Diplo Wants to 'Save the World' From Vampires, Mummies and Bad Guys

Posted on Jan 20th 2011 4:00PM by Linda Laban
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Daniel Boczarski, Redferns

Many of ace producer/DJ/music maker Diplo's dreams have come true in the past few years. But it seems the frequent M.I.A. collaborator still loves escaping into fantasy -- not exactly the 'Dungeons and Dragons' type, more the kind where superheroes zoom in and save the day.

"Jumping around and blowing up bad guys? That's something I'd always want to be part of," Diplo tells Spinner enthusiastically. In 2010, Diplo and longtime cohort Switch released their dynamic rave-y 'Guns Don't Kill People ... Lazers Do' under the name Major Lazer, a project that combined Diplo's love of music and superheroes. Was he a fan of comic books as a kid?

"Yeah, I think everybody is. Growing up, two things that were really big in my life were punk and reggae records and all of these referenced comic books all the time. Heavy metal too," says the suave Philly native. Apparently, things like metal god Dio battling a dragon attracted young Diplo to music's dark side. "The artwork was definitely fantastic. I don't see a lot of that anymore. Everything is really boring -- just people in their cars and in their houses. I want to see people murdering vampires and s---. That's way more fun."

One could assume that Diplo has been in seventh heaven with vampires becoming such a huge trend over the past few years, but that's not the case. "It was wizards to us years ago, it's vampires now. Vampires are always in and out of style. Major Lazer kills vampires, mummies, zombies and bad guys," he announces proudly.

So is Major Lazer Diplo's fantasy, futuristic alter ego? "The whole project is like that," he says. "We try and make something bigger than just us making music. We try to create a fantastic world, like the one I remember when I used to buy comic books. Like Michael Jackson, I never considered him an artist or anything. He was just a guy who would fly in and sing a song and save the world."

Major Lazer's 'Hold the Line' Video