In anticipation of next Thursday (Our 1st Birthday bash) I caught up with Griffin James who you may also know as The Francis Inferno Orchestra. The young Melbourne resident is making big waves with his signature sound, signing on to some of the better (in our opinion) house labels in the world such as Kolour Recordings and Under The Shade to name a few.

Griff was also kind enough to record an exclusive mix for us live from one of his gigs, it's a raw journey through an hour and twenty minutes of real life.

In The Deep End With The Francis Inferno Orchestra

We also talked briefly about his hometown, J Dilla amongst other interesting facts. Enjoy

1. From the top, without being too cliché. When was it that you started making music and what were you using at the start? Have you changed your setup around much since then and if so, how?

I first started making music around the age of 10 or 11 when I got my first guitar, I then started producing Hip Hop beats around about the 9th grade, but my music taste started changing and I started to fall in love with dance music. So I started writing songs using just my laptop with reason and a pair of shit speakers when I was about 17. It was all just fun at the time and I only got more serious about it 2 years ago when I started investing in better gear, my setup is still very basic considering. mac desktop, monitors, midi keyboard and software. It's been the same set up for the last year, I'm too poor to get anything else.

2. Being one of the younger producers in Melbourne, and the youngest in the Animals Dancing circle. Have you found influence in the older cats or has it always been your own thing?

It started as my own thing, I didn't really know many, if any of the animals dancing guys when I was first getting into producing, but I've met a lot of really great people. Melbourne has so many talented people its incredible, like Otologic who are amazing deejays and Tornado Wallace who as we all know is a fucking ridiculous producer. I also owe a lot of credit/love to Andy Hart, he's been a big help on the producing side of things, I learn something new every time I go to his house to have a jam and its helped me a lot in my solo stuff.

Griffin James - Speaking Of Such Things by Francis Inferno Orchestra

3. Melbourne has the best underground music scene in Australia right now without a doubt, thanks to Animals Dancing and the nights they are part of such as C Grade. Who are Animals Dancing and what makes them so good at what they do?

Animals Dancing is a collective run by Andee Frost, Tornado Wallace, Otologic and Daragh Kan. They run parties with internationals, manage some of the local DJs and also run C Grade, which is a monthly party at The Mercat Basement that runs well past sunrise.

The '#dancecommunity', which is really just an in joke, represents the wider group of people that help out and party at the Animals Dancing and C Grade parties.

Now imagine a dark dirty basement, concrete, painted black, full of smoke, uv lights, nooks and crannies and random props that represent the theme of the month. You walk down these stairs and you open the door and instantly you can just smell the energy, smoke, vibe everything and its so refreshing but it also lures you in and once you're there. You're there.

Last weekend we had My Cousin Roy down from New york he played from 1 - 6 am I believe, after I left I heard that everyone was dancing with their pants down and even Roy was shirtless, but that is just the sorta thing that they do, its all in the name of fun and you don't get that anywhere else. Even quite a few months back one of the guys who runs the night was walking using his pants as a cape.

I'm still yet to see what Europe has to offer but these parties are a serious amount of fun.

Duffstep - Your Touch Remix (The Francis Inferno Orchestra Remix) by Francis Inferno Orchestra

4. As with a lot of the aforementioned, there is a heavy flavour of sampling throughout most if not all your tracks. Do you ever go on #dancecommunity record diggings or do you do it alone and keep them your secret?

Haha not yet! There was proposed an idea for it once, it may still happen. I generally go alone, I don't like to feel rushed when I do because I could spend hours upon hours if I'm in a record store that has a lot of potential and I don't want friends getting all up in my grill about wanting to leave to see their girlfriend or go shopping for new pants.
But don't get me confused, there is not always sampling in my music, but having said that, I love sampling and some of my biggest influences like J Dilla, 9th Wonder, Dj Premier.. Well if you know who they are then this basically answers itself.

5. You've mentioned a couple of side projects in previous chats we've had, can you tell us about what's coming up for these? Also what does the future hold for FIO?

Well the side projects I do are for now just a bit of fun, something a little different from how straight forward the house/disco/whatever can be. It's the kind of stuff I start making when my head is a bit all over the place, but I still have the urge to create something musically. Theres a few labels i reckon they might work well on, but I'm a bit shy to chase contact them about it. I hold them in such a high regard that its always overwhelming haha. Well in concrete I have 2 more Ep's to come out, one with Kolour and the other with Join The Dots. After that is a bit uncertain, I have a few unsigned tracks im really happy with, a lot more house than my currently released stuff. But who knows! Also I'm going to Europe soon, scoping out whats going on over there, getting rowdy and playing a few gigs. Cant wait!

Darkness DEMO by Francis Inferno Orchestra