Another Italian superstar with attitude to boot…
Italy’s Dusty Kid has become in 2011 one of the hottest export's in Italian dance music. He’s appeared on over 55 compilations and produced remixes for Moby, Armand Ven Helden, Booka Shade, Gus Gus, Robyn, Simian Mobile Disco and Francois K amongst others. And now he's back on his own with the release of 'Beyond That Hill', the long player out on Boxer in November. Dan Prince jets over to Sardinia to meet Italy's Mr Music...
Paolo, welcome to the DMC world. You once said: “Many people who produce techno do not have the slightest idea of what they’re doing…in the last couple of years, the music scene has expanded like an oil stain.” – can you explain please…
“What I meant is that nowadays producing electronic music is quite simple, you don’t need a milionaire pound studio and engineers to do that, you just need a laptop and it’s basically done. The problem is that being so easy, everybody is trying to make music but there are lots of people with absolutely no ideas and no background who are just making music because it’s cool to be a DJ and you can get money easily. This is also good from a point of view, but looking at the market today, there are plenty of ‘tracks’ that I cannot honestly consider as music that we can live without.”
You hail from Sardinia, one of the most beautiful islands on the planet. What music were you listening to as a kid?
“Any kind of music my parents were listening to, from classical to psychedelic ’60 rock, from Kraftwerk to the Jefferson Airplane.”
Who/what made you fall in love with dance music?
“I don’t really remember, I loved Madonna’s first album for instance, I found it very ‘technologic’ in the 80s. I also remember the first time I heard Ace Of Base’s ‘All That She Wants’ thinking that it was techno!”
What was your first break in the music industry?
“Break? That has still to come!”
Who would you say are your musical influences, Richie Hawtin is an obvious one, you named a track after him!
“As I said, lots of music influences me. But I’d rather say that nowadays there’s more musical influences in old records that in new hits on itunes or beatport. For instance, I like Lady Gaga a lot, but I don’t feel her music is influencing mine!”
You are a classically trained musician – what did your parents think when you dumped the piano for a synth?
“They certainly didn’t realize what I was doing at the beginning – and they certainly didn’t find catchy a 4th on the floor bassdrum hammering our home all day long!!”
It may not be good for my image, but I really like…
Spending hours and hours with my friends doing nothing but saying lots of senseless discourses, rollin’ on a green field and laughing like hell.”
The new album ‘Beyond That Hill’ follows up ‘A Ravers Diary’ – how is this album different in sound?
“‘Raver’s Diary’ was more melody-oriented, most of the tracks were easy listening from a point of view. I mean there was only a melody as a centre of each track. ‘Beyond That Hill’ is more intimate and less EL cause it is more based on harmonics and landscapes with a far subject that the listener has to find by himself. The track ‘That Hug’ for instance doesn’t have any particular melody but in some points there are 11 stereo pads playing at the same time that covers different range of frequencies, to give the listener an impressive wall of sound. OK, this is what I tried to reach!”
What is the best techno club you have smashed?
“There are so many! But the smaller, the darker the better. I love Sao Paulo’s D.Edge, Berlin’s Bar25, Tokyo’s Womb (especially the lounge on the third floor). It really depends on the soundsystem and the vibe.”
You have remixed some of the biggest names in dance music. Who were you really honoured to be asked to mix and what do you think has been your finest re-work to date?
“Well, I got pretty excited when I received Moby’s request. He had been in my record collection for a long time with 4 or 5 albums in there, so it was quite shocking. The finest re-work to date was a remix for an artist that unfortunately didn’t like my remix, but I loved it so much I took off the original parts of his track and I re-worked it again to make it a new track of mine. After that, the track became one of the most famous I ever released.”
Being classically trained, the world is your oyster musically, so how does it feel playing the same records at gigs over and over?
“Extremely boring and frustrating from one point of view, good from another one. It seems that the dancefloor still wants to hear it again and again after years, and I always though that this would have happened only for artists like the Beatles.”
