Living Out Your Dreams: A Conversation with Dillon Francis
The 30-year-old artist and EDM producing hit maker storms back into clubs with a new record in tow.
A Los Angeles native and eccentric DJ, Dillon Francis emerged on the scene in 2011. Backed with guidance from the incomparable Diplo, he climbed the Billboard 200 charts, peaking at #39 in 2015.
With a highly anticipated new album, WUT WUT, set to release Sept. 28, Playboy was invited to Francis’ LA home. Here we picked the brain of the platinum selling recording artist, catching up on all aspects of his life.
On a cool summer night lounging on lush couches in a sprawling backyard, Francis shared the timeline for his upcoming project.
“I almost wouldn’t consider it a sophomore album. It’s more of a concept album because it’s all in Spanish. I wanted to pay homage to where my music came from, moombahton, and the fusion of dance music with reggaeton,” Francis said.
Over the years music fans have debated the direction of EDM and where it should be going. Francis consciously veered away from those early sounds, embracing and discovering newer styles.
“When I put out Money Sucks, Friends Rule (2014) it was such an A.D.D. album. It had a twerk record, a house record with Major Lazer, a power ballad with Brendon Urie from Panic! at the Disco. You could tell how much A.D.D. I had as a young artist. Going into this I wanted to figure out a concept that would make a cohesive album. My manager and I said, ‘Why not go back to moombahton?’”
What is the inspiration behind the new album title? “There’s an EP I did on Mad Decent Records called The Westside. The song I had the most fun making was ‘Que Que’ with Diplo and Maluca, which means ‘What What’ in Spanish.”
To better understand the man, one must be educated in the moombahton style that put him on the map. Francis is acknowledged with spreading these sound waves globally and spoke on its inception.
“Back in D.C. there was this guy Dave Nada throwing skipping parties. When you ditch school, get 40’s to drink, and listen to music together. There was a record he did “Moomba” that was remixed by Afrojack. He slowed the track down to 108 BPM and all the kids were freaking out. That’s where moombahton started.”
DJs are notorious studio rats. We wanted to find out the artistic process being in the lab and how his mind makes it work so seamlessly.
“I’ll try to start with drumbeats or chords and put the beat on that. If it sounds like it’s going to be a poppy record, I’ll send it to a writer and then add that to see who wants to sing on it,” Fracis shared.
“If it’s more of an instrumental track, I’ll go forward and make a drop and try to finish the structure of the song so I can go into my car and do the car test. You have to keep listening to it taking notes, saying ‘I hate that, change this,’ which will cause me to go in and do surgical stuff. I bring my production computer with me but it’s definitely harder to produce on the road, however, I get better ideas and I’mable to focus more. My touring schedule has gotten so crazy now.”
The new record has been a long time coming, says the recording artist. “It’s going to be three years in November.”
Was there a sense of relief or excitement to get out there and play it? “Absolutely! Oh my god. I can’t wait until it’s fully out. I wanted to just hot drop it but after consulting with my team releasing single tracks made sense. I’m really excited for someone to sit and listen through because it’s a concept album and I want them to say ‘Oh okay, I get it. It’s cohesive and every song goes together.’The whole album was for me to go back having fun making music again. I wasn’tas inspired as I used to be as a younger artist,” Francis detailed.
The life of a DJ is stereotyped to be full of luxury, excess, and not-stop partying. Contrary to popular belief, Francis does not come across as someone who lives a lavish lifestyle.
So how much fun does he actually have? Is it exhausting? What’s the key to balancing everything?
“I don’t think I know how to balance it yet, I’m still trying. Recently in Europe I wanted to do a shorter run so we went there for four days. Next time I go back, it’sgoing to be for two weeks. You can’t get acclimated to the time zone. There are definitely times where I want to be in my own bed and especially with how much I play in Vegas it’s tough,” he divulged.
“This year I’ve had more time at home to relax, just wake up and go to the studio and have a chill day. It is an ever-changing process because sometimes I think Iknow what my body wants…like a short Euro trip, and I’m completely off” (laughs).”
