It’s been a long time coming for FuntCase and the DPMO family. FuntCase released, DPMO: Vol. 1 back in 2017 and has since released two more mass compilation albums, DPMO: Vol. 2 and DPMO: Vol. 3. All of these compilation albums have been filled with some of dubstep’s most prominent rising stars including Versa, Jkyl & Hyde, Yakz, and many more. FuntCase has continued to grow the DPMO brand by giving young artists a platform to display their talents and has also started a successful clothing line for the brand, however, the brand will no longer be just a brand. FuntCase announced last month on his social media accounts that the brand has now created its own record label, known as DPMO Records.
Alongside the announcement of the new record label, FuntCase recently released an EP with some of the DPMO artists titled, ‘Corruption.’ FuntCase appears on every track and features joint collaborations with Versa, Yakz, Jkyl & Hyde, and Stoned LeveL. The four-track EP is full of heavy hitters from some of bass music’s most prominent rising stars. The announcement of the new record label was backed by FuntCase teaming up with Bassrush to host a DPMO label launch party on Insomniac’s Twitch.TV channel which took place last month.
Additionally, FuntCase and DPMO recently announced their upcoming release which will be a brand new Versa EP that will be available starting January 27. The recent release will only be the second project to be released on the new label. FuntCase and the DPMO family had a tremendous amount of success in 2020 and they are already looking to hit the ground running in 2021. We are extremely excited to see the progression of the newly established record label over the course of this year and are also looking forward to all of DPMO’s upcoming announcements.
We were able to catch up with FuntCase to talk to him about his recent releases, his career, and advice he has for up and coming artists who are trying to break into the industry.
EDM MANIAC: Where does the name FuntCase originate from? Did you come up with it or where did the name, ‘FuntCase’ stem from?
FuntCase: Basically, I was a DNB producer previous to writing dubstep in 2009 and it was kind of a taboo thing to do when you’re a DNB producer at the time, so I wanted to hide who I was from the DNB scene and came up with some jokey names. Unfortunately, FuntCase ended up staying and I’m stuck with it forever!
EDM MANIAC: How about the mask? Have you always worn a mask? Whose idea was that?
FuntCase: Again another accident, a friend of mine saw it in my bag just before I was about to step up at my first ever dubstep set and dared me to wear it and after a lot of convincing, I did. Again, stuck with it!
EDM MANIAC: Does it ever get unbearably hot and sweaty in there?
FuntCase: It does confuse me when people ask that because you can tell I don’t have any room for any kind of cooling in there like deadmau5 haha.
EDM MANIAC: How many different variations of your mask have there been? Can we expect you to change the design anytime soon?
FuntCase: Just 2, we’re at the 2nd variation but that took 10 years for that to change. I hope to change it a bit more often than that to keep it fresh.
EDM MANIAC: Your energy on stage is always insane. What sparks that energy? What brings you the most happiness and energy while performing on stage?
FuntCase: Just my deep desire to do well and entertain people. I’ve always been an entertainer, even back when I was playing in bands as a teenager. Just had this crazy energy on stage to smash it and that’s rolled over onto the FuntCase brand.
EDM MANIAC: How many gun finger movements do you think you average throughout the course of an hour-long set (haha).
FuntCase: Gotta be in the millions surely haha!
EDM MANIAC: What made you want to start making music? What were some initial artists that you looked up to that inspired you to start making music?
FuntCase: Initially, I just made music as a fun thing, was never a planned thing. I started messing around on ‘Music’ on the PlayStation and that evolved to reason. My mum was a DJ for as long as I can remember so that’s definitely got to be a reason
EDM MANIAC: Did you ever think that you would ever start your own record label? Or was that always your plan?
FuntCase: I’ve always wanted to for again, as long as I can remember, but just knowing how much time and effort it takes as well as having to be an artist kind of put me off. We have an amazing team running DPMO now, it isn’t just me doing everything so I’m very blessed.
EDM MANIAC: Obviously, you have been part of Circus Records for some time now but what lead you down the path of starting your own record label? What inspired you to do that?
FuntCase: I have my ear well to the ground of the scene and I see so much talent overlooked. One day I thought, why don’t I just have my own label and release these guys myself rather than push them to other labels to get the benefit!
