French producer DANGER has been an underground electro favorite since his MySpace days in 2007. He’s been named as an influence by everyone from Porter Robinson to The Chainsmokers, while his glowing eyes and shadowy anonynimity have built an exciting sense of mystery. He titles all his songs with time stamps and names all his EPs after calendar dates, but his debut LP was named ??, the Japanese kanji for “Taiko.”
It was grand and cinematic, a wild journey through dark streets and rainy jungles. His earliest days were neon-colored electro jams, heavy on the synths and not altogether removed from the granduer of his LP, but more bit-based. The change in creativity sent the producer on an inward journey that resulted in what he calls “an album that needed to happen.”
“ORIGINS has become a vehicle for me to tackle, keeping my past-self from haunting me or let my present-self become tethered down in nostalgia,” Danger tells Billboard Dance. “I’ve struggled lately searching for my inner-child. I thought he had disappeared. I’d thought I wouldn’t need him anymore, then I came to realize that living without him left me incomplete. When recently visiting my parents home, being in my dusty childhood room, I realized I had been missing that child who still reveled in the retro land of VHS tapes and 8-bit gaming. He needed to have voice in my current art. ORIGINS was born out of this struggle. It’s important to never forget that the most fragile part of yourself can also be your biggest strength. In many ways this album represents where I’ve come from. More importantly, it informs where I’m going.”
ORIGINS is a return to force featuring some pieces with roots as old as anything from DANGER’s catalog. We caught up with the enigmatic man to get the full story behind each track, below.
“9:20 Intro”
It all starts in the jungle. I wanted the beginning of this album to be the start of a hunt, a wild and nightmarish adventure.
“9:20”
In general, I like to consider my songs a bit like suits of armor to wrap yourself in for protection. With this track, I think you can feel the cycles of day and night and the vulnerability of being lost in the jungle, but eventually feeling confident and belonging to the space you’ve found yourself in.
“22:01”
This is a tribute to the very first computer I had: A Commodore Amiga. The first track I ever composed was on this machine. The sonic elements are reminiscent of the first video games I played on this machine, like Yo Joe! and Wolf Child. I started making music with infamous free softwares that were just the worst, but at that time, all I wanted was to create something. It was great. When you develop as an artist, mixing naturally becomes more and more important, but for some reason, I find that most of the songs I’m really proud of are many of my early tracks that aren’t necessarily well mixed. They have something unique. They’re perfectly imperfect.
“11:17”
Dusty action figures cluttered my child room, and I’m dreaming of that favorite super-cool toy of mine. The one that came in that uber-memorable, fantastically-cool box. It could be a ghost. It could be a monster. It can mutate into literally anything. It’s very popular and iconic. I’ve got socks with it, and a branded backpack. There’s even a TV cartoon about it. I composed this track as an opening theme to what that cartoon could be.
“00:46”
With this track, I tried to go back to some of my early signature songs that I composed in 2007, when I was posting my music on MySpace. As I child, I had a recurring dream of this black pyramid super-imposed over a jungle setting. That same dream still haunts me today – and it very much informed the themes behind this track.
“16:03”
What I like about pan flute is that it brings out a naive and playful universe in just a single note. There is a certain naivety and cheesiness about this track. I remember, when I first started out, I experimented a lot with different sonic elements. Eventually, I started to mix very dark and very playful sounds, which I started to gravitate towards more and more. This essentially morphed into what became my signature sound.
“16:56”
The orchestration is inspired by all the “old school” mangas I used to watch as a kid. Naturally, it feels like it belongs in any of my favorite classic manga cartoon episodes.
“06:03”
There is something suffocating about this song, like when you are being chased. There is this relationship between predator and prey. I’m obsessed with this concept, which is pretty obvious from my album artwork. While many of my previous songs were much more accessible, this song is not PG-13 anymore.
“88:88 intro”
There are movies that you shouldn’t see when you are too young. After that, you can’t sleep for months. A child’s mind runs rampant with imagination and possibility, both good and bad. All these dark pyramids and places are like open doors towards the unknown. They are both scary and mesmerizing.
“88:88 Stage 3 the Club”
This is a dream about arcade gaming – being in Streets of Rage. Entering the “club” level and engaging in a classic beat-em-up parralled with my vision of real club culture; sweat, neon lights, hydrogen strobes, and DANGER on stage. I have always mixed very adult and childish sonics. Sometimes in life you feel like you are stuck “playing” as an adult, but the child in you will always be there waiting to be
let loose.
“09:19”
In my parent’s house, I looked at my old stacks of comics and manga and my dusty collection of action figures. The nature about me is quiet, empty and beautiful. As I child, I could have a moment of repose, but my imagination would still run wild. I’d suddenly be in an arid desert, and with force of concentration, a flame would be born out of my hands and flicker endlessly. This track being a quieter ballad-like love song, I wrote it as a tribute to those moments. I appreciate the very fake synth violin I used here. It so very effectively tickles my nostalgia and brings me back to this time.
“22:39 Intro”
A good intro for me is when you do this exercise of gathering all your emotions, visual references, and so on – and merge them into one track. Out of the chaos is born perfection.
“22:39”
Continuing on the ideas from the intro, I felt like “22:39” is a track that perfectly combines all of my influences in one place. In this song, I found the right balance between my past experience and current inspirations and emotion. It fully embraces both my past and present.
“13:13”
This track mashes up classic genres like disco, ’80’s and video-game sonics but emanates from my desire to make something that sounds 100 percent new. Every child has a natural need to break the rules and have a brand new adventure once in a while.
“13:12”
This is a tribute to the geeky teenager I was. I used to collect a lot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Me and my dad weven built a mock decor of sewers for my action figures. As I became more obsessed with those plastic mutants, I also mutated into a very introverted kid. Those obsessions of mine grew and compounded. It was only a matter of time until I was introduced to a vintage Yamaha synth at a friend’s house. The rest is histoy.
“23:05”
I always pictured this one superimposed over movie credits. It signifies and celebrates the narrative of this project. While growing up, there’s a certain moment when things around you start to become less magical, and the world becomes a little less mysterious. I felt compelled to fight against those feelings as I approached adulthood. My music quickly became the outlet – the place where I could confront conflicting feelings of innocence, of sex, of adventure, of hate. Born out of struggle, the child and the adult in me are now walking in the same direction.
Origins is out now on 1979 Records. Listen to it below.