Safety Trance and Dorian Electra Are 'On 1'

Finding peace within chaos pairs well with Garbán’s ethos. He’s already made an indelible impression on the electronic music landscape through his dark, ecstatic production. Beginning in Venezuela and now concocting his musical potions in Barcelona — Garbán is well known for his collaborations with Arca, who shares his penchant for alien sonics. With his new song and forthcoming album, he’s sure to continue to explore both beauty and destruction in his singular style.

In the lead-up to their release, Dorian Electra and Garbán spoke about humor, their influences and the joy of their collaboration.

Dorian Electra: Luis, did our collaboration bring out something new in your production style or push you to experiment in ways that you hadn't before?

Safety Trance: Definitely. I remember you saw some things in the song, you came up with some ideas, then after you added, I said, “Wow let's go this route.” We changed the structure and that kind of thing. I always like analyzing stuff, it's a different way of seeing things, I like to learn from other collaborators to process different things.

Dorian: We worked in Barcelona the day before we performed it for the first time at Primavera and I feel like that really shaped how we wrote the song. I was like, let's try to structure it with some repetition, then there's something for people to latch onto that feels more like a traditional chorus, because the song is kind of experimental in a lot of ways. Bringing a slightly more pop structure to it to me just feels right for performing and people latching on to it.

Safety Trance: Yeah, definitely. It was pretty natural — let's try this, and tomorrow we'll see how it goes. And for me it was perfect. I've been playing our song, testing it on different sound systems, and I love to play it.

Dorian: Yeah, same. I've been playing it in my DJ sets recently and it's really fun to see the reactions especially when it's not out yet.

Safety Trance: I’m so excited.

Dorian: And because it's really different from my usual music, when I've played it for some of my fans, they're like, "Wait, this sounds like Dorian, but this is a totally different vibe." So, I think it'll be really fun to release it.”

Safety Trance: Yeah, I think it's going to be a surprise. That's the refreshing thing for me.

Dorian: Definitely. Is there an instrument or sound you always find yourself coming back to? Almost a signature? I feel like you have such a distinct sound where I can hear something and be like, "That is Safety Trance." And I love it when a producer has that. How did you craft that? And what is the sound, without giving away too many secrets?

Safety Trance: I mean my most signature sound is high synths. I really love bright and high synth, really like synthetic. I've been trying to not use this kind of sound all the time, but when I try to use different stuff, it feels a bit empty for me.

Dorian: I’m really curious, what would you say are your biggest influences? Is there a connection with where you come from?

Dorian: That's amazing. Can you tell us more about the specifically Latin American sense of humor? I really relate to a sense of humor in music. It doesn’t have to be laugh out loud funny, but a certain self-awareness is appealing to me.

Safety Trance: People from warm countries, they're always about partying, you can solve everything with partying. It's like you have a problem, let's go party. Everything is about making fun of everything, and this unconsciously is stuck in everything you do. So it's pretty normal and natural for us. Music for me has been about having fun. I try to get into the European seriousness because I have been also working with Cardopusher in more serious genres like postpunk or EVM industrial stuff. With Safety Trance, it’s easy — it’s very honest right now.

Dorian: I love that. I think that the best art always comes from the most authenticity, but not authenticity in a traditional sense of, I have to bear my soul, because that's also a box that then people start to be performative in and try to fit into that. If you want to joke around and that is what makes you happy and you love that, just doing that or if you want whatever it is, being true to yourself always shines through in the music and I think creates the best art.

I want to go back to what you were saying about solving a problem with partying. I feel like when I heard the beat, I was trying to listen like, what is the music telling me? And then how does it make me feel and what can I contribute to it? And I got the sense of partying, but also there's a very dark energy to it. And I thought that was perfect, because it does really tie back into the theme of solving a problem with partying.

