Dream Beach is a Detroit music producer and, along with Skywlkr, he spearheaded the producer collective known as Detroit Lines. On July 5th, the collective is releasing their debut mixtape, Hit My DMs, and performing a release party at El Club at 11 PM on July 6th. We wanted to know more about the projects, so we asked him a few questions…
1. What is a “producer collective” and how did Detroit Lines come together as a group?
Feel like it’s a lot like a sports team; we are individually good at the same sport so we ended up on the same team. We came together thru mostly Skywlkr who’s best friends with Black Noi$e. Just meeting thru parties in Detroit or ending up back at Raphy’s where Sky ended up living, shit formed naturally.
2. Tell us about the members of the collective.
Skywlkr is a member of Danny Brown’s Bruiser Brigade, and has been touring and producing for Danny for almost a decade.
Black Noi$e is on some young techno pioneer shit, his new album “Illusions” is fucked up good. Big inspiration to me and all of us. But then he also making some of the best hip hip productions alongside Earl Sweatshirt, who he DJ’s for on tours.
Caleb Stone is all over the place, originating in California he’s produced for everyone from Odd Future to Kali Uchis, in the last 4-5 years came to Detroit.
Megablown, our wild card, apart of Ann Arbor’s Foreign Family alongside producers like Monsuun who features on “Bop It.”
Jonah Baseball from D.C area moved here for school and never left, I been seeing Jonah’s beats on SoundCloud since the beginning of that age alongside artists like Lindsey Lowend, Alex Young, and Imad Royal. Jazz inspired and classically trained mans beats are intricate and you can pretty much undeniably tell in all the squad tracks of the project when his parts are happening.
Raphy, who linked with me and Sky while reconnecting ended up starting his producer journey while being around the gang. His love for sample digging and flipping is unmatched, I feel like he’s inspired the gang in a lot of ways to love the art of sampling. You don’t get to fuck with Raphy’s crate unless you’re the homie.
Ji-Hoon, a friend of all ours is a talented instrumentalist, playing everything from flute to saxophone like a boss. His own label One Spoke just launched with his new EP.
Lil Skinny is a longtime friend and producer of Black and Sky, his beats have always been some of sharpest heavy productions I’ve heard.
I’m Dream Beach. Been putting up shots since 2014 when I got a single release thru Ryan Hemsworth’s Secret Songs, really when I started going for this in a real way. Had my first ep drop in November “Lost Angel” on Hush Hush Records.
3. How does the unique sound and history of Detroit Techno and Detroit itself influence the Hit My DMs project?
With each track featuring individual artists and some combinations, was each artist tasked with creating their own spin on the overall theme? To be honest it’s not really anything we planned or leaned towards, it’s just how it sounds when you put all these perspectives on a project. Everyone’s got a different path, and yet it sounds cohesive because we live in a city that’s about genuine art and not the status or the bullshit most big city music scenes are about. We got history here and we want to respect it by making shit that even if it sucks (mostly to ourselves but y'know) at least it’s genuine. I think we all have had our inspirations whether it be going to Movement as younger minds, definitely taught me that you didn’t have to make popular music. I feel that what I’m interested in at least is doing what we want do and it being its own thing.
Detroit Lines' “KO”
4. Hit My DMs is a specific reference to a means of communication on social media — direct messages. How did this become the crux of the ambitious 18-track compilation?
I wanna say it was our dude Megablown just started saying “hit my jack hit my lines” and then the joke passed to Bob who started saying hit my DMs all the time. It’s all about connectivity, even on the DM Nation radio show rob and sky had with Redbull, it was about positivity, we tell people to hit our DMs, send us slaps, send us love, send us Sweet water, the lines are open, we want to hear from you.
5. What can the audience expect to experience at the mixtape release party on July 6 at El Club?
Most the homies dropping music which can mean live sets it can mean DJ sets all slaps or all original beats, maybe Bob will drop fuck around and drop Boo’d Up you never know.
Bonus Question: What are your members' favorite places to see concerts and dance in Detroit?
We hit Marble Bar a lot, TV lounge. I fucking love the Salon, the Sublimate party this year was lit up.
Mixtape Release Party
Join Detroit Lines for the Hit My DMs release party at El Club on July 6th at 11pm.
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