Flume is expected to pick up lots of gongs at this week’s ARIA Awards. Picture: Chris Pavlich
IT was the most unexpected perk of fame for a young electronic music producer hailing from Sydney’s northern beaches.
Flume was in the middle of the gruelling American leg of his world tour when he was invited by legendary surfer Kelly Slater to ride his Wave Pool at a landlocked “surf ranch” in central California.
“I’m about to ride an artificial wave for the first time, at Kelly Slater’s own wavepool ... and I am insanely excited right now,” he says in Flume Adventures video filmed of the special day. “This is like a dream of ours from high school.”
Flume, the alter ego of Harley Streten, has been riding the wave of success for the past four years, building on his early remixes and EPs with a breakthrough self-titled debut album which thrust him onto the world stage at marquee festivals, from our own Splendour In The Grass to Coachella in Palm Springs.
Flume got a star-studded crowd dancing like maniacs at the Coachella Festival. Picture: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.Source:Getty Images
The release of his much-anticipated second album Skin in May elevated him to a headliner at Splendour and an artist-not-to-miss at this year’s Coachella.
Flume was so popular at the annual Californian festival which attracts the world’s hottest young celebrities that a couple of superstars claimed his lighting desk for their own private dancefloor.
His manager was annoyed at the intrusion in the off-limits area but blocked by security from ejecting the exuberant dancers who happened to be Taylor Swift and Gigi Hadid.
It’s been a hell of a year for Streten and he returns home this week to prepare for the Australian leg of the tour, the biggest arena shows of his career here, and rock up to the ARIA Awards on Wednesday where he is up for eight awards including the big ones, Album of The Year and Best Male Artist.
As far as this grounded and grateful 25-year-old is concerned, he has already won the biggest prize even though he wasn’t here to accept it.
Streten was named Engineer of the Year with his Eric Dubowsky and his Skin album cover designed by Australian artist Jonathan Zawada won Best Album Art at the ARIA Artisan Awards presentation last month.
But Producer of the Year is the dangerously pointed status which will take pride of place in the Streten family home.
Flume rocks a Jack London suit from David Jones Picture: Chris Pavlich.Source:News Corp Australia
“Those were the biggest deal to me, even though I know those awards aren’t televised,” he says.
“I am a producer, I am an engineer and I spend so much time, so many hours working on the technical side of things to get here.
“It’s kind of surreal to go into the offices of my label Future Classic now and see the amount of platinum and gold records lined up in there.
“It’s f---ing crazy.”
Like the majority of artists who enjoy breakthrough success with their debut, Streten felt the pressure to make lightning strike twice.
But the great expectations weren’t coming from the label or his management.
They were entirely self-imposed.
“I felt I had set a benchmark and I wanted to live up to it. I wanted fans to be happy with it. I wanted to be happy,” he says.
The happiness is real. Skin’s debut single Never Be Like You featured Canadian singer Kai, reached No. 1 on the ARIA charts and four-times platinum sales — that’s more than 280,000 copies. Oh, and top 20 on the US Billboard charts with platinum sales of more than one million copies, probably mostly downloads. And 264 million Spotify streams.
The next single Say It, featuring Swedish artist Tove Lo remains in the top 50 here after seven months, has hit the triple platinum mark and amassed more than 154 million streams.
Flume’s sales and streaming statistics are staggering and have converted into hundreds of thousands of concert tickets.
According to the New York Times, Streten generated income in the low seven figures in 2014. That figure would surely be eclipsed by the end of the Skin album campaign sometime in 2017.
The only documented big boy’s toy he has given gifted is a $200,000 Tesla. And he gave billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk tips on how to improve it at the Tesla CEO’s request.
“Yeah I read that article, which was kinda weird. Let’s say I’m doing all right,” he says.
Tove Lo is expected to join Flume on stage at the ARIA Awards. Picture: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images.Source:Getty Images
His opportunity to drive that Model S around Sydney has been limited this year because of touring.
Streten isn’t complaining because he is thoroughly enjoying the tour, if not the vagaries of life on the road.
“I have lived on a tour bus pretty much and I struggle being in airconditioning 24/7,” he says.
“It’s tough to feel healthy and vibrant in that environment so when I come back home I try to load up on sleep and vitamins and lots of running. And I try to see people and keep in touch with everyone, the normal human life things.
“You can definitely get really burnt out really quickly, especially if you are surrounded by the wrong people.”
The fiercely independent Team Flume keeps him going, his label, his management, his friends and his family, including father Glen and mother Lyndall, forming a protective circle.
“Dad had retired from his work and had all this free time so he got super involved in it all, especially the business side and it’s great to have him involved because his only motivation is to look out for me,” he says.
“It’s important for me to keep creating; if I stop creating, it freaks me out.
“I tried to stop (doing) music for a week, thought I would just watch TV and do nothing but I ended up feeling anxiety about not creating anything.”
Flume won an impressive four trophies at the 2013 ARIA Awards. Picture: News Corp Australia.Source:News Limited
He has a grand plan to facilitate his creative drive. Streten will base himself in the US next year to enjoy more opportunities to collaborate. His particular inspiration is DJ Mr Carmark, known as Aaron to his mates.
“He’s got a real cool set-up, a share house he lives in with a bunch of friends who all produce music and a few minutes walk around the block, there’s another house which has studios in every room. I thought it was the coolest thing ever,” Streten says.
“It would be awesome to set up something like that, create a little community of artists.”
A more immediate task is to find a suit for the ARIA Awards. Streten likes playing with fashion, offering new apparel and accessory merchandise online in collaboration with his design partner Zawada.
He is that rare male musician who enjoys modelling a Jack London suit or the latest gear from David Jones who look after several of the ARIA nominees with their award outfits.
“Suits do look good; they have always looked good on artists,” he says, laughing.
* The 2016 ARIA Awards are broadcast on Ten from 7.30pm on Wednesday.