And for me, I have been struggling with a lot of anxiety, and just my mind going at a million miles an hour and wanting to find a way to empty my mind there's nothing inside my mind — and that's in the lyrics — but rather than being a Buddhist empty my mind and have pure meditative bliss kind of thing, it's the opposite approach, which is give me the maximalist stimulation around me. Plunge into absolute chaos and in that you can find some respite from the negative spiral of thoughts constantly attacking you.

Safety Trance: With Safety Trance, I wanted to bring a different kind of way of seeing life, like I just don't want my life to end up like this very routine way.

Safety Trance: Definitely. Okay, as someone who constantly pushes boundaries and rebuilds yourself with each project, what drives you to keep taking bold creative risks?

Dorian: I feel like I just kind of get bored easily, honestly. I'm really interested in surprising myself and surprising other people too. I think also once something becomes the expected thing it just gets boring to me. It just doesn't feel like I'm contributing in a substantive way to pushing things forward or switching things up or something. Whether that's the sound of the music, the aesthetic or I don't know. I've tried to reinvent it myself with every album, and it could be to my detriment, because a lot of times people say stick to one thing and make it your thing whether that's your hair color, the way you dress or a sound or whatever, so that you can become recognizable. But I have a really hard time doing that because it starts to feel like I'm just wearing another costume and then it's like I'm putting myself in another box, and it stops feeling authentic to me. I’m also really inspired by the world around me and trying to respond to things I see culturally going on.

Safety Trance: Without really knowing you before, I knew that you were an open person, that through your music you take risks, you have a really wide sound palette, and I was pretty sure we were going to connect pretty well, because I also get bored really quick when I stick to one thing.

Dorian: I had the same conversation with Alex, Boy Noize, who was the person that introduced us, obviously and I had had a conversation about that, too, looking back at both of our careers and obviously his career has been much longer than mine, but thinking about the pros and cons of not just sticking to the one thing even when tons of people around you told you that that's what you should do.

Safety Trance: If you could dive into a completely new genre, maybe something unexpected for Dorian Electra, what would it be?

Dorian: I think it would be fun to write a bunch of piano ballads, because that's really different from anything that I've done. Just really stripped-down music. I think that would be the most unexpected thing, because so much of my production on my music and my vibe is just very maximalist and it would also be really hard for me to do.

Safety Trance: Yeah. For me it would be the same. I would like to try to do something less noisy and chaotic, but even if you only have one piano or one sound for me, I'm struggling with it, it feels like you're naked, you need something else.

Dorian: Your sound is both really dark and raw, but also has this upbeat club energy. And what draws you to that combination in particular?

Safety Trance: I used to listen to hard metal as a kid. And when I discovered Korn, it was like my mind exploded. So, I was really obsessed with this sound. I was really young and really angry and for me it was really easy to write this kind of music — but at the same time I also really like pop stuff. So it's a combination of both worlds I think.

Dorian: I think dark music can be the most healing in a way. If I'm in a bad mood I would prefer, rather than putting on some upbeat songs, one of my favorite albums is Witchcult Today by Electric because I could just put that album on any time. It's doom metal kind of, but really really slow and really sludgy and really meditative in that way. And it's just the most evil-sounding chord progressions. And to me, it's just like you can channel your feelings into that.

And rather than feeling like the bad feelings are attacking you, I'm owning the bad feelings. I'm like, I don't know how to really explain it, but yeah, there's definitely just something that feels very powerful about owning that dark energy rather than letting it own you. People in the medieval era thought that those were demonic sounding and you music has changed throughout history obviously and it's culturally relative, but yeah, there's something about that dark energy that is powerful and I like it especially in a club setting.

Is there anything that you want people to know or feel or experience — or the way that you want them to consume this new single?

Safety Trance: I want everybody to feel free about it. I think this collaboration feels a little bit open because we are bringing together both worlds and I'm really excited about seeing the reaction of people, because I don't think people expect this.

Dorian: And the video, too. I’m also really excited for people to see that.

Photography: Nil Fernandez
Interview questions by Soukita Morgan