In a scene where trends, releases and new DJs pop up at an incredibly fast pace, longevity is a hard feat to master. If there’s one producer that thoroughly deserves it however, Parris would be right there at the top of list for us. A disciple of the FWD era, the iconic London club night was a sliding doors moment for him, absorbing the influences of grime, dubstep and UK funky in a way that would have a long lasting effect on his career as a DJ. First emerging as a producer with a collaborative record with Wen on famed label Tempa in 2014, his approach in balancing minimalist experimentations, spacious sound design and functional club productions would soon find its way to labels such as Idle Hands and Hemlock. He’d describe the latter to the Quietus as the first record he’d felt comfortable with the way he was producing his music.
Fast forward to the present day and a lot has happened. Beyond touring the world over, a full-circle collaboration with Untold, and further releases on the likes of the Trilogy Tapes, Wisdom Teeth and Peach Discs, a blossoming friendship with fellow producer Call Super set the pair up perfectly to consolidate their club experiences into something exciting. Out of it was born Can You Feel The Sun, a label, radio show and club night that the duo first started to explore their own myriad of production styles and music tastes, but has since expanded with an invitation to fellow friend and producer Peach, with her new ‘Charmed’ record. For Parris himself, the label has resulted in two collaborative records with Call Super, a debut album of ‘life fuelled’ serendipities with ‘Soaked In Indigo Moonlight’, and more recently his heady-house and UK soundsystem inspired ‘Passionfruit’ EP. Whilst you could say the UK is yet to properly kick on in terms of summer atmosphere, the tracks from this EP, made in such a way that feel deployable at any time of the day or night, are primed for intimate and joyous clubbing moments over the next few months. His Truancy Volume feels like a perfect companion to the release, hitting the two hour mark with a groove that feels considered and put together in a way which few DJ’s tend to these days. To minimalistic house steppers from Margaret Dygas to velvet-coated synth atmospheres from Jordan GCZ, the mix rolls along with an infectious charm that mirrors his own personality.
Hey Dwayne! Thanks for answering some questions for us! So how have you been recently? What’s 2024 been like for you thus far? Any particular highlights? “I’ve been very well thanks. Happy that the sun has finally peeped its head out so I’m looking forward to enjoying some sunshine. 2024 has been fun so far; living life, working on music and playing some gigs. A couple of highlights include playing Cobalt Studios in Newcastle; a great venue with a wicked system run by some of the loveliest people, Ibiza for Amaliah’s birthday and going away with my Nan.”
You mentioned in an Instagram post that you had quite a quiet 2023. Was it in terms of releases, going out, a mixture of both? Did it feel like a reset year? I imagine there’s a difficulty in running a record label and night, making tunes and DJing as well. I think a lot of people would find it hard to stay on top of it all. How do you strike a balance when things are in full flow? “A mixture of everything (releases, going out, gigging); coming off the back of the album and the pandemic there was a big push so gigs naturally picked up. Time was pretty sparse until the steam died down finally allowing me a chance to work on new music. Once I had some space I needed a moment for myself to try and figure out where I was heading next production and DJing-wise wise as when you’re in the thick of it finding time to plan ahead is difficult. There are points where I definitely don’t strike the balance right but that’s fine, it’s best not to put pressure on myself and I just do what I can when I have the time so I don’t burn out. Treating the week like a normal working week helps too.”
You recently launched your new night Poison Pudding at Corsica Studios. Can you tell us a bit about that and what you want to achieve with the night? “I’d been thinking about doing a party for a while and decided to bite the bullet and reach out to Corsica. It feels like a bit of a cliche of another DJ starting a party but the main reason behind it was to have the opportunity to play some interesting b2b’s and curate some lineups. When you get booked a lot of the time you have no say and it’s all the vision of a promoter so it’s quite exciting but scary to piece things together in your own head and try to make them a reality. The first one coming up has me and Ploy playing together and Nala Brown. I haven’t seen Nala DJ before so I’m looking forward to hearing her play me and Sam have DJ’ed together loads over the years and it’s always fun. Shouts to Matt and Chris for helping me with this.”
How do you feel the nights will sit alongside the ones you put on with Call Super as can you feel the sun? “That’ll be easy to navigate as the nights with Call Super are curated by both of us so there are two heads there. Also, the label nights will start to lean more towards the artists we work with on the label as we start to slowly release more music with others. We talk nearly every day so it’ll be easy enough to discuss who we want to book so we can avoid crossover.”
