Dybbuk
Dybbuk is a 27-year-old Bruges-based electronic producer named Mick Farrazijn, who creates dub-based bass-driven experiments, extended by ambient, dubstep, and techno.
“Music still feels subculture-based”
While preparing for this interview, I couldn’t find any other interviews with you, so I’m going to start by asking you some very basic questions, if that’s all right with you. So first: who are you? What’s your real name? Where are you from? Bruges? How old are you?
Mick Farrazijn: I was born and raised in Bruges and still live there today. I am 27 years old.
Were you first a DJ before you started making your own productions? What did you learn from DJing that you used in your production work?
Actually, it was the other way around for me. I started working with soundscapes on Adobe Premiere when I was about 14 years old. I made a lot of video art back then when I was in art school. Very eclectic, experimental stuff accompanied by random sounds I would chop up and rearrange in the timeline. At one point, I felt like I had way more fun with the audio side than I did with the video. This led me to buy Ableton later on to delve more into the sound aspect. A friend taught me how to DJ about 5 years ago at a local radio station here in Bruges called Villa Bota. The only thing I can think of that DJing meant for my productions is discovering that two completely different styles or genres can actually go together very well if you just have the right amount of imagination (and mix them well enough). I have always listened to tons of different music growing up, and DJing kind of rekindled that spark I had as a teenager where I would be constantly looking up different artists, labels, and genres.
I know two EPs from you: the one on Casual Chain and the one on Montage. Are these the only two releases until now?
‘Before Unruhe’ on Casual Chain, I released a tape on a small label based in Brussels called Swimming Pool. It’s basically a collection of tracks I had made over the years, which were all kind of in the same vein. This was my first venture into releasing music, and it was a very fun one. I haven’t listened to it in a long while though; my musical style has changed a lot since then. I also released tracks on some VA compilations on Audio Bambino and Casual Chain as well as remixes.
Your music is much influenced by electronic music from 20 years ago. Why are you influenced by this era (because this is music from “before your time,” before you started going out yourself)?
Nostalgia, I guess? I think there is a certain charming simplicity to dance music from 20 (or more) years ago compared to now. A good example of that is dubstep. Compare ‘Tempa All Stars Vol.2’ (2005) to ‘Tempa All Stars Vol.8’ (2015), and you will immediately get what I’m saying. Not to say that I don’t like the newer stuff, but it can more quickly feel oversaturated or too much in comparison to the simplicity and sparseness of how the genre began. The same goes for jungle, techno, a lot of genres. I guess I like the roots of dance genres more because it breathes authenticity.
Besides electronic music from 20 years ago, I also hear influences from bass, dubstep, ambient, and techno. Could you replace genres by names of artists?
To name a few: D.A.R.F.D.H.S, KABLAM, LAS, Burial, Oli XL, Digital Mystikz, Robert Rich, Clubroot.
You’re from Bruges. Is there something like a “Bruges scene” for your kind of music? Are there many chances to DJ or to go out for you where you live?
There is a crowd for it, but nothing really tight-knit. The times I DJed in Bruges were mostly events I helped organize with Club Stout, and it never really felt like people came specifically for the music. Techno and dancehall are still the most dominant genres when it comes to parties in Bruges, I think. The real scenes are more in Ghent, Brussels, or Leuven. With Club Stout, we’re trying to create a more diverse rave scene in Bruges, but it has been challenging at times due to the lack of a real scene. We have got venues that host great concerts though; I saw Tiga not long ago in Cactus Club, for example.
You released 2 EPs until now. Why do you prefer the format of an EP (instead of a “full album”)? Does this format “work” better for you? Do you think the attention span of a listener isn’t longer than 20 minutes anymore these days?
I don’t really think the attention span has anything to do with it. If you like certain music, if you are drawn into it, you are gonna listen to it, regardless of whether it’s an EP or an album. The idea of an EP always spoke more to me in the beginning because it feels more focused, but the reason I haven’t done a full-fledged album yet is mostly that I hadn’t figured out a solid theme I wanted to work around. If I want to make something bigger than an EP, it needs to tell a story about a part of me in a way. But expressing the things you feel can sometimes be difficult if you yourself don’t really understand them (yet). So yeah, I am working on an album at the moment, but it’s gonna be a while before that comes out.
In these online times, does time and place still matter, you think? I mean: does it matter where you’re from? And can one listen to music from any period of time, regardless of your age? Is music still sub-culture based, or is that something from the past? Did we all become “internet explorers”?
When it comes to liking certain music, I think it never really mattered where you are from. At least I rarely care about the nationality or background of an artist; if I like the music, I like the music. Music still feels subculture-based, but it has become more of a melting pot. You couldn’t imagine a gabber listening to trance in the 90s, but here we are. I think in a lot of ways it’s for the better. It feels like there’s a lot more understanding and respect among partygoers. Obviously, the internet and social media have contributed a lot to that, and in the music scene I’m active in, internet exploration is a pretty central theme.
Are you a triathlete, or is that just someone who carries the same name as you?
I participated in a triathlon once in 2013 together with my cousin and a friend of his. I did the running part. Good times.
Joeri Bruyninckx
Headline photo: Viktor Van Hoof
Dybbuk Instagram / SoundCloud
