Vanni & Fav

Italy and the UK bringing us dancefloor love with the huge ‘Do Do Do’ smashing it on Favouritizm

Interview by Dan Prince

Vanni & Fav are Favouritizm’s upcoming boy/girl duo comprising of Italian producer Alex Vanni and UK DJ/producer Sarah Favouritizm. Both sharing a love for vintage analogue sounds and sexy electronica, 2014 saw Alex & Sarah team up on some new productions and remixes including Irena ‘Stuck In Love’ (Remix), ‘Toot Toot’ by Timmy Vegas, their debut single ‘Stretch And Flex’ and their Spring smash, ‘Are You Dancing?’. The pair have already received the thumbs up from Booka Shade, Shir Khan, Aki Bergen, Audiowhores, Martin Ikin, DJ Meme, Brian Tappert, among others, with their quirky style which fuses pre-House 80’s electronica with contemporary House and Techno. ‘Do Do Do’ is a melodic Tech House groove where dark and eery synth stabs meet delicate, pretty melodies. It’s weaved together by a hypnotic Techno loop that bleeps it’s way through the track before giving way to Fav’s vocal which is complimented by a powerful piano hook – the makings of a very emotive breakdown before jumping back into the groove. And we love it…


Alex, Sarah welcome to DMCWORLD…where on planet earth are you today?

Hello DMCWORLD! We’re in a little town buzzing with creatives called Follonica in Tuscany, Italy.

What was the first piece of music you hard this morning after rolling out of bed?

Sarah: A 14 minute slice of madness from Ricardo Villalobos with my Cornflakes, he’s just remixed Freaks’ ‘Eighties Throwback’ for the new year, it’s quite mellow for the morning, but crazy for the club at the same time!

Alex: Thomas Newman ‘Route 12’ from “Revolutionary Road” soundtrack.

So after a summer of messing about in The Mediterranean, you are back filling dancefloors! This time around it’s all down to ‘Do Do Do’…a beautiful piece of melodic Tech House grooving. Talk us through the history/sound/production of the release that is swinging our way via Favouritizm on December 1st…

‘Do Do Do’ is a melodic Tech House groove where dark and eerie synth stabs meet delicate, pretty melodies and it just builds. It’s weaved together by a spacey loop that bleeps through the track. We had the idea to turn it into Sarah’s ‘Do Do Do’ vocal on the breakdown and it just kinda worked, bringing a human touch to it without needed a full song. Amidst all the bleeps, there is a dramatic, yet simple organic piano line from Alex, that arrives like a big brother hug! We we’re really chuffed to have been featured in your Buzz Chart for 2 weeks running, thanks so much!!

How does your studio relationship just ‘work’?

First and foremost we really enjoy what we do and have a lot of fun and giggles. But we’re both really motivated. Sometimes I will just pop to the studio to say a quick hello and then end up in a full blown writing session together. Every time we work together it’s very different. 

Alex you hail from Florence, a city we have all loved for years thanks to the amazing Tenax club – a club with a better wine cellar than the 4 Seasons Hotel down the road! Tell us about the music/club/DJ life in Florence in 2015…

Alex: It’s impossible to describe Florence in a few lines. Florence is a great city where I found a lot of inspiration with music, art, food and fashion everywhere. Tenax at the top, but during the 90’s there were lot of clubs and record shops in where you could met top DJs. From Alex Neri to Bini & Martini and Stefano Noferini and many more . You could breath new avenues of underground music. Today only Tenax can offer what I like, on Saturday nights the best DJs from different parts of the globe play there, the atmosphere and vibes are so strong. Florence definitely is the perfect place to be yourself without explain every time to someone that I am an artist and I like to live as an artist. 

And Sarah, after living in the UK most of your life you took the plunge and relocated to Italy. A big, brave move young lady…where you chasing an Italian stallion per chance?

My No.1 rule: I don’t chase! Haha! I actually came here for just me…but the stallions were definitely a plus! Haha. After many years of living at such a furious pace in the UK coupled with a massive pull to stay in the clutches of the warm Italian culture every time I visited, I decided to take the plunge. I’ve found a real equilibrium living here and I’m so inspired by my experiences, surroundings and the people. 

After a couple of years of EDM craziness it seems house and techno are at the forefront of people’s taste buds once again. 2015 has been a great year for music right?

