Electric Soul’s Brian Hioe interviewed Tony Miller, the founder of Datafruits. Datafruits is an online platform for electronic music, which describes its mission as “to bring you the world's strangest electronic sounds and bring together the electronic music communities around the world.”

Brian Hioe:  First, could you introduce yourself in your own words?

Tony Miller:  I’m Tony. Datafruits started in 2012. It’s been around ten years. I do DJing and music, as well as programming for my day job. I’m from the Seattle area, I lived in Tokyo from 2014 to 2018. Then I met my wife and we moved to Korea for a while. We’re currently in Portland, Oregon. 

BH:  How did Datafruits start?

TM:  I was getting into a bunch of different music and started DJing. I met Hojo. He organized a J-K-Pop night in Seattle. I started Djing there. We were very into the Japanese net labels like Maltine Records, Bunkai Kei and stuff like that. 

I was listening to DJs play on UK pirate radio stations like Rinse FM, Sub FM. I noticed there was no streaming radio that played the stuff we were playing, so that was the impetus for starting it originally. 

It started with a few friends streaming in the US mostly.

BH:  Trying to fill up a space you thought wasn’t being filled, in that sense. 

TM:  Yeah, at the time, for sure. 

BH:  I’m interested at some of the elements, that you have text like NicoNicoDouga. It also reminds me a lot of radio stations like WFMU that play eclectic music. 

TM:  Yeah. I really just liked people talking over the music without stopping. I know that’s a very specific weird thing to get into, but that was the kind of aesthetic I was very much trying to imitate at the time. 

At least in the US, they play like five songs, and stop and talk about the songs. I thought it was really weird at the time that the DJs would keep talking and then comment on why they were talking over the music. 

BH:  It’s hard finding a balance between discussing and playing over the music. 

TM:  The website mentions it being open to any genre or any mix. Could you talk about that notion?

Me and Allen started getting into the idea of playing any genre. I think that’s really trending now. It was like Kato Massacre, I think it’s a kind of similar ethos. Kind of genreless. I just think it’s much more interesting. Allen says that you can play any song. It’s true. 

BH:  How would you say it has changed over time?

TM:  People come and go. It’s a lot of work to do a show. I understand if people’s life situation changes. 

We have friends in Australia and two of my friends from Tokyo that play. Allen still does a show once in a while. It’s a very cool way to stay in touch with your friends all over the world, especially after the pandemic. 

BH:  There’s been a lot of turn towards online streaming after the pandemic. 

TM:  It was really interesting, the beginning of 2020. It seemed like everyone wanted to do something.

BH:  Or all this VR stuff.

TM:  That has really died down, I feel like. It seems like people don’t really care. [Laughs] I don’t know if people just went back to real life or shows or just burned out, but I still like it. I think of it not necessarily as a substitute for real-life shows, but you just treat it as what it is. 

BH:  How has it grown as a community? I’m particularly interested that there’s such an Asian base for Datafruits. 

TM:  A lot of people from the midwest have come and gone. Hojo and my friends in Tokyo, like Boogie Idol, I don’t know what his music would be described as–a sort of supermarket MIDI jazz. He does this two-hour show about jazz. My friend Mitsuco has a group called DHL, which is nerdy breakcore rave. 

I lived in Seoul for a while, so I collaborated with a few people there. Such as Youkillbong, Ahncheolsoon , and Mondaystudio. 

BH:  What do you think has changed over time about Datafruits? It’s been ten years. 

TM:  As I mentioned, DJs sometimes move on, so at some points there’s a show every day and it’s really full, and sometimes less so. 

At the beginning, it was very nightcore, so some people associated us with that. They either really liked it or didn’t. But it became more genreless after that. 

BH:  Was there a specific notion in mind as to aesthetics for the website? It’s a pretty distinctive-looking website. 

TM:  I just wanted to do something different. Maybe that’s why the nightcore scene was so attracted to it in the beginning? That’s my theory. 

BH:  Certain genres have different aesthetics. I notice the Twitter account says “The website with yellow text on blue background. 

TM:  I don’t think I can change it at this point. 

We’re still doing Mozilla Hubs, because you don’t have to install anything. We might be able to make our own server. I mess around in Blender a lot, so I could create avatars and blend it with the chat. 

I just want to focus on consistency rather than a really big event. 

BH:  As you alluded to earlier, online spaces can be a room for experimentalism. Would you say that’s the case?

TM:  Yeah. If you don’t live in London, but in the middle of nowhere, it’s important to have a platform. 

BH:  Is there anything you’d say in closing?

TM:  You’ve kind of got to build a community around something. Shared values. That’s the hardest. That’s what we’re working on trying to solidify. Having fun with friends on the Internet and being open to all music and all cultures. 

Keep up with datafruits via their ES profile or their site.