Page 18 - Zone Magazine Issue 006

feature interview
flashmob
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After 20 years immersed in the beats in the scene creating and producing a variety of tracks Flashmob’s Danny and Alessandro became disillusioned and felt they had lost sight of why they had initially started, even though they were highly respected in the techno and progressive house genres; “We decided that whatever we did next it should be about taking it back to basics” explains Alessandro, and they did, by immersing themselves into the history and origins of Chicago house music, Larry Levan, Studio 54!
What followed next was ‘Brick House’ their initial record that paved the way for ‘Need In Me’ and the immediate follow-up of Ninety Five. Signed by Defected Records and awarded the accolade of Essential New Tune by Pete Tong ‘Need In Me’ making it one of the biggest tracks of the year in Ibiza and it remains the biggest selling track on Defected of 2012, with currently over 9 million hits on Youtube!
2015 has seen Alessandro going solo as Flashmob due to musical differences between the two and Zone mags Mike Moggi Mannix seized the opportunity to catch up with the main man Alessandro to chew the phat...
How did it all start, what attracted you to the Dance music scene and in particular techno?
I started buying vinyl in the early 90’s, I was buying industrial north UK techno, in Liverpool, because my mother was from Liverpool, originally from Ireland. That is the sound I was into back then and still am actually today, I’m attracted to the warehouse, industrial, metally sound, which then translates into the Detroit chords sound I have made recently. That’s where it all started, listening to pop music like Frankie Goes To Hollywood, it all went from there.
You have gained a huge following over the last few years, why do you think this is?
I don’t know, although there have been
some ups and downs like there always is with this kind of job, you have moments when you’re really, really up. I think over the past few years I’ve made a clear point that I am doing this seriously that I am really dedicated and hardworking, I think I have made the point that I am a good DJ because if people call you back and promoters want you and they pay you good money it is because you’re doing well.
Also, I have been executing a really precise strategy on the remixes on the labels on the names on the releases, I’ve gone from in 2012 making anthems that were on labels like Defected that at the time were releasing really good music, to making music that is released on Alan Fitzpatricks only vinyl techno label ESD in Germany, OBJ for Objektivity, Little Helpers in Berlin, so even the labels I am now working on very strongly is all about the next release which is for example is DJ Wild and Phill Weeks. It’s all really gone where it was supposed to be, even with the fact that I am alone everything is how it should be and I think people have seen that taking Flashmob seriously for what it is now. This is why I have a following I suppose.
So our readers can get a feel for your recent history, can you tell us about the huge anthems you had with ‘Need In Me’ and ‘Brick House’ for heavyweight labels Defected and Get Physical a few years ago, which one stands out the most and why?
These tracks have certainly been an important moment of our careers back in 2012, if I’m not mistaken, we’re nearly in 2016. Many people have noticed that we have done many other things; I have actually just finished an album too. We did a remix for Petshop Boys, Toddla T, we did so many things in the past and now I am doing so many other things, for me, to just to reduce everything to those two tracks, yes ‘Need In Me’ has become a classic and also ‘Brick House’.
For me, out of these two tracks it was certainly ‘Brick House’ because it’s the original intention of what we wanted back then. This is old stuff, it is how these records are done which is the important thing, it is all 909 old school, housey techno raw, well house but it has always been a little bit about techno, especially formenowasIamabigfanoftechno and so yeah I hope I have answered your question, I hate talking about these two tunes as I have been talking about them for the past three years!
Who would you love to work with in the studio?
Radioslave, Nina Kravitz, Mark Henning, Audion, Alan Fitzpatrick for sure.
Walk us through the usual process Alessandro when you are in the studio creating a new track from the analogue outboard, midi, samples and DAW you use and why. What is key in the whole production process?
For me, usually I need to be hungry to go into the studio, it’s not something I do systematically, I need to have an idea. This morning I woke up with a sentence that I dreamt about for example, I recorded it on my phone, really bad quality mind, then I sent it to myself by email, I put it on the sequencer and start playing around with it start playing the with 303 then start maybe looking for a bass line then building a groove and that’s how tracks come to life. Then I start playing with vinyl, sampling to create something special, then I may send it to a couple of friends who are musicians, they maybe mess about it with, a collaboration may happen, it depends. More or less it’s like this, I use the 303 then the machine for the groove, the moog usually for bass lines, I like to sample a lot of synths, a lot of bass lines as well, especially with the new kind of sound that you have not heard which is coming on the album, which is my natural sound and not a compromised sound with someone else.
How is the underground scene today progressing and where do you see it evolving?
I think it is progressing really well, I think it is also getting rid of the fake underground that has been something that, with the big return of house music in the past between 2012 and now, basically there was a bit of confusion between what was mainstream and what was underground, now it is going back to what it should be, there is no connection between the two aspects of music. I mean underground and mainstream, mainly because underground music is not created to sell, so you don’t use sounds to make a track popular, you use sounds to make a track sound really good and sexy for a DJ and a crowd. It is music that is made for clubs, that’s why it’s called its underground it’s not made for selling, it’s called underground also because it’s not promoted in a vulgar way, not thrown out there simply to make money the way the big labels do, the way they treat the music is simply bad. They don’t do vinyl, if they do it they just throw it out there to make everything seem underground because underground means cool, but it is all fake.
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18 ZONE-MAGAZINE.IE