Speaking of can you feel the sun, you recently announced the release of a forthcoming record from Peach. The label has so far only released music from Call Super and yourself, so the growth of the label feels very special here, especially reading the record started to form around 2021. What can you tell us about the process of getting this ready for release? Love the continuation of the catalog number name too. “Thanks, the cats will stay like this for the foreseeable so it’ll be fun to see what body parts come next. Originally we weren’t too sure if we’d release other people’s music as me and Joe are busy and running a label takes time and effort but we were always open to the idea if the tracks were right. The evolution of the label has always been natural, Peach sent me a WIP which I really liked and shared with Joe; as she’s a good friend of both of ours we asked if she’d be happy to do a record with us and luckily she said yes. After that, we started a group chat and Peach would just bounce ideas off us until we were all happy with the finished outcome.”
In terms of your productions, you swapped your DAW around 2021, I think shortly after the release of your album. What did you switch to and what made you want to move onto a different program? How have you been finding it too? “I switched from FL Studio to Ableton; I didn’t intentionally plan on moving over, I only decided to give it another try so that I can use more than one DAW if needed. Because I collaborate quite a bit it’s nice to be versatile rather than being locked into one program and being limited by the capabilities of that. The first couple of times I tried Ableton I couldn’t get my head around it but with time you realise most DAWs are similar and it’s just figuring out where everything is. It took me about a year to fully get to grips with it which is why I was slow production-wise last year but I’m happy I made the switch and I’m enjoying the process of writing which is always a positive sign.”
Could you describe the evolution of your sound over the past decade? Has there been one, or more just you taking on more influences from new people you meet or new producers you’ve been listening to? “Wow, it feels wild when I look back and think that I started releasing music 10 years ago! There’s definitely been an evolution but I think it has come with confidence, practice and learning. A lot of the earlier tracks feel to me like a fumble in the dark whereas now the ideas feel direct and more intentioned. My influences come from everywhere and as a DJ and music lover I’m constantly absorbing lots of new and old music on a daily basis, so as much as listening to new producers is helpful I’ve always found influences should also come from different places whether that’s listening to pop, rap, indie, radio shows, podcasts, etc and re-imagining things.”
What can you tell us about your Passionfruit EP? Does it feel like a culmination of that evolution? I still haven’t decided what my favourite track is, it really feels like you could pull for any of the four this summer and have them light up a dance floor in a different way. Was there a thought process behind putting the tracks together and how do you feel this EP sits alongside your previous work? “Thanks for the kind words, It’s one of the records I’ve been happiest with. Whenever I start a new record my aim is to try and do something different to the last one so when I started working towards the Passionfruit EP I wanted to focus on housier club tracks which could soundtrack different moments in the night. Previously I would very much just work on a specific amount of tracks for a record and just chip away at those but this time I started more than what I needed and would cycle through the ideas, once they started to take shape it became easier to work out what fitted together and focus on those. Compared to my previous records this one sounds the most ‘complete’, the tracks feel full and bold which is a nice feeling to have personally. It fits into the rest of my catalogue nicely but with more direction than I’ve had previously.”
You’ve cited the release as well as a lot of your music as being an ode to UK sound systems. What aspect do you find yourself pulling influence from the most? “I’d say the two main things are groove and bass. Because I grew up in London I was lucky enough to experience clubs and good sound systems so I heard how these two things impacted the dance floor. One club which had a major influence on me was Plastic People; the physicality of music on that sound system influenced how producers made music and how they wanted to leave an impression on people, they wanted it to stand out. A track I’ve had recently had that feeling with hearing in clubs is Pearson Sound – Hornet; stands out from everything else because everything sonically hits right and nails those two things really well. When I work on music I want my tracks to offer that feeling to someone somewhere in the world on the right system.”
You also recently made some music with Untold in the form of ‘Lip Locked’ which is the first ORO release since 2015. Features a new solo Untold track on the flip which is his first since 2017 too. What can you tell us about the collaboration, is it a soft relaunch for Untold do you know? “It’s one of my proudest moments working on that track with Jack who is a huge musical inspiration. We fleshed out an idea in 2022 but we were both busy so it took us a while to get back to it. In 2023 we decided to revisit the track, re-work the drums and we spent the first couple of months getting it finished. We were both happy with the end result and it’s been pretty crazy seeing it hit a couple of different worlds musically and the range of DJs playing it. As much as a lot of us would like Untold back he’s working hard on his modular synth company (Laine Modular) which is his primary focus these days.”
I was listening to your opening Small Talk set at Corsica the other day which I absolutely loved. I’ve always enjoyed your versatility as a producer as I’ve found a lot of your tracks lend themselves to the opening slot as much as others do for the more peak time slots. How much do you think about where your tracks might end up in people’s sets? Do these sort of opening sets inform the music you’re making too? “I write my club tunes for my friends to play. I’ve always been pretty bad at playing my own music and this is something I’m trying to improve on but my DJing doesn’t inform my productions, I’ve always been more interested in writing tracks which could fit into the sets of people who I enjoy watching like Call Super, Ben UFO, Shanti Celeste, etc… I’ve always written music in a range of tempos in the hope that my tunes can fit into different times of the night and what makes DJing so creative is each DJ interprets where a track should fit into a set differently. I love the idea of re-interpreting the context of a track to fit your narrative because as the DJ you are the storyteller so as much as I can write something to be played at a specific time somebody can change that!”