Not many people know this, but I am really good at?
“Cooking! I love food. I love Sardininan food, I love so much good olive oil and Mediterranean products from tomatoes to pasta and tuna. I make a great salad of gnocchi sardi that my friends love to eat . I can’t say I am good in cleaning the kitchen after I use it though.”
What does your live show set up consist of at the moment?
“A laptop, an audio card and a midi controller Vestax Vcm-600. Quite heavy and big to carry on, but still the only that lets me playing on Ableton Live as I need to.”
What was behind your 17 minute epic track ‘America’?
“I was told from a friend of mine years ago that I in a previous life I probably belonged to a hippy community somewhere in Arizona, because everytime I watch a setting sun or I see a monumental valley I get a very big emotional feeling and I cannot explain why. Certain sunsets make me very moody.”
Your love of travelling is no secret. Where that you have discovered around the world is your favourite place and why?
“Actually it is a secret, even I didn’t know that! I have hated travelling since I was young! After 3 or 4 days away from my home I really need to come back! My favourite places are Iceland, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and Sao Paulo, maybe its because I have many big friends there that are part of my everyday life even when I’m not in their country, and because I feel comfortable with the architecture, the food and the behaviour of their habitants.”
What are the big tunes on your iPod at the moment?
“I must admit that most of the tracks I’m listening to in my car while driving at the moment are from Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Coldplay, the latest singles from the forthcoming Bjork album, and my evergreens Simon & Garfunkel, Springsteen, Dylan and The Beatles.”
Where does the name Dusty Kid come from?
“A dusty kid to me is one of those poor and dirty children in western movies that used to clean cowboy’s boots.”
Your parents obviously are addicted to music like their son – have they ever been to one of your shows, do they like your music?
“Not really. My mom came once, she’s totally jazzy addicted, so she didn’t like the music that much actually, but she always says she’s really proud of me. That’s why I’m still trying to convince Paolo Fresu to play his trumpet in one of my tracks, just to make my mom listening to my music with different ears!”
What song can’t you get out of your head at the moment?
“My latest ‘That Hug’. It’s a track I was dreaming to listen to and make for many years, and meeting a person in a rave party somewhere in California helped at lot to take the track out of my brain. The track describes what happened in my brain during the meeting.”
What did you want to be when you grew up?
“A good Mozart piano player. Mmm, before that maybe I wanted to be like Madonna. When I was 13 I wanted to be like Michael Cretu (the man behind Enigma).”
How do you feel about music software’s increasing dominance in electronic music production?
“I think most of the records on Beatport sounds exactly the same. Native Instrument MASCHINE is now everywhere, I can feel it. Like in the 90s when after a hit you just changed a few notes but left the mixing console as per the previous track. But I’m really excited at the moment because in my computer I can have an entire music studio with plenty of very big and fragile synths, all connected and ready-to-play at the same time. Minimoogs, Jupiters, Korgs, this is very exciting. Unfortunately none of them can be compared yet to the originals, but they work very very well and sometimes you cannot even feel the difference if the sound is mixed with other sounds. I still use analog equipment but day by day I’m realizing how softwares are making my life easier, less electricity spent, less space taken in my studio and so on. In few years I think computers will be so good that hardware it will become a rare thing.”
Have you ever had your heart broken?
“Once, 6 years ago. I cried for 3 days and I didn’t know why. Then I realized why, I felt like a fool waisting my time and I started my life again.”
You once replied when asked what was the worst record you have heard this year “is 95% of the music that comes out on Beatport: cold, souless, senseless.” Is that still the case? How difficult is it to find the gems in there anymore?
“Well I’m not a DJ so I rarely go on Beatport to find music. I personally prefer iTunes. I’m more pop/rock oriented when I buy music and there is still good electronic indie music in iTunes too. Beatport is certainly better for DJs, but for me its like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
What have you in store for us in 2012?
“Music, music, music…”
Album video teaser…