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JANUARY 05, 2010
Marco Shuttle Interview
By Tatu Vuolteenaho
T: You started DJing and promoting at young age of 15. How did it start?
M: Since I was a kid I've always been very fascinated by nightlife in general... I actually started organizing school parties at my high school... then the whole thing kind of evolved and I began to work as a promoter for clubs on a more regular basis.. Initially I was involved in very mainstream music clubs...not at all about the music, just a social thing.
it was the early 90's and the whole deep house scene was happening in italy at the time... I think musically it all happened for me at a Sunday night party I was going after the club I was workin for would close. I remember hearing the dj play House Nation by House Master Boyz and being completely blinded by it....
I started djing in my early 20's... I was really fed up with the whole club scene and house was goin down at the time... It was the moment of intelligent techno.
T: What music did you play back then, examples of tracks?
M: I would say the track that made me make the decision to start playing has been Windowlicker - Aphex Twin.. in the beginning I was playing very electronica-postrock oriented stuff... from Boards of Canada, Autechre, Aphex Twin, 2 Loneswordsmen to Tarwater, Mouse on Mars, Torococorot, then once I moved more towards dancefloor music and then it was electro and full on techno... Gigolo, Drexcya, Vitalic.
T: Did you play any instruments when you were young? Are there any musicians in the family?
M: No music in my family and a very traditional quite conservative (although very lovely and not coercitive) environment... I wasn't playing any instrument really... just the flute at my secondary school, if we really think it's worth to mention (my teacher used to say I had a good ear tho!)
T: You had your own fashion label in Italy before you moved to London to do the MA Fashion course at Central St Martins. The label was called Fed Up. Were you? Tell more.
M: Haha! the label actually was my name and surname... but yeah I was fed up.. of Italy, of where I was living and of the fact that when you run your own business you are really quite in a cage.. I mean, to run my own label so young has been a wonderful experience and I got a lot of satisfaction out of it... I managed to sell my clothes to the best shops in the world... but I was very confused about my life at the time... I still wanted to leave my hometown but not just in a random way as I felt anyway I had something to say with fashion... I wanted to continue being a designer but also escape somewhere....so there we go! MA - Saint Martins, here I come!
T: Now you are back in Italy after how many years? How do you view the scene there now?
M: Back in italy (TEMPORARILY) after 8 yrs... Italy is going through a very decadent phase culturally, politically and socially... I sadly don't feel at all positive about the present and the future of this country. It is the worst place I happened to live in (apart from the food that is fantastic). The scene here is really dry. Clubbing is a merely social thing... there's no culture... the people who try hard to propose quality have a really hard time in filling up the clubs... the people here just don't care.. All this goes with a very moralistic catholic driven demonization of techno culture. Italy has a real problem with contemporary youth culture as it doesn't consider that culture at all... I was reading an article about the German government giving the Berghain club 1.2 million euros financial aid as institution for electronic music... and felt really quite depressed as in Italy this would be just unthinkable...
T: Tell us about your first gig in London?
M: My 1st gig in London has been at a bar called Traffic in Old Street...for 20 quid. It's been fun actually... even tho sounsystem was crap and the crowd was really quite random..
T: How did you get involved with the legendary Sud parties?
M: I used to go as a punter when the Sud parties were still quite small. Those parties were (and still are) the best electronic music underground night event in London to me, a very very special vibe in those nights... I remember I was daydreaming about playing for them... then once I dropped a mix to Lakuti which she really liked and at the same time we were getting friends more and more, so she booked me. It's funny that the first gig I got at a Sud night the party (by the way it was a really good one in a wicked venue) got busted by the police and I was the only one who got to play... nonetheless from then on I started being a resident and for a good while, which is something I feel really proud of.. I love that crew... they are like my family and Lakuti has been and is a special special person for the scene and for me. I feel really grateful to her.
T: You have lived in Italy, London, Stockholm. Did you live in Berlin for a while too? Is there difference in what kind of sounds people tend to like in different cities?
M: As far as Italy is concerned I think I have answered this question on one of the points above... Berlin is of course fantastic... and nowhere else in the world there's such a big scene as in that city. The Berghain - Panorama bar is in my opinion by far the best techno club in the world... I have to say though that there is a hype about that city at the moment that leaves me sometimes quite perplexed... When I was living there I kind felt sometimes this kind of utopian chilled coolness is really quite fake. Also music-wise a lot of amazing producers that moved there suddenly lost their identity and their sound became very "berlinized" and lost it's own soul. I mean Berlin is the motherland of minimal techno... minimal techno has become mainstream ---- Berlin has become mainstream. It's a logical syllogism.
Although London has much less going on than Berlin as far as techno - house nights it has much more variety... and in my opinion more truth to it. And in a way when you do get a good night in London it is really special... Of course London is also much more of a real metropolitan city than Berlin and you sense that when you go out. I do however love Berlin.
