He’s only young, but Dion Timmer has a sophisticated production approach that ensures he turns all the right heads in the bass scene. We get talking about his latest EP “My World”…
Dion, you’re only 16. What first got you into making music?
Probably cutting up old deadmau5 tunes when I was around 10 or 11 – I started listening to dubstep after that.
Clearly, you are doing something right with support from Excision and more recently Skrillex. What’s your secret?
Dedication and patience are both ‘major keys’ to success, don’t expect to make the biggest banger right after you’ve started producing music. Finding your own sound and style can take years, but you’ll eventually start meeting the right people that help motivate and support you.
Have you had a lot of help along the way in terms of production from people like Excision, or do you work everything out on your own?
Excision has helped me with making sure that my tunes sound nice on bigger systems, since I’ve never really played my tracks out. He gave me tips on what frequencies to cut out and how to make my tracks ‘DJ friendly’. The sound design, arrangements and general production is all my own work.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/229620043″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]
Your latest EP, “My World” is extremely versatile and delivers some new elements that we’ve not heard before with this type of music. What were you trying to accomplish with this EP?
My tracks have always had this ‘neon’ vibe to it, you can put this EP next to the “Plug Me In EP” and find out that they actually sound pretty similar. “Plug Me In” has this rougher edge while “My World” is a bit more rhythmic and melodic. Right now I’m trying to go all sorts of directions with my music, while still trying to keep that same vibe.
You have a lot of other young producers watching you at the moment. Do you have any advice for anyone trying to get in to music?
Do not give up, always try to keep moving! Don’t get demotivated if you can’t get a tune to sound like you want it to sound, put it aside and work on something else! You might make a banger after that and get this huge kick of motivation that might make you give the other tune another shot!
What else do you have in the works right now? Can we expect new music soon? Maybe an “Africa” VIP?
Me and Snails are currently working on something, although that may take a while since he’s a really busy snail. Me and Excision got loads of new stuff coming on his upcoming LP, it may be including the “Africa” VIP…
Finally, tell us the best and worst moment for you in your career so far…
The best moment is when I saw that AFK sent me a message on SoundCloud asking for contact -, that gave me the biggest shot of motivation. I probably wouldn’t have known Excision if AFK didn’t link me up with him! The worst moments are probably when you’re making this amazing tune and your computer freezes, making you lose mostly everything… PLEASE PUT AUTOSAVE ON!