So what better time to introduce you to the man behind Le Castle Vania, Atlanta-based DJ Dylan Eiland.
The 26 year-old Eiland, who has been DJ’ing for 10 years, has seen his Le Castle Vania project – along with Lies In Disguise, a side project with Blake Miller of Los Angeles-based Moving Units – gain a significant increase in profile and exposure this year.
Eiland, who started as DJ’ing in Atlanta’s burgeoning music scene earlier this decade, became a regular at some of the city’s best underground night-spots performing as DJ DJ Dylan. During the same time, Le Castle Vania, a moniker born from his remixes, became the name he uses for all his commercial projects.
Eiland toured extensively in 2009 – including performances in Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americans. Among the acts he’s performed with: Justice, MSTRKRFT, Simian Mobile Disco, The Presets, Steve Aoki and Crystal Castles.
He will be touring throughout 2010, but will end 2009 with a New Year’s Eve show in San Diego. For tour dates and more information on Le Castle Vania, visit his Web site: lecastlevania.com. You can follow him on Twitter: @LeCastleVania or become a fan on Facebook: www.facebook.com/LeCastleVania.
And here’s a tip, if you want to make fast friends with Eiland, bring him a box of Little Debbie Zebra Cakes – they are his favorite (snack) food.
DeadJournalist.com brings you this exclusive interview with Dylan Eiland AKA Le Castle Vania.
When did you first start DJ’ing? What first got you interested in the craft?
DE: About 10 years ago when I was 16. I just thought the underground dance scene – especially at that time – had such a cool, fresh, mysterious and exciting vibe to it. I wanted to be a part of that.
When did you start doing remixes and putting together your own beats?
DE: The first remix I ever did was a remix for Nine Inch Nails. This was back before I had the name Le Castle Vania. It was for a remix contest and was somewhat crude but I came in eigth place out of hundreds of remixes so it was pretty encouraging.
The first work i ever did under the name Le Castle Vania was the remix i did for Snowden which was of course a huge break for me. That song was pretty well supported by the music blog scene and really gave me a nice starting place for this project .
It’s been a fast rise to prominence as an internationally touring DJ. What was the turning point that launched you from working on project and events in Atlanta to the international stage?
DE: I think the main thing that has set me out against the ever growing crowd of DJ’s is my work mentality and my willingness to ignore trends and just make music that is original and that I truly believe in. I try to keep up a steady and consistent stream of music and output of other media with out sacrificing quality.
I also strive to just do me and create music that I really enjoy and think is unique and has “My Sound”. I think that the music scene – especially the genre I am considered a part of – can be really cliquey and a lot of the artist tend to just follow trends and do stuff to try and make them self fit in and seem “cool” to the other artist in our genre … but I honestly don’t give a fuck about that shit.
I think its really cheesy and very transparent when artist take that route and it also waters down both their brand and the entire genre of music, in my opinion.
As Le Castle Vania, you’ve hit has a high as #3 on the Hype Machine with “Nobody Gets Out Alive!”. What was your reaction to the success of the track?
DE: Yeah, that was really exciting a reassuring for me for a number of reasons but mainly because it showed that I do have a really rad and supportive fan base.
It was an all original track rather than a remix or a sample based song that could kind of feed off of another artist’s popularity. It was just all me and my musical ideas so it feels great to know that people enjoy what I am doing and want to support it!
It was also exciting because I feel like like that song is really my own sound and doesn’t follow any of the current “electro” trends to heavily so again it’s awesome to see people supporting that as well!
Given the growing success of your work as Le Castle Vania, what does the future hold for you, and for Le Castle Vania?
DE: In the future I see myself expanding the Le Castle Vania project by continuing to produce my solo stuff. But I am also currently working on a few projects to expand my profile as a producer.
I really like working with other musicians and I see myself doing that a lot more in the future. I would really like to see myself become sort of like a Danger Mouse or Dan the Automator in the sense that I would like to produce a lot of cool side projects or groups that I put together sort of like Gorillaz or Gnarls Barkley. I don’t mean writing music that has that sound I just mean putting together groups like that with other artists that I like.
