think that I have to be careful with who I work with to not tarnish my name, but I think people will enjoy it. I have already been working with some vocalists right now that I think are perfect for my style. I think it’s going to be really good and a good transition as well.
Dillon Francis will be playing live at the Majestic Theatre on Thursday with Flosstradamus as an opener. Doors open at 8 p.m., show starts at 9 p.m.
