The Staycore collective co-founder steps up with a mix of his own unreleased music and collaborations
Dinamarca’s music is impossible to pigeonhole. Since 2014’s No Hay Break EP, his impressive stream of work – culminating in this winter’s mindbending Holy EP – has soared between genres. Born in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship, Dinamarca came to Stockholm as a child, with his upbringing reflected in the Latin sounds and trance melodies (sometimes teetering on the edge of gabber) in his music. But there’s always one constant in his work: an ethos of creating honest music that makes him happy and keeps him dancing. That spirit also underpins Staycore, the record label he co-founded alongside Ghazal in 2014 that represents artists like mobilegirl, Toxe, and Mechatok.
Dinamarca exudes positive energy, but also describes a constant conflict between his DJ and producer mentalities. The mix he’s made us takes you deep into his world – full of exclusive, unreleased tracks, it eases you in gently before delivering a hammer blow of sound. Ahead of Dinamarca’s performance at London’s Camden Assembly this Friday (February 3), we caught up with the producer to find out what inspires him, how he keeps it real, and the new projects he has coming.
Why did you form Staycore?
Dinamarca: Staycore was born because I wanted a place to release my music and Ghazal wanted to start a label, so it was perfect. The message is simple: it’s about staying true to your core. It’s not a genre thing, we all make really different music but somehow we’ve found each other. Two weeks after the label launched, mobilegirl reached out so we checked her music – it was amazing. That’s when we realised there were so many people who needed someone to support them and release their music without being like ‘You’re signed here, you have to release three EPs.’ It’s about having someone who’ll listen to your music and talk to you about creating stuff. Every time we add someone to our family it’s because I see they’re doing something true to themselves – they just need a context.
How would you describe your music?
Dinamarca: I have no idea. I always try to do melodies that are weird but still very danceable – as long as I’m in the studio dancing, I’m happy. I struggled when I started producing because I had this real DJ mentality. I was playing so many nights I had to crowd please sometimes, so when I started producing I was thinking the same way, like ‘Does this work with that? Will people like this?’ That just wasn’t working, so I decided I’d start making music for myself and that it didn’t really matter who liked it or not. When I started doing it that way I felt like I’d never stop – it was like I could make music forever!
Where do the influences in your music come from?
Dinamarca: I was born in Chile, but I came to Sweden when I was two years old because of the Pinochet dictatorship. When I was about eight, we went back for a couple of years, but we’d adapted so much to Sweden that we moved back. Living in Chile and being a Chilean in Sweden has been a big influence: I’m a product of two really weird worlds and my music is a mashup of my experiences and the person who I am. When I first started making music I never thought about representing the Latin part of myself, but, even before we started the label, we were talking about staying true to your core, so, of course, it made sense.
Why do you think there’s been an explosion in Latin sounds outside South America recently?
Dinamarca: When I first started making music, I didn’t know about other labels or artists doing music like this. But when you start putting that energy out, you get it back. I guess other people are doing the same thing and feeling proud of who they are – they see you doing it too so you connect. Like, the first time I heard about Bala Club, I was super happy. They’re Chileans too and their music is amazing. That was cool – I didn’t even know there were Chileans in England, but I guess we’re everywhere because of the conflict. Now there’s a worldwide community of people doing this – I have a lot of friends from South America and Mexico and we all support each other. I guess it was a new wave of people who realised they didn’t need to make ’classic’ club music.
Let’s talk about the Holy EP.
Dinamarca: Holy took about a year. Before that, I was making music and releasing it straight away because I needed to get my name out and feel comfortable. Once I felt good I decided to make a lot of music and really live with those sounds for a while – that’s what I did with Holy. There are a bunch of different influences on there from my entire life; it’s kind of a mix of the music I listened to as a kid. I’ve listened to club and Latin music since I was very young so I wanted to revive my old memories of really weird trance melodies, especially on Holy. I know it sounds more like a gabber track but the melodies are there! I always try to push myself in the studio and make music that’s maybe a little uncomfortable, but as long as I’m feeling it and not worrying if people think it’s a weird track, I’m happy. I played in Prague last week and people were screaming for every track from the EP. That was cool – it’s never happened before. I do the music for myself but when people are interactive like that it’s amazing.
“The message is simple: it’s about staying true to your core” – Dinamarca
What’s going on in Stockholm creatively?
Dinamarca: For me, Stockholm is really dead. The community here is super small, so I’m always in the studio alone because there aren’t many people making this kind of music – Kablam is really the only person I make music with here. Even though I’m on the internet, I’m kind of isolated because I’m in Sweden. Everything here is super expensive and kind of boring in Stockholm, so a lot of the time I don’t feel like going out. That’s also a good thing, though – I get a lot of music done here because I’m totally focused.
How do you choose the people you work with?
Dinamarca: I never collaborate online – I always do it through travelling and meeting people. I like to have different periods in my life: sometimes I’ll travel a lot and other times I’ll come back to Stockholm and focus on music. I always try and make music with people if I’m in another city, we don’t need to release it or anything. I make completely different music when I work with someone else because that’s when I don’t have that inner voice saying ’Wait, this might be weird.’ That’s when I’ll do whatever I want and the other person can be that second voice.
Can you talk about new music you have coming?
Dinamarca: While I was making Holy I also made a lot of other music – mostly edits of old trance songs. At first it was just to DJ with – I always try to imagine I’m in the crowd seeing myself play and being like ’Oh my God, imagine if he puts down something I liked as a kid but an edit I’d like today?’ Maybe that’s really self-centred, but it’s the only way I can make music. So I have a bunch of trance edits now, which I’m going to put out as a pack. I also want to work with a vocalist, which I haven’t done since the first EP.
What does Staycore have coming up?
Dinamarca: As well as my trance pack, we have some new EP’s coming from the inner crew plus our annual compilation. We also have a showcase with Bala Club in May under the name ‘Balacore’, it’s going to be at the Hyperreality festival in Vienna. We’re super excited about that. I want the Staycore family to be happy, that’s most important. I’d love releases from everyone, but I want them to take their time. We’re so bad at business! We don’t have a five-year plan or anything – we just want to keep releasing music that’s true to us.
TRACKLIST
01. Mechatok – “Placer” (Dinamarca remix)
02. Dinamarca – ???
03. Predikador – “Taian Riddim”
04. Anuel – “Tenerte En Mi Cama”
05. Dinamarca – ???
06. Dinamarca – “Religion” (feat. Resla)
07. Ms Nina – “Tu Sicaria”
08. Dinamarca – “Señal”
09. Cho – “Popalik”
10. Dinamarca – “DINABLAM” (feat. KABLAM)
11. Dinamarca – “Niños”
12. MC L – “Da Vinte Medley”
13. Dinamarca – “9PM”
14. PND – “Not Nice” (Dinamarca edit)
15. Dinamarca – ???
16. Dinamarca – “Moto”
17. Dinamarca – “Resurrection”
18. Dinamarca – “La Caro City”
19. Dinamarca – “Holy”
20. Dinamarca – “Paraíso”
21. Dinamarca – “Juguete”
22. Dinamarca – ???
Dinamarca plays London’s Camden Assembly with Sir Spyro, Amy Becker and more on February 3