20 Questions With Loco Dice: ‘These Days We Are Driven by Algorithm, So We’re Kind of Screwed’

Loco Dice materializes on Zoom from his home in Düsseldorf, cheerful, ready for a weekend of shows in Ibiza and Morocco and first ready to discuss his new album.

The characteristically sleek and funky project, Purple Jam, is out tomorrow (May 23) and is the latest in a stacked catalog that extends back more than 20 years. In a way, the project in fact nods to Dice’s legendary status with a list of old school, newer and new school collaborators that include friends like Carl Cox, The Martinez Brothers, Marco Carola, Skrillex and rapper Trinidad James.

Here, the artist born Yassine Ben Achour discusses the project, linking with Skrillex, playing Coachella and influencing new generations of fans and artists.

1. Where are you in the world right now, and what’s the setting like?

Right now I’m at home in Düsseldorf, and it’s just my usual day. I just came from training, and this morning I was listening to music for my label — new demos and promos to play for the weekend. This weekend I will have my All Night Long kickoff party for the season at Pacha Ibiza, then on Saturday I play Caprices festival in Marrakech. And I’m packed already, so I’m perfectly ready.

2. What is the first album or piece of music you bought for yourself, and what was the medium?

The first album I bought for myself — I don’t know if it was a Public Enemy album or if it was an Ice-T album, but the medium was wax. I didn’t have much money, but I could afford that.

3. What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid, and what do they think of what you do for a living?

My father left us when I was very, very young. I don’t know what he was doing. My mom was basically left alone, trying to survive. She was cleaning offices and later worked her way up to be working as a cashier in a big department store.

For a long time I think she thought I was a drug dealer. She didn’t know where the money was coming from. She didn’t believe in music for a very long time, even when she saw my name on posters or flyers. She she’s pretty old school, and she thought it’s not a real job. I grew up in a very rough neighborhood. But I think she started to believe when I had my own private health insurance and could afford to pay my own rent. She was realizing, “OK, he’s on a legit path.” But it took a long time.

4. What is the first non-gear thing you bought for yourself when you started making money as an artist?

The first money I had I spent it on clothes and sneakers. Gear came very late, because my first gear was a turntable, a Technics MK2, which was a ridiculous amount of money, so I had to play a couple of gigs to afford that.

5. If you had to recommend one album for someone looking to get into dance music, what album would you give them?

It’s very difficult to say. I can only say the first thing that really caught me was Basic Channel, a group from Germany. They were doing a kind of dub techno with a lot of dub and reggae elements with the reverbs. That was the thing where I was first understanding the technology behind dance music. Very nerdy, I would say. If we want to stay cool and easy, I would say the first mix compilation by Danny Tenaglia.

6. What is the last song you listen to?

Let me think, because I was listening to a lot of music just now in the car. I think it was something from Lil Baby.

7. How did you link with Skrillex to make “Heavy Heart”?

I was a fan of his music and his sound from the very beginning. I listen to hip-hop, I listen to all kinds of stuff, and when someone comes with electronic music, no matter what type it is, which is interesting and which combines a lot of elements, my ears are like radars. Like, “Wow, wait a minute. What is that? What is he doing?”

So I was really into his stuff, not the mainstreaming stuff, but more the dubstep and experimental stuff he was doing. Then it was during the pandemic, all of a sudden he was standing in my DJ booth at Space Miami, and it was like we had known each other for ages. He knew so much about my music, so much about so much music, so it was super cool to hang out with him. That day we said “We’ve got to do something together.” But it took us quite while until we came together for the album. All the album features are important features for me, because there is a link with everyone. It’s not fabricated.

8. Yeah, everyone on the project feels really authentic to you and who you are and who you’re naturally surrounded by. You’re not trying to create some pop star moment. How did this crew of collaborators come together?

Exactly. Every DJ means something. Sonny was someone from outside the bubble who I always wanted to do a track with. Carl Cox is the DJ I knew from day one. We’ve been DJing back to back and never did a track, so it was about time. The same goes with Marco Carola, a very good friend of mine. Trinidad James is the only one which was a little bit outside, but he was the rapper who always was special. He was not a superstar, but he’s killed it with his own tracks, and he killed it on the on the remix for a for A$AP Ferg, the “Work (Remix).” All the parts were great, but his part was special.

When I was sitting there creating the album, I was not creating it with features in mind. It was first my music. The other features were looped selections that I sent to these particular artists. I was looking on my Whatsapp like, “Who am I communicating with? Who are the ones I always wanted to do something with?” I combined it and everything worked out.

9. Why purple?

Simple! Very easy! When I was in the studio creating music I didn’t think to make an album. Who does an album these days? The kids don’t listen to albums. All this blah, blah, blah in my head. But I wanted to make music that I can play, not music I like. The old Loco Dice [music] is 80% music that’s not focused on “can I play it, or can other DJs play it?” The focus would be more on after hours, or a crescendo track. Mood driven.

This time, I tried working on music I can play no matter if it’s peak time or off time. And I always organize my music in crates through colors. Red is peak time, green is more chunky, blue is more dubby, gray is very artistic, and purple is the vocal tracks. So purple are the tracks that survived all the testing and that are very special. [Through the testing process] I had a bunch of tracks that I knew I could do an album with, and they are the purple tracks.

10. How is the new generation of dance fans and people who consume your music different from generations that have come before?

Without dissing the new generation, let’s say it this way — the new generation has more freedom. They are not tied to “I have to learn what I am dancing to.” Back in the day, it was a religion. You go to the club, you want to know who the DJ is. You want to know his biography. You want to know his discography. You want to know who are the legends, the creators, the origins of house music, what is the connection to funk and soul, Motown and hip-hop.

