Here, the legend remembers Donna Summer ahead of his appearabnce at IMS in Ibiza
Ahead of last week’s appearance at IMS, the legendary Mr Moroder speaks about the sad passing of Donna Summer, the iconic singer who he achieved great heights with throughout the 70´s, recording seminal anthems together such as ´Love to Love You Baby´ and ´I Feel Love´.
On remembering Donna Summer…
“First of all, she was a great singer and a great human being. Very funny, always ready for a joke. I must say, especially with ´Love To Love You, Baby´, we did something which after more than 30 years you still hear in almost every dance song — some parts, the bass line and some of the instruments used particularly. I think the legacy, we established a sound or a genre which still lives on.”
On recording ´I Feel Love´…
“I wanted to do something futuristic and I used to know the Moog quite well because i´d done several recordings before – not in that style, but using it as an instrument. I thought, ´let´s try to do a song without, let´s say any “human hands.”´ Just the computer. So I took down a bass line. I kind of played the chords but without a melody and followed with all the instruments. I tried to imitate the snare drum and high-hat and all the stuff with the computer. The only thing that I was not able to do was the drum kick with the synthesizer. That was the only live recording on that song.”
On recording ´Love To Love You Baby´…
Actually when my publisher brought it to Cannes [for the MIDEM conference], I didn´t think it would work because it was too kind of outrageous. But to my surprise, I got a phone call and the lady told me that it was a big success – big interest! We were just happy that somebody was releasing it, but we never thought it would become a hit. I think we became a little closer then and “OK, let´s do it. We have a good chance of a #1 worldwide and we have to see what´s next, se we started to work on the next project together.”
On recently rediscovering his passion for making dance music again…
“It´s really funny because dance music now is pop music. In LA, I would only listen to Kiss FM, which only plays pop music. Now dance music is pop. Out of 10 songs, seven or eight are dance/pop. I listen quite a lot and I know some of the artists, of course David Guetta and Tiesto are huge. Those guys I followed a little more lately and I think it´s a great community. I never DJ´d, but I did some remixes. I think I´m going to like it.”
On his return to making dance music again…
“Well I´m starting now. I may do a remix of ´Love To Love You, Baby´. We have already some interest. That´s one thing, I´m probably going to do some songs featuring a singer – a female or group. I like to work with female singers, which I´ve done a lot in my life. Rihanna would be my favourite, also Nicki Minaj would be great – those are the top girls who I would like to work with.”