I have already done this once with my project Lies In Disguise with Blake Miller the singer Moving Units. And I have another new project that I am producing at the moment as well – although I am holding off on announcing that project for the time being.
The cool thing about these projects is that I don’t see them as separate projects from Le Castle Vania but rather they are more like extensions of Le Castle Vania or projects produced and co-written by Le Castle Vania.
Having been all over the world this year; what were some of the cities that were your favorites this year?
DE: My favorite cities in no particular order: Sydney and Melbourne Australia, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Mexico City, Paris, and of course my home town Atlanta will always ALWAYS be one of my favorite places to be!
What is the most bizarre thing to happen to you while on tour this year?
DE: Getting stranded in countries where I don’t speak the language. This has happen more than once.
I’m not going to get to deep into the stories but I had to pay a Mexican taxi driver a pretty hefty fair to drive me to the US/Mexicali border and then another two hours to the San Diego airport.
Another time I was on the way to Amsterdam from Paris by way of train when there was a train accident on the tracks ahead of us so I just had to get of the train and make my way to Amsterdam on my own. Not being bilingual in those sort of situations can be real night mare especially since both my phone and laptop were dead!
What are the most enjoyable aspects of being on the road? Likewise, what are the biggest challenges?
DE: The raddest part is getting to see so much of the world and being able to share something that you created with the world and being able to join in celebration with so many different people around the world.
All of those things are true blessing that I feel so lucky to have experienced.
The biggest challenge is staying sane. I don’t [think] people really realize what a double edge sword this life style really is. On one hand you get to run around and do all this fun exciting stuff and meet a lot of cool people but on the other hand it can be very lonely and there is a lot of down time spent alone flying or traveling by yourself or chilling in some empty hotel by yourself.
Also being away from home so much can take a very large tole on your personal life and relationships it’s very hard to stay close and maintain personal relationships when you are gone so much.
Which do you love more: Your Le Sabre or Zebra Cakes?
DE: My 1965 Le Sabre – that’s is my baby for sure!
What were you listening to in 1999?
DE: Mostly drum ‘n bass … and Def Tones
Which do you prefer: MP3, CD, Tape or Vinyl?
DE: As far sound quality from the choices you listed I would go with CD’s. Coolies, purist and elitist will always say Vinyl but the truth is while vinyl does have that rad warmth and analog sound you can’t as in it technically impossible to get huge huge wide sounding stereo feel out of Vinyl.
A lot of people are going to hate on me for saying this – and trust me I know where they are coming from as I used to be a vinyl elitist too – but as I have become more and more technical in my production I have been studying the use of phasing tricks to make tunes sound super wide with has the effect of making your tracks sound super huge on a proper club sound system. For an example, listen to any of Soulwax’s recent remixes on a CD or high quality digital format on proper system. That sort of sound just simply CAN NOT be reproduced on vinyl due to the fact that super stereo phase tricks cause problems in the cut of the vinyl that will cause the needle to skip or make the record unplayable.
That said, I will always love vinyl and will always collect vinyl because it’s just cool and fun to have as a collector item.
What Web site (s) do you visit regularly?
DE: I have a lot of fun on last.fm looking at what my friends listen to and seeing what other music people who listen to me listen to. I’m also pretty pumped on the new www.lecastlevania.com as it is very interactive with my fans. It allows them to post comments on almost anything that I post so I enjoy checking in over there a good bit.
One Drink; One Movie; One Album:
DE: Bombay Sapphire and orange juice (Gin and juice – but it’s the baller version of a hood drink because its a top quality gin!). “True Romance”. You should already know I could never chose one album! - Chuck Norton / http://www.deadjournalist.com/DJdc/2009/12/30/exclusive-interview-le-castle-vania/
Le Castle Vania website
RRRump on Myspace
$5 for 21+, $7 for < 21, 18+
Doors @ 11 pm
