Balance Selections 232: Dowden

Praised for diversity in his DJ’ing and musical writing, Dowden presents a deep, yet charging energy, full of Melodic atmosphere. Ranging from high octane gritty
Progressive, to enchanting Deep House hymns, all with a subtle tone of darkness and mystery.

Dowden‘s music consistently gains support from the leaders of the industry, including Hernan Cattaneo, Guy J, Darin Epsilon, Cid Inc., Dmitry Molosh, Soul Button, Sahar Z, and many more…

Balance Selections 232: Dowden

Tracklisting:

01. Dowden – Hallstatt (Balance Intro Edit)
02. Juan Lagisquet – ID
03. Ric Niels – Reasons (Dowden Remix)
04. Steve Slight, MXV – Return to Base (Anton MAKe Remix)
05. Kassey Voorn – Skyline (John Cosani Remix)
06. Dowden – ID
07. Forty Cats – A Barrel of Tar (Rodrigo Lapena & Mayro Remix)
08. ID – ID
09. Dowden – Capricorn (Original Mix)
10. The Wash – Manifest (Original Mix)
11. Tunnelvisions – Acid Neverland (Original Mix)
12. Serious Dancers – Sabase Pahale (Ilias Katelanos & Plecta Remix)
13. EMPHI – Hallway Seven (Original Mix)
14. GMJ, Matter – Time to Space (Original Mix)
15. Mike Rish – District (Original Mix)
16. Ben Haydie – November (Dowden Remix)
17. Dmitry Molosh – Surface (Sebastian Sellares Remix)
18. Masayno – One Side (Analog Jungs Remix)
19. Matias Burna – Ramus (Original Mix)
20. Praveen Achary, Aman Anand – Fiasco (Original Mix)
20. Second Sine – Motor City (Sebastian Haas Remix)
21. Dowden – ID
22. Golan Zocher, Rona (IL) – Ready to Fly feat. Rona (IL) (Navar Remix)

Balance Selections Q+A

Name: Brenden Dowden
Location: Berlin, Germany
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Alias/Producer name: Dowden
Labels affiliated with: Mango Alley, Meanwhile, EDGE, Juicebox Music, Univack

My last 3 releases:

Dowden & Forty Cats – Orbit

Dowden & Bondarev – Tranquility

Dowden – Creating Constellations

What music did you listen to as a child?

Believe it or not I was really into heavy metal when I was younger! Definitely not a reflection of the style I write in my music.

When was the first time that you realised that you liked electronic music?

My brother was heavily into electronic music (and still is). He is actually a pop artist now. But he used to play really loud house music from the likes of Global Deejays, Benny Benassi, etc. Since we used to fight a lot, as young brothers sometimes do, I would pretend to dislike his music, but in reality I kind of liked it at the time! It was not until a few years later that I had a friend show me Dubstep (Skrillex’s ‘Scary Monsters’ EP) that I re-discovered electronic music. I went to my first Dubstep show where I met my wife, and as we were first dating she introduced me to tons of electronic music genres and really helped me discover and appreciate different styles.

When was the first time you saw a DJ in a club?

Doctor P! A Dubstep artist in 2012 at the famous The Guvernment nightclub.

Which producers/artists/acts inspire you?

I’d say my biggest inspirations are a few producers. A big part of my stylistic choices and style derived from Jeremy Olander’s earlier music. A lot of his unreleased music I still listen to for inspiration and reference. I feel the exact same way for Guy J. He has so many amazing unreleased club tracks that are very in line with my style that I take huge inspiration from.

Lastly I take a big influence from artists such as Kiasmos and Moderat. The atmosphere and melodies are incredible.

What was the last album that you downloaded/bought?

I’m always buying new music for my live sets and DJ mixes. Ric Niels just put out a really nice EP, Matter & GMJ just dropped a really good 3 track EP on Meanwhile Recordings, and Mike Rish just released a massive EP on Lost & Found which I recently bought as well. These DJ’s are actually friends of mine, but I think it’s very important to help these artists by buying their tracks, even if they are happy to send it to me for free.

What is your current production and DJ set up like?

My current set up is still a work in progress as I just moved to Berlin last week! I have been traveling for the past 2 years and have not had an actual studio in about that time. I’m very excited to have my own studio again! Although, at the moment I need to rebuild, so I am buying new monitors, desk, sound absorption, etc. But, I do have a Subpac which I use with my Beyer Dynamic DT770’s for mixing at the moment. I highly recommend both!

For DJ’ing I just use CDJs, nothing outside the box (yet).

What releases do you have on the horizon?

I actually released a ton of music last year, so this year I’m slowing down my releases a bit and only focusing on releasing higher quality music. I have a couple remixes in the pipeline, and about 6 original tracks that I’m sending around at the moment. So if they get picked up, they’ll probably be out at the end of the year.

Where can we hear you perform?

I’m playing in Barcelona at the end of the month with Marsii, Cedren & Manu-l, Roxanne, and Deeztwo. I do have a mix series on Proton Radio where I release mixes every 4-6 weeks, usually.

Tell us more about the podcast you made for Balance?

I actually recorded this mix with a laptop because I don’t have any gear with me in Berlin, yet. Believe it or not, it’s not that easy to mix a 2 hour mix with only a single mouse! Since I consider this mix to be a special one for me, I wanted to include something special so I made an intro edit of one of my most prolific tracks ‘Hallstatt’. I also made sure to include some new never before heard music for this mix.

My Recommendations

The top track in my DJ wallet currently is:

I’ve included this track in mix, it is one of my favourites right now! Second Sine – Motor City (Sebastian Haas Remix)

If I could recommend only one of my tracks for you to listen to it would be:

My remix of Anton MAKe – Arepo is one of my most popular tracks, so I’ll choose that one! Anton MAKe – Arepo (Dowden Remix)

If I could recommend only one track for you to listen to it would be:

Leonard Cohen – Hallelujah, but the Pentatonix version. I’m by no means religious, but this song is so incredibly beautiful, especially with the harmonies in the Pentatonix version. Instant chills everytime!