DJ Diplo discovers himself and music's authentic future in timeless country sounds

Seated in the Porter Wagoner-honoring "Wagonmaster" dressing room at the Grand Ole Opry or perusing vintage country and western wear at Opryland's Wicked Ollie's Vintage, DJ Diplo does not appear to be the same person whose globe-trotting schedule in the past six months has seen him at the World Cup in Qatar, running the Los Angeles Marathon, and headlining at the Stagecoach Festival.

But, as he's quick to point out, he's a western fashion-adoring and Tupelo-born former resident of both Nashville's suburbs and Broward County, Florida. Though his parents weren't huge music fans, they did count the Gatlin Brothers as one of their favorite acts.

Thus, as a house, techno, trap and tropical house producer of his own material — plus work with Bad Bunny, Justin Bieber and Beyoncé, among many others — the recently released second volume of his "Thomas Wesley" project "Swamp Savant" that reimagines country music in various dance-ready iterations is near and dear to his creative and emotional core.

"Fighting the real fight to [advance culture] requires maintaining the intention to obsessively explore and discover how to make the music you love," says Diplo, whose real name is Thomas Wesley Pentz.

He now works so much in country music that Nashville visits, including seeing "Thomas Wesley" contributors like emerging Americana star Sierra Ferrell or singer-songwriter Lily Rose in their natural Music City habitats, are essential.

He realizes, however, that people are aware the dance music culture he has come to define for the past decade is "tired." Therefore, while trying not to seem like a carpetbagging industry favorite scouring Music Row studios for artists and potential hit singles, he occupies a space as the genre's ultimate outsider of the moment.

More than a country artist, he believes himself to be instead an artists and repertoire representative and songwriter persistently interested by country music — be it the aesthetic, fashion, or just sheer love of great songs. His Grammy-winning pop renown allows him to achieve a curious intrigue while on the fringe of country's mainstream industry.

This isn't new territory for Diplo. He has constantly eschewed major-label politics.

Instead, his hip-hop culture-inspired creative pocket finds him on a freewheeling, future-forward and tech-savvy spree. It only intersects with large-market commerce and corporate interests when they — driven by his live event attendance and streaming numbers — want to subsidize his impassioned song-searching.

The labels' goal? Bolstering their economic bottom line.

His developing skills in country music have best impacted the genre's bottom-line revenues to date at the Stagecoach Festival, playing "still huge, decades-old sing-a-long songs."

"Hip-hop and pop songs now have incredibly short, 'flash-in-the-pan' and hype-driven shelf lives," he says. "However, country music has forever been built on timeless songs with enduring appeal."

In the digital realm, though, country music's timeless appeal is merged with binge streaming on a series of playlists, leading to even greater hype and even shorter shelf lives in other genres.

Streaming, paired with artists who constantly tour and the demand to maintain a perpetual connection with fans, super-sizes the impact of a hit song as part of a larger artistic narrative.

For example, COVID-19's boom in the fandom of Morgan Wallen allowed his Diplo-produced Julia Michaels collaboration "Heartless" to become a hit single 6 million times over.

On Diplo's latest release, similar magic is expected from an eclectic list of other artists like Parker McCollum ("Lonely Long"), Sturgill Simpson ("Use Me (Brutal Hearts))" features him voicing a track not far from what the 1980s "Urban Cowboy" era should've yielded), Paul Cauthen, Sierra Ferrell and Koe Wetzel pairing with Kodak Black, for swamp-meets-butt-rock genre merger "Wasted."

Dig deeper into the release and discover "Sad in the Summer," featuring queer, Big Loud Records-signed singer-songwriter Lily Rose. To Diplo, Rose being willing to take the risk of blending her pop-country sound with his disco-aimed current comfort ("It's a really sexy sound") in country music is an "outlaw"-type move that he relates to '70s- and '80s-era mainstream crossover country artists.

The song's vocal pocket falls in a limited but powerful range for Rose when paired with Diplo's production.

"As country music spreads, cool vocal tones paired with insane [productions from various genres], combined with great songwriting, creates a recipe for something which appeals to a type of crossover crowd the genre's never seen before."

Rose could have this moment potentially appeal to a queer community not-so-ingrained in country's mainstream. This, combined with her minor 2021 mainstream hit "Villain," creates a footprint and road to stardom uniquely her own.

"In a genre that's 100 years old, I'm also able to work with a creator who's had the hottest mainstream songs of the summer for a decade," she says. "I'm humbled by what even the potential of being in that group of artists means for my career."

Push Diplo to describe where his progressive production and collaboration-minded brain is headed and he takes a sudden left turn to mention three creators: the Rotary Connection, Charles Stepney and Charley Crockett.

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The former was a psychedelic soul band with multi-octave Minnie Riperton as a lead vocalist that at the height of the "flower power" era combined forces with blues artists like Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf.

Stepney was a vibraphone player and member of the Rotary Connection who later emerged as a producer responsible for breakout mid-'70s albums by Earth, Wind and Fire.

As fans of modern Americana and country know, Crockett is a 2023 Americana Music Awards nominee for Artist of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year.

To The Tennessean, while stepping out of the vaunted circle on the Grand Ole Opry's stage, Diplo referred to Crockett as the maker of "some of the funkiest country records out right now."

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Is Diplo looking to make soulful acid-rock sampling records that feature New Orleans second-line trumpets and a Texas-style waltz tempo?

Maybe.

However, the funkiness of the sounds he's engineering in country music speaks to a larger issue that emerges from a streaming-first musical marketplace.

"In the digital era, we're now able to remove the context of where someone is from as a reason how a record sounds a certain way," he says. "Like, I understand why a Memphis Stax classic, jazz release from Detroit, a rare German techno record, Nigerian hip-hop record, or a Big Loud-released mainstream country record from Nashville sounds like it does. However, I'm now obsessed with knowing why people are inspired to — because the environment says that you can truly make whatever you want now — to make whatever music they want.

"What happens in country music when the option to win 'The Voice,' be a judge on 'America Idol,' play the Grand Ole Opry 5,000 times, or rip on guitar at a honky-tonk aren't the only ways to measure success? [Hopefully], with the records I'm helping people have the ability to make, we'll figure that out — and we must figure that out."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: DJ Diplo releases 'Swamp Savant,' volume 2 of 'Thomas Wesley' project