The road to success is paved with sacrifice, commitment, and an undying vision of your true ambitions. It is hardly ever an upward slope and often comes hand-in-hand with failure and low moments that will test even the most steadfast individuals.
Such is the path faced by artists and musicians across every genre, all of whom are at differing stages of this path. One artist, who made it out of the struggle, out of his bedroom studio, and onto the stage at places like Red Rocks, is Douglas Klann, AKA, Duffrey. Known to his friends as ‘Woody,’ this Long Beach-born, classically trained artist has had quite the journey.
From the early days of music exploration as a devout drummer in marching bands to more recent times as one of the biggest contributors to modern glitch-hop, Duffrey has undergone tremendous growth. This past September, at Autumn Revival Festival, we got the chance to learn a little more about this growth during a one-on-one sit-down with Duffrey.
The poolside interview, taking place on a beautiful campground during a late summer afternoon, explored a variety of topics including sobriety, fatherhood, touring, management, and a whole lot more. Keep scrolling to read the full interview or watch it below.
Maximilian Vanegas: At this point, you’ve been all across the world to both perform and explore. Have you ever taken any moments of inspiration from your travels into the studio?
Woody Klann: Absolutely. When I was living in Australia I absorbed a lot from the natural landscape and brought a couple concepts home. One of which was Return to Source, which is what I named one of my EPs. It was this idea that everything comes from the earth, has its life cycle, and then goes back to where it came from.
MV: Another journey you’ve been on is one of sobriety. How long have you been abstaining from alcohol now?
WK: It’s been a little over two and a half years.
MV: What went into this decision and what kind of benefits have you gained?
WK: I want to first say that I am not fully sober. I don’t want to conflate that. But
WK: What made me decide to give up alcohol was that I just wasn’t happy. I was really sad all the time and realized I was falling behind in ways. I could see a lot of my friends achieving more success and their music was getting better and I was wondering how I could do that. I realized they were working more consistently and harder than I was. Then I looked at why I wasn’t working hard and it was because I was always hungover and dealing with the guilt and shame that comes along with going too far all the time. So it incited me to make a change in my life. I always have to go through something really negative for me to make a change.
MV: It’s funny, alcohol is literally called a “depressant.” It’s meant to numb your sensations and your feelings. It’s those feelings that I think people use to fuel their creativity. So it’s almost like you’re shutting off a window of inspiration when you drink alcohol.
WK: Yeah, I mean for me it’s definitely like that. I don’t think it’s like that for everybody, but I do think the timing thing is a huge blockage for creativity. Not being you for longer and longer as you get older takes you out of the ability to create. I feel like a lot of creativity comes from showing up over and over again. The likelihood of inspiration striking goes up a lot if you’re always in the studio. And I found that I wasn’t in the studio because I was always recovering.
MV: So abstaining from alcohol is something much easier said than done, especially for touring artists. Do you have any advice to help avoid temptation while on the road?
WK: I don’t know if the way that I did it works for everybody, but I just isolated for a while. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to trust myself in certain situations, so I didn’t allow myself to be in those situations. Which is difficult and it’s isolating. It’s not necessarily fun to work on yourself like that. I will say it gets easier, especially if you do a little research and have some good friends to talk to. The biggest catalyst for me was just a mindset thing.
It was like, “I am done with this.” And it’s really hard at first because your brain is telling you that you’re not done with this. But when you start to make the decisions and you get in the driver’s seat with that aspect of your life, that starts to become maybe a dopamine blast in itself. And you get a little bit better at checking in with yourself and asking yourself, “How do I feel right now?” And if it’s not good, let’s deal with that. But maybe let’s think before we reach for the quickest-numbing agent.
MV: The shortcuts
WK: Yeah, exactly.
MV: Speaking of life on the road, you have had quite a busy touring schedule over the past two years. Cervantes, Burning Man, Red Rocks, and touring with Daily Bread were just some of the highlights. Could you share some of your favorite memories from this recent tour? Besides this interview of course.
WK: This moment is probably the best. Wouldn’t trade it for anything haha.
MV: I know, I know.