With the rise of digital communications, Francis was an early adapter to social media. He has a gregarious personality, and we got a sense of the man’s character from his own POV.
“Social media has been around for a long time, but it still feels so new. I don’tknow what I’m doing on there (laughs). When Vine came out and Snapchat, it wasfun. In school I would make home videos and now I make similar content. One time my friend Will and I were making fun of Laguna Beach. We dressed up in wigs, all the girls ate hot pockets but would never chew them and throw up at the club. It was jokingly fun stuff to do and it worked. I miss Vine so much!”
If you follow Francis online then you’re familiar with his traveling compadre Gerald, a miniature donkey piñata. Leave it to Francis to find fun in random innocent objects.
“My old rider had a bunch of Taco Bell, three pictures of any action star pre-1990, and this little donkey piñata. As I was leaving a meeting they were like, ‘Don’t you want to take the piñata?’ I’ve got this weird crevice in my house so I put him there. The next morning walking to the fridge I went on Snapchat and started yelling ‘Aren’t you happy Gerald?!’ and kids started laughing about it. I made more stories around the piñata and it turned into this whole thing that I didn’t know was going to happen.”
Every artist big or small dreams of an all-star collaboration and Dillon Francis is no different. “I’ve been saying this one for a while. I don’t know where she is but Fionna Apple, she was my childhood crush. My Chemical Romance as well, I’ve tried to reach out to Gerard Way but he’s super into comics as a graphic novelist now.”
Ever wonder what a superstar DJ does with his downtime? It’s less surprising than you may think. “I love Fortnite, best game ever. I’ve never seen a video game bethat big of a cultural movement. Drake definitely helped make that happen, him and Ninja.”
EDM has a diverse global fan base and one can experience different sets based on venues. Francis elaborated on his preferences when it comes to nightclubs versus festival gigs.
“There are certain nights in Vegas where it’s fucking amazing. A three-day weekend is usually the most insane party ever.”
“Coachella is one of my favorite festivals and I’m an LA native as well, so for me it’s the best-curated festival. They’re both different vibes. I do love playing in dingy nightclubs with 200 people capped. You can play deeper cuts like moombahton records. Festivals, you really want to bash it out.”
Speaking on relationships, celebrity gossip and being in the public eye, the Angelino has a laid-back view. “It’s interesting. I do think that people should keep a little bit of their privacy. People don’t need to post everything! Keep that connection between you guys.”
How about the paparazzi? We’re in LA remember. Their job is to track down celebrities with eerie efficiency. “Yeah, it’s bizarre. I’ve gotten a few TMZ people show up at the airport and I’m thrown off by it. I don’t feel like my opinion matters but okay” (laughs).
Earlier in the day, tragically, news broke of hip-hop artist Mac Miller’s passing. Dillon reflected candidly on their friendship.
“Dude, I was just looking at old pictures of him and I. One of the most incredible people ever. That guy could vibe with everybody. I met him while touring Big Day Out in Australia around 2014 with Diplo. I was playing my show in Adelaide. Nobody showed up, like 20 people. Mac was side stage and I told him ‘If no one shows up, what do you want to hear?’ He said ‘If you play “No Scrubs” by TLC, I’ll come out and dance. I played the record, he came out to dance and it was so funny!
We kept in touch, I saw him at Coachella (2017) a few years back. We hung out in Stockholm one night trying on weird hats. He was that dude you could always talk to about personal stuff and felt like there was a close connection. It’s so crazy, I can’t believe it.”
Turning back to the world of social media. There’s a show Francis worked on titled Like & Subscribe. It gained notoriety in early 2018 from an infamous LA mural that read, ‘You needed 20K followers in order to take a photo here.’ The show hasn’t debuted quite yet, but sounds likely to drop soon.
“The show is completely done. We started that campaign and Go90 hit us up but now they’ve closed. We’re looking for a new home. I think it might come out in November. The show is hilarious. It’s us making fun of social media and influencers. Jack Wagner created it and it was so much fun executive producing it with him.”
You can catch Dillon Francis performing this fall around the U.S. and his residency at The Wynn in Las Vegas, NV.
(Originally published Sept. 21, 2018)
