Where are you currently based and what is the music scene like there?
How did you first start playing music?
What’s been happening recently?
well, musically speaking…. just released another track, a jazzy-melodic tune on a new label from a couple of friends, the label is called ‘Vondreib’ and it is a nice fresh air breath in the local scene. They also run showcases where i’ve been also playing recently (Razzmatazz, Macarena, M7, etc). This year i played in lot of new places (RX Istanbul, Tanzhaus West Frankfurt, etc) so it is really nice to check things are working step by step. I am also on the process to finish a new album, not exactly Techno, more conceptual but still Electronica.
Your EP SHED14 is out now, what influenced the sound and songwriting for this EP?
Shed14 is a club in Melbourne, a place where i expect to go some day… never been in Australia so i think it is a must for me. We can say that was maybe a sort of inspiration for that track, but when i thought it was finished i felt something was missing, so i asked my friend and label owner Pedro Mercado to put a bit of his magic here and there and that was the result. The rest of the originals tracks on the EP (Precursor and Finally) were written more or less at the same time so maybe the influences are the same… Oz 🙂
How did you go about writing SHED14?
It was quite easy, i talked to Pedro about to prepare a new EP for the label (already released in Chrom in 2018) and then almost immediately the inspiration took place. i do not use to have more projects opened at the time, i prefer to work in what i want to release every moment and work fast, so it was something about immediate inspiration, i do not have so much time in working days to make music so i try to squeeze the weekends at most, and i think in two weekends i’ve finished the tracks. Then, regarding the remixes, i think we hit two superb options, Heershorst, a producer/mastering engineer from Hamburg, that also releases great music and play top lives, and EdOne, a young talented Spanish producer, who releases in Selador, Stil Vor Talent, just to name a few. He sent an electro version of the track ‘Finally’ which is really amazing.
Where and when did you record/produce?
I have a small home studio in my place, it is cousy and nice and i feel really well there, perhaps it is not the best acoustic room nor a super studio compared to other producers i see on the Future Music 🙂 but i can say it is full of gear and every centimeter is well seized, so that is my headquarter… then for the track Shed14, i made it along with Pedro Mercado so we interchange tracks, tests and stems til we had the right version.
Please tell us how you approached the production process for SHED14?
As i mentioned already, i use to work fast so this one was not an exception. I started with Precursor, then i leave it a bit to check it later and pick Shed14, which i finished along with Pedro. At the same time he was sending me options for the track (we work really fast and comfy together, it is not our first collab) i started then Finally so all the process lasted two weekends app.
What programs/equipment do you use to record/produce?
I am using Logic as main DAW (depending on the kind of music sometimes i also use Protools but lately mainly Logic), and then the rest are hardware gear: Moog Sub37, Nord Wave, Novation Bass Station II, Virus TI, Elektron Octatrack and Analog Four MKII, Dave Smith Mopho, OP1 from Teenage Engineers and a small synth from IK Multimedia (Uno Synth) that rocks!. The drums part are from a combination between Octatrack and Roland TR-8, and for some drum efx i used a Nord Pad. Then for effects, eq, mix, etc, i use Logic EQ and Compressor utilities and some plugins from Waves and iZotope for the final mixing tasks. The mastering was made by the label, i always prefer that part be in charge of the label, i do not feel comfy trying to do mastering in a pro level, always leave that to the experts!
Please tell us about your live music creation process:
In my live acts, i use three pieces of gear: Pioneer Toraiz SP16 Sampler, Novation Circuit and RMX500 also for Pioneer, for the efx duties. Then i use to get small takes of my own tracks on the Toraiz and adding some drum + percussion samples i create patterns with variations of my own tracks, or sometimes i start a track testing some stuff directly on the Toraiz first then if i like it, exporting it as separate stems to Logic and then perhaps make a track from there. But the most of the times i play on the Toraiz things that i already did in Logic using the rest of the equipment. Once i have those patterns and variations y start to play and combine it, making transitions and fills with the RMX and with the Novation Circuit i add more kicks to some sections, or some synth stabs or hook to complete the tracks… When i play live i improvise a lot, this is why i choose the gear i use specially for the live sets, cause it let me improvise all the time and even i bring patterns and some variations i can combine them in totally unexpected ways so no live set is similar to the other, that is the funny part, and that also enables me to play for a while, since i do not have time limitations, i can play for hours!
