Send me your track

Saturday
Apr232005

Marco Passarani interview

top.jpgDB: Could you tell us what you’re doing at the moment?

MP: I just released an album on Peacefrog called Sullen Look and I’m busy promoting the album at the moment. I’m taking care of production on my labels Nature Records and Pigna and you know just touring and taking care of the artists working on my label, that’s it.


DB: How long have you been working on the album now?

MP: I’ve been working on the album for a year or something. I had some tracks done a few months ago before I actually got in touch with Peacefrog and then once we saw that I had a chance to release on Peacefrog I started working on some different stuff in order to complete the sound of the album. To have…erm you know, a bit more of a complete sound to represent what’s my musical idea at the moment.

DB: Can you go into that in a bit more detail? I noticed that on the album you can hear a lot of stuff in it, but at the same time it doesn’t really sound like anyone else.

MP: So actually the album this time it really represents something which is coming from my heart. It’s not…how can I say, it’s not really technical, it’s more like throwing out that’s my feelings at this moment, what my feelings were in the last couple of years actually, so I didn’t spend much time messing around with the latest techniques and software tricks or whatever. It’s just a combination of what actually I like, what’s my background, so it’s a line that connects all my influences that goes from Chicago house or early Detroit techno, some italo stuff or more classic European electronic music such as Kraftwerk or even electro pop from New Order or Depeche Mode, stuff like that. Actually it’s really the feeling that I had in the last couple of years, it’s a bit melancholic but as well there’s a hope in every track so this is more or less the way the music came together into the album.

Living in Rome I always thought it’s like living on the border of the empire. But at the same time this helps you in being a bit different and trying to avoid certain trends and fashions that sometimes you’re involved in when you’re living in big cities like London or Berlin where there are a lot of music producers.


DB: You’re based in Rome, how much of a Roman album would you say it was and also what’s it like if you like techno or house in Rome, what’s going on there?

MP: So actually living in Rome I always thought it’s like living on the border of the empire. But at the same time this helps you in being a bit different and trying to avoid certain trends and fashions that sometimes you’re involved in when you’re living in big cities like London or Berlin where there are a lot of music producers. At the moment the scene in Italy, in Rome especially, it’s pretty alive. It has been alive for many years. It was never that kind of scene that you can really export, you know, but the city was really pumping - lots of parties, lots of people making productions but always trying to be a bit different from other European producers.

We had huge influences from the very early Detroit scene and not the latest ones, just ‘til 91 let’s say, like the first Underground Resistance stuff. So we’ve always been with this kind of…not really fashion, but at the same time connected with the original and pure scene. And I think you can feel that in my record, it’s kind of those pure influences, you know. Me, and the other people in Rome, we’ve always tried to keep these roots alive but at the same time we tried to refresh them without using the techniques that all the other producers are using at the moment all over Europe. For example, we’re not that much into the minimal stuff, we always try to keep it like it was before but you know, trying to give it a bit more new flavours and I think the album can quite represent that.

At the moment, I can’t really find something that’s really inspiring me in terms of contemporary artists, but I’m really happy when I get a record from Alden Tyrell, from the Clone Crew, and I really like some of the releases on Gomma, the label from Munich in Germany.


DB: The album has now been released so in effect that project is done, though you’re still promoting it, of course. What’s next for you?

MP: Do you mean in terms of production?

DB: I mean more across the board. You’ve played in Fabric recently, presumably there’s going to be more production stuff from you, I’d just be interested to know more generally what your musical aspirations are?

(pause)

DB: Sorry, it’s a big question!

MP: (laughs) I’m just trying to think what I have to answer to that!

DB: Well, it’s not obligatory, we can try another question if you’d like.

MP: No, no, I can tell you that I’m still doing promotion. Actually, my aspiration at the moment is just to keep producing stuff and I’m really, really busy with my labels, so the the aim is actually just trying to get more visibility for the artists working with me, people like Jollymusic or Mat 101 or AMBit3, J’s Pool. I’m just focusing on their productions, helping them get to a point where we’ve got some products that we’re really really happy with, that’s what I’m doing.

marco_passarani.jpgDB: You mentioned earlier one of your influences, you were talking about Italo disco, that’s something that quite a lot of people are …well it seems to be being mentioned with increasing frequency at the moment, almost like there’s a trend going on there. Whether that’s a good thing or not I don’t know but was that something at the time that was really happening in Rome, or was it a more restricted to the North?

MP: You mean back in the days? Actually, we had like different Italo disco scenes in Italy, of course. None of them were really popular in Italy apart from a quite commercial side of it but in Rome was really popular a different kind of Italo disco that was more like funk disco. They used to invite lots of musicians from United States to play in the Roman bands to give the records that kind of funk flavour. But I think the most famous Italo disco from then you probably know it’s the stuff that was coming from the north of Italy, from Milan, like Discotto, for example. And those were the records that actually got the best feedback from Holland, Germany or United States. Actually Italo disco is part of my influences but I wasn’t, and I’m still not really that much into that stuff you know.

I really love a few things where, in my opinion, they were really futuristic and didn’t sound like they were made in 1983 or 1984 or whatever. But I think it’s a bit too much like some kind of trend or fashion at the moment just talking about Italo disco. People are always looking for something to talk about and I think Italo disco is one of those.

DB: Well, I think that’s reflected in the fact that the prices of the records are going up.

MP: Yeah, absolutely, and I think that it’s already exploited a bit too much, you know. We’ve seen that from the beginning when I-F was playing all these old school Italo tracks back in 96 I think, before Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass. Then in about 2-3 years everyone was just trying to get on this train and use the Italo disco flavour, but this is one of the many trends, so it soon will be over.

DB: So it will have it’s moment and go?

MP: Yes, as usual.

DB: I’m also interested to know what you’re getting excited about at the moment musically. I know you’ve got a lot people that you work with in Rome and there’s the people that are being distributed through Final Frontier, but outside of your immediate circle I’d like to know which artists you find quite inspriational at the moment, if any?

MP: At the moment, I can’t really find something that’s really inspiring me in terms of contemporary artists, but I’m really happy when I get a record from Alden Tyrell, from the Clone Crew, and I really like some of the releases on Gomma, the label from Munich in Germany. Like Tomboy or even Munk, Munk is not bad at all, but especially Tomboy. I think the new single is one of those records that when you get it you’re really happy and you want to play it immediately. I think Alden Tyrell and Tomboy at the moment are the things I like the most.

Many thanks to Marco Passarani

peacefrog website
discogs entry for Marco Passarani

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