Why limit yourself to creating one album when you can do two at once? That’s an idea that Duke Dumont has put into practice with Union, the first of two forthcoming long-play projects.
With six UK hits, including two No. 1s, and top spots at Coachella, Lollapalooza, EDC Las Vegas, and other major events, the British DJ and producer is a heavyweight in his class.
Dumont is ready for round two. Five years after his debut LP, Dumont will unleash his second studio album, Union (via Neon Records/Universal Music Australia) on July 25.
An exploration of connection, freedom, and unity, it’s led by the singles “All My Life” with Panama, and “Your Loving”, an old-school party track out today, May 9th.
Union is the followup to Duke’s debut full-length Duality, which dropped in April 2020, the darkest, early stages of the pandemic.
Dumont gives an honest explanation for the lengthy gestation. “I tell everyone it took five years to make this one, but it was four-and-a-half years procrastinating,” Dumont told Rolling Stone AU/NZ ahead of his recent show at Brisbane’s Tivoli. “I’ve got to be honest, I’m my own worst enemy when it comes to that.”
That cruise time is “a mix of arrogance of expecting some grand thing instantly,” says Dumont (real name: Adam Dyment). “The other side is you really care about what you do. When you do, you start to overthink it and that can really eat you up.”
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Dumont has enjoyed the type of success that can eat up an artist. Back in 2013, when UK radio was buzzing with Adele and Justin Bieber, Dumont nailed back-to-back leaders with “Need U (100 Percent)” featuring Ame and “I Got U” featuring Jax Jones. He narrowly missed out on a third, when “Won’t Look Back” peaked at No. 2 in 2014.
Those cuts also enjoyed airplay on Australia’s triple j, proof of which could be spotted as older party-types busted moves downstairs on Duke’s dancefloor.
Those breakthrough tracks were organic, he recounts. “With those records I wasn’t really part of the system. I was working for five or 10 years before that, so it wasn’t just luck. Just perfect timing.” And those hits came with “very, very little marketing spend,” he says. “That’s why the labels still have me on their books, I don’t cost much money.”
Aspects of Union “are definitely more introspective,” explains Dumont. “I’m kinda known for making house records, a lot of the music I play are definitely dancefloor tunes.” Union is inward-looking with “rave tendencies” and memories of the “muddy field at a festival experience,” he continues.
Dumont has lived away from his homeland for a decade, and, like so many of his compatriots, feels homesick for the rainy British summer, and the spectacle of 10,000 festival-goers in a field. Union is “trying to conjure up that experience. I don’t want to sound too cheesy, but I’m taking myself out of the equation and soundtrack something that can bring thousands of people together, and trying to be on the level. and try do it with panache and style.”
Union, whose cover artwork was snapped at a sold-out headline Sydney show last month, is an apolitical theme. There aren’t many things in life, in culture “where you can bring many people together in a harmonious way,” he explains.
With his unusually busy release slate, Dumont has found balance. “It’s quite weird,” he comments, “I actually worked on two albums at the same time, so the next one will be done, hopefully, relatively quickly.” With the next project should be “more straight-up rooted in house music.”
Over the past decade, Duke has collected two Brit Award nominations, in 2015 earned a Grammy Award nod for “Need U (100%)” and amassed billions of streams. What he doesn’t have is a UK No. 1 album, but he’s not chasing it.
“No, not at all. It doesn’t even enter my brain,” he insists. “I’m fortunate enough to be able to do what I still love in life, 10 years later. To have a No. 1 single or album, you have to go into it knowing the formula. The slightly annoying thing is, I kinda know what the formula is, but the music lover in me pushes that back. I’m in a fortunate enough position now where I can make decisions from the heart, 99% of the time. Which I’ve never been able to do before.”
