Ep. 8: Eliot Lipp | The Danger Den Podcast w/ Danger Foley @SXSW

In this episode of The Danger Den Podcast, host Danger Foley sits down with electronic music producer and synth wizard Eliot Lipp, whose genre-blending career spans over two decades and dozens of boundary-pushing releases.

From the early days of MySpace buzz to touring alongside Pretty Lights, Eliot opens up about what it takes to stay creatively aligned in an industry built on constant change. With roots in hip-hop, soul, and analog synths, his music has always defied easy labels—just like his path as an independent artist.

This conversation is honest, grounded, and full of insights for any creative navigating their own evolution.

In this episode, we talk about:
– Finding your voice as an artist without chasing trends
– Why long-term careers are built on curiosity, not algorithms
– Lessons from the Pretty Lights tour days
– How Eliot balances underground respect with mainstream reach
– The realities of staying independent in 2024

Whether you’re a producer, musician, or creative of any kind, Eliot’s perspective will leave you inspired to stay true to your work—and your process.

Listen now + watch the full episode on YouTube.

 Learn more about Eliot Lipp:
Website: eliotlipp.com
IG: @eliotlipp
Bandcamp: eliotlipp.bandcamp.com

Connect with The Danger Den:
Website: https://www.thedangerden.com
Instagram: @dangerdenco
YouTube: @TheDangerDenCO

