This Saturday, Innervisions, Moodmusic and Drumpoet Community contributors Frankey and Sandrino roll in for a double-dynamic DJ & Live Subculture session alongside Harri and Domenic. Ahead of their Sub Club debut we chatted Bar Piano, vinyl myths, rainforest noises and the world’s best Goulash.
1.Thanks for talking to us today guys. Please tell the Subbie reader who you are and what do you do?
S: I’m Sandrino. a passionate music collector, digger, listener & DJ.
F: I’m Frankey and I do music pretty much all my life. Started playing all kinds of music on instruments in different settings. From bands over Orchestra to Jazz, Big Band or simply Bar Piano. Then I got into electronic music production and ended up DJing electronic music for many years.
2. You’ve had established solo careers for well over a decade. How did you meet and what brought you to work together?
S: I hold a residency at a club in Germany where Frankey used to play regularly. We met, we became friends and then we just tried it out :)
F: I think we were always surrounded by the same kind of people of the local music scene. Me coming from a more Techno / Progressive Background while Sandrino has already been into more relaxed, deep and warm stuff. I think the impulse to start working together came from Sandrino, which I’m thankful for, because it kind of brought back some musical elements of my pre electronic era into the electronic dance music we´re doing today. Sandrino also had a much clearer vision of the music he wanted to do, which helped filtering out the right musical elements of the very wide ranged Music world I was living in…
3. On that note, how important to you is the role of the resident DJ?
S: The resident is the base of a club. He knows how to open it, to keep it, to close it, and if necessary everything at once during the night. Its a pity that this culture got lost a bit in the last few years. It seems that more people/promoters think that it’s better to have as much names on the bill as possible. I don´t think so, I believe in the concept of having the resident + one guest for the night. Frankey & me love to play long sets. Its very annoying to pick just 20 tracks from the collection for a two hours set. There is not much room for experiments. This is also why I am very excited to meet & hear one of the most legendary residents ;-) Harri & Domenic!
4. Talk us through your DJ + Live set up. Does this hybrid approach involve a lot of studio / rehearsal time for both aspects of your club show?
F: In general I feel that it´s true, that the amount of studio / rehearsal time is equivalent to the quality of the performance. At the same time, we try to keep it simple, to have full control and safety from the technical side. The Live Act includes of course Ableton with controllers for all kind of loops & effects and a keyboard to perform some Synths or Piano live. For DJing we use 3 CDJs with USB Sticks and that´s it.
Honestly I don´t understand why people put themselves into the stress of using Laptops and Controllers to DJ. I simply can’t see the benefit. Same goes for Vinyl: I know a lot of people disagree, but a vinyl never sounds as good as the digital file. Of course it’s more sexy and I understand the physical & haptics aspect of it, but sometimes people trying to explain to me, that Vinyl sounds better, and that´s simply not true.
5. You have both come from fairly different musical backgrounds, are there any stand out influences from your early days? Any music artists in particular?
S: I often thought about it and I always come to the same conclusion that there isn’t any stand out influences. I like music in all of it forms and sometimes a jazz song from Chet Baker makes me feel the same than something from DJ Koze…
F: I feel like I am inspired by all kinds of good music. That can be singer songwriter stuff, Hip Hop, Jazz or whatever. The wide range keeps everything fresh, so I never get bored! ;-)
6. Frankey, does being classically trained help you out when it comes to producing electronic music? Do you still get enjoyment out of playing the piano when you’re not working i.e. in your spare time. How often do you play and what sort of thing?
F: To be honest, the last 10 years, the electronic music took nearly all my time and I almost didn’t play the real piano anymore. But I started missing it more and more, so the piano came back into my house a couple of months ago, and I´m really happy about it. It´s such a different feeling to feel the sound / vibrations coming from the wood and the strings instead of playing some perfect sampled computer piano. At the moment I´m playing the piano score of the soundtrack of “Memoirs of a Geisha“ by John Williams.
