Part of it was the miles in the saddle I had playing myself on TV. When I did that, it was like, “O.K., this could easily be a one-off joke that gets really stale really quick.” What you have to do is develop a fully fleshed-out character. You have to come up with a reason to want to follow this person, to want to stay with them and be in their world.

What is it that you like about playing with reality? Has it been helpful in getting out of the Dawson pigeonhole?

Any time you experience successes as an actor, that becomes part of the narrative that an audience brings to your next project. I kind of wish we lived in that halcyon era of actors disappearing into every role, but that’s just not the case any more. To try to run away from it is just not effective. So part of the meta thing was just running toward it and playing with it — and then subverting it.

What was your process like for getting into character?

Being around him was the biggest thing. An impression is more about energy than anything else. His Major Lazer show on Beats 1, I listened to that every week just because I love the music. It’s funny — as I start talking about him, I start talking like him. It’s weird to go say mu-sic instead of music.

What is it about this moment of festival E.D.M. that makes it so ripe for satire?

Wes speaks to this better than I do, just in terms of how ridiculous it is to take yourself too seriously when you stand in front of people pressing buttons. I’ve heard him say, “We’re all so [expletive] cheesy.” But there are very few places in life where everybody comes together in one spot to experience the same thing. There’s a line [in one episode] where Diplo says, “Are we just posers pushing buttons?” And Calvin Harris [played by Tom Stourton] says, “No, we’re shamanic heroes offering glimpses of enlightenment through music.” Which we kind of play off as a joke, but in a way, I think both sides are true.

As Diplo, you say “fam” a lot. Did you learn any other of-the-moment slang for this role?

You know what’s really interesting? There’s this fear of being “basic,” which seems to motivate a lot. People live in mortal fear of being basic! Maybe it makes me basic that I’m not.