Flume: “Honestly, ‘Palaces’ Didn't Do As Well As I Thought It Was Gonna Do"

Flume, aka Harley Streten, has come full circle. In the decade following his breakthrough eponymous debut, the electronic producer has headlined major festivals, won a Grammy and shifted the culture. Yet, after a tumultuous spell in Los Angeles, Streten returned to Australia in 2020, settling "up Byron way" and seeking perspective.

"There was the Black Lives Matter protests happening, COVID was happening…," Streten recalls. "It was just a lot of anxiety in the air; a lot of political unrest. I thought, 'I came over here to work with people' – and I couldn't do any of that.' So I came home. I did the 14-day quarantine and I'm glad I did!"

Streten ended up recording May's Palaces – an album that captures the prevailing disquiet. But, with its radical sonic hybridisation, Palaces is also a paean to Streten's hyperpop pal SOPHIE, whose passing last year shocked the music industry. Critically acclaimed, it's already a cult LP. 

In April Streten embarked on an extensive world tour – playing Coachella, where he was joined on stage by the prestigious Palaces guest Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz fame. Streten is now promoting his first Australian run since 2019's Listen Out (he was booked for 2020's ill-fated Splendour In The Grass). 

Curiously, Streten, just back from the US, isn't unwinding in his retreat in Brooklet – a hinterland town in New South Wales' Northern Rivers region. "I've just popped down to Melbourne to see a few friends before – and get some stuff ready before – it all gets hectic," he explains via Zoom, the video off. The 31-year-old has a lively social media presence but, in person, he's contemplative and occasionally diffident.

An inhabitant of Seaforth, in Sydney's northern suburbs, Streten swiftly progressed from triple j Unearthed bedroom boffin to global superstar. Signing to the local independent Future Classic on the basis of tunes like Sleepless, he delivered 2012's Flume – which eventually reached #1 on the ARIA Albums Chart. Streten scored several ARIAs – among them "Best Male Artist". "Honestly, I think I've had a really insane career where things have just constantly risen," Streten ponders. "The first record did far better than anyone had expected or thought about."

A post-DJ, Streten was identified with a new airy – and amorphous – electronic subgenre known as the "Australian sound", rivalling glitch-hop, chillwave and wonky. He effectively fronted an alt-EDM movement, alongside Seattle's ODESZA, that was soon subsumed into 'future bass'. Streten was perplexed, however. "What's funny is that it's called 'Australian dance music', because I never intended this project [Flume] to really be dance music," he maintains. "Most of the stuff I was putting out on the first record, at least, was like [at] hip hop speed – with hip hop drums or slow, basically. So it was kind of surprising to see people react the way they did." 

Streten has marked the 10th anniversary of Flume by sharing a demo recovered off an old laptop – its Aphex Twin-y title Slugger 1.4 [2014 Export.WAV] derived from the file name. The proto-Fred again.. epic is "actually pretty cool," he realised. "Creatively, I don't feel like it's where I'm at, at the moment, but it was a shame that it never really saw the light of day. I thought it'd be a nice opportunity to put it out."

Streten enjoyed international chart success with 2016's sophomore Skin – which, he concedes, "was more intense and definitely more dance music-focussed." Streten furnished a blockbuster DJ/producer album with marquee vocalists Tove Lo, Vince Staples and Beck, while spotlighting homegrown star KUČKA. He scooped more ARIAs, including "Album Of The Year". Streten was the earliest dance-type to top the triple j Hottest 100 – with Never Be Like You. Most impressively, he received a Grammy for "Best Dance/Electronic Album".

In 2017 Streten transplanted to LA. Two years later, he stealth-released a mixtape, Hi This Is Flume – but now doesn't consider it a mixtape. "I like to think of it as an album. The only reason I called it a mixtape was just 'cause it had a remix on there – I did a remix of a SOPHIE track [Is It Cold In The Water?, with Eprom]. In hindsight, I'm kind of like, 'Man, I should have just made this an album.'" Regardless, Streten didn't imagine that the enterprise would "get huge numbers" on streaming platforms, being "experimental," "leftfield" and containing "no songs". In fact, Hi This Is Flume was transitional.

Despite his apparent good fortune, Streten was struggling behind the scenes with performance anxiety and a related alcohol dependence – another justification for quitting the Hollywood Hills. 

"I think the first few years are just kind of nuts and surreal and, you know, 'I can't believe I have a job doing this!,'" he recollects. "[But] the next few [years] for me, at least, were like just grinding it out, doing an insane amount of shows and saying 'Yes' to everything 'cause [you think], 'Strike while the iron's hot, who knows how long it's gonna last?,' and then getting kind of depressed doing that – just working too hard, basically; getting kind of burned out.

"Then COVID happened – and that put a stop to that all. I spent two years in Oz, just living a real existence – like I had my local this; had a routine… It was just simple – and it was great and it's what I needed. 

"I think now I'm just trying to find that balance of looking after myself mentally, but still touring and getting out there and doing stuff."

