Music
Archie Hamilton: The more I committed to music, the more it gave back to me
The DJ, producer and label-head has built an esteemed reputation for hypnotic, minimal-leaning house. With his debut album Archive Fiction out soon, he reflects on the years spent honing his craft.
If you’re familiar with Ibiza's Circoloco and London's FUSE, then you’ll know Archie Hamilton. A resident at the latter since its move from 93 Feet East to Shoreditch warehouse Village Underground, he's long been integral to its sound – mixing deep, dubby and trippy electronics with fluid dexterity, carved out by bouncing, grooving beats that practically pulsate through your muscle fibres.
While still affiliated with the East London crew that has the likes of Enzo Sigarusa and Seb Zito to its name, Hamilton is also a DJ in demand himself. When we catch him before his set with Enzo at this year’s Lost & Found, he’d just ticked off a South American tour, Amsterdam’s DGTL festival, then sets in Bucharest, Croatia and the USA within a mere few weeks.
His output as a producer has been similarly full-on. EP after EP, edit after edit – catch him a few months on the trot and he’ll likely have fresh material to test out on the crowd. And after years of releases on labels like Cuttin' Headz and Crosstown Records, he’s just announced his upcoming debut full length on his own imprint, Moscow Records. Threading together acid jazz, drum ’n’ bass and trip-hop into his rolling, minimal-leaning house signature, Archive Fiction encompasses the vast spectrum of his artistic world.
Ahead of its release, Hamilton reflects on how hard work, sacrifice and a "five and a half hour baptism of fire at FUSE" launched the artist he is today.
Archie Hamilton is the FUSE resident riding the crest of a wave
© Mint Club via PR
How did you start DJing?
I started DJing at a very young age, when I was 14. My mum bought me a pair of turntables for my birthday, but I really didn't have a clue what I was doing. I was living in Cheltenham at the time so our only record shop was, like, HMV. I’d buy the stuff I was into at the time, which actually was pretty much anything electronic, so I was taking that home, and trying to mix these with my mum’s record collection, and it was a bit of a disaster! It obviously sounded appalling.
I picked it up again properly when I was at university [in Oxford]. When everyone went home for the summer, I thought I’d stay and enjoy the town and not bother going home. And I’d just bought turntables, Stanton STR8s, and I had a Behringer mixer, and I didn’t leave that room for pretty much the entire summer holidays until l’d learned to mix.
Were there any key artists or DJs you listened to in that time period that inspired you?
I saw Richie Hawtin and that kind of changed everything for me. Up to that point I was mixing electro and house and stuff like that, and I saw [him] at Glade festival and he completely blew my mind. I came back like, ‘if it’s not minimal, I’m not interested.’ I bought his Decks, EFX and 909 CD and literally had that on loop for the entire summer. By the time everyone had come back from the holidays I had loads of mixtapes ready and I was sending them to the promoters trying to get gigs in the city. I started playing for all the student nights, one of them was called Sex On The Beat.
Then I graduated – just, literally by the skin of my teeth because I spent my entire time DJing and trying to make music – left uni and went to Point Blank Music School, in Old Street. That was basically my first time really being and living in London, and at that time it was a real golden era of London clubbing. We’re talking 2008, 2009, with Secret Sundaze and The Key and The Cross and The Egg, and I was going religiously to every party I could, getting my ears around as much music as I possibly could.
So how did you get involved with FUSE?
Part of my rave pilgrimages at he weekend always ended at FUSE at 93 Feet East, and that quickly became the best part of the weekend. I remember being on the dancefloor and hearing elements of one of my tracks coming in – it was a remix I’d just done, played by Luke Miskelly who was one of the original residents at FUSE. I remember going up and was waving wildly like, ‘hey it’s me! I made this track!’ I then got to know everybody over the next few years, and three years later I got a call at my office job from Tony, the guy who runs FUSE behind the scenes, saying, ‘do you want to come and play?’ Obviously I was over the moon, and I did, and that was it.
That was also one of those things that stuck in my head. I remember thinking most of those guys [at FUSE] don’t work, so I should seriously think about quitting my job, doing this full time. I guess a year into me being a regular guest at FUSE that’s when I pulled the plug on work and went full time on music.
What goes through your mind when you decide to make the leap from a reliable office job?
I certainly was not in the position financially to make that choice purely for music, so it was a big jump in the dark. But there’s one conversation I had with a guy I used to work with; we’d come back from the weekend and I’d asked him how he was and he was like, ‘yeah it’s great, I varnished my garden fence,’ and I was thinking to myself, ‘this is not me.’ I think there comes a point where you just have to do what makes you happy. It’s a very bold and foolish decision, and one I would never regret for the rest of my life.
