Per Hammar returns with new 'Ontario' EP on Dirty Hands and discusses the story behind its making.

Nice to see you back on your own Dirty Hands label. What is it about returning to your own imprint that makes it the right home for a record like Ontario?

My two recent records, on Kalahari Oyster Cult and Craigie Knowes, showcased my slightly more melodic side of my productions. Dirty Hands has always been the home for my more dirty and stripped tracks. Not stripped as in minimal, but stripped from heavy melodies and focused on the groove.

The story behind the EP title is quite unusual. You found yourself stranded in Toronto due to the Air Canada strike, which ultimately inspired both the project and its name. Can you tell us a bit about that experience and how it shaped the music you were making at the time?

I was on tour in North America and had just finished that weekends’ last show at Rhythm in Toronto, when Air Canada announced a nation wide strike and grounded their whole fleet, with no forecast when to resume operations. On top of everything my US visa got delayed, which forced me to postpone all of my US shows and stay in Canada. The owner of Rhythm, Chloe, (a.k.a. the best promoter in the world) invited me to stay at her place until I could continue my tour. She also sorted out a studio for me, so I spent that week just producing and the tracks Ontario and Oops All Sixes was born!

The title track immediately sets the tone with its crisp drums, dubby bass tones and evolving modulations. What was the initial spark behind Ontario, and how did the track develop from its earliest ideas?

Since I had a very limited studio setup I ended up having to get the most out of my plugins and limited on-the-go sample library. When I’m in my studio back in Sweden, I have access to all the tools in need, but now I had to be creative with what I had. And it’s true that limitation triggers creativity, because I successfully experimented with plugins and techniques I never did before, which I still use today.

The EP moves through several shades of your sound, from the deeper, rolling grooves of Off Disk to the acid-leaning energy of Oops All Sixes. Did you approach the release as a cohesive body of work from the outset, or did the tracks come together more organically over time?

Off Disk is actually produced in my studio here in Malmö a couple of months after. I very rarely have time to go into the studio and say “okay let’s do an EP”. I produce tracks that wants to produced at that time. It comes out like it wants to come out and I can’t really decide the outcome. So I collect finished tracks of different characters and when it’s time, I puzzle the them together and shape the release how I feel.

Across all four tracks there's a strong sense of movement and subtle progression, with lots of intricate details revealing themselves over time. How was the EP made from a technical perspective, and what was your studio setup looking like during the creation of these tracks?

The power of my studio is its setup. I have set it up so it fits me and how I like to work. I have two mixing desks: a Studer 169 where I actually mix and a random kinda crappy Mackie console, with all of my effects connected to it, that works as my dub station. The Mackie mixer is my main instrument in the studio, so it’s not so much about the source of the sound, but how I process and jam with it. It’s easy to record a couple of minutes of a jam. I loop that one or two times and that’s it.

Your productions have always balanced functionality for the dancefloor with plenty of character and depth. When you're working on a track, how do you know when you've found that sweet spot between a DJ tool and something more expressive?

That’s the million dollar question. I never want to export a track that is just a tool. It’s not enough for me to think that the world needs another piece of music without an identity. There needs to be a concept in order for me to feel that it’s finished. It can still be less melodic, but every part of the track needs to make sense. It can be stripped but not empty or uncharacteristic.

Between Dirty Hands, your own productions and a busy touring schedule, you've remained a consistently influential figure within the underground scene for many years. Looking ahead, what's next for you, and what can listeners expect from the next chapter of the Dirty Hands story?

Except working with my own music, I also help other producers with their music at my studio and platform Euromix. I love to mix and I use a quite unique analog/digital hybrid setup for that, but it’s time consuming. On top of that I need to keep up with content for myself, Dirty Hands, Euromix + all my events that I arrange. In between I'm trying to keep up with Dirty Hands and use its platform to showcase music from not only my self but from producers in my sphere thats doing some sick stuff. There’s some really exciting things planned which I can’t wait to share!

BUY LINK : https://www.deejay.de/Per_Hammar_Ontario_EP_DH011_Vinyl__1259935/lang_en

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