ne night, late last year, Harley
Streten was woken by a phone
call at 3am. Early morning phone
calls are rarely good news, but
this one was different. It was
from Canadian singer Kai, whose
vocals were featured on Flume’s
potent 2016 track ‘Never Be
Like You’. She was calling to
say they’d been nominated
for a Grammy award.
That a 26-year-old from Manly, who started out as a kid mixing
songs in his bedroom, would be in the running for the world’s most
prestigious music prize seems more than a little surreal. But, then
again, by this point the song was everywhere, selling millions of
copies, breaking the US top 20 and making it to No.1 on the ARIA
charts and Triple J’s Hottest 100. A Grammy nod seemed like
a natural progression.
In the end, it was ubiquitous Frat-boy duo The Chainsmokers who
took home the gong for Best Dance Recording, but it wasn’t all bad
news. Flume had actually been nominated for two Grammy Awards
and his album, Skin, won for Best Dance/Electronic Album.
“The after-party was fun,” says Streten, whose Grammy now adorns
his LA studio. “It was some house party in the Hollywood Hills and
there were just a lot of famous people there. I’m not really in those
circles. But it’s fun to see Justin Bieber roll through, with all these
huge security guards pushing everyone out of the way.”
Generally speaking, Streten is usually more excited about meeting
less paparazzi-friendly figures of the music scene – producers whose
work he admires, and who most people have probably never heard of- though he’s not entirely insulated from the showbiz scene. He moved
to LA in February and currently lives near British singer Charli XCX,
whose video for single, ‘Boys’, he also appeared in, earlier this year.
“I hang out with her a fair bit – she lives just around the corner,”
he says. “So that’s cool. And Diplo’s up the road.”
Has he dropped by Diplo’s place?
“Yeah, it’s crazy,” he says. “I didn’t hang around too long, but he
has a production room and Migos were in there – I walked in and it
was just like a cloud of weed smoke. But he has a really cool set up.
And he has chickens.”
“I walked in and it
was just like a cloud of
weed smoke. But he has
a really cool set up.
And he has chickens.”
O
Streten’s early years have become the stuff of Australian music
folklore. In 2011, going by the moniker Flume, he submitted a
three-track EP to a competition run by indie label Future Classic,
which was looking for emerging artists. He came in second place,
with the winner bagging some recording time in a studio – something
Streten didn’t need because he wasn’t in a band. Future Classic signed
him, anyway, and he’s been with them ever since.
Success came quickly. Flume released his self-titled debut album in
2012, which went to No.1 in Australia, was certified two-times
Platinum and hit 12 on the US Dance/Electronic Albums charts.
“It was kind of like dreams coming true, it was an awesome time,”
he says. “Everything was coming together. I managed to quit my job
at Hard Rock Cafe and that was a big deal because I fucking hated
that job. I was pretty stoked.”
But the newfound attention was also daunting. Until this point,
Streten had been busy mixing songs in his room for an audience of
approximately one. Now, he was being asked to get in front of a crowd
and put on a show.
“I’m not a performer, so being plonked up on stage in front of
thousands of people didn’t come naturally to me,” he says. “It was
cool to see that people actually cared about the music, but getting up
there freaked the shit out of me. I was so nervous the first few gigs.
But you get used to it.”
And he’s had plenty of opportunities to get used to it, since then.
2016 was a whirlwind of endless tour dates supporting Skin, with
Streten playing arenas and festivals across Europe, the US and
Australia. All up, there were more than 70 dates.
“It was fucking mental,” he says. “Nine months of touring. It was
super exhausting but so much fun and super rewarding. Let’s just say
I’m really looking forward to getting back in the studio and writing
some music again.
“I love being on the road but it takes a toll on me because it’s
a tough place to create. I go through huge phases of writer’s block.
And then I go through phases of creativity – it’s a really turbulent
thing. But I’ve learnt to not let it get me down.”
Streten is looking forward to getting back home to play Falls
Festival and Field Day later this year, though he’s also conscious
of how things have changed. During last year’s ARIA ceremony,
which he left with eight trophies, Streten called out the NSW
government’s controversial lockout laws for shuttering small venues.
“It’s pretty sad to be honest,” he says, of the nightlife in
Sydney. “Being from Manly, a lot of places I used to go are
shutting down or have shut down already. It’s definitely
changed a lot.”
Streten is tanned and taller than you might expect, his
hair is a windswept bed-head situation that the groomer
adjusts and readjusts after virtually every shot. He arrives
wearing a pair of square-framed Thom Browne glasses
that have a touch of LA hipster about them, but which are
undeniably a pretty great pair of glasses.
Despite his chilled vibe, Streten is quite guarded and
chooses his words carefully. “You have to be super careful,
now more than ever. Stuff that’s just a passing comment
can get warped, or quoted out of context and the media
turns it into some bullshit,” he says, citing a couple of
“unnamed publications” who’ve burnt him in the past.
“They gotta get clicks somehow.”134 GQ.COM.AU MEN OF THE YEAR 2017