I Can Give You Clancy [Interview]

Burgeoning UK producer Clancy is set to release his debut EP What You Do September 30 via S P I E L, the new sub-label of Berlin-based veteran deep house label Dirt Crew.

Having only released singles thus far, Manchester-bred Clancy has already made quite a stir in the dance music community with a string of original tracks and remixes including the acclaimed remix of Little Dragon’s “Little Man” which has surmounted nearly 100K SoundCloud plays to date. Crossing fluidly among genres including deep house, nu-disco, and UK house, Clancy’s style emits sheer energy and genuine good vibes on the dance floor.

What You Do marks the first official release for the S P I E L sub-label, which is intended to broaden the scope of the classic Dirt Crew deep house roots into new territories including indie dance and nu-disco. In anticipation of his breakthrough debut, I Can Give You House had the opportunity to interview Clancy to get some more info on him as an artist and his music-making process. Check it out below:

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ICGYH: For those who are not yet familiar, who is Clancy?

Clancy: I produce dance music and DJ – from Manchester but now live in London.

ICGYH: How has growing up in the UK influenced your sound?

Clancy: The UK has had a huge effect on my sound in terms of what I listened to on the radio when I was a kid – I remember hearing Pete Tong playing the likes of Sasha & Emerson, Car Cox & Jacques Lu Cont on Radio 1 but not just UK artists also producers like Tiefschwarz, Laurent Garnier & Booka Shade – all of this got me into dance music and made me think I wanna make some music! Nowadays it doesn’t necessarily have to be the country you’re living in that influences you, as the internet allows you to listen to music from anywhere at anytime, which is a great thing.

Clancy: Creating a sound which people associate you with can be really important in gaining fans and notoriety – I always try and create something that works both on the dancefloor and at home or in your car. Having a good melody or instrumental hooks really work for this and are elements I try and get into everything I work on.

Clancy: I’d been working on an EP for a while and had a few tracks that I thought would work for it – I’ve always loved Dirt Crew so I sent a few tracks over to their way and they really liked them. They’d been thinking about setting up a sublabel and felt this was a great opportunity to do it. And here we are!

Clancy: I really like to keep things simple – in terms of software, Cubase with mostly the Korg synths, although I have recently been using the old Absynth and Prophet. I love the FabFilter stuff for compression/limiting/EQ and also Waves is great. Hardware wise I use a MicroKorg and the Juno 106 – there’s a load of other bits too but that’s where it starts to get boring.

Clancy: Consistency in output and quality…everything moves so quickly now, if you haven’t released anything for a month or so people start to think you’ve gone away, so it’s really important to have something fresh and ready. The challenging part about this is keeping the quality up – you can’t be knocking out work you’re not happy with – as the saying goes ‘you’re only as good as you’re last release’.

Clancy: Secret Garden Party this year is a big favourite – I played The Pagoda Stage which is a stage on the banks of a lake and the dancefloor is a big floating contraption that quite often sinks. The weather was amazing and the crowd were pumped up – loved it.

Clancy: Keep on going! The more you do it the better you’ll get. Don’t let knockbacks get you down – every producer/DJ friend of mine has had knockbacks along the way some of which are now massive names and touring the world.

Clancy: There’s another EP planned for release in November and a remix for one for one of my favourite artists due out in October amongst other singles planned for the new year. Lots of stuff happening right now so stay tuned!