Here, the legend remembers Donna Summer ahead of his appearabnce at IMS in Ibiza
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.”
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.”