In pictures: Dada Life's Stockholm studio
Intro
The extrovert Swedish duo have been bashing out their tough electro house sound for years and have added their eccentric touch to a multitude of big name remixes. We decided to head to their bunker for some bananas and Champagne.
On the surface, these fun-loving Swedes project a less-than serious producer image of crazy fun and endless good times. Don't get us wrong though, this is very much an accurate depiction. But, the combined knowledge and experience of Stefan Engblom and Olle Corneer is exactly what enables them to be slightly more fancy-free in the studio.
With time spent producing hits for Japanese boy bands and side projects for TV and film, the Dada boys seem to have done it all. But it's the furious rip-roaring sound of electro house that really gets their bananas peeling, and it's that reason exactly that we dropped in to see them.
Their studio is based out of two adjacent rooms, where the boys previously worked within their separate aliases – mostly they work together in Stefan's room once a track is coming together, but separate rooms mean parallel projects and the freedom to pursue ideas separately. After stealing a few cookies from the kitchen, we bribe Dada Life with more chocolate and get given the tour.
Olle's Studio
Olle Corneer's studio has the epic Event Opals for monitoring and mirrors Engblom's studio in terms of software and plug-ins.
Monitoring with Olle
Olle Corneer: “I have the Event Opal’s in here and there’s the Bearfoot monitors and the NS10s and others in Stefan’s room.
"Basically, as well as playing the tracks out, we get to listen to our mixes on loads of different sets before we decide on the final mix.”
Akai MPD32
Olle Corneer: “We used to use this loads for the live shows and it’s built pretty well considering the abuse it got!”
Stefan's Studio
Multiple monitors, and a frequency analyser all lurk in Engblom's studio as this is generally where the final mixdown take place.
Monitoring
Stefan Engblom: “I’ve had these speakers for 11 years and they sound really bad, but I know them so well I keep them to final check, just in case I need them.”
Freqency analyser
Stefan Engblom: “This shows the frequencies and means that we can see and reference tracks and where they’re peaking in the frequency spectrum.”
Roland XP-80
Stefan Engblom: “This used to be quite a cool keyboard for making Pop stuff, but we use it as a MIDI keyboard now.”
Outboard
Stefan Engblom: “We bought these with the idea that we’re going to run everything through these cool EQs and such. We thought it’s going to be so awesome and so fat.
"But it ended up being too much of a hassle really and we never use them.”
Sausage Fattener
Stefan Engblom: “The reason we came up with our own effect was because we have this method of stacking many compressors, EQs, and such on a channel.
"The Sausage Fattener is basically like this in the background but with a really simple interface.”
Don't be serious
Stefan Engblom: “A lot of dance music has been too serious for too long, and now it seems that it’s become much more playful. You can throw together loads of different styles and play around without taking it so seriously.
"I have to say I hate those overly minimal Techno guys that are so serious about things that they could shit themselves and they wouldn’t even notice. They don’t seem to have any fun at all, but I love the music that they make. Why don’t they have fun with it?”
