Hugo Paris, AKA Dave Maclean from Django Django has just released ‘Music Saves The World’ in collaboration with house don Roland Clark. It seemed like an opportune moment to take a look around his studio.
Main Studio
Who is Hugo Paris? It’s the new production alias for DJ/producer Dave Maclean of Django Django. Paris has teamed up with long time house soldier Roland Clark for his recent release ‘Music Saves The World’ a deep house vocal with that 90s NY house mix of smooth vibes and raw groove.‘Music Saves The World’ was concocted in Paris’ studio over lockdown, a room filled with enough esoteric FX and tasty synths to get any studio nerd interested:
“You can see all the junk we’ve accumulated over the years and this probably isn’t half of it! I like studios that have a lot of things lying around and aren’t just clean, soulless spaces with expensive desks and speakers. I spend so much time here so it’s really a living space as well as a creative one”. So join us as we take a look around Hugo Paris’ studio:
Wall of Synths
These synths are mainly used by Tommy in the live Django set. The Jenn was mine before the band started and the bass station 2 I just bought recently. I’m really these little monophonic synths, I can just lay down bass notes really quickly over drums, and sometimes it’s all you need!
303 Clone / Wem Copy Ca
Before plug in synths I suppose that owning a 303 was pretty much the dream. I’d hear rumours of people in Dundee having them in the 90’s. I still much preferer hardware because that’s what I always knew starting out but it’s amazing how good a little phone ap can make an acid line. No matter how good your plug-in is you can’t beat a real tape echo and this old Wem Copy Cat defo has a life of its own. It’s haunted.
Turntables & Mixer
I don’t always have 2 decks set up these days but I’ll always have one going through my mixer. When I sample records, I do a lot of building live loops and adding effects on drum breaks, etc. It’s really always been at the heart of my music.
Vintage Drum Machines
We have a ton of these lying around and I’ll try to keep them rotated by using them a lot then selling and getting something new. I love drum machines that you don’t even need to program. you can turn them on and put them through a nice amp and you’re rolling! No stress – until they start to pop and crackle!
Roland Drum Pads
I love little one pad drum machines. Roland do the best ones. These just have a few sounds each on them and that’s what I like. I’m not a fan of over-complicated gear or too many options.
Jen SX1000
The first proper synth I bought. I was so in love with this little workhorse and it’s all over the debut Django LP. Simple yet versatile, It’s the sound of the mad squealing sound at the start of ‘Default’ and before the band, it was used on music that has now become my Hugo Paris stuff.
Yamaha Organ and Juno D
A mixture of 60’s and 90’s stuff here. I love the Roland Juno D for the wicked drum sounds if I want to quickly lay things down or jam live over a beat. The strings are on ‘Music Saves the World‘. They actually sound more 93 breakbeat / early jungle but that was what I liked about laying them over a quite US house groove.
Omnichord
I love this thing, it is really fun and easy to write songs on and sounds wicked through some old effects stuff. it’s a bit like a toy but it actually wasn’t cheap! Again, think there’s some pretty good knock-off phone/Ipad apps that sound good.
‘Music Saves the World’ is available now.
Hugo Paris is on Twitter.
Django Django are on Facebook.