DAVID VUNK

David Vunk is a really respected and talented producer and DJ. Apart from that, he owns "Moustache Records" label and he is one of the top artists in Dutch scene. He will be in Athens on Friday the 17th of December at Yoga Bala. Mirage team invited him and he will play along with Technicolor and... me.

How and when did your relationship with music start?

"My dad is a musician, who made a 14-weeks number one hit, wrote and produced many records since the 60s on very big labels such as Polygram and EMI, to name a few, so, I grew up with it. I always liked collecting music when I was a young kid. In 1990, I met a friend who had 2 turntables and 1 year later I was already playing on small illegal parties."

How would you describe your sound?

"A good record is a good record, from pop italo disco till house and techno, it has to be for the dancefloor. I always want to play a high dancable set... Smooth, mean and sexy... Mixing skills are also really important to me."

What are your influences and what is an inspiration to you?

"My family (especially my father inspired me a lot), but also my friends who are also in music business. Some inspired me as a DJ and some as a producer."

Tell us about your label "Moustache Records". How did you come up with the name?

"I always saw men with moustaches on the sleeves of disco records... So, I thought that is a good name... :)"

What is an ideal party for you?

"Where the sweat falls down from the ceiling."

What are your future plans?

"Pushing my new sublabels from Moustache Records division, dj-ing, producing some nice 12 inches... about the same, as always!"

How do you feel about playing in Athens and what should we expect from you that night?

"It's my first time in Athens! So, I'm really looking forward to it... You can expect all kinds of dancemusic. Ola and new music, from disco to italo to house and of course, some unreleased material from the secret Moustache records vaults..."

More info about Moustache Records

Event on Facebook

More info about Mirage

PHOTOHARRIE

He studied photography. But, apart from being a photographer, he is a DJ, he has been one of the founder members of the art forum WENEED, he has been a rock star with Muna Grande, he has been a radio producer since the age of sixteen, and most likely we will see him again doing lots of different things because that's his concept. Doing everything he likes and enjoys. Unique and beautiful.

1. How did you decide to become a photographer?

"When my grandmother committed suicide. I was 9 years old. I still have her portrait to remind me of her. Photographs have power, they are stronger than death."

2. Name some photographers you admire.

"Nan Goldin, Ari Marcopoulos, Juergen Teller, Katy Grannan, Terry Richardson, Wolfgang Tillmans to name a few of them."

3. Which is the picture that you want to shoot but you haven’t done yet?

"I don't think like that. When I start a project or a shooting I have some icons in my head but I have always been driven by the given reality."

4. Apart from being a photographer, you’re also a DJ. How do these different things connect for you?

"Music and photography are my drugs. They are the things that make me lose my mind. I believe there's also a secret connection if you consider that photographers act like rockstars."

5. What kind of music do you usually play and why?

"I always play different things and styles, anything that seems interesting to me. It's a commotion of genres. I'd say nightmare pop describes best what it sounds like."

6. You were one of the founder members of the art forum “WENEED”. What happened with it?

"It started like a revolution, it ended like shit."

7. Would you call yourself an “artist”? How do you explain this word?

"I don't believe there are artists in the post modern era. We are all artists."

8. Name please five things you love and five things you hate about living in Athens.

"+ bars' working hours, chaos, friends, weather, scenery. - rudeness, chaos, duress, pr, price of the booze."

9. Where can we find you DJing at this period of time?

"I am a free bird for the summer. I'll play some times at Carousel bar but I havent planned anything else at the moment."

10. What are your future plans?

"I have to wake up early, buy some smokes, pay my bills, go to the gym."

11. What if Harrie was a color, a taste, a smell and an emotion? What would it be?

"Color : ash gray, taste : poisonous exotic fruit, smell : vetiver, emotion : relief after crying on a strong orgasm."

12. Finally, I would like to ask you for your top 5 of your favourite tracks.

"My top5 for the moment: M.I.A. - Born Free, R.O.M.A.N.C.E. - Art of Losing, How to Destroy Angels - The Space in Between, Phoenix Catscratch - H, Oppenheimer Analysis – Radiance."

Watch another Photoharrie interview by H.O.P.E. & Etten.

BOTTIN

His third album called "Horror Disco" really impressed all the disco lovers all over the globe. On Saturday the 13th of March, Bottin will be in Athens at Bios, to turn the dancefloor into hell with his space and italo disco set.

1. How did your relationship with music start?

"Well, I started out when I was a kid, like very many, with piano lessons taught by an old lady. Then I have played my first gig when I was 13: I was playing keyboards in funk and acid jazz band, all the other band members where older and more experienced than me so I learned a lot from them. Being in band is really good when you learn to arrange a song and how to make a track groove. I was always curious about the possibility of the other instruments, I felt that keyboards were somewhat limited in personal expression, although much versatile in timbre. When I was 14, I started experimenting with computer music, at first with the Commodore Amiga and it's glorious 4-track step sequencer software called Soundtracker. Later the drummer of one of the bands I played with, opened a studio and I got to use it for free. I recorded a 4 track EP, it's was mostly jazz-infused drum'n'bass. It was my first production. A couple of years later I had my first release with Italian label Irma Records. It was mainly a cocktail music track, except it had a vocoder voice saying "good morning sunshine". That was ten years ago."

2. What are your influences?

"With my most recent work I suppose it is the soundtracks of b-movies of the 70s and 80s. And also the sounds of Italian television in those years. Those visions of the future that people had in the 70s and 80s, now we don't seem to be able to have anymore. Of course those predictions failed and that future never came, but at least there was an imaginative effort. Now we see the future as rather similar to our present, only with slightly unethical technological developmentsbut very few aesthetic advancement. Yesterday's future was interesting. Today's future is boring."