EDM MANIAC: Can you talk about the transition from being a brand to becoming a record label… What was that journey like for you and DPMO? Can you talk about your initial vision of DPMO? Has the current state of DPMO exceeded your initial expectations? If so, how?
FuntCase: DPMO first and foremost was always going to be a clothing label to begin with but it’s slowly evolved into a more multi-brand now with touring, record label, and more. My initial vision was literally just to have a really cool clothing brand, which has also been a dream of mine but as the cult following of DPMO grew larger with the compilation releases on Circus Records, we saw that we could grow it into my larger vision I’ve always wanted and its evolved into what it is today. More to come though!
EDM MANIAC: Yourself and DPMO just came off a massive week with the Insomniac x Bassrush x DPMO live stream, New EP, announcement of the new DPMO record label, etc… How long did you have to wait to release that information to the public and where do you see DPMO being a year from now?
FuntCase: I’d been sat on the information of various things for a little while now and we’d been talking about DPMO as a record label all year. It’s taken a while to nail everything we wanted to achieve and how to set up DPMO as a label from the get-go as again, it isn’t just me doing it, it’s a whole infrastructured team. A huge thank you to Circus Records who have helped me set this up too though, they’ve been amazing. Hopefully, if COVID-19 has eased off and we’re back touring I’d love to see some Record Label tours or single nights in the works.
EDM MANIAC: What about starting your own record label that has brought you the most joy? Is it giving up and coming artists a platform to showcase their musical talents? What is it?
FuntCase: Just seeing my brand as a whole evolve so well and seeing the dedicated following we have flourished with us, as well as the new people who are discovering us every day. I just want us all to do well!
EDM MANIAC: What do you look for when you are searching through DPMO submissions… Is it anything specific?
FuntCase: NOPE! I get asked this a lot, there are no specifics. Just good music is good music. You don’t have to be a big artist or have a manager or anything like that, just (sorry for the pun) come with the tune haha.
EDM MANIAC: What DPMO submission (besides any VERSA submission haha) left you completely speechless by what you had just heard?
FuntCase: There’s been a few really. Impending Doom when I first signed that blew me away. It didn’t actually sound like the release version when I signed it, the 2nd drop of the original track is what the 1st drop is in the release. Pretty much anything I sign I love like it’s my own child!
EDM MANIAC: What inspired your audio-visual performance at Rampage? Will there be another Funtcase-audiovisual performance in the future?
FuntCase: I definitely hope so, that’s also been a huge goal of mine I’ve always wanted. I have plans for a whole stage show set up and everything so let’s hope we get that in the not too distant future!
EDM MANIAC: What inspired your beautiful track with Dani Poppitt?… That’s not like your typical style. Can you describe what that process was like? How nervous were you to put it out? Were you nervous about the feedback?
FuntCase: This was actually a merge of two different tracks I was making. The intro was just me messing one day writing a poppy emotional style track and the drop was an idea I made stemming from a remix I was finishing, the idea sounded sick while doing the remix but didn’t fit with the remix itself. one day I just got the .wav files of the two ideas and put them together and was like OH wait, these fit perfectly! I then had management try to track down the singer of a track I really loved by Excision and Illenium called “gold” and we managed to get her on the track and well…she absolutely nailed it!
EDM MANIAC: In what ways have you seen the dance music community adapt to the current COVID guidelines and implications for events? In what ways has the bass/dubstep (specifically) community adapted?
FuntCase: It’s hard to say actually, shows are still not really happening that often bar a few big-time companies running them as drive-in shows. The unfortunate truth is a lot of artists are struggling and looking at getting full-time jobs or other means of musical income. Not really sure how this will affect the scene as maybe some artists might fall off the scene a bit from having to work full-time jobs and not doing as much as they’d like to in terms of their brand in the music scene but I guess we’ll find out as we slowly return to touring again.
EDM MANIAC: What are your thoughts on the possibility of live events returning come the summer of 2021… Where do you stand (what are your thoughts) on the possibility of live events returning summer of 2021?
FuntCase: I’m all for it personally. It takes a hell of a lot of careful planning utilizing vaccination, testing, etc. So in that sense, I really think if done correctly and efficiently we can have a safe means of having things like festivals. I genuinely hope it happens at least anyway!
EDM MANIAC: What is your favorite festival to play at and favorite venue to play at? Why?
