Django Django’s Dave Maclean launches house alias with Roland Clark collab
Hugo Paris & Roland Clark ‘Music Saves The World’ is out now
Django Django drummer Dave Maclean has started a house project under the name Hugo Paris, debuting the alias with a Roland Clark collaboration titled ‘Music Saves The World’.
Speaking about the new project, Dave Maclean said: “I started DJing and making hip hop, dancehall, house and techno beats on a sampler and 4-track in the mid ‘90s. My love of house and techno can be traced back to buying records from 23rd Precinct in Dundee, and Strawberry Bizarre in Perth. I remember walking into Strawberry Bizarre aged 14; they were playing Frankie Bones’ “Bones Breaks” 12” and I thought, this is the kind of music I want to make. Ten years later, I pivoted slightly to produce what would become the Django Django debut album, and this Hugo Paris project picks up where I left off.”
The inaugural single is an uplifting record, featuring lyrics calling for love and unity from house great Roland Clark. He wrote the words in Todd Terry’s studio amid Black Lives Matter protests taking place in New York City.
Read this next: 14 house tracks that are perfect for summer
On the single, Dave Maclean said: “This track was made late one night at my house, when the lockdown had just started in London. I had a productive few weeks of making music late at night, working on ideas that I just hadn’t had the headspace to tackle for a while. Roland Clark, especially his Urban Soul tracks, came to mind early on; once I put the chords down, I could just hear him straight away.
“The influences for the production really go back to the mid 90s, when I was playing a lot of Strictly Rhythm and MAW records. I’ve always loved the New York house sound; from DJ Duke’s Power Music, to the deeper sounds of Junior Vasquez. This track is a love letter to those records, and to my time as a Scottish teenager discovering house music.”
Listen below and get the release here.
Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Features Editor, follow him on Twitter
Read this next: Get the best of Mixmag direct to your Facebook DMs