From London's 93 Feet East to Ibiza and beyond, he's a DJ in demand
© Alastair Brookes / KoLAB Studios
The other thing to consider is to do this full time, you have to sacrifice absolutely everything in life to make this work. But if that’s what you want from life then absolutely do it. And one thing I remember from making that decision is the more I committed to making music, the more that music gave back to me. I think that’s a thing with life in general – the more you commit yourself to things, the more that things just come to you.
When you started producing, were you making tracks with your DJ sets in mind?
At the same time I was making club music I was making downtempo stuff like trip-hop that I’m really into. But certainly when FUSE was at 93 Feet East I was making music for 93 Feet East. It’s a small, red-lit, after party room, much more kind of dark and minimal stuff worked in there, so that’s what I was doing. And then when FUSE moved to Village Underground – it’s like twice the size, a big rave room – you need[ed] much bigger sounds to fill that room. And obviously I kept wanting to hear my music be played week in week out so I made my sound much bigger, much more housey, bigger drums, bigger elements, vocals.
I guess that’s what happens when you’re both a DJ and a producer – you can’t really separate the two?
For me, half of the joy is making music is actually getting to play it out and see the club’s reaction. It’s great to make stuff you’re not going to play too, but I love turning up to the next week’s shows with a new track I’m going to play. And that’s what I try and do every week is have something new. It’s so exciting, that feeling of having something, whether it be an edit, or a remix, or a completely original composition, just having that thing in your arsenal.
The other really exciting thing is like, ‘where am I actually going to play that?’ You build it up to that place and when you do play it and it goes off and you think wow. Or on the flip side it has absolutely zero reaction and you think, ‘oh that’s absolute crap, I’ll take that back to the drawing board.’
The more I committed to making music, the more that music gave back to me
When that happens, does that make you question the track you’ve made? Or do you think it isn’t for that specific crowd, and you’ll try it again in another set?
A perfect example is something I’ve made recently with a friend. I took it and played it two or three times now and each time, the initial effect when you drop it is really good, but then it goes on, and I can tell you exactly why: I’ve left this synth line in it too long and it gets boring. I’m going to take that element out, because when it comes in it’s great but it just goes on too long. It’s nice to have that immediate feedback.
Have you been playing bits of the album out?
The way I’ve made it is that it’s designed to flow. You can obviously listen to it track by track, but it’s mixed and flows in a way that I want the listener to hear it. And I’ve listened to it in so many situations – I’ve put it on at afterparties without telling people, and just seeing people’s reactions to it. And then there’s also a couple of tracks that I’ve been playing in clubs. But reactions have been good. I wanted it to be a party thing, but also something that people can put their feet up to and relax and listen to properly.
Archie Hamilton's debut LP, Archive Fiction
© Paul Jeffrey
Is that the first time you’ve ever made a full record with that concept in mind?
Yeah, this is my first album and I wanted to push my boundaries a bit, and I wanted to make something that I’d like to listen to. And you know, I’ve been doing this [making club music] for a very long time, but I’ve got loads of other tracks that I’ve made that are really downtempo and are more chillout stuff.
The more and more I’ve gotten into [making the album], it just flowed so naturally and I thought, ‘why haven’t I gotten into this before?’ And I honestly think it’s a self belief thing: I’m not just a producer, I’m actually making some proper music here. I’ve got some guest vocalists on there; we sat down and had proper recording sessions which I’ve never properly had before. So it was an amazing, exciting project that filled me with a different kind of sense of how I see myself as a musician.
Do you think that also comes with it being a LP – you have more space to breathe?
Yeah, I’d always had, like once a month, a remix out or an EP, so I’d always put pressure on myself to do stuff that would work in the clubs. But what my management said is that you can take your foot off the gas and go back into the studio and make stuff that you want to make, and just try and do different things. And a part of that whole process to me was listening to all my old favourite albums from my youth again, hearing how they flow and how they work, and listening to them you’re like, ‘oh my god these are so exciting.’
You’re playing with Enzo at Lost & Found – you have quite a history together.
We’ve certainly got a history. The past few months we’ve been touring, travelling a lot together which has been very fun. You get to see the real person after three months on the road with them and I’m delighted to say that the real Enzo is a wonderful person.
Archie Hamilton goes back to back with Enzo at AMP Lost & Found
© Matt Eachus
It’s funny because the first time I did ever play at FUSE at Village Underground, I played my [first] three hours and Enzo turned up sat in the booth and watched me for a further hour, so I played four hours. And then [he] said, ‘do you want to play back to back?’ This was the first time we’d played together, and the first time I’d probably ever been in the booth with Enzo before. We played back to back for an hour and a half, so in the end I had about a five and a half hour baptism of fire at FUSE.
That’s where it all started. I think Enzo was testing my metal at that point. He probably had plans for me as part of the family; I think he wanted to know if I could handle the pressure. It’s 10 years of FUSE this year and we’ve been celebrating that around the world.
Archie Hamilton's debut album Archive Fiction is out June 21. Pre-order it here.
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