Pig&Dan have been in the music industry for quite a long time.
And over the past two decades, their sound and the music they’ve been playing have morphed and evolved just as much as the industry has itself. This creates a trap that the majority of producers, DJs, and musicians can never navigate; where they failed to adapt to change.
But change is inevitable and necessary if you plan on creating a lasting career for yourself in music. So to celebrate the release of their 20th-anniversary album, we thought there was no better time than now to chat about Pig&Dan’s changing sound, how they embraced evolution, and what it takes to build a sustainable artist project.
Stream Pig&Dan’s 20th Anniversary Album Project Below
The album delivers some of the duo’s most iconic records to date, spanning multiple genres and the many different interactions that have defined their ever-change sound over the past two decades.
Not only is the album a remarkable opus of intelligent and cutting-edge dance music, it’s also a priceless reflection of what it takes to make a lasting career in the music industry. Listening to the world from start to finish, you see new levels of polish, added layers of maturity, and new steps toward mastery upon each new release.
“It’s almost hard to take in that we are already celebrating a 20-year milestone of producing and performing together. To mark this epic pillar in our musical career, we’ve produced a 20-track Techno long-player where we’ve devoted ourselves to pushing our envelope and blurring the lines of the genre… For us, this is more of a statement than an album, hence the fact there’s a track that represents every year on this journey.” – Pig&Dan
Purchase The Album Here
How has your own sound changed throughout the course of your career?
We would like to think that it has matured in some ways and that our desire to spread our musical wings has grown greatly over the past two decades. We have always strived to do what we do because we want to play it out and have never really looked or paid attention to the trends that came and went during those periods.
We’ve delved into so many cross-genre projects that we feel it’s safe to say diversity is very much part of our signature. We’ve moved from what some would call “progressive” to the techno of all sorts. On top of that, we also now have two downtempo albums under our belt. We are prolific, and we dare to push our envelope sonically.
What has your changing sound taught you about yourself?
We believe it’s made us more confident in a humble way.
We’ve very much stayed true to ourselves and remained the “real deal” if that makes sense. Some could consider this as selfish – which in a way it is because many creators will concentrate on satisfying label bosses and design music accordingly to try to accomplish being on a specific label with a specific sound.
We’ve never really been that way. Some people state that our Drumcode releases, for example, don’t really fit the exact same line, or are less generic than other releases on that specific label.
That’s pure because they were Pig&Dan records that Adam signed and supported, but we never tried to create a Drumcode record, we just made music that fitted in there.
Can an artist have a life-long career without ever evolving?
I would say yes and no.
Some people want to hear the same predictable productions time after time, however, the people we admire constantly reinvent themselves; they push their envelope and strive to blow us away. It’s totally down to taste, and who are we to say either way?
Music is an extremely personal art form and evolving can be perceived on so many different levels. It’s a very hard question to answer because we can’t answer for everyone, only ourselves.
Why are some artists so resistant to change?
A lot of artists are safe and feel that if it’s not broken then why fix it.
I would like to think that we don’t fall into that category, but it’s one of those things that can be hard to recognize in the actual moment. I guess what’s really important is to stay reflective on where you’ve been and push yourself towards the direction you wish to go with your career and music.
This is the best way to ensure things constantly keep moving and your sound keeps evolving because the moment you feel safe…you’re in trouble.
What are three small things artists can do every day to actively push their sound in new directions?
Be persistent, true to yourself, and willing to experiment.
We are 1000% experimentalists and I think sprinkling your own touch into anything is a total necessity if you want to build yourself and your identity. Being unique won’t come from using presets and trying to sound like somebody else.
Anyone can cook decent pasta but to make it yours is how you spice it. What is it that you bring to the table that others haven’t done previously? There are only 12 notes out there to play with so push yourself by learning every single day. T
That often involves tons of what some would call “errors”, but really they’re just stepping stones to making yourself more you!!
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
