Start Listening To: DS Lyte

Canterbury producer DS Lyte explores queer self-acceptance on debut EP Into Me, with Bella Blanco’s vocals connecting dancefloor confidence and acoustic vulnerability.

DS Lyte has a soft spot for Year 6 school discos, glossy computer graphics and pop music that makes people want to dance together. The Canterbury producer’s debut EP, Into Me, takes that enthusiasm somewhere personal, exploring queer self-acceptance through different versions of the same song. Made with vocalist Bella Blanco, its brash radio edit and exposed acoustic arrangement consider how confidence can feel from the inside, especially when it takes some effort to keep up. ‘For me, a lot of self-confidence can be a facade,’ DS Lyte explains. With Canterbury’s queer nights providing a place to play and a community to write for, there’s room for both the glittering synths and the more complicated feelings underneath them.

For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?

Hi! My name is DS Lyte, I’m from Canterbury and I make electronic music, some dance and some that’s more ‘hyperpop’-y. I absolutely LOVE girly cxnty pop music that’s coming out from people like Vi0let and samxemma!

Into Me is your debut EP. Does putting out your first proper body of work feel different to releasing individual tracks, and what did you want it to establish about DS Lyte?

Oh definitely, this was the first time that a project came together as a coherent idea rather than just a standalone track. Lots of the music I had done before the EP allowed me so much more freedom, so giving myself the constraints of a theme was really fun!

You’ve described the EP as capturing the highs and lows of queer self-acceptance. Was that emotional contrast something you knew you wanted to explore from the beginning?

No, actually, the idea came as Bella and I were together recording the lyrics for the radio edit. Initially, ‘Into Me’ was just going to be another single that would set the tone for future works, but as we finished the recording, we started talking about doing an acoustic version and how we could look at the message in a completely different way.

There are two radically different versions of ‘Into Me’, with the radio edit acting as this huge confident anthem while the acoustic mix exposes much more fragility and self-doubt. Why was it important to show both sides of the same song?

This is where the EP really started to make sense as a project. I can’t speak for everyone, but for me, a lot of self-confidence can be a facade. The brash lyrics of the radio edit hide the underlying sentiment of the acoustic version. I think it’s okay too. Queer people often have to hide behind confidence to fit in, despite the emotional undertone being a contradiction.

You’ve called ‘Into Me’ an anthem for the ‘girls, gays and theys’. When you’re making something that euphoric and dancefloor-focused, are you imagining the people and spaces you want to hear it in?

Yes! I’m so happy you asked about this because it gives me an opportunity to fangirl about the emerging queer spaces in Canterbury! My label, Thing Detector, is amazing at supporting me and they helped me get in touch with GUNK, this really cool rave that happens every few months. It’s such a fun and safe space. I’m playing there in October, so a lot of the music written over the summer, including ‘Into Me’, was created with that in mind.

Y2K nostalgia is obviously a huge part of DS Lyte, but what is it specifically about that period that continues to fascinate you beyond simply liking the music?

I think that for a lot of older Gen Z people, the noughties can be a time of pleasant nostalgia. Before social media in the addictive forms we know today, and when the music industry started to push more fun anthems in pop. I’m thinking of Year 6 school disco vibes. I also wasn’t allowed a DS Lite until much later on (boo), so I think I’m also trying to heal my inner child somewhat!

You’ve mentioned skeuomorphism as a visual influence, which feels incredibly specific. What is it about that glossy, tactile early-digital aesthetic that connects with the music you’re making?

I think that hyperpop represents a resurgence of maximalism in culture. We used to have more fun with the way that things were designed. Think of Frutiger Aero! I think that the music I like making really calls back to that... now I just need the cutest cyberdeck that runs Ableton and my life will be complete.

There’s been this huge online resurgence of maximalist electronic music through artists like Ninajirachi, Danny L Harle and samxemma. What excites you about what’s happening in electronic and post-hyperpop music right now?

OMG this!! Exactly! It just feels fun, doesn’t it? I mean, just look at Ninajirachi’s I Love My Computer album art. Bedroom goals. I went to see samxemma in London recently and the energy in the room was incredible! That’s another thing about this music that really speaks to me: the relationship between artist and fans. I mean, Sam and Emma and Vi0let, when I saw her, were just dancing with everyone. It feels like a proper community.

You’re a producer who has more recently started writing lyrics. Has learning to express yourself through words changed the way you approach production as well?

This is such a good question. I think that it’s definitely made me more mindful of the tone of the production underneath. I’m thinking about the massive second build-up in the club mix and how I worked with Bella to use vocals to enhance that feeling of ‘increase’. I’m honestly still in the early stages, though, so I’m constantly learning.

Bella Blanco is such an important presence on ‘Into Me’. How did the two of you find each other, and what did her voice bring out in the track that you couldn’t have achieved otherwise?

Bella is amazing! We met at a house party I played and had to grab our decks and things pretty quickly when it got shut down, so I feel like that was a very notable initial meet! She’s such an incredible singer and I think that working closely with her inspired the project as a whole. So without Bella, ‘Into Me’ might just have been a single.

There’s something interesting about using these enormous, euphoric dance sounds to explore insecurity and self-doubt. Do you find it easier to approach difficult emotions when you can surround them with something joyful?

The people that are close to me would be giving me knowing looks right now because masking difficult emotions in joy, whether that be humour or glittering arpeggiated synths, is something I’m very guilty of. I think that, while I do find it easier to wrap those emotions in a joyful safety net, the genre that I’m trying to fit has form in this. Take the partial inspiration for the EP (‘Starlight’ by Danny L Harle and PinkPanthress), for example: ‘I’ve met someone like you, they don’t love me back’. The premise may be different, but the emotional contrasts remain.

What do you love right now?

James May’s unique strain of neurospiciness, especially regarding trains. Maybe because of a resonating ‘tism.

What do you hate right now?

James May’s goatee.

Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and tell us why it’s still important to you.

Probably OK Computer by Radiohead. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t massively influenced by them for the odd time signatures and haunting timbre at the end of the acoustic version, but the album has a deeper meaning for me too. My dad used to take me around various building sites he worked on when I was a child in a very dusty white pickup. It’s one of those really important childhood memories for me, and a really big part of that memory is the limited, but excellent, music selection he had as CDs in the glove box. That introduced me to The Smiths (probably my favourite band ever) and to The Clash but, as an album, OK Computer is the one that visually and sonically connects me to that time.

Into Me introduces a pretty distinctive world for DS Lyte straight away. Where do you want to take it next, and how far do you think you can push this sound?

Thanks!! I hope I’ve set a precedent for myself with Into Me and I really want to challenge myself to keep defining that world. I’ve got some projects in the works which I am super excited about along those lines. One is a continuation of the first song I released that I felt set the sonic tone for DS, ‘Nuke my T and Surge my E’. That is going to turn into an EP with exclusively trans and non-binary artists called The Pump It EP. Another project I’m really looking forward to refining is Traditionally Nuclear, a mixtape exploring difficult family dynamics.