Sydney producer Donatachi has spent the past few years perfecting his specific blend of high sheen bubblegum pop, the result is a new body of work, beginning with ‘Do What I Want – an impressive milestone for a young artist with a unique creative vision.
Despite the seemingly saccharine sweet aesthetic, Donatachi’s work has a subversive streak at its core. ‘Do What I Want’ takes ultra synthetic pop aesthetics and re-encodes them as futuristic club oriented music, further destroying the once important line between pop and underground music. Using bubbling percussion, euphoric synth stabs and heavy vocal processing techniques, the song calls to mind the mind bending work of the PC Music label as well as the playful aesthetics of beat makers like Cashmere Cat.
As part of the Sidechains crew, Donatachi aka Doug Simmons has been pushing Australia’s music scene into uncharted territory. Coming off the back of collaborations with Brisbane’s Mallrat and well received remixes, Do ‘What I Want’ has been signed to Etcetc, a promising sign for an artist on the rise.
We asked Doug about his time at Liveschool and what it meant for him:
“This song is the product of years of self-doubt being shaken off with the help and support of friends and creative spaces like Liveschool. Aside from learning how to produce better quality tracks and becoming more confident in my ability, the main thing I took away from my time at Liveschool was confidence in my unique point of view. They really nurture and encourage you finding your own voice and creating your own space. That really helped me take steps towards a project I could be proud of.”
And in even more recent news, Donatachi provided the official remix for Australia’s Eurovision entrant Kate Miller-Heideke – who came a very respectable 9th out of all of Europe. And yes, Australia / Eurovision. It’s a thing.
‘Do What I Want’ (ft Evangeline) is out now through Etcetc.
‘Zero Gravity – Donatachi Remix’ is streaming via Spotify.