A Shining Example

IDC is electro fiend David McCarthy, a former indie-dance DJ who has immersed himself in electro since the Millennium. He used to run and DJ at Popscene at the Astoria, the London night dubbed ‘The Indie Superclub’ by Time Out last century before he became a bootleg ‘mash-up’ specialist in the early noughties.

 “We had a new one played each week on Xfm for a year and got paid for making a load of them for the MTV show MTV Mash,” he tells DJmag.com. “Some of these got me my first mentions in DJmag in a column that used to be called Booty Call...”

 What does IDC stand for, then? “It means whatever you want it to be, a personal acronym for everyone,” he smirks. “It has a secret meaning to me which will be revealed when I top the single and album charts on both sides of the Atlantic simultaneously.”

 The first IDC album in 2008, ‘Overthrow The Boss Class’ was a musical call to arms. “It was a rallying cry to tear down the dinosaur 'superstar DJ' old guard,” says McCarthy, “a situationist sonic statement of intent for t-shirts and mouse mats that never were.”

 And now the new soon-come electronic punk-funk opus ‘The Sun Is Always Shining Above The Clouds’, out in August on Corsair Records, again has IDC playing a whole variety of instruments on the album. “I play loads of different instruments on it including Rickenbaker bass guitar, piano, cello, flugel horn, kettle drums, Hammond organ and loads of feedback guitar,” he informs, “and it's got the only song ever to feature the words ‘Hegelian dialectic’. There's also an amazing guest appearance from the legendary Davy Henderson [from influential indie band the Fire Engines].”

 IDC’s anarchic mischief extends to sampling unusual things, including a crowd of protestors at the G20 summit a little while ago for ‘This Is Not A Riot’. “That came from a friend of mine, Chairman Miaaoow, who went round the world taping crowd chants at demos as ‘a modern folk music’,” he reveals. “I used some vocal phrases from the recordings and also sampled the American police 'sonic weapon' LRAD device to use as a musical instument. And then got it played on Radio 1!”

 Saying that he currently rates Liam Gallagher’s new band Beady Eye, Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi's ‘Rome’, “and ‘Smile’ era Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks (again)” at the moment, we ask him if there’s anything else he wants to tell us.

 “Yes. If you stand for something you won't fall for anything.”