“White People are Good at Making Money” - Tiga Talks Dance Music and Commerce

Tiga is an important voice in dance music. He founded Turbo Records in 1998, going on to sign blue chip artists including Chromeo, Brodinski, Proxy, and Azari & III. He's produced for a range of artists, and gained huge success as a solo artist. If you were looking for an automotive metaphor, you could do worse than describe Tiga as the Bugatti of the music world. Coincidentally, Bugatti is the name of his new album and he's riding it down to Australia for a rare tour. Ahead of his arrival we caught up to discuss the current state of Electronic Dance Music and the commercial forces behind the industry.

THUMP: You tweeted the other night "God damn white people are good at making money #dancemusic". What did you mean by that?
Tiga: I don't remember exactly what I was thinking at the time, but when I think back to the origins of Chicago, Disco, Detroit, and New York dance, it was such a gay scene for so long, even in Montreal. It was also very black, and it was always kind of marginalised. There were a lot of outsiders in a way, which is really beautiful. And it's gone from that to probably the whitest scene in the world. It's become an incredibly corporate, incredibly monetised, incredibly globalised, massive enterprise. And I'm not even really throwing value judgements into it, it's just kind of crazy to see. You could almost draw a direct curve linking the less gay, the less ethnic, the less weird to the higher incomes. It wasn't even meant as critique, as much as looking at how shit works.

More generally, what do you think about the commercialisation of dance music, and the way EDM is marketed?
I've got no problem with commercialisation and I don't have a problem with capitalism or making money. But maybe what is bad about it is this: there's a very strong underground right now, like always, and there's always kids making really sick music. But a lot of the time you just don't know about it, or don't think you know about it. But it always exists and that's really what is in danger.

On a more developed, commercial level, the only thing I don't like is that I find it becomes very conservative and that's what I mean when I talk about the gay side, or the outsider aspect. There's always been an element of rebellion or futurism in dance culture, the idea that things we're going to change. And slowly for me that's all been kind of put aside. It was always about taking risks and I don't want to name names but I go to all kinds of parties and I'm shocked about how boring it is. I can't believe what passes as entertainment in certain situations and I honestly think a lot of the time, the public just doesn't know how much better the music can be. I'm making a lot sweeping evaluations and I think there are a lot of exceptions, and a million incredible DJs out there, but I do find that there's a weird kind of formatted commercialisation that's oddly conservative for a culture that was always about experimentation.

It's interesting, and I guess you're uniquely placed to speak on these subjects as a producer, an actor, a DJ, a commentator and radio broadcaster. In fact how do you balance these roles of being an active participant and an active observer of music and culture? Do they ever come into conflict?
No, it's not so self-conscious; I'm just a person. If you're at all creative, you see what's around you, you form an opinion and you act on them. Or you listen to other music and you get ideas to create your own music. When I talk about the things that we've just talked about. Those are just opinions, because I'm a human being. I'm heavily opinionated, it's the way I'm made and I'm also not afraid to say those opinions and I have the confidence to articulate them. Sometimes I'm wrong, and I change my mind all the time.

Oddly enough, I'm not a critic. It doesn't distract me; I don't end up paralysed or become busy watching what everyone's doing. It's just if I'm in my hotel room and I get called by a journalist in Australia, I start talking about it.

Bugatti has been something of a phenomenon, with massive commercial success. It also seems like a slight shift away from your disco styles of the past. Was this a conscious move?

It's funny how it works; honestly

Bugatti

is one of the least commercial records ever. Now it seems in retrospect, and once Pusha T rapped on it, that it's commercial, but that's how this whole game works. Once it gets successful it gets labelled as commercial. It's actually a ridiculously non-commercial record. It's four tracks made in an hour, it's ultra ghetto, and it's got nothing that should make it work. It's got kind of a catchy, rinky-dink melody, but it's a totally weird track that nobody cared about at all, the labels didn't care about it. It just took off because people liked it and DJs liked it. It's funny to hear that you feel I'm moving in a more commercial direction. If I could make ten Bugattis and they all received massive commercial success, I would be so happy because I love that record so much.

I think commercialisation in music has a lot more to do with the intent, than the actual sound. For example, I did that record. Let's Go Dancing about a year earlier and that ended up being a very big "underground" hit. But actually, that was a far more commercial record than Bugatti. When it was made. Matt and I were thinking: Let's make a tech house record that Loco Dice can play, and even the vocal for that was deliberately quite stupid and open ended. Whereas something like Bugatti, which people now see as a far more commercial track was totally naive and weird, and existed with zero expectation for myself. The point of it is, it's so dangerous to label stuff because we're almost, always wrong, or at least I am.

BUGATTI DOWNUNDER TOUR DATES
Thursday, 12 March - Rocket Rooftop Adelaide
Friday, 13 March - Oh Hello! Brisbane
Saturday, 14 March - Chinese Laundry Garden 'Day Show' Sydney
Saturday, 14 March - Superlove, Prince Bandroom Melbourne
Sunday, 15 March - The Court Garden Bar Perth

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