If you haven’t heard of brilliant Sydney beatmaker, sample-smith and production whizkid Flume (real name Harley Streten) you’ve been depriving yourself of some of the best ear candy being produced in Australia right now. Flume’s self-titled debut was released on Friday through Future Classic and, as his boastful PR rep Bossy Music has just pointed out, it is currently at the top of the iTunes Albums chart – edging out boy band phenomenon One Direction followed by the Rolling Stones. Harley gave us an insight into each track off his #1 album, which you can listen to in full below. Lucky you.
SINTRA
“This track was written in Portugal. I named it after my favorite place there called Sintra.”
HOLDIN ON
“So one day I was in the studio with Mike from Van She, swapping and sharing samples. I took them home and discovered this particular Otis Redding/Anthony White a capella hidden amongst thousands of sounds. It got me super inspired and I ended up writing the tune in a single day. That’s how all the best tracks happen!”
LEFT ALONE FT. Chet Faker
“I wrote this beat in a café in Barcelona one afternoon. It started with the drums, then the chords, and finally the vocals. Nick [Nick Murphy aka Chet Faker] did an amazing job with this. We ended up going with the first take he did.”
SLEEPLESS FT Jezzebel Doran
“This was the tune that started it all for me. Future Classic picked it up about a year ago and ever since then things have been heating up.”
ON TOP
“On Top would have to be the only tune that I have successfully written hung over. I was super out of it one morning and tried to write a beat. I stumbled across the main distorted cord synth sound and that got me inspired to write the rest of the track. We got NY rapper T.Shirt on board and he totally brought the track to life.”
STAY CLOSE
“This track is real free flowing and super loose. I wrote the beat on my brand new MPC. There was something about the super off beat, out of time vibe that felt right. So I left it.”
INSANE ft. Moon Holiday
“Insane would have to be a personal favorite off the record. I wanted it to be really intense and deep but danceable at the same time. Moon Holiday‘s vocals work with the track to give it that extra level of depth.”
CHANGE
“This track came about at the time I got signed by Future Classic. It was the first beat I made for the album; to me it feels like Paper Thin Part II.”
EZRA
“It was my first ever time visiting Perth, I was there to play a in a little venue called The Bird. I wrote this tune the day of the gig sitting in a pub round the corner called Ezra. I managed to finish it and play it out that night.”
MORE THAN YOU THOUGHT
“More than you thought would have to be one of the more out there tracks on this album. It came about in two parts. First came the heavy dubby bit, which I wrote in a café in Berlin. Second came the melodic breakdown, which came about a few months later back in Australia.”
SPACE CADET
“Space Cadet was another early creation of mine. I’ve always pictured this being the soundtrack to some kind of skateboarding clip.”
BRING YOU DOWN FT. George Maple
“The instrumental came about at a pub in Berlin. I had my first ever Irish Coffee and wrote this tune. Later down the track I got in the studio with George Mapel, her voice is massive and that’s exactly what we were after!”
WARM THOUGHTS
“I started working with this particular piano sample and got super inspired. The reason it sounds so old school because I put it through a guitar amplifier and some phazer/flaggers.”
WHAT YOU NEED
“It was a cold dark day in the UK. I had had a big one the night before and was feeling pretty low. It’s probably the most intense on the album, one of my personal favorites.”
STAR EYES
“I wrote this song travelling with my friend in Amsterdam. As soon as I wrote it I knew this was going to be the perfect last song for the album. It was all planned out.”
Flume Tour Dates:
24/11/12 – Foreshore Festival, Canberra
1/12/12 – Harbourlife, Sydney
26/12/12 – Trinity Bar, Boxing Day, Canberra
28/12/12 – Rhythm & Alps, Christchurch, NZ
29/12/12 – Rhythm & Vines, Gisborne, NZ
30/12/12 – Falls Festival, VIC
31/12/12 – The Early Hours, Platform One, Melb
1/01/13 – Wonderland, Perth
1/01/13 – Southbound Festival, WA
1/02/13 – Laneway Festival, Brisbane
2/02/13 – Laneway Festival, Sydney
3/02/13 – Laneway Festival, Melbourne
8/02/13 – Laneway Festival, Adelaide
9/02/13 – Laneway Festival, Perth
9/03/13 – Golden Plains, VIC
Image supplied
