"Winona was made 100% in-the-box": DJ Boring on the making of his breakout lo-fi house hit

If you’re an electronic music fan that spends any time on YouTube, you’ve most likely been served up a recommendation for DJ BORING’s Winona.

This dreamy lo-fi house cut, named after its sample of an interview with actress Winona Ryder, became an underground hit back in 2016, making DJ BORING - also known as Tristan Hallis - a perpetual fixture in everybody’s sidebar and placing him at the forefront of a new wave of house producers that conjured big feelings out of low bit-rates.

In the years that followed, Hallis’ transition from bedroom producer to globe-trotting DJ has inspired a shift from introspection to euphoria, expanding the scope of his sound beyond the lo-fi aesthetic and towards hands-in-the-air bangers that’ll move a crowded dance floor, without sacrificing the emotion and subtlety of his early tunes.

This summer, Hallis put together a genre-spanning mix for the venerable DJ-Kicks series that features exclusive tracks from his friends and collaborators and two new cuts from the man himself: N15 and You Luv Me. We sat down with DJ BORING in his London-based studio space to find out more about the mix, his favourite synths and how You Luv Me was made.

What were you aiming for with the DJ-Kicks mix?

“I went back and thought about all the DJ-Kicks mixes that I've ever listened to: Moodymann, Motor City Drum Ensemble... all of them had this progression from at-home listening to club music. I knew that I had to rethink and go back to the drawing board of how I wanted to portray that mix.

“I did it in the way that I see my day: I listen to ambient music, get myself into the mood, then listen to a bit of jazz, a bit of house music, then techno and trance… that is exactly how I portrayed that in the mix.”

Tell us about the new tracks you recorded for the release.

“The inspiration for You Luv Me was a homage to 2006-2008 electro music from Australia. Ministry of Sound’s The Annual was a huge inspiration. A bit of Daft Punk which I really loved, and I haven't been able to quite portray yet in a way that is still very me. That was the first track that I felt very happy that it sounds how I wanted a track to sound. I really, really love how You Luv Me turned out.

“The inspiration for N15 was where we are right now: my studio is in Tottenham, and the postcode is N15. It's quite rough around here, there’s an industrial vibe. I wanted it to be very punchy, quite speed-garagey, but still to always revert back to me, because I don't want songs to not really sound like me. I want someone to hear it and say, I can hear that’s DJ Boring.”

Did you experiment with any new techniques or tools on these tracks?

“There was a lot of experimentation with You Luv Me. I was learning to really widen my music. I used a lot of effects on vocals and vocal techniques that I've never really done before. I'm not really known to have vocals in tracks. This was a great example of me trying to do something that isn't like a vocal house hit or something, but more just me playing around with vocals.

“N15 is a completely different style of music making for me. So both the tracks had a lot of new ways of me producing, which I'm not really familiar with. And even just before we spoke, when I was having a look at the projects, I've kind of forgotten how I've even made a lot of them - I want to learn how I did that again.”

What kind of set-up were you working with when you made Winona?

“I didn't have a studio. I didn't really have the money to buy any kit. The only bit of kit that I had just before Winona was the Microkorg, and even then I didn't use it. I just bought it and then got rid of it. Winona was made 100% in-the-box, but I don't know how I could even do that today. Everything in-the-box kind of scares me. I like everything outside. The first bit of kit I got was the TR-8, It's my live drum machine. That’s the only piece of kit that I had at first.”

What is it you prefer about working with hardware as opposed to the computer?

“There’s a sense of realness. Not even just in sound... tweaking the cutoffs on the Prophet, it's real. It's not perfectly blended with automation, you're doing that cutoff yourself. Sometimes I manipulate different sounds live, like the decays on the hi-hats on my drum machines. It just feels like, ‘that's a real song’. I don't think people who only work in-the-box is wrong, but just for me, I just need to have the feeling of turning something, because I perform my music live - that's how I make my music, by performing it live.”

If you could only keep three pieces of gear from your studio, what would they be?

