Interview: Simon Doty

The latest guest in our interview series is Simon Doty who revealed something more about his highly anticipated debut album ‘Universal Language’. Enjoy the read and don’t forget to grab your copy of the LP here.

Hey Simon, thanks for speaking with us! Congrats on the drop of your debut album. How does it feel to finally have this out there in the world? 

Hey thanks so much! It’s great to finally have it out, a ton of work went into it from a whole team of people behind the scenes. So I’m grateful to finally have it out in the world and now I’m just focused on what’s next!

It’s called ‘Universal Language’ and music really is something that can connect us all no matter where we are. Why did you decide to call it this, you’ve said it was all about bringing the groove back to dance music, can you elaborate on this a bit? 

The name came from the first line of Roland Clark’s vocals. When I got the vocals from him I hadn’t yet named the album and it seemed like a great choice. I think we have a lot of music that is super melodic but lacks any type of groove or soul, and on the other end we have a lot of music right now in the tech house world that is super club oriented but has no melody or emotion to it. I think one of the goals of the album is to show people that it’s possible to have both!

You’ve collaborated with some amazing artists on the LP, including Ursuala Rucker, Ruth Royall, Artche, Roland Clark.. how did some of these come about, did you just reach out when you started working on tracks for the album?

Luckily I had a great team of people at Anjunadeep helping me with the album so some of the vocalists came from them and some I already had previously worked with. I let everyone know I was working on an album and fortunately they were all on board to be a part of it!

Did you lock yourself away deep in the studio to focus solely on the album? Or have these tracks been gradually coming together for a while, even writing on the road as you were touring? 

Ya I finished all of them between July and November last year. Once I had the first couple tracks done the rest of them fell into place pretty quickly. I was still doing a lot of shows during that time so it was a combo of working on music at home and also on the road.

Can you pick any favourites?!

It’s tough for me to pick one but I would say ‘Midnight Oil ‘and ‘Heat of the Moment’ are two underrated favs from the album.

You’ve been doing a global tour for the album too, looks like you’re hitting everywhere in the space of 4 months of pretty much non-stop dates! How are you finding it so far?  

It’s been very full on so far! As I’m writing this I have only 3 weeks left which is crazy. It’s really flown by. There’s been a couple of times where I’ve been feeling pretty burned out, but at the moment I’m feeling pretty sharp, rested and excited for the last few weekends!

What have been a couple of unforgettable moments on the tour?

There’s been a ton of amazing shows, I think one that really stands out was the weekend in Argentina. The people are really into the music in a special way and it was my first time there.  Now I can confirm that all the hype about the Argentinian music scene is real!

Where are you most looking forward to in the coming months? 

There’s lots of amazing shows coming up this summer that I’m super excited about. On the music front there will be some great remixes coming for the album, as well as some more new music from me later in the year!

Simon Doty ‘Universal Language’ is out now on Anjunadeep. Get it here!

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