I didn't think Stockholm was very exciting nightlife wise either... It's a very beautiful city but not good for people who like it spicy..... missing a bit subcultural layering... everybody is good looking, blonde and look fairly cool,.... boring. It is also really "safe" oriented... once I was arrested and kept a whole night in a glass cage because they suspected I had taken cocaine. Had to do a wee test (u get fined there if they find it in your blood, for me this is beyond crazy), and once some bouncers handcuffed me and dragged me out because I refused to leave a club just because they thought I was too pissed (which I wasn't).
T: What technology you use when making music?
M: Logic pro- korg analog drum machine - Reaktor
....wanna buy much more analog equipment (would love to get a real roland 808)
T: When you make music, how do you start making a track? From a sound, idea or?
M: I tend to start from the grove...then slowly build the other sounds around it... always work on 2 or three tracks at the same time and move the parts around... I tend to use keys always... somehow I feel if I don't put a melodic element that I create in the track I haven't done my job fully...
T: Do you do musical collaborations? If so with who and how?
M: so far I haven't... I have done a remix for my dear friend Mark Henning and his Clever music digital label and that was it.... I think I am really difficult to work with as I'm naturally a soloist... even more with music which is so deeply individual to me...
T: Do you do live gigs as well?
M: I don't really do live sets... don't get emotionally involved in them... my performing has always been, is and will be playing records.
T: Funniest or worst requests you have gotten as a DJ?
M: salsa... at some wedding... still at the the beginnig of my djing
T: Imagine a dream scenario for the best ever party. What would it include? Ever been close to that in real life?
M: for me it's just 2 things:
1. a good soundsystem
2. an open minded crowd that is aware of what they are going to dance/listen to.
all the rest comes as a consequence of this 2 elements.
...and yes it did happen
T: People keep on inventing new dance music genres and sub genres. Any of those that you find interesting or feel like are related to what you do?
M: I think the whole dubstep scene is the most remarkable event that happened in the last while... the Hardwax (the Berlin record store) guys really supporting the whole thing, there's a whole dubstep- techno crossover that is generating a really fresh sound.
also the new chicago-detroit generation of producers like Omar S, Jus Ed, DJ Qu, Levon Vincent is doin it for me... it's like new oldschool
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_electronic_music_genres)
T: You are also a fashion designer. We are curious about that side of you too. Any of your fashions we can see on the net?
M: yes you can...although it is quite dated...
Marco Sartorelli St Martin's MA 04 show
T: Do you mix fashion and music together? Like do you DJ at fashion parties? Do you pay attention to your style, the way you dress more than other DJs ? Do you attract "fashionable" crowd where you play?
M: People tend to be quite fascinated by this dualism... but I can say that I tend to keep them very separate... I mean, they are very separate... really bad music at fashion parties and quite often really badly dressed people at good music parties... and I love that... I pay attention to my look because I like clothes, it's a very simple and straight forward relationship... I like to wear them, I would wear clothes I like when I'm taking a coffee at home in the same way I would if I went to some cool opening thing....
I think the fashionable crowd expects really something different when they hear me play... they expect me to play hype punky "cool tracks" made by people that "look cool"... I like techno made by techno guys... that quite often wear very unsignificant banal t-shirts, dorky caps and hideous rucksacks and don't give a damn fuck about Chanel..
T: Have you been to Finland before? What kind of thoughts do you have about your up and coming gig at Trip @ Playground in Helsinki?
No never... I'm very curious and excited!! I have known Tatu for a good while and I know he's a brave party warrior:) so I'm confident hehe!
T: Any future plans you would like to tell us? More productions under way after the 13.1. "Folha Seca" release on Brut!
M: I am making a lot of new music at the moment I am really excited about... I had really good feedbacks from people I hugely respect... I don't wanna say anything yet cause I have nothing official, but there are a few things happening...
T: Do you have any artists and labels that you play a lot? If so, which ones?
M: I really go through phases....at the moment I really like what Levon Vincent is doing.
it's a really sound stripped down fusion of house and techno.
Always in my bag also people like Marcel Dettmann, Ben Klock, Seldom Felt, Omar S, but also more housy stuff like Moodyman and Theo Parrish, and a lot of old chicago and detroit records
T: What is your Current top 10?
1. FUTURE FUNK- Oliver Who Factory - Madd Chaise
2. THE DRUMMER Pt.2 - Jeff Mills - Purpose Maker
3. RED LIGHTBULB THEORY '87-'88 - Leron Carson - Sound Signature
4. DOUBLE JOINTED SEX FREAK - Levon Vincent - Novel sound
5. DARK ADAPTION EP - Rondenion - Rush Hour
6. SOUL EDGE EP (MOODYMANN RMX) - Rick Wilhite - Rush Hour
7. IMPULZ - Ra.h - unreleased
8. ELEFANTE NERO (undubbed) - marco_shuttle - unreleased
9. VOL.6 - unknown artist - Seldom felt
10. EP 2 - Hauntoligists - Hauntologists
Links
MARCO SHUTTLE MYSPACE
MARCO SHUTTLE FACEBOOK
MARCO SHUTTLE SOUNDCLOUD
BRUT!
SERIALISM
SÜD
TRIP
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