WK: But I think the Red Rocks play was really special because my mom, dad, and cousin John came out for that one. That really meant a lot. Also, touring with Daily Bread was really awesome. I learned a lot from him regarding how to navigate green room situations. He’s got a bunch of cool hacks.
WK: I don’t know what his deal is. But I know when we were on tour together he was really good at managing his consumption. We had really late nights and early mornings so dealing with drinking would’ve been difficult. I’m definitely grateful that he was on the same sort of wave.
MV: What is your perception of [Daily Bread] after touring together?
WK: He’s my homie and we text every now and then, but we don’t have a super tight relationship by any means. But the way that he treats people with humility and grace is admirable. I also was not expecting him to be such a wide source of music knowledge. The guy knows a lot.
WK: Yeah [Daily Bread] just knows so much about music and a lot of his songs are making connections through the artists that he’s using and what their songs are talking about. He will weave a web through all this stuff in a really interesting way and it’s something that I wasn’t privy to before I was on tour with him. I didn’t realize how deep the lore goes. I think that’s a neat thing to try to cultivate – building your own deep lore and giving people more and more stories to discover as they explore the music.
MV: What would you say are some of your biggest support systems while you’re on tour?
WK: I’ve got a friend Daniel first who taught me how to DJ and he is a few years older than I am. We went to the same college and he’s got two kids and we talk multiple times a week and I can always just unload with him and he does the same with me. It’s kind of like a no-judgments zone where we can bitch about things. He’s always been there for me in that regard.
MV: Good to have friends like that.
WK: Absolutely. Then I also look for support from other touring artists who have been through it and understand that it’s not necessarily sunshine and rainbows the whole time. I’ve reached out to Becca [VEIL] before to talk about how she does it because she plays so many shows. It’s nice because, I dunno, creating is always better than complaining, but when you want to complain, it’s just nice to have somebody there.
MV: It’s human nature to want to let out some frustrations. And I think that if you don’t find healthy ways to let them out, they turn into unhealthy ways.
WK: Absolutely.
MV: So another support system, which you may have forgotten to mention, is your management team.
WK: Oh that’s right!
MV: As someone who’s experienced different teams in the past, what do you think makes a good manager?
Adonis Powell, Duffrey, Tynan Conroy
WK: I think what you’re looking for in a manager changes during the course of your career. Maybe at the beginning, it’s a close friend who really cares about what you’re doing and keeps checking in with you because they care about you. I found that to be pretty helpful at first. What I like about my current team is that Adonis (Mind Warp Management) is always coming up with ideas. The fact that there’s someone other than me coming up with ideas takes some of the pressure off.
MV: More so meant to suggest and inform.
WK: Yeah, and at the end of the day, the management and the agent work for the artist. While you don’t always have to go with what they say, if you’re going to pay somebody to give you ideas, you should probably utilize them.
MV: So we’ve been chatting a lot about journeys during this conversation and perhaps one of the biggest journeys you’ve embarked on recently, as well as myself, is one of fatherhood. I’d love for you to chat a little bit about what becoming a father has done to your creative inspiration and perception on life.
WK: At first [having a kid] freaked me out. I was like, ‘I need a different job, I need to do everything differently.’ Then management was like, “I think you will be able to do this. We’ve got other people that do this and it’s definitely doable.” Then once I got my head on straight and came to terms with what reality was going to be, it’s been an insane driving force to do this as well as I can for as long as I can to show my son what’s possible. To show him how good we can have it if we just try hard.
Cuttoff*** which is kind of like a fairytale, and everybody has different levels of luck and everything, but it still pushes me to give it my all to see what we can build out of this. It’s also a lot of motivation to do better to pay the bills.
MV: I can definitely resonate with that. I had a couple of things that I wanted to accomplish, and it was like, ‘Alright Max, it’s time to get to work.’ You can’t wait for your dreams to happen. Especially when, as you said, we want these dreams to start paying some bills.
MV: One fear of mine concerning the little ones, out of the many that come with having a kid, is the digital world and social media. How it’s very much a double-edged sword. You can use it to promote yourself and grow your business, but you can also use it to drive yourself crazy comparing yourself to other people. What advice do you have for artists trying to approach the world of social media authentically and in a similar way that you have?
