Eliot Lipp has been producing tracks and hitting the road for over eight years now. While he’s certainly become a fixture of the electronic scene, Lipp has also found himself on the lineups of some of the biggest jam-oriented festivals out there, from Rothbury to Wakarusa. His forays into that world have helped make him one of a few producers that have found some crossover appeal amongst jam audiences. We caught up with Lipp in New York City as he was preparing to open for one of the kings of the jam/electronic crossover—STS9—to sit down for a conversation about collaborations, festivals, self-releasing music, the prospect of touring with a live band and more.
So how did this four-show run with STS9 come about?
Well, I’ve known the guys in Sound Tribe for years. I toured with them a long, long time ago back in like ’05 and ’06, ’07. So, we’ve just been buddies, we kept in touch and we hang out every now and then so when they were coming to the Northeast they just hit me up to see if I wanted to jump on. It was pretty natural because we’ve done it before. It’s actually been a couple of years since we’ve toured together but it’s a good fit, you know. I think the music goes well together.
So when did you first get to know these guys? When did you meet up with them?
Back in ’05 probably. Some friends of mine in Chicago, we had mutual friends in Chicago, this group Telefon Tel Aviv, and our friend John Hughes and the record label that I was on, Hefty. They were all buddies with Sound Tribe so we ended up on a bill together at a show in Chicago and we just clicked. We liked each other’s music and we started hanging out.
Were you a fan of jambands growing up?
Not at all. I never even knew about most of these bands until I started touring myself and playing festivals and stuff and then I started to hear about jambands like the Biscuits and Umphrey’s and all these other bands. I never knew about them at all until I started doing shows and touring.
There are jamband oriented groups out there, groups like the Disco Biscuits and STS9 who perform electronic music with live instrumentation. Have you ever thought about bringing in some sort of live instrumentation into your performances?
Yeah, definitely. I’ve got a show coming up in Philly with a guitar player that I’ve done some shows with before, Nick Bockrath, he’s got a group called Nico’s Gun. But we did a couple shows last summer together too. We played Camp Bisco, I had a full band at Camp Bisco with a drummer and keyboardist and everything. So yeah that’s something I definitely… I love playing with a band, you know. But it’s so different from doing the solo thing. I really like to be able to do both.
You signed with Pretty Lights Music for your last album. How’s that been going for you since you signed with them?
Good. I like that record label. I like that they give everything away for free and I think Pretty Lights fans seem to be pretty open to my music so it’s been a good way to… a platform sort of to release my music on.
Tell me about your collaboration with Wick-It the Instigator. How did that come about?
Well we have… I actually met him at a show in Georgia years ago. We did this festival together and it was crazy, the weather was crazy, there was this huge thunderstorm and it was pouring down rain and he was playing this epic set and it was pretty awesome. And that was when we first met. And then we’re doing a few shows together coming up so we talked about just in order to promote the shows to make a collaboration together, and we bounced that project back and forth maybe four or five times before it was done and then we mixed it and got it mastered and just threw it up there on the internet. That’s kind of a way I like to put out music these days. Just soon as I finish a song to post it. It takes away all the bullshit, you know?
Can you talk a little bit about why you prefer that method of getting your music out?
Well, it’s so immediate, you know? It’s like you still have that energy in you of like you’re still stoked on that song because you just finished making it and you get to share it with the world. You get that get feedback right away, from your friends and fans. It’s just cool. Sometimes I’ve had songs that were done for like a year before they finally came out and it’s just not as exciting. But it takes away the pressure of, well, it’s always good to hype up your music before you release it, but sometimes there’s so much shit that you just wanna skip all the industry protocol. Promoting music, there’s so many different ways to do that, and sometimes it feels good to just ignore it altogether and just get it out there and make it available.
We were talking about collaborations earlier. I saw you a few years ago with Dark Party, with Leo 123, is that project still going on?
Well we still get together and make tunes every now and then but he’s having a baby, well not him but his wife [Laughs]. He’s focused a lot on his solo production and I have too, but there’s definitely plans for another Dark Party record in the future. Maybe not this year, but I think at some point it will come out.
