Feature interview: Dinky’s time is now

Feature interview: Dinky’s time is now

14 October, 2008 | 1.44PM

• Section: Music News Topics: Beatport Blog
• Written by: Lee Smith

Having just released her highly acclaimed album ‘May Be Later’ (listen to it in the player below), we felt it was high time to gather a snapshot of where Dinky is in 2008.

Beatportal’s Lee Smith traveled to the Berlin producer’s studio to gather her thoughts on her musical influences, the American government and the Chilean techno community.

At a time when minimal music is widely accused of being stuck in a creative rut, it’s heartening to find that some producers working with the sound are still capable of creating forward-thinking, carefully-crafted music that’s both sonically innovative and instinctively dancefloor-friendly.

Step forward Santiago de Chile native Alejandra Iglesias, better known by her childhood nickname, Dinky.

Dinky ‘May Be Later’

‘May Be Later’, her new album for the ever-excellent Vakant imprint, is a typically languid, beguiling concoction of fragmented tribal beats and avant-garde flourishes, widely touted as one of the scene’s most important full-lengths this year, and with good reason.

Indeed, it seems that in Vakant, Dinky has at last found the perfect home for her talents.

“I had my album ready and I was a little bit confused about who should handle it to,” says Dinky when we catch up with her at her Berlin studio. “I called Onur Ozer and we made the contact, then I sent the album to Alex [Knoblauch, Vakant’s head honcho]. He loved the album and was interested in releasing it right away.”

Musical roots

Newer Dinky fans may be surprised to learn that ‘May Be Later’ is in fact Dinky’s third album, following the well-received 2001 album ‘Melodias Venenosas’ for Traum and 2003’s ‘Blackcabaret’ on Carpark.

But even before that, Dinky had built up a substantial musical background.

“My mother played instruments and sang,” she wistfully recalls. “We were raised with music instruction; my sister with the guitar, and me through keyboards and classical piano. There was a Yamaha electric organ at home for as long as I can remember.”

It’s commonplace for male DJs to find their first connection to dance music through the classic ‘older brother’ syndrome, but for the young Dinky, the generation-old electronic music discovery story has a slightly different twist.

“Modern electronic music came to me when I was only 12 years old,” she explains. “My sister was going out with Dandy Jack [of Perlon fame], and I was much younger. They were living in Berlin at that time. At a family dinner he gave me a CD and I got instantly hooked on this music. It seemed so futuristic for me, compared to what we had in Chile at that time.

“Thanks to both him and my sister, I would always receive goodies - music from Kraftwerk, DAF, and house tapes from Doctor Motte. And then later on, things like the early Plastikman CD. I was really lucky!”

The Chilean Connection

Nowadays, people frequently talk of the Chilean ‘sound’ – does Dinky think such a thing really exists?

“I think it exists in a way,” she ponders. “We all met, like, 14 years ago in Chile. We would hang in Chile all summer long, make parties, afterhour get togethers, and stuff like that.

“I think we all got inspired a little bit from each other - at least, I know I was inspired by Dandy Jack, Ricardo, Atom Heart and so on.

“I guess Luciano was inspired by them as well, since they were the example, they were making this music before us, and they were a bit older. I learned my first steps in music production from Dandy Jack - again, I was quite lucky.

“So yes, there is something of a Chilean electronic music sound that started around the mid-90s and has developed since. We all have a different style, but it collides at one point - the Latin percussion and the melancholic or moody melody.”

Soon enough, Dinky left her home town for the lights of New York City, where she held a residency alongside another emerging female techno talent – Magda.

However, following the events of 9/11, Dinky found herself a victim of stringent new immigration laws in the US.

“My visa expired, and the government denied me a new one.” Dinky remembers. “To avoid deportation - or stay stuck without being able to get out - I had to leave suddenly.”

Did she feel that she was victimized, or somehow racially discriminated against by the Amercian authorities?

“Well, I’m not sure if it was racism. I did see racism a lot there, though, but in my case, it was not something personal.

“I don’t have resentment or rage against what happened, or any feelings against America - apart from what they did to Chile on September 11, 1973 [the date of Pinochet’s Chilean coup d’etat, which effectively put an end to democracy in the country].”

A move to Berlin quickly followed, and Dinky soon found herself at the forefront of the emerging avant-minimal scene, both as a DJ and producer.

And while it hasn’t all been plain sailing – the collapse of Amato at the end of last year meant that her highly praised mix CD for Crosstown Rebels ended up stuck in an abandoned warehouse – it’s fair to say that the trans-continental move was the best thing that could have happened to her.

Dinky’s time is now

Fast forward to the present, and the gracefully experimental tones of ‘May Be Later’ look set to fully confirm Dinky’s status as one of the most intriguingly talented producers of the moment.

“I have a lot of influence from experimental music, like Aphex Twin, Arthur Russel, Chris Carter, and even performance artists like Laurie Anderson,” Dinky passionately proclaims.

“I do like classic ‘boom boom’ stuff - I mean, I play a lot of that stuff as a DJ - but I’m not sure if I can appreciate that music that much. It’s fun to dance to, but that’s about it.”

Encouragingly, Dinky’s also quick to speak out against those haters who like to whinge about how “boring” everything is.

“Not everything is done yet. That’s just an ignorant statement I hear quite often, actually. The problem is people are lazy, or afraid… they would rather go and just use a preset, or a drum machine, and end up sounding like many other producers.

“I admire music that has a unique feeling, and unique sounds. I know my music won’t suit everyone’s taste, maybe because it has an experimental feel to it, and you really need an ear for that. But at the same time I think that’s exactly the point - I’m not looking to just please the ordinary masses.”

She may not be interested in the masses, but Dinky’s distinctive, creative approach has certainly enamoured her to house and techno connoisseurs across the globe. And who knows, if there were a few more talents like her about, maybe the anti-minimal whingers would have considerably less to moan about.

‘May be Later’?

It seems that for Dinky, the time is most definitely now.

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