In the wake of the Worlds Remixed EP announcement, Billboard’s Steve Baltin caught up with Porter Robinson to discuss a range of topics, from crowd reactions to festival safety, and of course, the new album. After suffering a few unexpected delays, we’ll finally be able to sink our teeth into Worlds Remixed on October 2nd.
Though he called the genius behind Jack Ü’s collaboration with Bieber, don’t expect a pop-star feature from Porter anytime soon, as he’s got a thousand other things on his mind. Amongst his answers, we get a sense for what he’s really striving for with his work. Time and time again, we’re astounded by Porter’s work ethic and his responses to the more difficult questions facing electronic music. Head over to Billboard for the full interview, and read on for some of the highlights.
You did a lot of festivals this year and you’ve had some amazing crowd responses. What have been some of your favorite reactions from the audiences?
“It goes above and beyond what my expectations were. I want the feeling to be, generally, this emotional thing that is touching. But I know people who don’t cry when actual tragedies happen in their lives and it just blows me away to see people crying. That’s as much as I can say about it.”
The remix album has been delayed a couple of times. Why the delays?
“One of the remixers dropped out, but we have a replacement and it’s actually someone who I’m really excited about. I think it’s great to put the album in front of people again and remind people about some of these songs and to get to showcase a bunch of artists who I’m enthusiastic about. That’s the best, and also I just like associating myself with things I think are good and to be able to take a list of my favorite musicians and say, “Hey, do something that is slightly collaborative,” that is so great.”
As someone who plays these festivals, do you have any thoughts on what can be done to make them safer or make the mainstream feel better about them?
“These are supposed to be celebrations. The last thing you want is people who are dying — that’s unthinkable. I just want the truth about it, because if the reality is that electronic music festivals are significantly more dangerous than other festivals, then something should be done about it, and that warrants conversation. But it definitely bothers me these kinds of decisions are being made on reputation alone.”
You and I once discussed Skrillex’s collaboration with Justin Bieber and how you thought that was brave. Would you do any collaborations in the pop world?
“I’ve got a hundred thousand things on my mind that are taking precedence over trying to make pop collaborations. It might be interesting to people to say that I would do something with Taylor Swift, but the reality is, it’s so not on my list of things to do.”
H/T Billboard
