Interview: When We Dip

By Kyle Marno on December 28, 2014

We spoke to Irish dance blog ‘When We Dip’. The guys are taking huge strides for Irish dance music, securing names such as Greg Gow and Oniris on their mix series. We find out what they’re all about and what they have in store for 2015.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/182672533″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Soundspace

So who is When We Dip?

When We Dip

When We Dip is a collective of music lovers at its most basic level, the family consists of a wide variety of contributors from industry peeps (DJs, Management, Press) to simply tune enthusiasts. We started the blog to share the finds we made while hunting for new music and over time decided to branch off into news, interviews and mixes etc. We’ve gone on to feature artists and tracks from a wide variety of genres but it’s really innovation and music quality that we look for above all else.

Soundspace

You recently had Canada’s Greg Gow on a guest mix, can you talk about any future placements you have on that series?

When We Dip

Yes, it was great to have Greg take part in our podcast. We’ve been fans of his since catching him live in Toronto at Comfort Zone a few years ago. He’s a busy man so locking him down took a while but it was certainly worth the wait! He’ll by followed by Herzblut and KMS Frenchman Oniris, another artist who has really impressed us this year.

The podcast is a great outlet for us to shine the spotlight on our favourite artists along with those impressing that we feel may be deserving of more attention. We’ve got a very exciting schedule lined up for the new year with artists from the likes of Yousef’s Circus imprint, Suara and Bedrock Records.

Soundspace

And your ‘5 for 15’ series, what is the concept behind that?

When We Dip

5 for 15 is a special end of year segment featuring 5 artists from Deep and Tech House that we feel are set for a big 2015. Our podcast is very much devoted to established talent so the 5 for 15 mini-series allows us to showcase some up and coming Irish and foreign artists.

We kicked things off recently with Italian duo the Di Chiara Brothers, who have been tipped by Roush founder Hector Couto as one of the next big things in House, they rinsed one of our favourite mixes this year packed with old school, warehouse-ready house dingers. Very enjoyable! They’ll be followed in the coming weeks by artists from Get Physical, Pokerflat, Something Different and Steyoyoke.

Soundspace

What does a typical day consist of?

When We Dip

Well, the team is actually well spread globally. The majority are Dublin based but two of our founders are based abroad, I’m working out of Montreal, where I’m keeping an eye on all things across the Atlantic while another of our founders, Jack, is currently enjoying the Berlin life. So Skype meetings are often how we kick off the day/week, discussing how the past week went and that which is to come. Here the content for the next few days is usually organised after which the guys go about locking down reviews, interviews, mixes etc.

A lot of time is also devoted to the promo inbox, we’ve always tried to support new artists and as you guys at Soundspace are probably very aware it can take some time to sift through the high volume of submissions and find the hidden gems.

Soundspace

Irelands dance scene is continually impressing, though there isn’t a lot of editorial platforms for dance music, do you think this will change, and what part When We dip will play?

When We Dip

Yes, it’s certainly surprising when you see how well the Irish, particularly Dublin, music scene is doing in terms of live shows. We’re treated to an amazing selection of house & techno artists each week here in Dublin from the likes of Subject, Bedlam, Strictly Deep, Room 19 and Abstract to name a few but the rise hasn’t brought with it an overflow of editorial platforms.

Though, I’m sure as house & techno becomes more and more popular we’ll see more media outlets new and old starting to cover the music. As for us, we’re just focused on developing the site into an important platform for lovers of the music as well as for emerging and established homegrown talent.

Soundspace

If you had advice for anyone launching a new music blog, what would it be?

When We Dip

The most important advice to me would be to feature the music you genuinely like. There’s a million and one music blogs out there and a huge percentage centred around clickbait headlines and hit attracting tunes. It can certainly be a seductive approach for quick growth but the blog could well end up a soulless platform lacking quality and that rarely builds loyalty from your visitors.

Soundspace

Can you reveal any other plans you might have for 2015?

When We Dip

The focus for 2015 is very much to continue growing the platform and pushing local artists to a wider audience. We’ve also just partnered with WAVO.me, a new music application, which provides crowdsourced genre charts and a number of artists tools for emerging talent. So we’ll be doing some cool stuff with their Tech House and Techno communities, they’ve also just launched a killer new ios app worth checking out!