You run label Beautiful Accident, how and why was the label born?
Yes, i run a small label, called Beautiful Accident… mostly oriented to release some of my own productions and also to help emerging acts on the electronic national scene. Its first release was launched on May 2017 and at the moment we have 8 EPs published with 2 more already on the way. The label born cause i had stuff for an album and wanted to found a new label and it was a bit hard caused nowadays lot of labels need huge amounts of time to give feedback or even reply a mail. So i decided to start a label just for my works, then i released two EP (digital plus 10″ Vinyl), the 10″ were sold out after few days and i’ve got lot of press features around… so almost immediately started to receive some demos from other artists asking me if i was interested to release them… i was invited in 2018 to be at Sonar+D to present the label and attend people coming with demos, and it was a really nice experience because i met nice projects there and some of them are now on Beautiful Accident. So everything with the label was a bit by chance or accident, hence the name 🙂
What is your aim for Beautiful Accident?
I would like to release only projects doing live acts, not interesting in bedroom producers that do not play live or connect with the audience in a live experience. No matter if the live is with hardware, a small synth or three computers on stage, but it has to be live. In fact, the slogan/motto of the label is: ‘BACC is another electronic music label based in Barcelona, mainly focused in releasing artists who play live acts. We prefer hardware to software, and humanize to quantization’. It is a small label, and want to release only music i like from artists i like and with a bit of focus on emerging proposals, newcomers, etc.. We already did a couple of showcases in good venues in the city (Laut and Razzmatazz) and aiming for more in the next future.
Please tell us about your involvement with Barcelona based management company ‘Miracle MGMT’:
I spend the most of my time with this project, Miracle MGMT is a management and booking company based in Barcelona, from here we help to and learn from really nice artists such as Coyu, Victor Ruiz, Teenage Mutants, Ramiro Lopez, Affkt, Aitor Ronda, Alex Stein, Nølah, etc, etc..
I am the general manager of the company and it is really hard but nice at the same time, i love my job and love the team we have and of course all the artists we can work with. We do management and booking and we have offices in Barcelona and Buenos Aires, caused we just started the Latin America branch. If you want to check our roster, take a look at www.miraclemgmt.com
What do you like to do away from music?
I like to swim and to walk, i am now living near the beach which is great cause i can go anytime. Aside of this, i like to spend some while with the longboard from time to time and when the weather is not so good, then a good thriller or comic/superheroes movies are my cup of tea. I also like to read but lately i must say i am not finding the right moment to do that, i should read a bit more!
Who are you listening to at the moment?
It is funny, cause i spend lot of time in my daily basis to listening to music in general, demos, music from other artists, dj sets, etc, etc, mainly because of my work. so it is not so easy for me to select music for listen it to because the pleasure to do that. Hence i use some special moments to hear different things, i.e. last week i dig into a Duran Duran playlist in Spotify, this week i am listening to the soundtrack of the Euphoria’s HBO series (it is an amazing soundtrack btw), and early today was listening to Photek, a 90’s Drum’n Bass project that I used to like a lot back in the years.
What do you have planned for the remainder of 2019 going into 2020?
Mmm,… lot of plans, always! Musically, i am working on a new album (my last album is from late 2014, then i released lot of EPs and remixes in the last 5 years but i think it is time to deliver a full LP) which is almost ready on the production side, so i will start shortly with the final mix before to send to mastering and make the release schedule, etc etc… Also, i will release an EP before this year finishes, perhaps late November or so, it is a collaboration EP with Nachap, another artist from Barcelona with which I already released a track this year in Affkt’s Sincopat label. Then i have a couple of nice shows upcoming in Hamburg, Barcelona and Turkey for the next months, and regarding Miracle so keep working hard for our artists. I also teach Music Business in some schools and do some talks about Synths so i expect to keep doing that as well.
Favourite food and place to hangout?
Everyone in Spain likes Paella but i rather go lately with the Fideuá. And about a place to hangout ? well, definitely a walk by Poble Nou (a neighbourhood in Barcelona) with a stop to make some tapas is a must. Also recommended to visit Sitges and Cadaqués.
