where the music matters

Here’s a piece of Capitol Hill Block Party trivia for you: Diplo is the only artist on the bill this weekend who has performed for 500,000 people at one time. At a free show in Havana, Cuba, in 2016, the first by an American artist since the US and Cuba re-established diplomatic relations in 2015, Diplo’s dance hall-EDM trio, Major Lazer, played to a crowd of nearly half a million. The crowd, hoisting Cuban flags and home-made posters, stretched back for miles. Kids danced and barricades rattled.

Director Austin Peters, whose work you may know from the music video for CHVRCHES‘ “Empty Threat,” was there to document the whole thing. The resulting film, Give Me Future, is just as much a celebration of global DIY youth culture as a colorful snapshot of this historic event. (Read our review of the film on the KEXP Blog here.)

Leading up to Diplo’s CHBP-headlining set on Sunday, we bring you an exclusive interview with Peters, who visited Seattle for Give Me Future‘s premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival earlier this year, about the monumental show in Havana, the on-the-fly approach that shaped the film, and a chance encounter with a Cuban skateboarder.

Major Lazer at Outside Lands, 2016 // photo by Victoria Holt (view set)

A lot of your work, and this film, in particular, focuses on youth subcultures. Were you a part of any scene growing up?

I never played sports and I never did anything like that, so I always really identified with music. When I was in high school,  my identity was about wanting to make music. I’m not really a musician, but I just thought being in a band was like the coolest thing in the world. Then, when I was in college, I started DJing. I sort of paid my way through school DJing at bars in New York City. I was never anything like Diplo. I just really liked the music. After I graduated, I kept doing it. I would DJ bars in New York at night and then, the next day, I would go shoot corporate videos for hospitals. Read More »