7. What did your 2014 Innervisions debut release mean to you? Was this a landmark event for your career?
S: it was the first song we wrote after a longer break. i felt that the song is something special (at least for me/us). it guess it made a couple of people following us :)
8. Acamar is a firm favourite of everyone here at Subbie HQ. Talk us through the chord selection and how you so cleverly combined these dark loops with some spaced out rainforest noises?
S: Thanks a lot :) happy to hear that. Its hard to find the right words here. Frankey already worked on the Arp and the rest just came from inside :)
F: In the beginning I just wanted to make a real nice but complex Arp Theme, where my musical background maybe comes a little bit into play. The Chord selection was inspired by a Track of Bobby McFerrin, who I absolutely admire. But after that, I quickly made an average drum groove and average baseline , which were not really good. Then Sandrino came into play, knew exactly which elements to keep and which ones to renew or throw away. Pretty quick he had a vision how that track could sound, which elements to add and so on. Compare to some other Tracks of us, Acamar took quite a while to be really finished.
9. What’s your expectations of your Sub Club debut and of Glasgow in general? Is there anything in particular you are looking forward to?
S: I heard a lot of Sub Club, especially about the vibe & the crowd. Some of my colleagues always say that a visit at Sub Club is one of their annual highlights. It makes me very excited & curious :)
F: Not sure what exactly to expect, but I heard Sub is the kind of the best club in Scotland, so I guess it´s gonna be an awesome night ;-)
10. We heard you’re both into quality food and nice wine. If you were cooking for a special occasion what would you make and would it be white or red for the vino?
S: Actually I try to reduce meat but I’m proud to say that I’m doing one of the wolds best goulash :-) My goulash with a bottle of good red vine and I’m in heaven…
F: That´s not exactly true for me. I’m more into bad food and beer. but Sandrino knows…. ;-)
11. The likes of Watergate and Tresor are well known and popular, but I image you guys know of some hidden gems in the city. Can you tell the Subbie techno tourists 5 things that they must do on their next visit to Berlin?
S: Berlin is very versatile, so its a city for everyone. It really depends what you’re up to. But here’s just a few tips…(there’s a lot more!)
1. A Pizza at Pizza Nostra in Prenzlauer Berg [my friend Guiseppe from Napoli is doing the best Pizza in the world. if you’re there ask for the pizza he´s doing for me :-) ]
2. Hanging out at the Spree (during summer) with a cold beer in your hand.
3. It’s always good to take a bike and just ride through the city to discover your own Berlin, but also to visit the classical sightseeing spots like Brandenburger Tor, the Holocaust Memorial, the Museums Inseln, East Side Gallery…
4. If you are into Art then take ur time and visit some Galleries in Mitte.
5. Record shopping can also be fun as Berlin has a lot to offer: definitely go on a Thursday to Muting the Noise, Hard Wax, Oye…
12. In contrast to the sounds we all like to listen to at clubs and parties, would you be happy to share some personal home listening vibes with us? What do you listen to once you kick back and relax after a heavy weekend or hectic tour schedule?
F: Fink, Bobby McFerrin, german HipHop, Sevdaliza, Romare, Lapalux, Nils Frahm, James Blake, Sela Sue, Ed Sheeran, Metallica (to name a few…)
S: this are just a few of my all time faves:
1. Grupo Moncada a band from Cuba. I was in a local record store to look for a Fela Cuti Album I wanted to have for my collection and somehow i left the shop with this record :) Music always finds you…
2. The LP Talking Timbuktu by Ali Farka Toure with Ry Cooder…simply amazing! The Song Ai Du makes me going crazy :)
3. The Blade Runner Sound Track by maestro Vangelis especially the Blade Runner Blues is a song i can’t get enough of…Crying and laughing at the same time!
4. The Album Hotel California by the Eagles :) one of my dads faves, so it naturally became also one of my faves.
5. And for sure one of my all time faves is the legendary Oxygene LP by Jean Michele Jarre…
Advance tickets on sale HERE or from RA, then more on the door from 11pm