WK: My suggestion [for approaching social media] is not to be afraid of being cringe, because you’re probably not as cringe as you think you are. And even if you are, who cares? There will always be somebody more cringe. And if people have a problem with you or judge you, it’s a reflection of them. As hippie-dippie as it sounds, we’re a reflection of each other, and at the end of the day, if somebody is upset with you for being yourself, that’s fully on them.
Also, the way that I do it is not the way that you need to do it. You don’t need to put your face all over the screen all the time. I would also recommend not to overlook the free marketing. People that avoid it just because it’s not what they want to do, I fully get that. It’s not what I want to do either, but it’s an incredibly powerful tool and, in my opinion, would be foolish not to integrate it in some way.
MV: Definitely a necessary evil. You mentioned this topic about people not trying to be cringe. I think one thing the digital world has led to is everyone trying to be too cool. And I think that’s a big issue on dance floors as well. A lot of people are trying to retain this image of being too cool and I think that people need to shake that.
WK: I mean, it’s difficult to shake when you feel like you’re perpetually observed. I’ve been to a wedding before where everybody’s on the dance floor and everybody’s vibing and then the wedding photographer comes in like a bull in a China shop, just clumsily into the dance floor, is flashing people and everybody stops dancing. So I feel like the constant sharing of information might have to do with it for sure.
MV: Maybe a little bit on the photographer as well.
WK: Yea a little bit on the photographer. But I don’t know, I’ve always tried to make music and content that’s silly. It definitely limits how much fun you can have if you’re worried about being cool all the time. Sometimes the crazy guy that’s dancing looks crazy when he is one person, but then a whole crew of other people come up and start dancing with him, and all of a sudden he’s not so crazy.
MV: Yeah, I remember there’ve been instances where I’ve met some of those crazy people dancing and you come to find out that they’re totally sober or something and that’s just their thing.
WK: They’re like an astrophysicist.
MV: Exactly. And I think it shows the intelligence of those people. They want to have fun, they want to express themselves and they want to be free. And so I think that’s a testament to that.
WK: It’s hard to do that. It’s hard to get to a point where you want to shake around and act crazy without crutches.
MV: Hopefully we can start moving in that direction, but we have some ways to go. Let’s now step away from the digital world, unplug for a second, and breathe some oxygen. We’re in a beautiful place right now at a beautiful event.
WK: Ramblewood!
MV: Camp Ramblewood baby, at Autumn Revival, thrown by some people who are friends of mine and who I think are some friends of yours. What do you love about smaller boutique festivals like this?
WK: I like that you can meet somebody, see them later that day, and actually cultivate a bond. Since there are fewer people, you’re actually going to talk to them more authentically. I also find that attendees at smaller festivals care a little bit more and have a sense of camaraderie.
MV: Yeah they definitely act more cordial. Walking through a crowd you are less likely to bombard through it.
WK: Yeah. You’re not going to throw a bunch of bows if you’re going to have to turn around and talk to the guy.Itforces you to be nice.
MV: It sucks that has to be the case for some people.
WK: Well I think it’s just a natural phenomenon. I don’t think people want to be shitty and I don’t think people inherently are shitty. I do think that huge crowds breed that sort of behavior. You almost stop realizing that these are people around you because you’re a part of this big crowd. I always say at the end of my sets to take care of each other. You’re here to create this experience together and as much as the DJ is a part of the show, so are the people around you. You’re all here to create this experience together so you might as well create something beautiful.
MV: Speaking of creating something beautiful, what’s your favorite part about working with the people involved with Autumn Revival?
WK: I really like working with Natalie and Sol (Good Productions). And the Kouch Kollective guys too – Zach is great. They’re all just really passionate about what they do and focused on sound – which I think is important. They create a great sense of community and are genuinely really nice people.
MV: I’m sure that they’re just as grateful for you as you are for them. Before we sign off, do you have anything you want to share with us?
WK: Yeah, I’ve got an EP that should be out by the time this interview airs called Exuberant Jubilee.
MV: Woody, thank you so much man. I appreciate you chatting with us.
WK: Cheers!
For future show announcements, releases, and all things Duffrey, follow the links below!
