DiRTY RADiO’s Third Album Underway [Interview]

From their hometown in Vancouver, Canada, to touring across festival stages and intimate club shows all over the place, production and singer-songwriter duo DiRTY RADiO have taken their array of talents and versatile music creativity to the next level in the electronic music industry.

Releasing tracks with top-notch labels like Spinnin’, Partyfine, Majestic Casual and Mad Decent, lead vocalist and songwriter Shadi is alongside producer and songwriter Waspy, who together make up DiRTY RADiO. When it comes to extensive musical influences spanning numerous genres, the pair exceed expectations with evolution of sound. This, coupled with their innate ability to bring crowds to life with elegant instrumentals, progressive soul touches, R&B flair, and electronic style make for performances that can’t be missed.

Shadi grew up studying jazz and playing soul and R&B while Waspy was playing drums in both punk and metal bands. The fusion of such music has led the guys’ production techniques to soar beyond boundaries, ultimately leaving them with an endless stream of tunes to generate. DiRTY RADiO is currently in the midst of making their 3rd studio album Pleasures, and have hyped up the album with sexy singles “Is It Enough,” a team up with Giuliano Rascan and “Pleasures” with Jafunk. Just one listen of “Is It Enough” has fans jumping on their feet to dance to its pure groove. Using jazzy tones through and through, the soul-infused record bumps with electric guitar riffs, uplifting synths, and Shadi’s smooth voice flowing effortlessly on top of it all.

After an exceptional year of new music and live performances, we had the chance to chat with Shadi and Waspy – read on and see what they had to say about their new album, musical roots, and visions for the future.

The Nocturnal Times: Where in the world are you guys right now?

DiRTY RADiO: Our hometown – Vancouver B.C. Canada

The Nocturnal Times: What have one or two standout crowds of 2018 been?

DiRTY RADiO: We played a private show in Hawaii which was amazing, and we were excited to be a part of a new festival called Laketown Shakedown on Vancouver Island.

The Nocturnal Times: Congratulations on all the music you’ve released this year! Was there any particular inspiration behind the recent “Is It Enough?”

DiRTY RADiO: It was inspired by the music our friend and collaborator Giuliano Rascan played for us….”Is It Enough” is about being caught up in an excess lifestyle and trying to decide if it’s a manifestation of your goals and dreams or if it’s slowly destroying you. Or maybe both…

The Nocturnal Times: Holding backgrounds in genres like jazz and punk metal gives you both a huge array of options not only in making music, but with live performances. In addition to the instruments you already have on stage, would you ever like to perform alongside a bigger live band?

DiRTY RADiO: Originally, we performed as a 5 piece band, so we’ve actually scaled back our show in recent years…. Our goal now is to create the most high energy set possible with just the two of us. Perhaps in the future, we will experiment with bringing back more musicians and instruments….A live horn/string section would be pretty dope.

The Nocturnal Times: You’ve got your 3rd studio album underway – from what we’ve peaked at it’s full of over a dozen groovy songs! What was your vision for this new album?

DiRTY RADiO: We’ve been working on this record for the past year and a half – it’s called Pleasures….we can’t wait to put it out!  Our vision was to collaborate with all of our favourite musicians and producers and see what happened…In the past, we would be pretty introverted during the writing and recording process, only inviting a few key people to assist. For this project, we wanted to push ourselves creatively to write the best songs we could while still being open to other ideas. Geographically speaking, we have collaborators on this record from Berlin, Brighton, Los Angeles, Australia, Las Vegas, and here in Vancouver.

The Nocturnal Times: Your sound is a refreshing taste for electronic fans, especially with the R&B/soul aspects. How will this 3rd album differ from ones in the past?

DiRTY RADiO: Besides the amount of collaborators, this album is much more focused than our past records. We really wanted to hone in on creating music we’d be excited to perform live while also exploring and improving on our style (House/R&B).  Although we’ve focused on releasing singles for the past few years, we wanted this album to be something you could listen to from beginning to end.

The Nocturnal Times: This summer you teamed up with Jafunk for “Pleasures.” How did the collaboration with Jafunk come about?

DiRTY RADiO: We’d been a fan of his for a while, playing a bunch of his music in our DJ sets. It was exciting when he reached out to us and sent us some beats. We heard the Pleasures instrumental and immediately felt inspired to write. The song came together in an afternoon. It also inspired the title for our album.

The Nocturnal Times: More of your collaborations have included tracks with Young Franco, Mike Mago, Sleepy Tom and a lot more. Who is one artist you haven’t worked with yet that you’d like to get together with?

DiRTY RADiO: We have a ton!!! We’d love to collab with Disclosure, SG Lewis, and Pharrell.

The Nocturnal Times: What can you share with us about your tour plans for 2019?

DiRTY RADiO: Planning to be on the road as much as possible supporting our new record! We’ll have more to announce soon 🙂