Duke Dumont has been serving up bangers to great success for nearly a decade.
The British producer has become a household name in the dance music world - playing the biggest festival stages and racking up huge streaming numbers - without even releasing an album.
Why, not? Because... "an album is probably the worst business decision you could make as an artist," said the guy who has just released his full-length debut (and this week's Feature Album) Duality.
Wait... come again?
“100%. In this day and age, nobody listens to an album anymore,” Duke told Ebony & Bryce on triple j Drive, referencing some stats he’d seen.
And he's right. A 2019 study by Deezer found that 15% of music fans under 25 have never listened to a full album.
“That’s not a good business choice. Want to make money? Just make summer singles.”
He should know, Duke's been doing just that since 2007. The 37-year-old is a hugely popular staple of EDM playlists and has topped the singles charts multiple times since his first breakout banger.
2014’s ‘I Got U’ boasts streaming numbers in the hundreds of millions. Ditto his most iconic hit, 'Ocean Drive', which climbed to #13 in the Hottest 100 of 2015 and almost singlehandedly catapulted him to the electronic big leagues he’s occupied for the better half of a decade.
Duke cracked the Hottest 100 a third time in 2019, with 'Red Light Green Light' (at #37), a club track with instructional lyrics just begging to be memed', which it was.
First, with people timing the drop at traffic lights. Then again, as the soundtrack to a political TikTok that gained momentum, thanks to a push from triple j's own Sally & Erica, and ended up all over the internet, and even Aussie TV news.
Hear Duke Dumont's reaction below, as well as him spilling the tea on a "very famous DJ" who requested their own music.
Loading...“I’ve been very lucky with the last 10 years of my life… to the point where I kind of can do what I want musically, and this album demonstrates that. Especially the last half of the album."
Duality, as its title clearly signposts, is split into distinct halves.
Its frontloaded with the kind of sleek, accessible playlist catnip that Duke’s made his name on, but then makes room to explore the kind of deeper, more expressive music Dumont hasn’t been allowed to explore in festival sets or on single edits. There's even a classic piano track!
“I think there was pressure on me to make some club bangers," he explained. "The first half like that and the second half, a little bit more atmospheric and musical."
So, despite being a 'horrible business decision', he's happy to have got around to making his debut album.
As he's said of Duality before, "the goal isn't for record sales, or attention-grabbing tactics. It's for producing records with longevity and soul. If my records can out live me, I can die happy."