Dias Ridge (@diasridgemusic) returns to our label, Magnetic Magazine Recordings, with Interstice / Balance, a two-track release that lands as the label’s 50th catalog entry and gives another clear look at the kind of producer he is becoming.
The release sits inside melodic house, yet it does not fall into the cleaner, safer habits that flatten so much of that lane. Both tracks carry club function, but they also bring in breakbeat movement, tighter rhythmic contrast, and enough detail in the arrangement to keep revealing new things as they unfold. That balance (no pun intended of course) is a big part of what gives this release its identity, and it also makes it an easy fit for a conversation about staying curious in an era where so much music starts to blur together.
That perspective lines up closely with how Dias Ridge talks about music right now. He is interested in the fact that knowledge is easier to access than ever, yet he is also clear that the noise floor is much higher than it used to be. That tension between access and overload is central to how a lot of artists are working now, and his answers reflect someone trying to stay focused on the signal instead of the distraction. He speaks about practice, routine, exercise, photography, and stepping away from the computer as ways to stay open and engaged, and that comes through in the release too. Interstice / Balance feels like the work of someone trying to keep his own perspective intact rather than sanding it down for the sake of convenience.
There is also a wider point here about identity and long-term development. Dias Ridge talks plainly about the limits of platform metrics, the difference between real listener connection and vanity data, and the need to understand context before drawing from a culture or sound outside your own experience.
Those ideas give the release extra importance because they show an artist thinking carefully about where his music fits and what he wants it to say, beyond just the ability to crank out club tracks. On a label milestone release, that kind of clarity helps. Interstice / Balance promotes Dias Ridge well because it does the actual work of showing his instincts in motion, with music that functions in a set while still holding onto personality.
Interview With Dias Ridge
What excites you in music right now that you wouldn’t have understood five years ago?
Very few parts of this industry are still gatekept.
With AI, assimilating knowledge has never been easier. There are certainly new challenges to consider as tradeoffs. But if your goal is to make the best music you possibly can, all you have to do is show up every day and practice your craft. With everything though, the noise floor is higher than it used to be, so you need to understand how to tune into the signal to stay focused.
How do you stay curious and open, even when you feel jaded?
I feel jaded pretty often haha – it really does rob curiosity!
What keeps me in check is regular exercise, plenty of “less serious” artistic endeavors like photography, and making music without my computer as often as I can. Music should be an interpretation of life, and is meaningless without those inputs to shape it.
Have you ever felt your self-worth too wrapped up in gigs or visibility?
This is a real struggle. Most of the stats we’re given by the social and streaming platforms are lagging vanity metrics – they don’t tell us who the actual fans are and how our music is being received by them.
For me, about once or twice a year, someone will write something to me unprompted, sharing something positive about one of my songs. This is enough to ground me and to keep me pushing ahead.
What’s the difference between drawing inspiration and co-opting culture in your view?
It’s really about understanding the context of the source material.
What did it come from, and how much of that origin story applies to you personally? I love Brazilian phonk for its complex rhythms and timbres. And watching the best DJs in that scene is nearly a religious experience for me. But I’d never try to make a song with a phonk groove. That sound belongs to Brazilian culture. Instead, if I wanted to draw inspiration, I might try to incorporate some of the polyrhythms or percussive instrumentation into my own sounds.
Have you noticed streaming platforms nudging everything toward the same tempo, texture, or polish?
Yes, although I don’t think it’s exclusively the streaming platforms. I think everyone is responsible for the homogenization of sound at some level – artists, fans, labels, curators, algorithms, and platforms.
As a business, you maximize revenue by “playing to the gallery”. And if your livelihood depends exclusively on your music, then why wouldn’t you? This is how it’s always been in Western music, going back to when religious institutions started paying people to write and perform music for the first time in history. Back then the church instituted guidelines of appropriateness in music – no playing tritones!
But what excites me is that there are more artists than ever seeking to be unique in their sounds and songwriting. And they give me the drive and confidence to push my own music into uncharted or weird places. While it may be “less promotable” in the melodic/progressive house world, it still finds an audience and is way more fun to make.
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