3. How would you describe your sound?

"I guess I'm considered part of the contemporary disco movement (if such movement exists, since most of so called nu-disco is actually good, refined house music)."

4. What would you do instead of being a sound designer?

"I couldn't imagine my life without music. If I wasn't making music of my own, I would be probably helping people producing theirs or organize music events.Truth is that I graduated in Social Psychology and I never lost interest in studying so I could possibly enjoy doing research work in that area."

4. Do Italians do it better?

"If you refer to the original eaning of the phrase (that is that Italians are better in bed) however I would extend it to all Mediterrean and African cultures. If you mean the record label, I also agree: they have a totally do-it-yourself approach that has proved itself to be very effective in today's discographic chaos. If instead you mean that Italians are better disco producers, well then I do not necessarily agree. There is a lot of crap music hailing from Italy. However there are a few excellent producers like Fabrizio Mammarella, Discodromo, Simone Fedi, Massimiliano Pagliara, Fratelli Riviera..."

5. What are your future plans?

"Remixes, collaborations, travelling the world and trying to work on some new tunes of my own. I'm also doing some secret projects :) But among the annouced release there is a 12" EP, I produced with my friend Rodion: Galli/Piazza Venezia for Eskimo Recordings (at at the end of March) then a mixed album where all tracks are my remixes (of artists Lindstrom, In Fragranti, Tosca, Codebreaker, Lost Valentinos, Jupiter and many others) it's called Discoursive Diversions and it will be out on Nang Records, UK in April. Also, for Nang I recently produced my revisitation of the Theme From V: The Final Battle (remember the Visitors tv-series from the 80s?), that's coming out as part of the "To The Stars" compilation on March 29th."

6. We will see you at Bios in Athens on Saturday 13th of March. What should we expect from your set?

"I never prepare sets, I have to improvise otherwise I stop enjoying it. Even what my current favorite tracks tend to change often, so most of my selections are quite temperamental. It's always a rathe crazy mix of ratherold (underground tracks from the 70s and 80s) and new music (some of which has even yet to be released!). But I have a personal rule, I like to create a special version or a re-edit before every gig. So I'm always preparing new edits and remixes that I will present for the first time. I'm really looking forward to coming to Athens and bring my music there!"

PLUS:

Download Bottin's "Disco Aesthetics" set.

Bottin in Athens

Bottin
2009 was a very busy year for Bottin. The past year, the Italian DJ and producer released two 12” singles, remixes and his third album called “Horror Disco” in significant record labels in electronic disco and dance music scene, such as Italians Do It Better, Eskimo, Tirk and Bear Funk. In Venice, his hometown, he is a producer and sound designer, and his collaborations include, among other Italian artists, Lucio Dalla and Sergio Caputo, plus festivals and cultural institutions all over the world, such as the creative research center Fabrica of Benetton, the Cannes International Film Festival, the Biennale of Contemporary Dance in Venice, etc. His sets combine space and italo disco with retro-futuristic sounds and contemporary electronica. http://www.myspace.com/bottinski
ME8H
ME8H (Methi) is an imaginary persona, who belongs to Vilma Hami, and defines as an anthropomorphous robot (android). The scientists, who manufactured her, programmed her to play music, which elects the beauty of human type and they sent her on earth in order to learn to people to express themselves freely. The cables that flow in her body are full of glitter and electricity. ME8H instead of heart has a tape, full of sexy electronic disco and spacey cosmic boogies, which she renews each 2 months from approved musical scientists of neighbouring galaxy.
Bad Spencer
Bad Spencer is the head promoter and one of the resident DJs of the Athenian DIY party “Yes it Does!! Sure it Does!!”. He is faithful to “anything goes” idea and depending on the situation you can listen to him playing disco, punk funk and vintage house but also electro, indie gems and techno, adding many pop elements. The last two years, he has played in most of the best alternative clubnights in town with local and international DJs, such as Cosmo Vitelli, the Glimmers, Disco Bloodbath, Allez-Allez, Serge Santiago, Feadz, Amateurboyz, Kormoranos, etc.

Entrance: 10 euros

Supported by Heineken

Media Sponsors : MTV, http://www.mtvgreece.gr/, BEST 92.6, http://www.avopolis.gr/

More info: http://www.bios.gr/

EMPEROR MACHINE

Emperor Machine is the lust child of an EMS VCS3 and a Roland System 100. It was born on last day of the last century and was abandoned at birth. Andrew Meecham tells us a story full of psychedelic sounds and amazing disco electronics. This is the story of Emperor Machine...

1. How did the relationship between EMS VCS3 and Roland System 100 begin?

"It all began when I found a great use for my credit card. Sometimes waiting for the synths of your dreams is just no good and I knew if I got them they would inspire me to produce more music and that's a good thing."

2. Being born on the last day of the last century sounds like you have a mission. Do you feel that way?

"Yes I do have a mission to climb the walls of synths and begin to throw down my huge greedy size of a wealth for creative programing in a way thats not been done before."

3. Can you describe your sound?

"No not really, every time I do that the next day I change my mind and then again."

4. Emperor Machine is a grown up child right now. Are you satisfied with its progress so far?

"I dont think I have got where I want to be yet from a musical/creative point of view. Being satisfied is not enough for me, I want to be thrilled to the point of wanting more!"

5. What do you think about the lifestyle of a modern person living in a big city? What about his needs?

"I-Pod!"

6. What are your influences?

"Every thing in any shape or form as long as it makes me feel good and sends shivers down my back then thats an influence."

7. If you should give up playing music, what would you choose to do?

"The only two things to do would be to repair synths and spend most of my time building them."

8. What are your future plans?

"Emperor Machine has two more LPs to record for DC Recordings, play some more gigs and after that I don't know."

More info:

EMPEROR MACHINE SPACE