You got added to the bill for Electric Forest recently. What other festivals do you have coming up this summer? What are you most excited for?
Well there’s some coming up. There’s Forecastle and there’s a big one up in Oregon called What The Festival. I’m stoked on the What The Festival because it’s got such a cool lineup. They get all these guys from Europe and they represent sort of different spectrums of dance music rather than just sort of U.S. based superstar DJs. They’re getting stuff from all over and different styles of music so I’m excited about that festival.
In the past few years there’s been a lot of crossover, especially on the festival scene between jam music and electronic music. Do you see this as a positive development for both scenes?
Yeah, I think so. It’s been a while now that jambands have been experimenting with electronic music and it’s always interesting to see the different levels of it. Sometimes you have a DJ with one live instrument or sometimes you have a full band but they’re playing off their laptops. It’s just neat to see all the different levels of mixing live instrumentation with electronic beats. And it’s also something I’m interested in doing since I’ve attempted it a few times myself. Having that dynamic of a live band improvising on stage meet a more structured style of dance music. There’s a lot of room to experiment in there and it’s always interesting to see what people are doing with that.
Do you try to incorporate any improvisation into your DJ sets?
Always, yeah. I mean I never have a set list. I just go up there and start and then I always gauge the crowd’s reaction and I’m always just feeling the vibe of the room and the energy and that’s always what dictates what song I play next. And I have so many songs and I have so many clips and so it’s always easy for me to kind of shape the set and push it in different directions. I enjoy doing that more than when you have like something that’s just rock solid and rehearsed and this song and then this song and this song. I like to be more fluid.
You lived in a bunch of different cities over the course of your career. What was it about Brooklyn that made you settle there?
Well, when I first came to New York to visit I wanted to move here. I just love this city. I think it’s… I mean, I’ve been to so many different cities and I just feel like New York is the best one. It’s just got everything. And I love the cultural diversity and the music scene and just the energy of the city. It could be stressful sometimes but it’s inspiring.
So what’s next for Eliot Lipp?
I just put out some remixes and now I’m kind of stalling before I release my next EP. I should try to buy some time to wrap it up. I’ve got a handful of tunes that I’m probably going to—I don’t know when, I haven’t set a date yet for when—I’m going to release them, but I’ve been working on some new tunes that I’m really excited about. They’re a little dancier, a little funkier, more upbeat. I’m still making down tempo shit but I’m trying to make this cohesive batch of dance music that I’m going to be releasing soon. And also in the fall, I’m going to definitely be doing some more live collaborations with live drummers and guitar players. Who knows, I’m trying to put together a band but that’s a big goal and it’s a lot of work and it’s expensive but I’ve definitely got my sights set on that.
Would you plan on touring with the band or would it be a one-off project?
Oh yeah. Yeah I mean, I definitely want to do a full nationwide tour with a live band, that’s my goal but I can’t say that that’s going to happen yet. [Laughs.] I can’t go out saying that that’s the plan. It’s just hard to balance. It’s like I spend time in the studio, I love being in the studio and I love being on tour. If I’m focusing too much on one or the other I sort of end up running out of steam on one of the two projects, but I guess I’ll just stop sleeping.
Can you talk a little bit about that remix album?
Yeah, it’s all from the Shark Wolf Rabbit Snake record. It’s all remixes from that record. So I’ve got a “Two Fresh” remix, “Mindelixer,” “Freddy Todd,” “Stratus,” “Low Balance.” A lot of producers that I look up to and am inspired by and producers that I’ve been friends with for a while, you know, I think it’s a good batch of… There’s this one “In Flux” remix that’s just super dirty, it’s just like a really heavy trap beat and the original was more like a Miami base kind of old school track. So it’s neat to see what direction people take the remixes in. Like “Mountain” was kind of a juke track, but the producer that I had remix it did like a real poppy sounding kind of dubstep version of it. And it’s just neat to hear a completely different take on a song that you wrote, you know? I mean, I’ve always been into remixing people’s work and getting remixes back. That was a fun project and it’s available for free, Electric Forest initially posted the link on their site so I think it’s still up there to download the whole thing for free.
