Having just arrived in Australia Naples took the time to chat to Beats about being a long way from home, the Four Tet connection, respecting but disrespecting the house scene and finding his place on the register of respected UK label The Trilogy Tapes.
“I haven’t been to Australia before, it’s the furthest I can be from home so I’ve never even imagined I would be so that’s pretty crazy. It’s been really cool, everyone’s been really nice, the weather is perfect and it just has a nice laidback vibe to it so I’m pretty hyped on that,” notes Naples, currently in Perth.
As established in the introduction Naples was literally shot into the international DJing and production spotlight from his sublime remix of 128 Harps that appeared on as a b-side on the tracks 12” single that was released in the UK in June 2012. Naples explains how he got asked to edit a song that is surely on the wish-lists of many far more experienced artists than him. “Yeah he heard my song played at a party that he was playing and turned to me to ask who it was, so I told him ‘oh that’s me actually’ and he seemed really impressed with the song. He asked me to remix Harps because I was really fresh to the whole thing and I think he thought it would lead to interesting results – kind of how it would be if you gave a 5th grader a guitar for the first time,” Naples laughs at his own self-effacing wit. He now summarises the experience with, “It was definitely cool but also really high pressure for someone who spent the last decade – and only decade – of looking up to this guy and following his every move!” As evidenced by this final comment Naples is modest and conscious of his relative newness to the scene. This attitude implies, somewhat, that his cheekily named 12” single Mad Disrespect on Mister Saturday Night Records, that came out last year, was ironically titled.
In March this year Naples released the El Portal EP on UK crossover label The Trilogy Tapes. Other producers on the label are _moonraker, Tuff Sherm, MGUN and Willie Burns. Naples discusses the distinct advantages of being part of such an eclectic bunch.
“I think it’s really opened a lot of doors for me as I don’t think people look to TTT for a source of club bangers but more like a source of good music in a sea of very plain and functional music. It has definitely opened up opportunities for me that I don’t think a lot of club DJ’s get.” He pauses thoughtfully before explaining the opportunities TTT has opened up, “For instance I opened up for a collaborative performance between VAR and Pharmakon in an art space with very little to do with dance music or that whole vibe. But the fact the party in question thought that there was a middle ground between what I do and what those guys are doing is an honour and surely couldn’t have happened without the TTT 12″ and what that all means!”
The opening track to El Portal is the title track. It is a carefully constructed piece of slightly blurry down-tempo house. The density of the song could imply glum environmental factors during its conception but Naples partially agrees then dismisses this assumption.
“I was living in a room with no windows and it was winter,” he waits before adding, “But I’m not sure if that had anything to do with the vibe of the song but those were the circumstances.”
However he is willing talk through what the influences to El Portal’s sound may have been, “I actually purposely stopped listening to music for a bit and told myself that I had a month to make a set of tracks with a few pieces of gear and at a certain time of day every day or else. So between 8am and12 pm every day I’d just jam and record it, then send it to Will (Bankhead of TTT) and see what he thought. But yeah, anyways, I’d say it’s my most un-influenced record where as something like Mad Disrespect was supposed to just sound like some NY-House/bootleg Mood II Swing stuff. “
Finally Naples discusses his upcoming set at Jung & Dumb, “ As heady as I think my music can get when I DJ I definitely like to play to the crowd a bit and have a nice party. I just want everyone to have a good time, and obviously the goal is to educate people with music they don’t expect as well as to make sure they have a good time. If I can hit that mark and make a few people lose their shit to some good music, I’ve hit the mark!”
BY DENVER MAXX
