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.