Today, you don’t need all this, because you’re just free. You just go to dance, to have a good time. There’s so much distraction in your brain, and there’s so much going on in the world. The world is moving fast, faster than ever before, and with the social media it’s very difficult to understand what’s going on. We don’t have record stores anymore. We don’t have music music magazines anymore. With all due respect, we don’t have many music journalists anymore in our scene. So the kids are kind of lonely.

So I cannot expect the new generation — when I play Kevin Saunderson or when I play Jeff Mills — that they know who it is. I don’t want to be that old guy with gray hair and being the teacher with the finger, so I have to adjust myself to the new generation and the situation. It’s freedom. Everything is allowed. Back in the day when you play a Latin vocal track or maybe a Bad Bunny vocal, people will kill you in the comments. Now, times have changed. Nobody kills you. Everything is allowed, everything is possible.

11. So more freedom for them also means more freedom for you?

It’s a good and a sad thing. The people who really like you and are really are into the music, they will get the information; they will dig deep. But the people who just come to consume it, fair enough, consume it.

12. What does success for the album look like to you?

That a lot of people get this album. These days it’s not like you put it in the record store and people know… These days we are driven by algorithm, so we’re kind of screwed. If we are lucky, we get in your “for you” page. If we are not lucky, you find out a year later, or never.

[At live sets] maybe 20% of people know [who I am], but for sure 50% don’t care. They just come because you’re a badass DJ, or because the party is great. So this is the difficulty, and that’s why, when you ask what is success for the album, it’s that everybody gets a chance to listen to and appreciate it.

13. Speaking of badass parties, you played Coachella last month during a b2b with The Martinez Brothers. What are your most vivid memories of that set?

The stage, the intro, everything. I was looking at the boys like, “Hey, we’re gonna have a good time.” And they look at me like, “Yeah, if some people come.” Because the stage was empty. Then seeing all the people storming in and remembering, “We’re at Coachella and people are doing stage hopping.” Then it was massive. It was huge. All the people came, and the smiles came up. It was like, “We’re good.”

14. What are the proudest moments of your career so far?

Inspiring the new kids. When I meet new artists that are already on their peak and hyped… Most of them are shy to come to your party or say hi. It’s not like it used to be. Then when you get to know them and they tell you story… like, Fisher, we had dinner and he told me how he was dancing with his brother on the dance floor during the old Cocoon days and listening to Loco Dice and being inspired. And Fisher is f–king huge now. That makes me proud. I’m like, “Okay, I’m a piece of your success too, b—h!”

15. What are you currently finding the most challenging element of your career?

Finding good music. There’s too much music. I’m flooded with music on WhatsApp, iMessage, Instagram here, there. I can’t follow up anymore. Then you spend like, four hours of your time and don’t find one track. It’s kind of demotivating. Everybody’s trying to do the copy/paste or trying to pick up samples that you played live. It’s devastating. For me this is the most challenging part — finding the right artist, sent to me through the right channel, music that I can play it, release, or just get inspired by to make more music out of it.

16. Are there artists that you want to shout out that are doing things right now that you think are cool?

There’s one guy from Serbia, Mene. He’s on fire. He got badass tracks. There’s another guy from Peru called Sunday Noise. He’s on fire too.

17. What’s been the best business decision you’ve ever made?

Oh, I’m so bad in business. I had a lot of bad business decisions. But the best business decision I made was believing in my feelings, even though I’ve sometimes believed in my feelings but gone the other way, and then I get schooled again to listen to my instincts.

Sometimes you get overshadowed by a lot of people talking, talking, talking: “You should do this, you should do that.” Sometimes your emotions are also low, and you think you have to change. That was always wrong, and the best decisions were always when I knew “I believe in it. It might take a while, but that’s the way.”

18. What’s something you’re proud of?

My career was a lot of ups and downs, but it was solid. I was always there. I survived every hype. This is always my proudest moment when I say, “Okay, I’ve done all these albums, all this music.” It might be not for everyone, but they brought me here. I’m still here. I’m still playing on the big stage. I’m still doing Coachella.

So right now, I’m in a very good state of mind. I’m having the best agency with Wasserman. I have a great new music manager who’s amazing. My team is great. Everybody around me right now is so positive. And I think maybe creating my team, with all the respect to my old teams, was a good business decision.

19. Who’s been your greatest mentor and what’s the best advice they’ve given you?

I was the guy who was always a mentor for other people, but on the street and the way I grew up, I had to lead, and I had to make sure everybody was on the right track. My mom took very good care of me, and she was mentoring me to be a good person, a good boy. She did her best, and I have to thank her for this. So I would say this goes to my mom for just giving me the love and the confidence, to be a confident person in a foreign country, that created who I am now.

Music wise, it’s all the old school cats, all of them. Start from Danny Tenaglia over to Carl Cox, Kevin Saunderson, Mike Banks, Underground Resistance, they’re all my mentors. In hip-hop, it’s the same, Ice-T, Chuck D, Ice Cube, Grandmaster Flash, they’re all my mentors. I was sucking music like no other. Carlos Santana, Frank Sinatra, Bob Marley, Michael Jackson, Prince, these are my musical mentors. Even the new generation guys. You only have to be open minded and open to everything and not be the one who’s like, “Yo, I’m the boss. I know how it works.” I’m not that guy.

20. What’s one piece of advice you’d give to your younger self?

Don’t trust other people too much. Trust yourself. It’s very important. Always be yourself, and don’t give that away. When we start getting famous or hyped, all these managers, agencies, labels, best friends, party friends, they come. I think a mistake every artist has done at one point is giving away [responsibilities.] Letting other people do this or that for you, and you become just the act. No. Be aware, and control everything. It’s the right way.