Transcript

0:04

I am Danger Foley. Welcome back to the Danger Den podcast at the Danger Den house here in Austin, Texas. We're here for South by Southwest, and I am joined by Eliot Lipp. Eliot is from Brooklyn, and he is an extremely talented producer, Dj. Thank you. Visual artist, lots of stuff. So musician and always you've been playing here down at South By. You played a couple shows. What have you been up to this week. Wednesday I played at voodoo room, with Vince. There's a wobble. Wednesday is what it's called. Yeah, it's been going on for, like, I think eight years or something. Have you caught it more than once? No. This is my first time playing, and I've been friends with the promoter for a long time and he's always talking about having me play it, but it's all it's usually dubstep Djs so it was I played an hour of dubstep, which I never play dubstep, but it was so much fun. What would you say that you usually play? I usually lately I've been playing house. So I've always had a mix of like bass music, downtempo beats, hip hop, and more recently I've been getting more into house music, so. Got it. And so this was dubstep. This was dubstep, which is extremely easy to play. The songs all fit together. So like it's just like. Legos. I was at 140 bpm the entire set. I didn't touch the tempo. Do you usually vary a lot? Oh yeah, I'm always all over the place. What is what's your range? Honestly, from like 80? No way. 90 when I'm doing beats right? Right. But also sometimes drum and bass. Sometimes drum and bass tracks. It’s cut in half. They get clocked at 80, but they are really 160. Yeah, for sure. Do you know how you have those days where you have motivation, you have energy, but you don't have like creative burst. So that just like a day where you go through your Rekordbox or a day where you go through and do the bullshit stuff that's like. Refiling. Yeah. So that's what it feels like for me is like, I'm like, all I have, all this energy, but I'm, I know I'm not going to be able to like, write today. So that's when I go in and do the the tech gear stuff. There's always something to do. Yeah, always. So we were looking at your Rekordbox a little bit earlier. And you said that you still get a little bit of imposter syndrome when you're talking about Djing, even though I caught your set the other night and even in dubstep which isn't your main genre. Sick as hell. So cool. Thank you. So Djing is a newer endeavor for you compared to sound production and design or like? It's not, I don't know, it's not newer. It always feels new to me because there's always you know, when I first started Djing, I was playing records. I was playing vinyl on two turntables, and that was like 20 something years ago. I would do that at parties. I would do it around the house. But then once I started playing shows, I had a laptop and Midi controllers and synths and drum machines and samplers, and I was doing more of a live production, and that's what I did for years and years and years. It's only been the last like four years or so that I'm doing cDjs at every, every time I'm playing, it's all, cDjs. And is that just for ease of having a backline that people actually can source. That’s a good thing about it. Santa’s sack behind you everywhere you go? Well, I do still bring I'll still bring something. I'll have a little something in my backpack. A little something? Yeah. A little something something? A little MPC or whatever. What's your favorite to travel with? The synth. The electron syntact. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a drum machine slash synthesizer with a sequencer. And you can save. Do a lot of different stuff. Stems and loops. You can even play it. I mean, there's little buttons that are like act as a keyboard so you can even play keys on it. Do you do that? Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. And it's a tiny little guy that you can just bring with you. Yeah. That’s my favorite lately. Yeah. How often does that change in terms of your little travel buddy. Every few months I’ll have a different. Really. Yeah I'm always buying gear. Yeah. No, it is a, full on lifestyle. To have so much invested into the toys that make the sound. and all the technology and all the advances, I think it's great. Like I think being able to like sync, sync everything up on 3000s and and having like the newer mixers that are coming out, I think it's dope. I just I'm a little slow getting to master that stuff. It always takes me a little while, like. Well once you learn the gear that makes your show go on, you know what I mean? Yeah. Like it's hard. I've talked to a lot of Djs who still want to play only on the 2000s or who want to only play on a certain mixer. That’s so weird, the 2000s. Right? Right. Well, it’s because. I have 2000s at my house and I've been like, meaning to get 3000s so that I can practice on. Right? I just want to be able to practice on what I'm going to be playing on in the club. But at the same time, there's still so many clubs when you tour, that only have. Exactly. 