A Quaint Conversation on the new Collaborative DOS Project

Individually, Ilya Goldberg and Random Rab have extraordinarily fruitful careers on their own merits, with the former both through his Lapa project and being Doug Appling’s right hand man in Emancipator, and the latter through a dedicated, double-decade approach to the Random Rab sound. Their creative talents have existed in parallel for at least the last 10 years, filling the space with melodic, instrumentally-driven trip-hop and downtempo music on numerous lineups across the touring and festival circuit. With such a self-evident sonic crossover, it was only a matter of time before these not so disparate camps found themselves unified under the same banner, and this year saw the inception of their collaborative project, DOS.

Where others may feel the need to pull from and establish entirely fresh palettes of sound and influence for on-going collaborations, Rab and Goldberg don’t just lean further into their respective creative lanes; they actively elaborate on the air-tight fit of their compositional and instrumental backgrounds. DOS’ self-titled LP, released in February of this year, doesn’t feel so much like a third path taken as much as it feels like a maturation of both individual inputs. The benefit is as clear as the overall mixdown; there’s no lag or lull in their collaborative arrangements, with both musicians letting the multitude of instrumental layers blend as they will, and rest when they need to.

While combinations of popular producers from within the studio are in no shortage of supply, such a naturally congruent mix always has a particular shine to it, and we’d be remiss not to dive further into the makeup of the DOS dynamic. Consequently, and ahead of their appearance at Secret Dreams later this month, the Rust felt it necessary to have a quaint conversation with these artists on the nature of their collaborations, the inception of the project, and the lens through which they view their own musicality.

The Rust: Where does your relationship with one another start? Did you meet as a consequence of your creative projects?

DOS: We met at Burning Man (year?) We were both on our way to play a set.  When we first met, we instantly said that we need to make music together.  This was before either of us had even heard each other play.  I think we both instantly knew there was some sort of connection that needed to be explored.  We started by collaborating on our first track which was Vapour Train off the Random Rab album aRose.  Since then we wrote over 20 songs before finally deciding to start a new project with its own identity.


The Rust: Why start this new collaborative project? What was the genesis point for DOS?

DOS: We had done a lot of collaborations and sets together.  However everything either fell under the Random Rab or LAPA umbrella.  While we love these songs, there was always a feeling that we weren’t able to explore a true artistic collaboration.  Somewhere along the line we decided that we needed to make an album together that was more 50/50 and allowed us both to forget about our individual identities and be a part of something fresh and completely unexplored.


The Rust: There's a notable overlap in the style of your individual works, particularly regarding a focus on laid back and pensive compositions; what was the initial writing process for the DOS project like for the both of you? 

DOS: Our approach has always been “when we both say yes, it’s a yes”  This allows us to avoid any kind of conflicts or confusion.  Basically if we both agree, it’s a go.  This makes the whole process very relaxed and explorational.  It’s true that a lot of these songs might feel more laid back, but there’s an intensity to the production 


The Rust: The landscape of contemporary electronic music tends to lean towards a much grittier array of motifs. Can you talk a bit about your experiences within that dynamic? What keeps you both drawn to the more grounded palettes of your overall works?

DOS: We are passionate about true self expression which naturally comes out as the music we hear.  We made the creative decision to be less concerned with what is happening in the scene at large and more focused on what’s in our hearts.


The Rust: While your self-titled album contains trace elements and infusions of your individual works, it carries itself with a much more distinct world-music appeal, especially in the percussive sense. Was this a conscious choice, or a consequence of happenstance? 

DOS: Everything we do is a conscious choice.  We have an array of acoustic instruments and percussion which bring irreplaceable textures to our sound.  We also collaborate extensively with our friend Custom Phil who injects custom fire to all of our percussive elements.  Although we generally perform as a duo, we bring out Custom Phil to a handful of select performances.  For instance, we’ll be performing with him at Red Rocks on July 22.



The Rust: How much energy are you looking to put into the DOS project? Was this a convenient outlet at a convenient moment, or are you looking to dive headfirst into this new collaborative environment? 

DOS: Rather than seeing this as a convenient opportunity, we see this as a natural evolution of our decade long collaboration.  Our goal with DOS is to keep it special and always bring a unique performance and audio experience to our listeners.


The Rust: What can we expect from future DOS releases? Are you sensing a stride with the styles and grooves that dominate the debut album?

DOS: We are currently working on some new singles and have another album in the works. For our live performances we strive to bring a balance of lush melodic content and undeniably danceable grooves.