The road to success is paved with sacrifice, commitment, and an undying vision of your true ambitions. It is hardly ever an upward slope and often comes hand-in-hand with failure and low moments that will test even the most steadfast individuals.
Such is the path faced by artists and musicians across every genre, all of whom are at differing stages of this path. One artist, who made it out of the struggle, out of his bedroom studio, and onto the stage at places like Red Rocks, is Douglas Klann, AKA, Duffrey. Known to his friends as ‘Woody,’ this Long Beach-born, classically trained artist has had quite the journey.
From the early days of music exploration as a devout drummer in marching bands to more recent times as one of the biggest contributors to modern glitch-hop, Duffrey has undergone tremendous growth. This past September, at Autumn Revival Festival, we got the chance to learn a little more about this growth during a one-on-one sit-down with Duffrey.
The poolside interview, taking place on a beautiful campground during a late summer afternoon, explored a variety of topics including sobriety, fatherhood, touring, management, and a whole lot more. Keep scrolling to read the full interview or watch it below.
Maximilian Vanegas: At this point, you’ve been all across the world to both perform and explore. Have you ever taken any moments of inspiration from your travels into the studio?
Woody Klann: Absolutely. When I was living in Australia I absorbed a lot from the natural landscape and brought a couple concepts home. One of which was Return to Source, which is what I named one of my EPs. It was this idea that everything comes from the earth, has its life cycle, and then goes back to where it came from.
MV: Another journey you’ve been on is one of sobriety. How long have you been abstaining from alcohol now?
WK: It’s been a little over two and a half years.
MV: What went into this decision and what kind of benefits have you gained?
WK: I want to first say that I am not fully sober. I don’t want to conflate that. But
WK: What made me decide to give up alcohol was that I just wasn’t happy. I was really sad all the time and realized I was falling behind in ways. I could see a lot of my friends achieving more success and their music was getting better and I was wondering how I could do that. I realized they were working more consistently and harder than I was. Then I looked at why I wasn’t working hard and it was because I was always hungover and dealing with the guilt and shame that comes along with going too far all the time. So it incited me to make a change in my life. I always have to go through something really negative for me to make a change.
MV: It’s funny, alcohol is literally called a “depressant.” It’s meant to numb your sensations and your feelings. It’s those feelings that I think people use to fuel their creativity. So it’s almost like you’re shutting off a window of inspiration when you drink alcohol.
WK: Yeah, I mean for me it’s definitely like that. I don’t think it’s like that for everybody, but I do think the timing thing is a huge blockage for creativity. Not being you for longer and longer as you get older takes you out of the ability to create. I feel like a lot of creativity comes from showing up over and over again. The likelihood of inspiration striking goes up a lot if you’re always in the studio. And I found that I wasn’t in the studio because I was always recovering.
MV: So abstaining from alcohol is something much easier said than done, especially for touring artists. Do you have any advice to help avoid temptation while on the road?
WK: I don’t know if the way that I did it works for everybody, but I just isolated for a while. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to trust myself in certain situations, so I didn’t allow myself to be in those situations. Which is difficult and it’s isolating. It’s not necessarily fun to work on yourself like that. I will say it gets easier, especially if you do a little research and have some good friends to talk to. The biggest catalyst for me was just a mindset thing.
It was like, “I am done with this.” And it’s really hard at first because your brain is telling you that you’re not done with this. But when you start to make the decisions and you get in the driver’s seat with that aspect of your life, that starts to become maybe a dopamine blast in itself. And you get a little bit better at checking in with yourself and asking yourself, “How do I feel right now?” And if it’s not good, let’s deal with that. But maybe let’s think before we reach for the quickest-numbing agent.
MV: The shortcuts
WK: Yeah, exactly.
MV: Speaking of life on the road, you have had quite a busy touring schedule over the past two years. Cervantes, Burning Man, Red Rocks, and touring with Daily Bread were just some of the highlights. Could you share some of your favorite memories from this recent tour? Besides this interview of course.
WK: This moment is probably the best. Wouldn’t trade it for anything haha.
MV: I know, I know.