2000s. So I'm like, awe thank god I know how to use these though. And so the 2000s are less, of my skill set. I know the 3000 very well, but there is something to be said for if you're going to be playing on a certain piece of gear consistently, that's what you want to be working with. Yeah. So it's hard to upgrade for a lot of the guys who have been in the game for so long, because you're starting from scratch in a lot of different ways, right? So, I mean, keeping up with all of the new tech and all of the new things is a, it's a full time job in itself, but you're talking we talked a little bit about you have some new projects coming up. Yeah, I have a seven inch coming out. What? There's an A side and a B side. There's this label called, Bastard Jazz, Bastard Jazz, and, out of Brooklyn. Okay. They got Sam Obi on there, and then B Bravo a lot of, like, modern funk and kind of almost house stuff. So I had a couple house tunes that I made. I sent them to 5 or 6 different labels, and they were the first ones to get back to me. And I was like, hell yeah, because they I've been a fan of that label for a long time. And so I went down to South Brooklyn and met up with the guys there, and we talked and we just like vibed so well that we decided to do this, as a single. I'm hoping to do more with the label because I'm just such a fan of theirs, but it's very laid back, like belaric, kind of. It's housey, but it's like kind of got this like island groove to it, so. I can't wait to hear it. Yeah. We put a windsurfer on, the cover and then there's, you know, some, like, seashells. Like some yacht rock ish type stuff going on. Yeah it’s like yacht house. Yacht house. It's kind of like that. It's like, electrolite. Cool, it's like Hall and Oates, but with, like, a sick ass. That's what I'm going for. I mean, I've always wanted to make raw, like, gnarlier music, but I might. I'm always. I always move towards, like. Happy, like. Smoothed out. Yeah. Laid back. That's. I feel the same, you know, people, people want that really heavy stuff. And I’m like, you know, I feel like it's nice, easy stuff is kind of what people actually really want and they just don't necessarily know how to say it sometime. Something for every emotion, though, right? Yeah. I mean, I listen to a lot of heavy stuff, but when I go and try to make it, I end up just keep on chipping away at it until it's all. Smooth. Yeah. That's better. Where do you think the style comes from in terms of the type of music that you are drawn to making? Do you think that that has to do with where you are in your life, or just your backbone of who you are as a musician? I think it's a combination of influences and where I'm where I am in my life, I want to make more stuff to play. If I'm, it's like Friday or Saturday night, you want to have some hype shit to play, you know? So I end up if I'm touring a lot or doing a lot of shows I'm making more like that stuff. The first record I dropped after the quarantine was, all like super laid back stuff, because when that's kind of what I do, where I’m just left to my own devices. Yeah. But when I'm making things, thinking about it in a cultural setting or in a nightlife setting, I'm more like, Gets the blood flowing. Yeah. So the and that's been going back and forth since I first started releasing music. So. Just depends on your mindset and the room that you picture playing the song in. Yeah, kind of or sometimes I just will make something thinking of it being on headphones or in the car. Because in the car you have a different type of attention span you know. And that's, that's when I love to listen to music the most too, so. In your car? Do you have good speakers in your car. Just stock. Just stock. Just stock speakers. Yeah. It’s what most people are listening to music in their car in tho. Right, that's another. Yeah. Same with like I'll mix a lot of times on earbuds a little bit just because I'm thinking. Of the earbud experience. A lot of people are going to be hearing this like that, so. Totally. Yeah. The car test has been one of my favorite tests to implement. I didn't know anything before Ryan Nelli came into my life about music production and hearing how different a track can sound in a car versus on speakers, and how fucked, you know what I mean? It's so different, the different sound that can come out on the quality of speakers, the size of speakers. Yeah, like we were saying earlier, that's why I had to start playing AIFs instead of like lower quality shit, because I finally heard it on Nelli's monitors. Because I never have my, Dj gear set up on real studio monitors. I just have some, speakers in my living room that are just like, what I listen to shit on. So they're not dialed in. They're not meant to be, like. Actual testing to see what it sounds like. Right there’s a lot of bass, and they go really loud. So finally hearing it on Nelli's thing, I was like, oh, this sounds like shit. And he's like, yeah, you got to get away from MP3's. And. How long ago was that that you learned that? About a year ago. To the day. Never forget the day that you lost all of the MP3's. Yeah, because we were doing a residency in Denver and so we would I would fly out and we would just jam together, like, the day before and just go back to back. I would learn new stuff every time, for the most part. But that one day. Every day is a new adventure. I know. What are some of the things that, as you see, that was a year ago when you realized that what are some other things that you had to learn the hard way? Oh dear. I read contracts now. Smart guy, smart man. How many of those did you not read before you learned to read them? I learned that the hard way. Can you give us an overview, enough to share what the lesson was about the contract that you learned? Because I'm coming up on some contracts of my own that are scary, but what do you wish you besides reading it? But is it distribution? Is it royalties? Is it? man, I don't think I can say with it. That's fair. Well, and honestly, that is that is the severity of how important it is to read your contracts, because you can get to the point where you can't even talk about it, but protect your music. Big one. Right. Protect your music. Well, you know, it's the fine print because sometimes they'll have this shit where it's like a automatically renews and there's a certain window where if you if you do this, this and this, you can cancel the agreement. Between these few days, I'm dealing with that with BMI. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's kind of some of it. the only times I've had problems with contracts were people that when I look back on it. You knew. I had a bad feeling to begin with. Yeah. So that's another part of it too. You gotta trust your gut. Listen to your gut, especially. Yeah. In the music industry or in the music industry, when it has to do with art and it has to do with something that is creative and intangible in the sense that it's a song like, the art is what we're all in attempt of pursuit of, and there's so much business that goes into it. And I think a lot of creatives don't necessarily have the business forward mindset. Yeah. Where you're like, I need someone to help me. They say I'm talented. I'm just going to work with someone and sign this thing. And then you don't necessarily realize. Yeah that's classic. I mean, like all the most talented people I know, it's like right brain, left brain dead. Seriously, it's like, same with, like, the smartest and most talented people I know are also people that make the worst decisions, but like, they don't make smart choices or they they don't like have they have a lot of like, skills to just look after themselves like normal people do, or not normal, but like. Right. You know. If you're extremely it's almost, the more creative you are. I feel like there's the less business savvy, like personal street smart skills. A lot of times you have and it's like a vulnerability that I think is taken advantage of a lot in the music industry, too. It's yeah, it sucks to take advantage of people that are because they're on this other they're vibrating at this different frequency for a reason, like because that's where they thrive. Zone of geniuses. And you want to you don't want to see those people get pulled out of that and have to come out of that world and down to earth and be like, no, this is. it's so abstract and it's so much more. And that's where I feel like I resonate with those concepts of like imagining the world is just a bunch of people on this planet. You know, I don't really resonate well with the micro politics of all this shit. I that doesn't make as much sense to me. I think it's making a lot less sense to a lot of people. Yeah. And I think that that's kind of why there's so much shift happening right now with just the, the thought process of everything. Because I think the way that we've been doing things for quite a bit of time, because it's kind of dumb, you know, and so thinking about what like just what everything is meant to be about, which for music, it's about the connection and it's about like the actual intention behind it. Are you talking right now, by the way, are you coming up on a tour? No, no, I haven't, I haven't really been touring. I've been doing all weekend dates here and there. No big tour. No big tour? No big tour in the near future at all, that I know of. When do you go back up to Brooklyn? Sunday morning at 7 a.m.. I'm going to take over from the club to the airport. Nice, so rock and roll. I did that last time I was out here too. And then you got some time to recover? I do. What is your balance look like in terms of how often are you sending it into the wee hours, and how often are you balancing out the other side and eating well, getting sleep? Usually once a week I'll have an all nighter or I'll have like I'll go super hard at least one, but I used to be able to do it a lot more. But as I get older, I have to sleep, I have to recover. Feel that man. So, I think I can handle about one of those a week these days. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's still pretty good. But I work every day. Like, even when I don't feel like working on stuff, if I have time and I have a chance, I'll work, you know, on music in some way or another for, for a bit every single day, because I feel like it keeps my chops up. For sure. What's your favorite way to work on music? I'm assuming it's not organizing Rekordbox setting cue points. I think when I love when I just have a whole bunch of samplers and drum machines and syths all Midid plugged into each other, and you like, hit play on one box and everything starts going, I mean, that's that's what I have the most fun. But I don't think that's what I think. I make the best music when I'm in the when I'm editing what I just recorded, because it's those choices that are putting the song together. When I'm jamming, I'll go for like an hour. Just making noise. Throw in ingredients and seeing what works, and then once it's finally time to bake whatever you have that's. Yeah. When it's exciting. It's there's so many parallels to cooking and making, making beats. It's like. Big time. It makes sense. Yeah. Especially like I think it was Risa or somebody was. I think there's some producer was talking about how in the kitchen you smell each of the ingredients by themselves, like the onion and tomatoes and and each part of it. And then at the end you have the sauce or the dish, and it's all comes together like a symphony. But the fact that the producer is so familiar with every ingredient on its own, like, I think that's really interesting. Yeah, for sure. It's also like painting because I do. Colors. I paint a lot. Yeah. Oh, you do?! All the layers and the colors. Yeah. I went to school for I was, I was going to be, a painter. That's why I want to. Wow. Yeah, I was gonna be an artist. But in the middle of art school, I started making music more and more and more and then. Just took off. Yeah. Took a detour. Yeah. Good choice. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, because I think it might have been a little more difficult to make it in the art world than it was in music. I mean, music's pretty tough too. That's true. And especially in Brooklyn. Well, I feel like it's easier in New York because there's so much going on. That's true. I mean, there's more competition, but there's more action because I did live here in Austin for I lived here for like a year and a half, and it was kind of a struggle. I mean, because I was just trying to Dj all the time, and it was like, there's only so many people here once they saw you Dj on Thursday, I don't want to come back Friday. So I was like kind of like squeezing and there's no juice left. And I was like, I gotta go back to New York. You're happier there. It feels like a good move. Yeah, I've been or I've been I've been there 20 years off and on. And I think that's. That feels more like home to me than anywhere else. For sure. Do you feel more inspired? But when there are other people around you doing crazy similar things? I feel like Brooklyn is especially potent in terms of the spice of music there too. Yeah. Yeah. I feel inspired just by the energy of the city and all the, you know, it's chaotic and, and and it can feel like a little overwhelming sometimes. But that's like I feel stimulated origin. It’s part of it. Yeah. For sure. It takes a certain mentality and brain type to live in New York full time. I don't know if I could do it. It's like it might be a little much for me. It's real polarizing. I've a lot of my friends that have come out to visit, they either love it or hate it. What do you think it is about that? Just the intensity of it. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's like you either feed off that energy or you're like repelled by it. it's it's depleting. For sure. So you said you're doing a bunch of weekend trips right now. Any more plans to come out to Denver or to do collaborations with the Denver guys. Well yeah, my Michael Menert and I have a handful of tracks that we've been meaning to work on together for a couple of years now. We started, when he actually when he was living in California. So at some point. One of these days. Michael and I are going finish our project together. And then Max Moore, who is another artist who's gonna be playing here day after Tomorrow. He has a record that I'm going to put it out on my label in, September. Congrats, that’s exciting. I have a label, it’s called Old Tacoma Records. I put out I started it just to put out my own music, but over the years, I've put out a lot of other my friends stuff, too. And Mux is going to be the one in, September. Congrats. That's amazing. I'm stoked. He's one of my favorite producers. Really? What about him? You can all hear one of his tracks before I know who made it, I’ll know it’s his. Like you could blind me, and play something I’ve never heard by him. His signature style? His drum programing. There's a there's like A behind the beat like a swag to it. It's just kind of. His. A little bit leaning back and in his own way. Cool. And it's electronic. It's very electronic Sounds like techno. It sounds like a techno producer that made hip hop beats basically. Cool. Yeah, it sounds super unique. It is. And so what is the connection with him? So he's playing the day after tomorrow. You're working together now? Is that what you said? Well we've yeah we have, we have a couple of songs we're working on together. We've done remixes for each other but not much like co-produced stuff. That's a little harder. I don't do that, I don't know, I don't do that well with it. Do you, do you collaborate with, with people? I haven't done like a full collaboration with another producer where we've been sending stems back and forth and working on things that seems like it would take double, at least, at least the amount of time to try and work with someone with their schedule and have them have it be a project that you're both working on. Maybe it's possible having Nelli down the street is fantastic. For, you know, the bigger sound engineer, heavy lifting things. But, I haven't gotten there yet. You said it's pretty hard? Some, it's easy with me for certain. Like I there's a producer named blockhead from New York. Him and I have three albums under the name Lipp Head. Well, the third one's coming. We have two of them out. The third one's on the way. But him and I work, like, really fast. We get in the studio together and just like, bam, bam, bam, because we have very similar styles of how we produce. And finding that compatibility is so important too. Yeah. You really love the style of a producer and just not have that flow where it makes sense to work together, too. Yeah, but this one is working well. Him and I work well. some producers I can work well with and some we just never finish anything, And it's funny because I think sometimes because there's two of you, sometimes it'll take half the time and then sometimes, like you said, it'll take twice as much time. So. Yeah. How many projects do you have unfinished. Oh hard drives full. I've terabytes of unfinished projects. For real? Yeah. What's the difference between those and the ones that have come out. They're just some of them are just loops. Just be like drums and a baseline and a couple of ideas. Scraps. Fabric scraps. Right. And you I always even when they're like a full three minutes long with, you know, intros and a hook and a beginning, middle and end. It's still. And if it hasn't been brought to life yet, like there isn't a there, if there isn't a part of the song that makes me feel like. Worth pursuing right then. Yeah. Yeah. Or that has a mood to it, like or it takes you to like another place or captures a space or a feeling. If it's not there, I just I'll keep coming back to it and chipping away at it. But like because there's some sometimes I'll have a song that I'm chipping away at, like coming back to you for years and then it'll finally come out. It will. Some of them. Really. Yeah, most of my records, a lot of them. I'll sit down and just make a bunch of new stuff and that'll be what comes out. But I'm always going through old drives looking for material. The old idea is to steal from, to update and put into. The new. Yeah. Do you ever recycle things that have come out and just