music: interview: Chicanolive
subject: Chicanolive aka Raf, from Andulucia, living in London
and playing at Bleepfest Berlin 3 over Easter 09.
file under: minimalist
web: Myspace page
You're off to Tokyo soon. Tell us about what you've got planned there - do you have connections there already?
I go to Japan because of different reasons, as well as a producer/dj, i've been cooking for almost 12 years now, so Japan is a big influence on the kind of cooking i'd like to develop in future, then it comes the music, and especially the way they approach electronic music, with no predjudices or apparent rules, i love independent producers wheter experimental or club music makers because they don't produce for the market or the "sound" of the moment, they just let themselves go, this is what i love, together with the fact that their culture is so strong at the same time and leave a mark in all they do, without compromising the results. I've got just a few contacts from people who make really interesting performances and events, but nothing closed, it would be fantastic to have a residency where i can evolve my sound and keep active at the same time.
For the last few years you've been based in London and have been involved with a thing called Bread and Butter. Would you tell us about your time in London and what you've been up to?
I started doing basement parties for around 50/80 people on my own and with some friends, house parties, raves, then boat parties, where i meet Julius, who became partner in the Bread & Butter adventure, which still on and where we have become part of the london circuit , with residencies in Ministry Of Sound all this year and in an underground note, at Public Life, one of my favourites places in London, situated off Spitafield Market in a public toilett, always with the treatment of an label and producers showcase, where we have had through the last year international headliners and up and coming producers coming to play for us.
What do you think about London as a place to live and play music?
For me, as a foreigner, after 7 years i have to say that London never stopped surprising me, i don't think there is many cities in the world with as much confluence of culture, music and underground happenings, i learned everything i know here and in so little time i think this is the only problem of this city, its speed.....
Your home country is Spain. Did you get started with music there or was it later?
I did some djing there since i was 16 or so, trip/hop, dub, electronica, house, but nothing serious till i came to london, that was because there was nothing going on in our town, so we just brought the music with us to the bars and finished being the djs every weekend....
How is your hometown for your kind of music?
As i said, almost dead, it's a small town in the middle of Andalucia so you can imagine, but now is getting bigger and there is interesting stuff going on, not in a weekly basis but in Festival's format, like Sensxperiment, where i curate the gastronomic dpt. plus some experimental happenings... something like a Sonar by day, but obviously smaller...
Do you have any heroes/heroines from the past or present?
I get so much from every kind of music or style, from the past or present, it would be difficult, i like people who creates a concept rather than a song or track, i thinks this is the key that brings you closest to your sound, from where you can evolve your own universe, i would mention so many people and forget so many as well i just prefer to say anything in between John Cage and contemporaries techno producers like say Ricardo Villalobos, so i think that covers everybody!!
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What tools do you use predominantly to make your music?
Ableton Live and my Macbook, ah, and love, lots of it.
Do you have any particular way of working when you're developing new pieces - jamming, building on new sounds, working from what you "hear" in your head?
I play a lot as a dj, so i'm listening to club music almost all my off time, which not necesarily influences me, but makes a criteria when i start to do bases on the computer, now i'm doing some tracks based on cello recordings from a friend of mine, y give her the head phones and play bases to her, and i ask her to play wherever she feels like under this sound, so we get very different results every time, then i take all this recordings home and play it, alone, loop it, and play it again, until i find the sounds i want to use for a certain base, and take it from there, is normally very improvised as almost every track i have has been recorded "live at home" and then slightly retouched for quality purposes, so is pretty unique, i never invest more than a day on a track, is all done in one go...
Shortly, over Easter, you'll be playing a slot at Bleepfest Berlin 3 at the TheaterKapelle. You've been to Berlin a couple of times before - how do you like it?
Since my first time in London and then in Berlin and Paris, Berlin has been where i have felt more confortable playing, there is something in the city and the people who come, plus the fact that you get the feeling that everyone is understanding what you are doing, no matter how "personal" your sound will be, i just love it. Thanks for the invite!, i'm counting the days.....
Thanks a lot.
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