Arpy Brown FKA Athlete Whippet drops his new EP

Arpy Brown FKA Athlete Whippet tells the story of his love for London and Berlin on his sensational new EP ‘But I Miss You Everyday’. We get the chance to get to know a little more about the dynamic DJ, professional party planner, and dextrous producer on the week of his sensational new release on Future Disco.

Where are you this moment and how are you spending the day?

I’m on the way to Stockholm! Been getting some work done at the studio today and now on my way to spend the weekend there.

Where is it you call home these days?

That’s a loaded question for me and also a main inspiration behind the EP. I’ve been living between London and Berlin for a while now and would call both cities my home - always looking forward to both but also always missing one of them!

But you’re a Londoner right?

No, actually I was born and raised in Berlin and only started living in London during uni.

What is your earliest musical memory ?

So I remember that as children, me and my friends used to record music from the radio on cassettes a lot. Every day after school we’d sit there, listen to the radio and press record whenever something came on that we liked. Then we’d exchange those, tracks and everybody would build up their own collection. Looking back now it’s almost like record digging, which I love considering that we were around 7 or 8 years old.

Is there an album that sticks in your mind from when you were a kid?

Many! The first record I owned was Backstreet Boys, when I was about 5. Then the first music I got into really actively was hip hop, through artists like DMX and Eminem at the time. WHAT EMINEM ALBUM WAS IT?

Who were your heroes and icons in your teenage years?

I went through quite a few different phases. My first real icon was probably 2Pac, I even remember drawing his famous Thug Life tattoo across my belly as a kid, which still makes me laugh. From there I moved on to more guitar music and loved Rage Against The Machine, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin. The one that really sticks with me to this day from back then is David Bowie though.

When did you first start dabble as a DJ?

DJing was probably the final piece of the puzzle for me. Having grown up playing guitar and singing in bands and then getting into production in my early 20s. I think my first DJ gig was back in 2017.

Where were your early gigs?

When we were about 13 I had a rock / punk band and there was this really lovely community in Berlin called the Pogo Club. They’d put on gigs in different small venues in town and give us kids a platform to play and hang out. Looking back it really was something super special and I still have a lot of friends from that time.

When was the moment you realized that Djing and producing was going to be more than a hobby?

To be honest by the time I got into DJing and producing I had long decided that music is more than hobby for me. That decision goes way back to my late school years when I was playing in bands and then decided to head to London to study music. The producing and DJing started there.

What was your first release and what led up to its release?

I think the first Athlete Whippet release was back in 2017 with my flat mate and musical partner Avi at the time. We’d been doing some other musical projects together before that and we then started writing some more instrumental, club focused things which was a new direction we wanted to go in and the birth of Athlete Whippet.

 Tell us a little about your evolution to Arpy Brown and musical vision under this moniker?

Well funnily, althoughthe project started under the name Athlete Whippet to facilitate a moreinstrumental output I’ve come full circle to go back to singing on the tracks.Over the last year or so I feel I have started combining my musical experiencesand practices, from band years, in which it was more traditional writing andcomposition, to production years in which most things happened in the box. Ithink I’ve now finally found a way to combine the two which I love!

You have a rep for fusing different stylesand flavours. So often we want to put sounds in boxes. Is this why you like tomix it up?

It’s not reallysomething I’ve ever consciously decided to do to be honest, I think it’s just aresult of having gone through so many musical phases in my life and stillappreciating all of them - dance music, jazz, hip hop, rock, indie,electronica. They all shape who I am as an artist these days and I want to makemusic that represents that.

You have released on some pretty cool labelslike Rhythm Section, AUS and Kitsune. What do you think was your biggestrelease, the one that made the most impact?

Thanks, I’m glad youthink so :) I think the biggest impact was made by my EP on Toy Tonics lastyear. That’s the one that started sending me on tours regularly around Europeand as far as Australia!

You’ve been putting on parties since 2019.When was the last one and who was the guest?

I’ve been taking a smallbreak from it as the rest of my touring got busier. The last one was in 2023with Rebecca Vasmant at Paloma in Berlin.

What is the ethos of your party nights?

I’ve always kept it the way that I like going out myself: in small but great clubs with one main guest, so them and me could curate the night together and take people on a journey from start to finish!

What are the secret ingredients to make a good party in your opinion?

I think the key is to create an environment in which people are relaxed and feel comfortable. As a guest, I’m not a fan of huge events where you can’t just stand around in a hallway if you wanna have a chat and there’s super strict security rules when you want to go have a smoke and all that. Sometimes I feel when going to big nights that it’s more stressful than somewhere people can just let go of their worries, and for me, at the end of the day going out is about the latter besides listening to amazing music!

Is there one coming up soon that you can drop here?

Yeah I’ve got a few fun nights I’m playing lined up for the rest of the month. I’ll be headed to Munich on Nov 23, then Rome on Nov 29, Vienna on Nov 30. And I actually just played my Romania debut in Cluj at the start of the month with a lovely crew called Multiverse - they’re building something really nice there!

Who do you think is making great music right now?

Lucky for me, I’m surrounded by people who I think make brilliant music, from Cody Currie to COEO, to Barbara Boeing and Gee Lane and many more. I love all those people and their work to bits!

What’s the most recent record you purchased?

The most recent record I got was the Honey Dijon DJ-Kicks. I’m part of the team behind the DJ-Kicks series and this was a special one to work on as she’s one of my all-time favourite DJs.

 Is this your first release with Future Disco?

It is indeed, although I think we’ve been chatting for years. I did a remix for them for Bondax in early2023. I honestly can’t remember how we got to know each other. It was in my first stint in London, probably around 2020.

Give us a round of your new EP?

I think it’s the first EP in which I’ve really landed on this new approach to making music, in which I combine the production with my roots of playing instruments and singing. As mentioned, it feels like a full circle moment to me and has been a big step in terms of finding my very own artistic voice.

Who are the other artists and musicians you want to shout out on this new release?

Well obviously my lovely lovely friend and long-time collaborator Aphty Khéa who features on ‘Close Enough’. Also Avi, who I originally did Athlete Whippet with as some of these songs were initiated way back in the day with him, and then finished years later, but they wouldn’t exist without him.

What are you working on next that you can share?

I’ve just finished off my next EP which will come out in spring on Toy Tonics!

If you had to choose between London and Berlin, which one would it be?

I can’t - that’s the story of my life. I’ve decided to choose both!

What inspires you to make music each day Robin?

Trust me, I’m so deep into this at this point that I wouldn’t know what else to do with my day! Day in day out…..  the beautiful thing is that you can watch yourself get better at it every day.

If you didn’t end up working in music, what else do you think you may have ended up doing?

I think maybe I would have been an architect. I like that it brings together form, design and function. It’s both an absolute necessity and artistic expression - I find that pretty exciting!

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