It was in Brooklet where Streten conceived Palaces – discarding any vestiges of electro-pop for a dichotomously ravey and ambient sound. Complementing that hybridisation, Streten's curation tilts further into the avantground with such figures as the French polymath Oklou and Spanish DJ/producer Virgen Maria. Streten has had a hit with the liberatory lead single Say Nothing, showcasing Sydney newcomer MAY-A. But the album's pinnacle is the eerie Sirens, elevated by Caroline Polachek (and Danny L Harle's studio input).

Ultimately, Palaces is Streten's homage to SOPHIE. He collaborated with the Scottish auteur on Hi This Is Flume, yet the pair previously co-produced Staples' Yeah Right (featuring Kendrick Lamar) off the Long Beach rapper's IDM foray Big Fish Theory. Streten mourns the loss of his friend.

"I don't think I've ever been influenced by someone so much or so inspired by a single person," he confides. "Then, on top of that, to be able to call SOPHIE a friend and work with SOPHIE on so many different projects over the years, a bunch of songs on the mixtape… It's genuinely devastating, not only on a personal level, but on a creative level and a cultural level for the world. 

"I'm just happy, or [I] feel lucky, that I had these experiences – and also just learnt so much. We would have the most insane conversations about the world of music and how it affects things and just conversations that I wouldn't really have with other people. [SOPHIE had] just a really unique brain – fascinating, super smart. So, yeah, it fucking sucks."

Streten freely acknowledges that, so far, Palaces hasn't replicated the commercial achievements of Skin. "I feel like honestly, it didn't do as well as I thought it was gonna do – and I've kind of had to just roll with that," he says. "I mean, it didn't do bad, but it hasn't continued this unstoppable rise that I've been feeling for many years. 

"It doesn't feel like it's had as much impact as things in the past. So it took me a second to get my head around [that]. I felt a bit weird about that at first. But I'm really proud of all the songs on there and how it sounds and I love it." 

Streten attributes the album's underperformance to the pandemic aftermath. "There's probably an over-saturation [of music] 'cause everyone held their album back for two years – 'cause they couldn't tour it." Even Swedish House Mafia's reunion project Paradise Again, similarly launched at Coachella, has inexplicably floundered. Listeners are discovering releases gradually. Indeed, asked for his own favourite LP of 2022, Streten inadvertently cites Bicep's 2021 Isles before deciding on Hudson Mohawke's Cry Sugar. ("I was really into that!") 

Streten is looking ahead. He's long produced other artists – with a credit on Lorde's Melodrama. Latterly, Streten remixed the buzz PinkPantheress' Noticed I cried and co-helmed Sycco's Ripple. 

The musician admits that operating out of Brooklet is limiting. "I do crave the kind of intensity and being surrounded by people who are doing really exciting things – and I get that from LA. 

"I'm gonna be working next year a lot on just new music. I'm not really trying to do another record right now. I'm just trying to have some fun and make some stuff. So I'm looking forward to just getting back in [to sessions] – 'cause I couldn't really do it during COVID; I couldn't really work with anyone. There was a lot of solo stuff or online. So it'll be nice to be able to do in-person stuff – 'cause Flume is a collaborative project."

Streten is no purist. Amid lockdown, he remixed Eiffel 65's '90s Euro-dance anthem Blue (Da Ba Dee). The gamechanger has set himself more idiosyncratic challenges. "I've been playing saxophone a lot – I actually grew up playing saxophone, but I never really incorporated it into the music." Not that he's morphing into Kenny G. "I've been running [the sax] through some wild effects and weird plug-ins and things and getting some really interesting results," Streten enthuses. "It sounds like some kind of alien fucking flute instrument weird things."

And he's testing his abilities as a singer/songwriter. "I've been challenging myself with just writing cool songs and then also singing them – 'cause I do work with writers a lot, but I generally don't get super deep in on the lyrics."

Streten is psyched for his homecoming tour – which will take in three sold-out Spilt Milk festivals. "I'm just looking forward to playing to some Australian crowds – it's been a while." Streten's current live show has a nostalgic bent. "I've got such a deep catalogue now," he notes, "so we're playing lots of the older stuff. I feel like I've neglected some of the older stuff for a while." 

This month Streten is up for multiple categories at the ARIA Music Awards, but he won't be attending – the gala clashes with a Melbourne gig. "I think we're gonna jump on some kind of video link or something," he says. "But it's a shame I can't go. It's always a lot of fun… Maybe if I fly back from Melbourne, the parties will still be going, you know?"

FLUME LIVE
16 November - Riverstage - Brisbane
18 November - The Dome at Sydney Showground - Sydney
24 November - John Cain Arena - Melbourne
26 November - Exhibition Park for Spilt Milk Festival - Canberra
30 November - Adelaide Entertainment Centre - Adelaide
2 December - Regatta Grounds - Hobart
3 December - Victoria Park for Spilt Milk Festival - Ballarat
4 December - Doug Jennings Park for Spilt Milk Festival - Gold Coast