WK: But I think the Red Rocks play was really special because my mom, dad, and cousin John came out for that one. That really meant a lot. Also, touring with Daily Bread was really awesome. I learned a lot from him regarding how to navigate green room situations. He’s got a bunch of cool hacks.
MV: Is he also sober?
WK: I don’t know what his deal is. But I know when we were on tour together he was really good at managing his consumption. We had really late nights and early mornings so dealing with drinking would’ve been difficult. I’m definitely grateful that he was on the same sort of wave.
MV: What is your perception of [Daily Bread] after touring together?
WK: He’s my homie and we text every now and then, but we don’t have a super tight relationship by any means. But the way that he treats people with humility and grace is admirable. I also was not expecting him to be such a wide source of music knowledge. The guy knows a lot.
MV: Dude loves crate digging.
WK: Yeah [Daily Bread] just knows so much about music and a lot of his songs are making connections through the artists that he’s using and what their songs are talking about. He will weave a web through all this stuff in a really interesting way and it’s something that I wasn’t privy to before I was on tour with him. I didn’t realize how deep the lore goes. I think that’s a neat thing to try to cultivate – building your own deep lore and giving people more and more stories to discover as they explore the music.
MV: What would you say are some of your biggest support systems while you’re on tour?
WK: I’ve got a friend Daniel first who taught me how to DJ and he is a few years older than I am. We went to the same college and he’s got two kids and we talk multiple times a week and I can always just unload with him and he does the same with me. It’s kind of like a no-judgments zone where we can bitch about things. He’s always been there for me in that regard.
MV: Good to have friends like that.
WK: Absolutely. Then I also look for support from other touring artists who have been through it and understand that it’s not necessarily sunshine and rainbows the whole time. I’ve reached out to Becca [VEIL] before to talk about how she does it because she plays so many shows. It’s nice because, I dunno, creating is always better than complaining, but when you want to complain, it’s just nice to have somebody there.
MV: It’s human nature to want to let out some frustrations. And I think that if you don’t find healthy ways to let them out, they turn into unhealthy ways.
WK: Absolutely.
MV: So another support system, which you may have forgotten to mention, is your management team.
WK: Oh that’s right!
MV: As someone who’s experienced different teams in the past, what do you think makes a good manager?
WK: I think what you’re looking for in a manager changes during the course of your career. Maybe at the beginning, it’s a close friend who really cares about what you’re doing and keeps checking in with you because they care about you. I found that to be pretty helpful at first. What I like about my current team is that Adonis (Mind Warp Management) is always coming up with ideas. The fact that there’s someone other than me coming up with ideas takes some of the pressure off.
MV: More so meant to suggest and inform.
WK: Yeah, and at the end of the day, the management and the agent work for the artist. While you don’t always have to go with what they say, if you’re going to pay somebody to give you ideas, you should probably utilize them.
MV: So we’ve been chatting a lot about journeys during this conversation and perhaps one of the biggest journeys you’ve embarked on recently, as well as myself, is one of fatherhood. I’d love for you to chat a little bit about what becoming a father has done to your creative inspiration and perception on life.
WK: At first [having a kid] freaked me out. I was like, ‘I need a different job, I need to do everything differently.’ Then management was like, “I think you will be able to do this. We’ve got other people that do this and it’s definitely doable.” Then once I got my head on straight and came to terms with what reality was going to be, it’s been an insane driving force to do this as well as I can for as long as I can to show my son what’s possible. To show him how good we can have it if we just try hard.
Cuttoff*** which is kind of like a fairytale, and everybody has different levels of luck and everything, but it still pushes me to give it my all to see what we can build out of this. It’s also a lot of motivation to do better to pay the bills.
MV: I can definitely resonate with that. I had a couple of things that I wanted to accomplish, and it was like, ‘Alright Max, it’s time to get to work.’ You can’t wait for your dreams to happen. Especially when, as you said, we want these dreams to start paying some bills.
MV: One fear of mine concerning the little ones, out of the many that come with having a kid, is the digital world and social media. How it’s very much a double-edged sword. You can use it to promote yourself and grow your business, but you can also use it to drive yourself crazy comparing yourself to other people. What advice do you have for artists trying to approach the world of social media authentically and in a similar way that you have?