FuntCase: It’s a toss-up between Lost Lands or EDC Las Vegas. You can’t really compare the two as they’re just two completely different styles of the event but I absolutely adore Lost Lands for what it is as a straight-up energetic dubstep producer.
EDM MANIAC: Can you think of your favorite festival moment? A time or a specific memory that you will remember for the rest of your life? What is it?
FuntCase: For me, it was probably the DPMO Takeover on the sound camps at Lost Lands. That same day I had done my own set and done a live performance of Without with the singer Dani Poppitt but the reaction to the DPMO sound camp was actually mind-blowing. It was the last day of the festival and the end of the whole event and in my mind, I was expecting a partial crowd, because people would be dead tired from a whole day of going nuts, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The moment Phiso got his first drop going and seeing an ENTIRE FULL CROWD at this stage while the main stage was still going on was insane. I felt so proud of my brand!
EDM MANIAC: Who or what currently inspires you to make music? Why?
FuntCase: I’ve always felt a need to do well in life. Didn’t exactly have the best start, so I’ve wanted to just do really well and make my mum proud. She got me into music and she drives me constantly to do well.
EDM MANIAC: How much time do you spend looking for new music? How often are artists sending you new tunes? (Kind of explain how you go about finding or searching for new and kind of never heard before music to play?)
FuntCase: Pretty much all of the new music is discovered on my DPMO submissions email. I’ll spend a couple of hours maybe 2x a week going through submissions and keeping an eye on the real talents that are floating around. Tunes are sent in every day with a real plethora of different production levels so it’s definitely an interesting listen.
EDM MANIAC: If you could have any other artists’ sound or sound design, whose would it be and why?
FuntCase: I’d probably say Virtual Riot. He’s kind of the mekka in dubstep when it comes to sound design and honestly makes it look so easy.
EDM MANIAC: If you had to describe your sound design in three words, what would those three words be and why?
FuntCase: Crunchy, Angry, Screechy.
EDM MANIAC: Who is an artist that you want to collaborate with that you haven’t already?
FuntCase: I’ve always said that my number one collab would be Noisia as I’m just such a huge fan of everything their production stands for in terms of how the track is made sound design, sonic mixing, etc. But if I had the choice to step with literally anyone it would honestly be Skrillex. He’s a genius, he’s got an unbelievable gift of just writing music of any kind and it being absolutely gold. To go from his angrier dubstep to tracks like ‘Face My Fears’ is honestly astounding and I KNOW he’s got a million other perfectly made renditions of genres laying around that I would honestly gasp at how well is made.
EDM MANIAC: Who’s been your favorite artist to work with? Who has been your favorite artist to do a b2b with? Who would you like to do a b2b with right now?
FuntCase: I think the obvious answer to who I would wish to do a B2B with right now would be my boy Cookie Monsta (RIP) but if we’re talking anyone else then it’s gotta be Zomboy. In terms of energy on stage, I feel like he’s right up there with me for that general energy and natural entertainer style.
EDM MANIAC: What is a venue you want to play at that you haven’t gotten a chance to play at? And… What has been your favorite venue to play at? Why?
FuntCase: I’ve actually never played Shambhala and would LOVE to one day. I know there are real bassheads there so would love to do a few sets there of different genres.
EDM MANIAC: There are always young artists who are looking to break into the industry. In your eyes, how can these artists set themselves apart from the rest?
FuntCase: It’s hard to say, what’s not been done? That’s kind of the mindset they need to get into though, what can they do to stand out in the scene? Could it just be with sick music that everyone wants to play or does it go deeper into the branding side and do they do something that catches people’s eye and gets them talking. That’s for them to work out though!
EDM MANIAC: If you had to give any advice to up-and-coming artists who wanted to break into the industry, what advice you tell them? What would you tell your younger self if you wanted to break into the industry back when you were first starting out? Is there anything from your own experiences that you could share?
FuntCase: Probably the same thing I said above, stand out for all the right reasons. Work hard but be patient with it and you’ll see positive rewards over time.
Make sure that you are staying up to date on all of FuntCase and DPMO’s announcements by following both FuntCase and the DPMO family. You will not want to miss out on their future upcoming releases as there will be a lot of them to look forward to this upcoming year.