Sarah : This year has been really ace for music, so much raw talent pushing the envelope, cross-pollenating genres and developing news sounds, there are really strong collectives coming to the forefront too with their own distinctive tribes. Techno is huge again at the moment, what’s going on in the underground right now hasn’t been this exciting for years!   As much as I loathe it, EDM, or Pop dance culture will always have it’s place, despite it’s lack of intelligence and mostly being a pile of shit, but just remember it’s not as bad as Gabba ever was! Haha! 

Your ‘Are You Dancing’ release received some great support both from the deep house DJ sector right through to the more Indie and Nu Disco crew. Is that what you were hoping for?

We made 2 different treatments for the track as we had all this stuff inside we just needed to get out. We were  totally thrilled about how well it was received, but it’s still somewhat an underground secret, people are still discovering it and enjoying it now which is ace!

I have been writing about music for a long time but I have never heard a producer (s) describe part of one of their records as “the musical equivalent of a Mona Lisa smile”…discuss!

It’s true! ‘Are You Dancing’, like our lovely Mona’s enigmatic smile, is a mix of happy and sad at the same time, which is actually omnipresent in most of our music. There is always melancholy dipped in a big pot of ‘cheer the fuck up’ hahaha! 

We were intrigued by the Disco version of the track – what kit was used to create parts of that sound?

Sarah: I wanted to experiment with the old 80’s VL Tone Casio keyboard as I love it’s cute sounds that bring a warm nostalgic and cute vibe, but then we backed it with an electronic disco bass with a Moog (Sub Phatty) and Alex delivered a fantastic spacey top line using Andromeda 6 by Alesis.

What are the 5 big tunes in your boxes this weekend…

1 &Me Ft Sabota – Trilogy – Keinenmusik 

So profound and powerful. The way the bass and the arpeggio dance together with Sabota’s voice delivers all the right tension to smash the floor.

2 German Brigante – So Good (D-Nox & Beckers Remix) Get Physical

Lots of lovely melodic Tech vibes on offer here, very atmospheric and a little bit moody, just the way we like it. German’s Dub’s dope too!

3 Glass Coffee – So lucky – Favouritizm

This talented Italian puts a lot of emotion into his music and Fav’s finally managed to bag him for a release and beautifully Balearic it is too.

4 Traumer – Triade – Get Physical

Reversed acoustic instruments on a bouncy groove with a melody that reminds us of U2.

5 Ten Ven – Workin (Noir Music) 

Electronic bass on special 909 techy groove, it never lets you down

Gotta ask – we loved your recent photo shoot in the sea…was it freezing?

Haha! We had this idea of ‘the after party’ – basically 2 mates getting up to mischief walking home after a night out for the shoot.  Despite picking the only cloudy day in weeks, we were drinking the champagne (to be authentic!), so by the time the shoot ended we couldn’t’ feel a thing! It was such a laugh! Big shouts out to Cristiana and Mauro Puccini the photographer for their patience.

Okay let’s rewind for a moment and get some history about you two…

Alex…what is your earliest memory of music from your childhood?

When I was a child I sang everything…everywhere I screamed all day. But one day my big brother Maurizio took me in front of his BoomBox and said to me “listen to this tape! One hour of music without any silence between the tracks!”. It was the 80’s and I was only a child but that was my first continuous mix I’d ever heard. Fuckin’ great idea I thought, I wanna be a DJ.

When did dance music first really appear on your radar, via what route and who were the artists/DJs/songs/labels that first attracted your attention?

My first impact with dance songs was hearing “French Kiss” by Lil’ Louis during a radio show in late 80’s/ early 90’s. Before then I usually listened to Alan Parson, Jean Michel Jarre and many pop electronic artists. From that point I started to look for that kind of music and began to buy my own records and first CDs. I loved both Chicago House and Detroit Techno. Musically I found inspiration in many DJs but only one made a difference at the time…Franceso Farfa who during the 90’s was the resident at the Tartana Club. The best DJ that I had ever seen and listened to, for his skills on the Technics 1200 turntables and his musical choices. My favourite artist/label during this period was Frank The Wulf and Music Man Records, but in my catalogue I never missed a Strictly Rhythm or Nervous piece of vinyl!

When did the idea of a career in music first start to form in your head and what did your family think

During the first years of college at 19 I was a DJ, but I loved to sing over little part of songs. So I decided to buy my first kit to sample these little parts and create entire songs, which was a DJ 70 by Roland – a sampler keyboard. Then came a PC with my first Daw and I was finally able to make productions ready for the market. My first productions were House cover versions of great hits of 80s, from Spandau to Tears For Fears. My parents honestly had other ideas and a career in the music industry was not to their taste. But my brother and wife have supported me 100% throughout.

