Yesterday, it was announced that Diplo had been revealed as the headliner for Stagecoach’s first ever official after party. Though we can’t objectively confirm, we can imagine a resounding “huh??” was uttered throughout the land. However, in an exclusive conversation with Variety, Diplo tells how country has been part of his life since his early days and how he’s even been recording with some country artists.
“I’m from Florida and also kinda Mississippi and South Carolina, so country’s always been around,” he says. “I feel like I had to do a bunch of other stuff first, but now I’m coming back to it.”
For someone who’s collaborated with Beyonce and Madonna and Dua Lipa and Lil Yachty, and has collaborative projects with Sia and Labrinth and Mark Ronson and Skrillex and Walshy Fire and Jillionaire, country is one of the few genres he hasn’t explored yet.
But that could end soon.
“I’m trying to do some country records with Nashville artists — Cam, Zac Brown, Sam Hunt, Thomas Rhett — just trying to do something totally off-the-cuff and different,” he told Variety. Asked what the songs sound like, he said, “They’re kinda like country, but I’m adding some of my flavor to make it unusual.
“It’s actually a hard thing to get some of these guys to take a chance, because country’s such an insular community, but I’m trying to do something a little bit different with the songwriting just trying to experiment, y’know?”
Avicii, Alesso, Zedd, and others have shown that, at the very least, country and EDM can sort of co-exist, even if it does take a while for fans to really “get it.”
Diplo says at least one new song will land right before his Stagecoach performance, but he refused to go into any further detail when pushed. Check out the announcement video of Diplo’s performance below.