HS.004 — MABEL

Hi Mabel, to start, can you present yourself in a few words?

Hiii, my name is Mabel and I am a DJ/Producer & Visual Artist from Narrm. Recently I started my label Doglandiya, which is a growing archive of my work and soon will have involvement from more artists who I resonate with. Electronic music was my first love in a way. It’s been a deep passion since I was a young teenager and, similar to visual art, is the best way I feel I express my personality to the world.

Both my art and music translates my affinity with animals and animalistic tendencies, within ourselves and the other animals around us. My dog, Cooper, is my muse and has become the leading symbol in everything I create which is why I reference dogs so frequently.

What was the purpose and idea behind this mix?

I wanted to play a set that accurately soundtracks my ideal place to DJ, the doof. In Australia, the doof is an outdoor festival usually in the middle of nowhere, where people go to escape for a few days and get lost in sound.

My love for deep, energetic, outdoorsy techno has gone all the way back to the start of my DJ career and feels like a true emission of my musical soul. I forever want to soundtrack the outdoors where dancers are free and feral and sound systems are ginormous and godlike. This accumulation of songs transports me there.

What are your main influences at the moment?

I always find myself back where I started, which is minimal techno no matter what. I have a love for a very specific sound within the genre which still has highly groovy and intricate rhythms like house but the sounds used are far more deep, eerie, and dynamic.

Even writing it down it feels hard to explain, but two artists who I have been playing since I was very young are the German duo, Hedström & Pflug. They are great at creating powerful grooves that are still hypnotic without being faded or flat. I often feel this type of techno is a lot harder to find so when I do come across it I get heavily inspired.

As a producer, how do you project into the production process ?

The production process for me is never linear. It kind of ebbs and flows, like sometimes it just comes naturally and I produce multiple songs I’m really happy with but then other times I’m just not feeling super creative and can’t produce anything I like. It’s always good to try something new like get a new plugin or sample pack.

The goal before doing any creative project is to feel inspired. What that looks like for me usually is digging for tunes. I have playlists on various platforms named ‘inspo’ which involves songs that I might not even necessarily like but there will be some rhythm or sound that I really want to replicate. But some days I might have no interest in music at all and instead will paint. It’s great having multiple creative outlets for this reason because there’s always some creative project I can work on when I’m feeling exhausted from the latter.

Do you want to say a few words about your upcoming projects?

Sure! I’m incredibly excited to have the next Doglandiya release (DOG003) coming soon, which will be the first release on the label which isn’t me. I’m so happy to be working with this producer and their music so definitely keep an ear out. I’m also working on a release which is feeling like a great sonic direction for me. That one I don’t have much info on yet but there’s some great potential labels that I’ll be working with. Other than that, I have some amazing gigs lined up for spring so far in Aus. There’s three main festivals I’m playing at alongside a lot of great Narrm locals. I’ll be opening both Mode festivals (Eora & Narrm) and later in the year you can find me at A3 festival. The one I’m looking forward to the most would have to be Zeerust in November, lots of creatives involved in the making of that one.