What was your first real break into the music industry?

In 2004 I met Tony Barbato a young DJ with great potential and together we formed MONO. In 2005 Steve Lawler gave us big support playing our tracks around the world…but I never forget a 4 tracks session live by Steve live from Ibiza on BBC RADIO1 during Pete Tong’s Essential Mix when he played “Fake In”, a track with a sample of Satoshi Tomiie.

Who would be a dream studio collaboration?

Giorgio Moroder, Jean Michel Jarre or Alan Parson.

And Sarah, a producer and DJ with all sorts of history in the music industry. What is your earliest memory of music when you were growing up? 

Probably leaping off the sofa’s like a ballerina to Ultravox’s ‘Vienna’. I was buying records from a very early age and mum was always cool with me inviting my friends round after school to dance to the latest Soft Cell or Blondie tracks! I guess I’ve always been a DJ of sorts! 

What were some of the early clubs/events and DJs that you first encountered that made you think, right…I want a part of all this madness?

For years I was a indie / electronic music kid (art student in dungarees, DM boots with hair looking like something you’d win at the fair) and went to a huge amount of gigs (The Marquee, Feet First at Camden Palace, Camden Underworld) and festivals (Glasto, Reading, etc.) when I was young. But it wasn’t until 1991 whilst I was at Manchester University and frequented the Hacienda and Boardwalk clubs that the DJ Dave Haslam turned me on to House. I rapidly moved from spanking my college grant on Sonic Youth vinyl at Piccadilly Records and demolishing dollies in the name of grunge art, to buying Junior Vasquez 12’s at Easter Bloc and designing sassy club flyers and fashion branding…and it was all Dave’s fault! lol

Tell us about your story through your musical life that has taken you to where you are today…what was always the goal?

I could probably write a book on this question alone!  I’ve always been very musical and arty with a huge curiosity for the new and have been lucky enough to embrace all throughout my entire life. From being in bands as young un, to then lending my design and writing skills to most of Britain’s finest music mags from DMC’s Mixmag, NME, Q, Smash Hits, Top of the Pops among others. I’ve created for and worked alongside such a huge amount of musical talent and delved into so many areas from art directing, DJing, writing, producing, singing, A&R, radio host, booking agent, club promoter, festival co-ordinator, radio plugger, publicist, record label boss…I even make the tea too! So all said, I think my goal has always to be to stay true to my passions, challenge myself in order to grow and diversify, whether I’m creating music, playing it, working on a hair brained publicity game plan for a music client, or simply designing a record sleeve.. I live music every day and long may it continue.

 And who would your dream studio collaboration be with?

Dan I think you already know who I’m going to say here…Solomun of course! Closely followed by Sailor & I and J.U.D.G.E. But I’d like to work with idols such as Vince Clarke or Depeche Mode too.

How did you two first meet?

Sarah: I was doing a little DJ tour in Italy and mutual friends of the Fav’ label DJ Tony Barbato and Marco Roncetti brought me to play here in Tuscany where Alex’s family kindly put me up in his brother’s apartment…I was invited to their house for a BBQ dinner and was served the finest Fiorentina steak and their own brand of wine (http://www.rigoloccio.it). It was a beautiful start to an amazing friendship!

What would you say is each other’s greatest attribute as a producer?

Sarah: Alex drives the desk like it’s the Starship Enterprise, exploring each time a stratosphere of bold and beautiful cinematic syntholgy. He’s very clever and precise and technically brilliant too – knows all the toys inside out. He also has the patience of a saint and is open minded when I arrive in the studio and cause chaos with my hair brained ideas, moving us both outside our comfort zones.  

Alex: Sarah has a great culture and knowledge of music 360*. She is the only one who can touch my gears (that is not a euphemism by the way haha)… sometimes I lose myself in my little studio, but with her happy melodies on the keyboards, she is able to bring the sunshine in again. 

And finally, what is coming out next from you studio wise?

We are working on several new tracks, one of which will feature a vocal from Clara Sofie who is an amazing singer from Denmark and is part of The Levels. She has a perfect melancholic, yet soulful, tone to her voice that is simply spine tingling!

https://twitter.com/VanniAndFav
https://www.facebook.com/VanniAndFav
https://soundcloud.com/vanniandfav
https://twitter.com/favouritizm