reuse those? Not really. No, no. You let you let it. Yeah. Be what it was and move on to the new ones. For the most part I'm sure there's been a couple times where I've used the same sample, but I'll pitch it different or. Totally. Yeah, that's the point, right? Yeah. Make it different. Seriously, if you're going to release a new one. And then so you have terabytes full of fabric scraps that will call them probably some a lot more finished than others. Is the tendency to go back and pull from the scraps or if you want to make something new, do you find that you just ignore that and just start from scratch? I start from scratch a lot I'll start a new, because I'm always like wanting just to explore, like one idea. So I'll have an idea for a bassline or something. So I'll make just a quick sketch of what drums that bassline would sound good with. Or sometimes I'll just grab samples. I was just going to say, do you use a lot of samples? Yeah, that's that's what I, that's what I love having sample packs for and and making all that stuff pre, you know like production session so that when I do need to I have a quick idea and I need to throw it together like what would this sound like in a full song? I'll just I get to like put those together like real quick. But then it's always fine tuning everything afterwards. Like, yeah, if I find out it does work, then I go, okay, these aren't the drums. I need to remake this drum beat with specific sounds and all that. And, yeah, that, I think, is where my skill level is falling short. It's. I have the rough sketches of them and I have the drum, that wanted to sound like a very distant cousin, but it's in the same family. And then not having the skill set to actually make the version that I want or find it, you know what I mean? Right. And so it's never going to hit the way that I needed to, just as is. So that's where like the collaboration comes in. And also the education and everything like that. Do you ever take a track fully through from idea all the way to mastering and release just you or do you. Oh yeah. Oh, you do? Most of it. Most of it is just you. Yeah. That's helpful for. Oh not Matt. Well, that's not true. The production, the. Yeah. Like the writing and recording and that's, that's usually just me. But I have had, mixing engineers mix albums, and I've almost always have a mastering engineer. Yeah. Big difference. Yeah. Because I can master a track, but when it's my own track, I feel like. Too close to home. It's too close to home. Totally, can't quite get the full vantage point of it. For new producers and new Djs who are trying to figure out what their sound is, how did you figure out what your sound was? One thing that happened was like, when I first started, I was sampling a lot of records, and so that had me like digging through, like going to record shops and listening to old records or listening to more and more music got me to understand other styles of music. it opened me up to like, what's possible. Right? Because, if you're just starting out and there's, you only have a handful of, influences, it can be, I don't know, I feel like it can feel limiting. Totally. And then when you you only know salt and pepper exist, those are the only spices you're going to use. Exactly. Totally. Missing a lot. Yeah. So just listening to all different styles of music I think is one thing I'd recommend. I don't know, maybe I think collaborating too work with your friends, like if you have other friends that are doing music, even if it's not the same style or it's like not the same process, it's still like music’s, music. Music is music. You now. Yeah. And the different types and genres that can blend together can give you something that no one else has ever even heard of. Exactly. Yeah. For sure. Is there anything that you like to do before your shows that allows you to be in the best headspace possible? Oh, absolutely. Caffeine. Caffeine, caffeine and good vibes. But you like hanging out with people before you go on. No, I don't, I really like. Yeah I've always said, I've always said i wish there was a room in the venue where you could just sit and chill and collect your thoughts. The green room is always filled with the promoter’s friends and all these people you never met before and trying to talk to you about some bullshit. And you're like. I need to chill. I’m always like, focused thinking about, like, what songs am I going to play? Where am I going to open with? And then I get like major anxiety when I'm trying to, no, no, definitely try to be alone. And a good amount, of, of espresso. It's a solid cocktail. Also, I have this weird thing too, where I won’t, at a certain point, up to where I'm about to go play. I won't wash my hands. I need my hands to be a little clammy and sticky because I. Gotta get that cue button? Well, I've had where I wash my hands and run up on stage and I'm slipping right off the knob. So I notice there's one thing I was like, that's that is a weird, like, superstitious thing of mine before I go on stage, I warn myself, wash my hands. Keep them sticky. Sticky fingers. Sticky and stanky. Stick, hell yeah, brother. Cheers. So make sure if you want to shake his hand, you do it either an hour before the show or. Just give me a dap. Immediately after the show. Eliot, it's been such a pleasure chatting with you. Thank you so much for sharing. Thanks for having me. Just all of the things that go on in your brain from the music perspective. We didn't even get to touch on your visual artistry, but we can save that for a part two. Okay, yeah, we'll do it. Seriously, we know you got places to be, but we're so grateful that you came by the Den. And hopefully we will get a chance to catch you in Denver and beyond coming up. So. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for being here, man. Appreciate you. Cheers. Cheers.