Dan Berkson and James What are a London based electronic music production and Live performance duo. Meeting in London in 2006, Dan and James discovered similar and eclectic musical backgrounds and a shared passion for forward thinking house and techno. They began to produce a blend of their individual soundscapes, debuting their Live Show at the infamous Sonar festival in the summer of 2006. The success that has followed has seen the duo tour extensively with a Live performance that is not only engaging to hear but equally mesmerising to watch.

Set to shake up our Dalston disco this Saturday alongside Hypercolour label boss, Alex Jones, we had a quick chat with Dan Berkson and he kindly gave us a cheeky free mix download. For more information on this Saturday’s party, click here.

The Nest: How has your live show evolved since its debut at Sónar back in 2006?

Dan Berkson: When we first started out everything was a bit more planned out and structured.  Now that we’ve been doing it for a few years it’s totally flexible and we’re able to improvise and change things up all of the time.  Each show is different and it’s great to be able to adapt to a crowd or situation like you would when you’re djing..

TN: I recently interviewed Russ Yallop who highlighted the important difference between composition and production – it’s not something I thought about not being a producer myself. How do you guys see this distinction? What comes instinctively for you and what do you have to work harder to achieve when it comes to production?

DB: I guess everyone works differently when it comes to making electronic music.  We tend to mix these two stages together differently depending on the situation.  Sometimes you get some great ideas and you just want to get them down and not worry about how everything sounds etc.  But then other times when you’re fine tuning the way an element sounds you might find a happy accident and that becomes the main theme of your track.

TN: Your background in jazz has prompted me to ask a (perhaps stupid) question that I’ve been wanting to know for a long time. Jazz music (in particular jazz piano music) is quite familiar with 5/4 time; are there any electronic music productions out there that explore 5/4 time? Have you ever thought about using it in your own stuff? Would it actually work?

There are definitely some electronic productions out there that experiment with odd time signatures, but I would say that with dancefloor oriented music it’s difficult to make it work.  Often times it just feels like you’re doing it for the sake of it.  I think Dave Brubeck is more suited to 5/4

TN: Does working as a duo highlight each other’s strengths and weaknesses? What have you learned from each other in terms of production, DJing and performance?

DB: For sure, working with two people gives you different options and does bring out the strengths and weakness. In our situation, I (Dan) am a keyboard player so a lot of the times when we are working in the studio or playing live I take on that role and James does a bit more of the engineering.  But we both have musical backgrounds so the roles can easily switch around.

James, how would you describe your “It feels wrong” release set for release on Poker Flat? When is it dropping?

“It feels wrong” is dark and stripped down electronic tune, I think it sounds very Poker Flat. There’s a girl saying it feels wrong and a sample answers back, “I think it’s better to just enjoy it…” Lee Curtiss did a really nice remix for it too, the 12″ is coming out 29th of August, and digitally in early September.

Are there any tracks that you’ve heard of late that made you think, “damn, I wish I produced that!”?

Yes, too many to mention…it’s always the simple ones that get you…

What’s your favourite studio snack?

Nuts and berries.