“The first one would definitely be the Prophet. This synth is just so warm and perfect for pads, and there's some great leads on it, which I really love. So this would be number one. Number two, I'm tossing up between either keeping the Moog grandmother or the Novation Peak. Both are my second-favourite synths. The Prophet is my first child and these are my second and third, but they’re twins. [laughs]

“It's hard, they’re both very different synths, but I'd probably stick with the Peak. That was my first synthesizer as DJ Boring that I got, and I love it so much, and to this day, I use it in my live shows, my productions, everything. The third thing that I'd keep is my Syncussion linked up to my delay pedal. It's how I make a lot of grooves and weird sounds and transitions. It's right here with me all the time, so I can't get rid of it. It's those three, but then again, I chose these because I was put on the spot. It might change in like 20 minutes.”

Are you more of a preset-tweaker or someone who likes to design sounds from the ground up?

“Start with a preset and bend it. I know a little bit about synthesis, but not enough for me to really create something from scratch. Software synths I can do a lot better, even though really it’s the same thing, but it's a bit easier. I'll grab a sound from, let's say, the Prophet, and then I'll run it through heaps of effects in-the-box or even out outside. I've got a few reverbs and stuff, but a lot of the processing will be definitely done in my laptop.”

Can you talk us through a production trick or technique that helps to define your sound?

“I’ve got two. It’s not really a technique but more of a signature sound. I always take out the first beat in sections of a track, then come back on the clap, but then bring in a new sound or a little tiny vocal. It will always sound like a song that I've made. Or just before it's about to kick, I'll do no kick, and then come in, I love doing that.

“Also, I'm really into long delays and using delays as a groove. I do that in a lot of tracks, and I will continue doing that. The person who taught me that was Fritz Wentink. They are the best person at doing that kind of stuff, just the delay and the beat on top, it’s incredible. I'm not saying it's my technique, but it is a technique that I'll always do.”

Can you recall a time you’ve had a ‘happy accident’ in the studio?

“When I made Like Water, that track was just initially just a song. It wasn't supposed to be a dance track. And I remember watching a video of the producer of Far East Movement’s Like a G6. He had this bell sound, and then he accidentally dropped it into the bass. That's how they got the iconic bass sound. And I did the same thing, but instead of the bass, I chucked in a kick. There were always high hats and percussion bits, but I put in a kick because I wondered how it would sound. It made the track ten times better. I’ll always now start off by making music that doesn't have a kick and see where it goes.”

Where do you go to find your samples?

“Guy from Disclosure showed me this great website, it's called Samplette . It’s a YouTube randomizer, and you can search different areas, like genres, key, and sub-genres as well, which is super niche. You keep clicking random until you find a sample that you like. I obviously use Splice a lot, but I like to not use a Splice sample in full; I like to chop it up, take a lot of percussion, and then process it myself in a different plugin, or Drum Rack in Ableton.”

Talk us through a few of your favourite plugins.

“I love this new one from Baby Audio and Andrew Huang, which is called Transit.  I use it on all my drums to make these weird transitional sounds where I take the kick out, and then all the high hats will be mashed up and made to sound really weird. I realized that I could put that on vocals, and I've used it on a lot of tracks recently. All the vocals in You Luv Me have Transit on, that’s one of my favourite plugins.

“I got Reason last year - in the VST format, not the DAW - and it's a game-changer. Back when I first got Ableton, I used to ReWire Reason, because I used Reason first as my DAW. I'm happy that I can use Reason and all its sounds again now, which is really great. And now that they have the Reason companion, there's great little synths and patches that people have made. I'm using this one at the moment that’s a Deadmau5 recreation, it's amazing.”

What’s your dream piece of gear, if money was no object?

“If I could choose one piece of kit, it would be an original Wasp. That would be quite cool. I've got the Behringer one, but an original Wasp from the ‘70s would be awesome. I saw one, and it had the craziest sounds, and that's why I bought the Behringer. Then it didn't quite sound the same, and it's still good, and it's great to use.

“Also - it's cheap, and I will buy one soon - but the JP–8080, it's an old classic trance synth from Roland that's probably one of the best synths ever. I just haven't bought it yet, but I will buy it. It’s got great big saw vibes. It's amazing.”

DJ-Kicks: DJ BORING is out now.