WAX LYRICAL: DAVID AUGUST

If house music was born in the 1920s, it would have sounded a lot like David August’s debut album ‘Times’. Still in his early twentieshimself, however, he’s no geriatric. Raised in Hamburg under the guardianship of Solomun’s Diynamic imprint, after the bossman picked up a promo and couldn’t believe his luck, his precocious talent has been nurtured.

Cutting his teeth as a DJ in his hometown at Ego, and more recently at Sankeys Ibiza for Neon Nights, already he’s rightly coveted as one of the rising stars of deep house. Shifting from the slamming piano house of debut release ‘Hamburg Is For Lovers’ and the deep funk of ‘You Got To Love Me’ into more austere, instrumental house territory, ‘Times’ is another indicator of this guy’s maturity as a producer. Shrouded by the lo-fi crackle of a gramophone needle throughout, the house on the album is more baroque than booty, sharing as much in common with Nicolas Jaar as it does James Blake.

Classically trained, August draws upon his skills on the ivory keys and with woodwind on ‘Times’, all part of an intriguing departure for a producer who clearly has ideas far beyond his years. Currently in the midst of a tour, he’s still to stop at Nuremberg (10th May), Paris (1st June) and Lyon (4th July) in the coming months, so we wanted to know the what, where and how he got here...

First-ever rave experience?

“In Hamburg with Carl Craig. I don’t know why, but there were these hypnotic structures that started to become very interesting for me...”

Most crucial dance record of all-time?

“There are so many good records out there, I could hardly pick just one to be the most crucial of all-time. But I must say that it depends also on my mood. I have moments where I love that classic dance record and just the day after, I hate it... let’s say it’s difficult!”

Three tunes that never leave your bag?

“Well as long as you don’t mean dance or club records, I would definitely have to say these three tunes are always part of my music collection: ‘The Great Gig in the Sky’ by Pink Floyd, ‘Paranoid Android’ by Radiohead, ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ by The Beatles.”

If you could meet anyone — alive or dead — who would it be?

“Johann Sebastian Bach. I would have loved to have met him just to experience what his everyday life was like, and to see how he came up with the pure genius of his compositions.”

What’s your lights-up, end-of-the-night tune?

“Avishai Cohen’s ‘Continuo’. It is such a calm tune and has such a soothing vibe. It fi ts the mood of a great evening coming to an end and sends everyone on their way with a good feeling.”

Imagine the world is going to end tomorrow. What you gonna do tonight?

“I would probably want to see all of the loved ones in my life and spend some last quality moments with them. Or at least with as many as were possible...”