Dan Carey

Look at many of the most exciting, buzzed-about artists coming out of the UK and Ireland right now and you’ll be surprised to find how many have something in common – producer Dan Carey. From righteous Dublin punks Fontaines DC to London art-punks Squid and the dark knights of post-rock, Black Midi, Dan Carey is behind many of the most vital debut albums of recent months and years.

But to paint him as a man who primarily works with brand new, raw, leftfield talent via a maniacal production bootcamp we might fairly call The Dan Carey Method (more of which later) is to ignore many facets: he’s also the closest collaborator and bandmate of poet-turned-rapper Kae Tempest, he’s the founder of the essential Speedy Wunderground label, arguably the last surviving independent to operate exclusively by its own rules, the owner of one of three existing Swarmatrons – a synthesiser it’s a safe bet only Carey knows how to play – and a producer and remixer who’s worked extensively with Sia and had a Top 10 hit with Kylie Minogue. He’s also a man in possession of a mystic blessing from none other than Lee Scratch Perry.