I remember reading a quote from Benj B where he said putting out a record is basically a business card for your DJing services. Do you still think that’s a reality of a producer now? “There was a really interesting piece about this recently in one of Shawn Reynaldo’s newsletters (First Floor) which I think articulates the answer to this really well. I think a question like this is complicated because it really varies from person to person but I also think times have changed over the past 4-5 years. Some people manage to separate these things while others don’t, the industry is constantly changing and whether a big record = bookings now, I’m not so sure. I’ve definitely noticed for myself that records have less of an impact on my gigs than a couple of years ago.”
It’s been interesting to see how a lot of the producers from the era of like early Hemlock, Hessle, Idle Hands deal with longevity in the scene. Things can move so quickly especially with the amount of new producers and DJs constantly coming in but it’s also great to see some veterans inspired by the new ones. With someone who has seen a lot come and go, how do you keep on top of every new year that rolls around? “I wouldn’t exactly say I keep on top of a lot of these things and miss my fair share but I’m always open to learning new things. As an artist, you understand that the industry changes and you need to be open to these things whether that means playing the social media game, releasing on different labels, taking a different direction gig-wise, etc… Luckily I have two very wonderful people around me who are Joe (Call Super) and Nadja (booking agent) who have a lot of experience and have helped me in keeping on top of thinking about how to evolve and push year to year. I’ve spent a long time mining my own space so my main focus these days is how do I make my sonic identity work in different spaces while building upwards which is a fun challenge.”
Beyond music, what inspires you day-to-day? How do you unwind or reset? “Exercise has been really helpful, I’ve been regularly doing exercise for years now but I go in waves with how much I do it. I write music at home so those moments of going to the gym or for a walk / run help in breaking up the day and get me out of the house a little bit. Other than that I’m a pretty chilled person and am happy to spend any downtime just chillin’ with the homies which is a nice way to unwind.”
Can you tell us about three albums that a) define you getting into electronic music in general, b) maybe a midway album when you were fully invested in DJing and c) a recent album that you’ve especially enjoyed? And what made these albums so special at the time.
a.) JME – Boy Better Know Edition 3 and 4 / I listened to a lot of the JME mixtapes on repeat growing up at but this one was unique to me as there was 2 CD’s which was the MC / spitting focused one (Edition 3) and the second CD was Tropical which was an instrumental mixtape made up on beats written by Skepta / JME / Plastician.
b. ) SD Laika – That’s Harakiri / An essential album from the 2010’s in my opinion. A record which took club structures and re-imagined them in unique ways.
c.) Vince Staples – Dark Times / Vince has always been a great artist and I love listening to him evolve from album to album. He doesn’t repeat steps but switches up who he works with with every album so he’s constantly sounding fresh.
What sort of other hobbies or interests do you have outside of electronic music? Are there any books, films, shows or other things you’ve seen or been reading/watching that you might want to share? “I am a big fan of reality TV. Those around me know that I’m invested in shows like Love Island, Love Triangle, Big Brother, Geordie Shore, Married at First Sight, etc… but I balance this out with a Curzon membership because life is all about balance. I’ve been bad with reading over the past year but I plan on finally getting through the pile of books next to my bed this year.”
Could you describe the process of creating this mix? Was there a specific message or feeling you wanted to convey? “I wanted to put something together as near to the two hour mark as possible. I didn’t want to feel like I was rushing myself, I wanted this to feel like a club set where people can warm into it and find their groove. I set myself an opening track and an ending track then spent my time working out the best way to get from A to B by recording, listening and switching in / out tracks until I was happy with the final outcome. There’s some unreleased bits, some forthcoming including some on can you feel the sun and a couple of recent digs.”
Last, usual question from us, what was the last thing to put a big smile on your face and when was the last time you had a proper dance? “Last thing to put a big smile on my face was going to bed and waking up to stories about a villa in the middle of nowhere and a goat. The last time I had a proper dance was at Circoloco to Call Super vs Anz.”
Parris: Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Instagram, Resident Advisor
Artwork photo by Harriet-Taylor-Potts
You can download Truancy Volume 331: Parris in 320 kbps and view the full tracklist on Patreon here. Your support helps cover all our costs and allows Truants to continue running as a non-profit and ad-free platform. Members will receive exclusive access to mixes, tracklists, and discounts off future merchandise. We urge you to support the future of independent music journalism — a little goes a long way. If you need any IDs though, please leave us a comment on the Soundcloud link and us or Parris will get back to you with the track :)
