Sometimes you can see success coming a mile off. It was pretty clear that Mylo’s debut album was going to be a smash and now the man many people are comparing him to looks ready to eclipse that prodigal son. The association isn’t completely unfair – both have as much of a way with melody as they do with club-firing electro beats, both have a dual love of pop and harder dance music and both could charm the birds from the trees.
While the Scot seems to have turned away from the limelight Brighton’s new superstar DJ also already has plans to step into the shadows, producing other people. Burns casually drops the fact that he’s knocked out the opening track on Kelis’ new album into the last few moments of our interview, as if it was the sort of thing one might forget. Still, when we’ve been talking about debut LPs, mix albums and US tours with Deadmau5 and Calvin Harris perhaps it’s no surprise that he didn’t get round to it.
If you haven’t seen Burns play in Brighton – or didn’t even know that he lived here – that’s no big surprise. Recently squeezing in just his second gig since moving down last year, he’s more likely to be found in London or abroad.
“I’ve been really busy since I got here so I haven’t had the chance to explore Brighton as much as I’d want to,” he laments. “But the environment changes you. You’ve got the sea and the beach and it definitely puts you in a better mood than sitting in a room in Stafford does.”
While he’s been pleased to move away from the musical wasteland that is the midlands, being set apart from the rest of the dance music world has worked in Burns’ favour. Being cut off from his peers he had to decide for himself what was cool, what sounded good, what path he should take. The result is a selection of four EPs that sound strangely just like him. It’s not just that balance of toughness and musicality, but there’s an emotional feel somewhere between melancholy and euphoria that he’s made his own. You feel the layers of synths in tracks like the French-sounding ‘EP4’ opener ‘So Many Nights’ while the cut up vocals and loose percussion work on your hips. No wonder it picked up early support from Ed Banger’s DJ Mehdi, who stuck it on the über-cool electro label’s Christmas mixtape. Fred Falke is such a fan that he just had Burns over to his studio to work on some tracks and Burns is heading out on tour across Australia with Surkin. Some pretty cool friends there.
But one new friend above all others looks like pushing Burns to new levels. Finding himself on the same album launch party bill as Burns, Deadmau5 – one of the biggest artists to hit dance music in the last five years – was so impressed by the Brighton dweller that he invited him to open up for him on a month long tour of America, playing to 2,000 to 3,000 people every night. Burns accepted immediately.
“The crowd reactions were amazing over there,” Burns recalls. “In America they aren’t as exposed to the real underground stuff that we are over here. So it’s like playing to fresh ears. It’s good because it feels like you’re opening people’s eyes to the scene. Because me and Deadmau5 had a completely differing style in what we played it worked really well.
Though it happened just last November, Burns is already seeing the fruits of playing a new sound to Deadmau5’s fans.
“I just got back from America this week from touring with Calvin Harris and I noticed a few followers that have come from the Deadmau5 tour,” he smiles. “It’s definitely working out the way I hoped it would.”
Now there’s an understatement. After dropping his forth EP this month the next step is his mix album in early May. Likely to be called simply ‘This Is Burns: The Mixtape’, CD one delivers the sort of set you could expect to hear from him if he wasn’t too busy to play in Brighton, while a second disc shows what he likes to listen to on the rare occasions he finds himself at home alone.
From there it’s the debut album, something that will sound a little different to his dancefloor based EPs.
“It’s becoming more pop with more vocals but hopefully in a cool way,” he says. “It’s definitely a different sound to the EPs – hopefully it sounds refreshing. I’m just trying to do what I feel at the time. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing – it does mean it’s less identifiable. But it’s selfish and for my own enjoyment. I’m hoping that it will help me in making stuff for other people, a realm that I’m just stepping into now.”
Ah, yeah, Kelis. Burns is typically modest about the whole thing.
“I sent her some stuff I had lying around that I wasn’t sure about for my album but she put her vocal on and it sounds really good,” he says. “The main producers are Boys Noize, David Guetta and myself. It’s flattering to be in amongst those big names. I’m excited to be able to go out and buy it in a shop.”
Something tells us he’s going have plenty of opportunity for that sort of retail therapy for many years to come. This star is going to burn brightly.
EP: EP 4 out Mon 12th
TWITTER: @thisisburns
MYSPACE: www.myspace.com/thisisburns
