A conversation with Dexter Crowe
Happy new lap around this beautiful sun! It is a great honour to welcome our talented friend Dexter Crowe for a second time in the Saisons Musique catalogue. This time, Dexter comes on board with his first original EP titled “Platypus”. The release comprises two energetic and hypnotic tracks that let’s us explore a unique and captivating sonic spectrum by one of Australia's most creative producers. Dexter is family to us and we are so excited to share with you this conversation…
Hey mate! How are you feeling today? Where are you at the moment?
Feeling great, thank you! I’m at my studio in snowy Montreal :) Super excited and grateful for this release.
How has your 2022 year been? Please give us a little recap of your highlights.
This year zoomed by but at the same time this time last year feels so long ago! I have had a really unique year, I feel like this year I forged some life long relationships and had some experiences that have really helped me to grow as a person, producer and DJ. I was lucky enough to be part of some really cool multimedia projects, a concept album of remixes of Ludovico Einaudi’s music with my dear friend and label partner Mercan Dede, our label Halaken saw the release of the first Halaken Soundsystem track as well as a truly special multimedia collaboration called ‘Jananeh’, I got to be part of some really memorable festivals this summer, I got to remix Motip White, and I’m excited to release my first EP to cap it off!
What is the story behind the two tracks of your EP?
Both tracks were made in a particular period where I felt really inspired by the after hours feelings - groove based with darker and more ethereal emotions but still with a certain lightness and hope. I made Platypus first with just that feeling in mind.
Kora and I are studio room mates and we often walk over to check on each other. The night I made Platypus I remember him walking in bumping along to it and telling me he wanted to release it on Saisons. I was a bit surprised at first honestly as it is quite a different sound from the label’s signature sound but super humbled and grateful that he liked it enough to put the Saisons stamp on it! A few weeks later I saw Dune and was so inspired by the soundtrack and sound design from the film that I went to the studio from the cinema and started what became Apoth. I sent it to Mik (Kora) and he told me that he really liked it but it wasn’t until a couple of weeks later that he told me he wanted to pair it with Platypus to make an EP. It is a really special milestone for me as it is my first original EP and I couldn’t be happier for it to be released on Saisons
This year, you participated in an incredible Ludovico Eindaudi remixes album in collaboration with Mercan Dede. How has the experience been? What have you learned from this?
This was a truly once in a lifetime project that I am so grateful to have been a part of. Mercan and Ludovico have been friends and toured together for over a decade and have long spoken of doing a project like this. COVID provided a really unique opportunity where he was not able to tour and we could dive into an album project. It was an incredible experience to work with the original material of Ludovico Einaudi who is an artist that I have loved and admired for many years. Musicians from Mercan’s band recorded the most beautiful new takes and then to be in the studio with Mercan who is a truly great composer and arranger, collaborating to bring his vision to life was a really amazing experience. This project, which we started over two years ago, has been a hugely inspiring learning experience both technically and creatively. It’s hard to name everything I learned as I’m sure it’s more than I realize but I certainly learned a lot about composition and mix, as well as about creative process and how to put your signature into something. I also learned a lot about collaboration and working to bring many pieces and dynamics together as harmoniously as possible to create authentic work.
It was also a great opportunity to collaborate together with Kora and Mercan on Divenire. We are a really tight trio of friends so to have our first collaboration be on a project like this was special.
Can you tell us the story and the concept behind Halaken Collective?
Halaken Collective is a multimedia platform that Mercan Dede and I co-founded in 2019 not long after we met. We met through mutual friends of Kora and he expressed to us that he had been holding on to the idea of starting a multi-media collective with the vision of creating a platform for international, multi-disciplinary, collaborations and events that carried a consciousness and message. I was in a period where I was open to and working on music projects on the side and when the invitation and opportunity came from Mercan I decided to jump on it and help launch the project. We had just released a couple of projects and were about to hold our first event when the pandemic started and were kind of redirected towards other projects like scoring a TV series and starting the Ludovico Einaudi Remix project. We have continued to cook things and have collaborated on 7 multimedia projects released on Halaken with a series of visual, and multimedia artists from around the world. We have a number of exciting projects in the works for the year ahead including some remix projects, a Halaken Soundsystem collaboration with Dutch fractal artist Julien Horthuis and we are looking forward to hosting our first event.
Both Mik and Ben from Saisons have been family to us since before day one, even the name Halaken came from Mik! The Halaken x Saisons story has already begun with Kora’s remix of Mercan’s Kapadokya, the first release on Halaken, and will take its next step in early 2023 with a Halakenn Soundsystem remix of one of Kora’s recent tunes.
Follow Halaken Collective
What are your intentions for 2023? What are you excited about?
My intentions for 2023 are to finish as many tracks as I can, collaborate with new artists from across creative disciplines, host some awesome Halaken events in Montreal and Istanbul and to start traveling to share music and dance with people of different countries and cultures around the world.
How are you feeling about your STEREO debut on NYE 2023? How did it go? Please tell us about it!
I am super grateful for this experience, this gig is a dream come true honestly. Both Mik and I have a long history with this club and since we met and starting working together this has been something we have dreamed of doing. To bring in 2023 doing it with so many dear friends with us made it even more special.
The preparation definitely included organizing the STEREO playlist of songs that I have built over the years with the hopes of one day getting to play them there. Also digging through usual channels to find exciting new things to play! It was fun to make playlists for both my opening set and then also to jump back on and go toe to toe with Mik later on.
It was so fun to be able to both play and have a chance to experience the night as a dancer during Mik's set which was amazing as always. We both had a really fun night and as far as we could feel and have heard since, we shared this feeling with those who were there with us.
A quote or motto that inspired you lately?
“The challenge is to grow along with what you are creating”
