DLT has evolved so much from the brunches. The day parties, here and abroad, to even Malta – was this always part of the vision or has this just been a natural evolution?
Michael Amusan (MK): DLT started because we didn’t have anything to do socially for our community, our friends, or ourselves. We’d experienced day parties and brunches in New York and there was nothing like that here, that felt like a for us kind of vibe. One of the very day parties I experienced in New York was Everyday People in 2015 and I was like this is sick so when we returned it was more obvious there was nothing like this in London. So we said why don’t we just do a bottomless brunch and just do it amongst our friends? And then here we are today, it was a natural progression.
Ife Awosika: One thing we’ve always looked for is how to make an impact, how to do things differently and that’s where The Recipe comes about. It’s not something that’s been necessarily done before but there wasn’t a sketch or a Prison Break-type board somewhere that led to something, it’s all been quite natural.
MK: There’s no textbook to this. Sometimes it’s a WhatsApp conversation between us saying, “Let’s try for a party in Africa.” or “Why don’t we try for a party in New York?” or “Why don’t we try Paris?” One thing we always try to do is make it better because we feel we owe it to the people who come to our parties. We’ve always felt that way because it initially started with our close friends, then those close friends became wider people from different places, who then weirdly, became our close friends. But we start to know our audience quite well, then. We’re close to our audience so we’re always like “How do we give them extra?”.
It’s evident you’re close with your supporters because unlike other brands you are very responsive, especially on Twitter.
Ife: It’s a gift and a curse, more a gift but definitely a mix. We’ve started many sentences with “Our DLT family” because we see ourselves as a family/community-led party. We always try to do the right things, some appreciate it and some I wouldn’t say don’t appreciate it but can get very demanding haha. People think everything is possible, which it’s not. In time people will realise that we always try our best and we always do try to deliver. But the universe is a difficult place, and not everything is always possible.
You’ve given people an inch, so of course they’ll take a mile and soon start asking to see your bank statements.
MK: Haha, it’s great sometimes because everyone is talking about it and it’s a great opportunity to keep the conversation going. Ife is right it is a gift and a curse because we get what people want. We’re doing DLT Malta again and we asked who people wanted to see and obviously, we’ll try and book those acts but people need to understand and remember there’s another human on the other side of this conversation who needs to have their needs and expectations met. It’s not as simple as us asking “Hey do you want to play this gig?” there’s a whole process, but we always try.
It’s a process that we’re all not privy to, but to give the people an idea of how long it takes to move into this next phase – what was the process of bringing The Recipe together?
MK: The Recipe had been in conversations since last year November and then we announced and launched in March. However, it had been a long-term plan with several conversations amongst ourselves about “What does a festival in London look like?”. We’ve always been like “Nah we don’t want to do it” because I don’t like festivals, I genuinely don’t enjoy festivals and I understand why others don’t as well. You’re walking all day, it’s hot, and there’s not much seating. I said if we’re going to do one, we have to do a festival that has everything I like. So when the opportunity for The Recipe came about that’s when I was like “Yeah this is it”.
Ife: The Recipe is definitely going to be something people haven’t experienced before. Most people’s festival experience won’t have been anything like what they’ll experience come July 6th.
The appreciation for what we’re trying to do with The Recipe will be acknowledged in subsequent years because we know there are not a lot of visuals and we’re hoping the public will buy into the vision they haven’t fully seen yet. Acts aside, once they’re able to see the grounds and see how comfortable of an experience it will be compared to other festivals they will be like “wow, this is how I always want my festival experience to look like”
The Recipe is a true R&B lineup, but DLT is known for parties. What made you want to take the R&B route for this festival?
MK: We’ve touched on R&B through events before. We used to have a brand called “Soundproof” and for DLT Malta last year we had acts like Masego, Tiana Major 9, Jayo, and Gabzy. This year we thought, Malta is a big party, right? That’s when you’re on 10 and you need a Gatorade or two. So what will people want to do when they come back from Malta? You want something, chill, mature, sexy, and that’s why we thought for The Recipe – it has to be R&B.
R&B lasts the test of time and when you’re looking at R&B who is the person you need… Jazmine Sullivan. Everyone loves Jazmine.
This is the first time Jazmine Sullivan is performing in the UK for 10 years, how did that conversation come about and how did you convince her to come back to us?
MK: The process is you go to her agent and you pitch the idea. Thankfully her agent liked the idea, he liked us on a personal level and it just worked out. It’s a great opportunity for us to be the brand that brings her here.
Were you expecting the reaction you got online when announcing she was headlining?
MK: We were expecting something, but even I was like “Wow we’ve done something a little crazy here”. People would probably expect Wireless or All Points East, the established festivals, to do something like that but for us, it’s new territory, so we need to start acting like we belong here. It was definitely overwhelming.
Ife: Like we said, because we’re so close to the crowd we still get taken aback by the reactions. It still shocks us, everything still shocks us – you think Jazmine is going to have some kind of reaction for someone that hasn’t been here for so long, but it was special and very humbling.
We’re excited to be able to give people that feeling and to have the brand attached to that type of emotion. In years gone by people will remember these moments, when they’re getting a bit older our brand and our name DLT will be attached to that level of feeling.
The Recipe is going to take DLT to a whole new incredible level, what is the plan for the future and how far do you see DLT going?
MK: I think our vision now is less is more. This year we’re only dropping day parties around bank holidays and sticking to a calendar. We’re trying to do more stuff internationally. We want to go to places where we feel like they don’t necessarily have their own versions of DLT.
In London we’ve got DLT, we’ve got Recess, we’ve got Dankie Sounds, and all these up-and-coming collectives. We’re positioning ourselves to go places where we feel like something is missing, or we feel there’s no community that’s galvanising the people that are already there. They might have heard of DLT via TikTok or Twitter or Instagram, but they don’t have something locally. The idea is to like galvanise all those communities from different places, so when we do drop The Recipe, a DLT Malta, and potentially a DLT Dubai, they act as meeting points for people who have experienced DLT locally and then. can experience it all together. That’s our plan but it all depends on how life looks in the future.
Ife: For example, this weekend we’re in Amsterdam and it’s going to be around 800 people, but I think the key fact is it’s not necessarily Londoners. In all these new cities that we want to go to and do things, it’s about creating DLT moments for those people in their city. We’re creating new local homes, and we’d like to be in Amsterdam 2-3 times a year, or Paris 2-3 times a year or even Stockholm 2-3 times a year. These big events like The Recipe, DLT Malta etc become the meeting point for those who have enjoyed DLT internationally to come together.