WK: My suggestion [for approaching social media] is not to be afraid of being cringe, because you’re probably not as cringe as you think you are. And even if you are, who cares? There will always be somebody more cringe. And if people have a problem with you or judge you, it’s a reflection of them. As hippie-dippie as it sounds, we’re a reflection of each other, and at the end of the day, if somebody is upset with you for being yourself, that’s fully on them.
Also, the way that I do it is not the way that you need to do it. You don’t need to put your face all over the screen all the time. I would also recommend not to overlook the free marketing. People that avoid it just because it’s not what they want to do, I fully get that. It’s not what I want to do either, but it’s an incredibly powerful tool and, in my opinion, would be foolish not to integrate it in some way.
MV: Definitely a necessary evil. You mentioned this topic about people not trying to be cringe. I think one thing the digital world has led to is everyone trying to be too cool. And I think that’s a big issue on dance floors as well. A lot of people are trying to retain this image of being too cool and I think that people need to shake that.
WK: I mean, it’s difficult to shake when you feel like you’re perpetually observed. I’ve been to a wedding before where everybody’s on the dance floor and everybody’s vibing and then the wedding photographer comes in like a bull in a China shop, just clumsily into the dance floor, is flashing people and everybody stops dancing. So I feel like the constant sharing of information might have to do with it for sure.
MV: Maybe a little bit on the photographer as well.
WK: Yea a little bit on the photographer. But I don’t know, I’ve always tried to make music and content that’s silly. It definitely limits how much fun you can have if you’re worried about being cool all the time. Sometimes the crazy guy that’s dancing looks crazy when he is one person, but then a whole crew of other people come up and start dancing with him, and all of a sudden he’s not so crazy.
MV: Yeah, I remember there’ve been instances where I’ve met some of those crazy people dancing and you come to find out that they’re totally sober or something and that’s just their thing.
WK: They’re like an astrophysicist.
MV: Exactly. And I think it shows the intelligence of those people. They want to have fun, they want to express themselves and they want to be free. And so I think that’s a testament to that.
WK: It’s hard to do that. It’s hard to get to a point where you want to shake around and act crazy without crutches.
MV: Hopefully we can start moving in that direction, but we have some ways to go. Let’s now step away from the digital world, unplug for a second, and breathe some oxygen. We’re in a beautiful place right now at a beautiful event.
WK: Ramblewood!
MV: Camp Ramblewood baby, at Autumn Revival, thrown by some people who are friends of mine and who I think are some friends of yours. What do you love about smaller boutique festivals like this?
WK: I like that you can meet somebody, see them later that day, and actually cultivate a bond. Since there are fewer people, you’re actually going to talk to them more authentically. I also find that attendees at smaller festivals care a little bit more and have a sense of camaraderie.
MV: Yeah they definitely act more cordial. Walking through a crowd you are less likely to bombard through it.
WK: Yeah. You’re not going to throw a bunch of bows if you’re going to have to turn around and talk to the guy. It forces you to be nice.
MV: It sucks that has to be the case for some people.
WK: Well I think it’s just a natural phenomenon. I don’t think people want to be shitty and I don’t think people inherently are shitty. I do think that huge crowds breed that sort of behavior. You almost stop realizing that these are people around you because you’re a part of this big crowd. I always say at the end of my sets to take care of each other. You’re here to create this experience together and as much as the DJ is a part of the show, so are the people around you. You’re all here to create this experience together so you might as well create something beautiful.
MV: Speaking of creating something beautiful, what’s your favorite part about working with the people involved with Autumn Revival?
WK: I really like working with Natalie and Sol (Good Productions). And the Kouch Kollective guys too – Zach is great. They’re all just really passionate about what they do and focused on sound – which I think is important. They create a great sense of community and are genuinely really nice people.
MV: I’m sure that they’re just as grateful for you as you are for them. Before we sign off, do you have anything you want to share with us?
WK: Yeah, I’ve got an EP that should be out by the time this interview airs called Exuberant Jubilee.
MV: Woody, thank you so much man. I appreciate you chatting with us.
WK: Cheers!
For future show announcements, releases, and all things Duffrey, follow the links below!
Follow Duffrey:
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