Get Life Coaching from Tiga and Stream His New "Fever" Single

THUMP are pleased to bring you the premiere of "Fever," the brand new track from Tiga and Audion (aka Matthew Dear). This sultry banger is the latest cut from Tiga's forthcoming album, which we spoke to him about last year in our 2013 round-up (it still doesn't have a final release date, so don't ask). Having dropped heavy hints about the progress of the album at the time, we caught up with the Turbo godfather again to find out how the record is shaping up, what it's like to work with Matthew Dear, and the anxieties of Twitter.

THUMP: The last time we spoke, you discussed the Led Zeppelin approach to writing an album—locking yourself away from the world until it was complete. Did you manage to do that?
Tiga: Ha, no, that did not work out. Well, it partially did. I did a lot of tracks with Matthew Dear and he has a studio in a pretty secluded spot in upstate New York, so we did get to shut out the world for an element of the recording process. I would have liked more time in that zone, but all in all it's been a pretty good process for me. Where I fail in that approach is that it's still too broken a routine for me. I don't have that sustained thing where you're totally disassociated from reality until completion. I haven't quite hit that yet, but it's something to look forward to.

Is that the dream though, being locked away for the entire process from start to finish?
Yeah it is, which is interesting because, in a sense, the album and the process starts to become about a lifestyle. The choices you make. Life is a perpetual struggle between reality and the imaginary for me, and an album is this kind of strange make-believe world. It is indulgent. It's not just pumping out singles—that can be quite functional, especially in the dance world—but when you enter into an album, you enter into something that's already a little more personal. The dream of disassociating and the dream of disconnecting, sitting at a desk with a pen and paper and just letting your thought manifest, is a very real interest and concern of mine. That's every artists dream. To be free.

What was working in the studio with Matthew Dear like?
"Plush" was the first thing we did together; I recorded the demo of it and he produced it, but I've been a huge fan of Matthew Dear for a long time now. We were kind of friends, and then I reached out to him. I get "feelings" about people. I mean, I'm not a stalker, but I got a kind of feeling about him. I was actually quite nervous about working with him. It meant a lot to me, and everything I'd hoped for really came true.

We did "Let's Go Dancing" together first, but "Fever" and "Plush" are much more like the sound of the album. I cant say enough good things about Matthew Dear. He's technically amazing and very patient and, I have to say, for a guy who's a lifer, his enthusiasm level is so high. He's the opposite of jaded. He still acts like he's just starting out, every night working, and for me that's the best because I love experimenting.

Your label Turbo Recordings is 16 years old now. How do you feel about this?
It is strange. In can be like a relationship or like a job, in that there's a certain moment you realize, "Holy shit, that's a long time." There's a weight to that. Within those years there's so many hours, days, repetitions, projects, friends that at a certain point, you do kind of wonder, "What next?" Maybe there's something wrong with me? Like, in a good way. I'm a grown man who gets really excited by techno records. Am I genuinely simple? Or, am I just as just as complex as the next guy, and I just happened to find very early on in my life exactly what I love, and I keep loving that?

I'd go with the latter, surely.
It's like falling in and out of love. That's the beautiful thing about music. If you keep your ears open, it stops you getting totally jaded. You can have crappy weeks and months and you don't hear anything you like, and then all of a sudden something grabs you so hard. It makes you fall in love again.

That enthusiasm is surely what's kept interest in Turbo going for so long now.
I think the survival of the label and the length of my career comes down to that. My friends and I joke about this a lot. We still kind of live like kids. This lifestyle is a luxury and I've been thinking about it a lot lately about how long it'll go. Not in the negative sense, but how long it can realistically go before it's replaced?

I see Turbo as existing in a little world of its own, to be honest.
That's one thing I've always felt very fortunate about. I don't fit. Its been such a constant for my entire life, in every conceivable way, that I don't know what it feels like to really fit in. I don't even look for it. The beauty of that means that now I've hit nirvana of truly 100% disassociation from trends. I truly do not care about what other people think is cool. Obviously, if someone gives you a lot of praise then it hits your ego, and you want your work to be well received, but if you chase trends, you're fucked. I cant remember whether I was told this or whether I read it, but I like "the only thing worse than being completely out of touch is partially out of touch."

One of the nice things about longevity is that you reach the point where, and I know this sounds arrogant, but I'm a man. I'm a real person. This is my real life. To really care what other human beings think of my life? That's inconceivable. That's maturity to me too, though—where the importance of living your life just trumps everything else. The flipside to that however is that it's not always easy. Sometimes it just has to click. I think back to the early days of electro and then when it really clicked. The holy grail is at that moment in time where what you love happens to be what everyone else loves. That's when you have real growth.

I was super into 80s electro, techno, getting dressed up, wearing lipstick—and it also just so happened that a part of the world was too. Yet, I also know there's times where you're working so hard on what you love and nobody cares. It's not a conspiracy. It's not that people think you're shit. It's just that, nobody cares. When you know both those feelings, you can identify the cycle and at what point you are in that cycle.

I've always found it fascinating trying to create a language between listeners and artists where we can talk about music in a similar way. I find, as a listener and writer who sees the creative process from the outside, that it's more of a doing than a trying; putting yourself out there.
That's exactly it. I hate people who hate on others peoples music in general. I don't mind hating on people—I love criticizing people, I'm not some pacifist—but in my book as soon as you go into a room alone and actually try to make music and then put it out there, you're okay by me. Even if it's shit, the fact is you're still doing something. I know a lot of people who say what they would or could do if they tried, and I always say "Go and do it, put it out in the world, and see what that feels like". It's not so easy.

How do you feel you balance criticism and feedback with your own internal creative monologue? Especially with your routine: fairly broken, always traveling?
Now it's not an internal personality battle so much. It's a very real thing about how people live their lives and how they communicate. It's very hard to isolate and disengage. I have a love/hate relationship with Twitter. Twitter meshes well with my temperament: I like to bitch about things, I like one-liners, and I like to observe. Before Twitter, I'd call my friend or write in my journal. Now, I broadcast it. There's no question that's a positive, but a lot of the time the feeling I'm left with… it's not the same feeling after writing for two hours. Sitting alone with no public is such serenity. Engaging in the public is much more linked to ego and a baseline anxiety, because it's social by it's very nature. That's the struggle.

And how do you feel that reflects back on your music?
Well, it's the same with an album. As soon as you play things out to others you're getting outside feedback, and it's almost impossible to have that not affect you. Question then is, what happens when they do? Innocent and pure and goofy feelings get distorted. You can't isolate yourself anymore, so its about adapting to a more complicated realm. It takes discipline. Discipline is the real secret ingredient.

You can follow Tiga on Twitter at @ciaotiga, and Lauren Martin here: @codeinedrums

"Fever" is released February 24; remixes will be out April 7.
Tiga vs. Audion tour dates:
4/30: Berghain, Berlin
5/2: The Riverside Festival, Glasgow
5/4: Oval Space, London