Santos - Conquering the dancefloors

I've been following you for several years now and I've noticed an ever-personal shift in style across your productions: from the funkier, driving house of the early 2000s to the "break" turn of your latest work, " Home Sweet Home ". Can you briefly outline your stylistic evolution and, perhaps, who or what led you to this evolution?

Stylistically I think I've kept all the elements you mentioned since my earliest work - the three albums are similar in terms of dirtiness, research, fun and impact. In my early work I did indeed love using a more straight 4/4 kick pattern, then in 2002 my personal "revolution" happened, making different use of the beat, namely the "broken" rhythm, i.e. "break". This change can be attributed to several factors, the most important being attending the Agatha night at Brancaleone in Rome, where Andrea Lai and Riccardo Petitti steered me toward this sound, and buying "Dyrty Waltzer" by Soul Of A Man, which became an anthem for me.

We're a webzine that embraces the widest range of genres and influences, so the inevitable question is: who influenced you most in the "classical" field, but especially in the electronic field?

There are many names, but the most important are: Giorgio Moroder, Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, Fatboy Slim, Chemical Brothers... in short, everyone who brought something new in terms of style and sound.

I've always noticed that your tracks, particularly the album tracks (where you might expect something less aggressive than on vinyl), have an extremely strong appeal to the dancefloor. How much does the dancefloor matter in your production - the response on the floor, the girls' backsides moving to every beat?

To this day it's one of the main factors. In the studio, I try to imagine the dancefloor's reactions, and then I love testing new tracks straight away to see if I got it right or not… if everything checks out, it goes to press; if there's some issue, it gets sorted out the day after the gig — after experiencing the mood of the floor firsthand, everything really does become much simpler.

I've noticed your great passion for vintage gear: how much do dated "machines" count in your tracks, and how much do you instead rely on more modern tools, like computers and the like? A while back I read that for Air a computer is just a drum machine that lets you go on the internet — what's Santos's relationship with modernity in the studio?

The right balance between vintage and modernity is essential — I love collecting dated instruments while also staying constantly up to date on the latest developments. I have a great relationship with virtual synths and plug-ins, just as I do with a Fender bass and guitar. I love anything that lets you turn an idea you've had in your head into something real. For me the computer is essential, it's the 134 hands that we producers would need to handle rhythms, sounds, effects, samples and so on.

Santos comes out of a small scene (small in relative terms, given it has given us plenty of notable names, Coccoluto first among them), and perhaps this too is a strength for a style that has no equal anywhere in the world. Do you think it's important to live away from the big hubs? How much has where you come from shaped your artistic career?

In my view it's essential to stay away and detached from the big centres of music… you shouldn't be influenced by anything or anyone. Nowadays, with the internet, you can find out about anything if you want to; it's clear that big cities like Tokyo, London or Berlin give you something, but it's crucial to always experience them with "fresh eyes".

"Pump It Up!" has already driven more than a few people wild — what will the next singles taken from the album be ("Noizy Horn" seems more than a likely candidate), and, if you'll indulge us, who will be lucky enough to get their hands on the remixes?

"Experiment", remixed by Scuola Furano and Robbie Rivera, has just come out, and at the same time you can find the two vinyls with the singles taken from the album, namely: "Nice people", "Tromba", "Elektro", "Combination". I'm curious myself to hear the remixes of my tracks, and the same goes for Noizy Horn, even if for now it's not on the cards, or it's "fantastically" top secret!

Santos isn't just Santos, it's also several solo projects (Trouble Soup, Bellone, etc.) — which of these has given you the most, and which will you keep going with? What are your plans for the future in this area?

Trouble Soup and Bellone are collaborations, the first with Stefano "Madox" Miele and the other with Katafa, a producer from the underground Stockholm scene… I've got a few parallel projects on the go, but it's still too early to talk about them, and I'll carry them forward with the same passion and the same commitment I put into Santos.

It seems to me that over the last couple of years the Italian club scene has been picking back up: between Passarani's record, the Pigna People one, and the duo from my neck of the woods, Scuola Furano (recently produced on Mantra), it almost feels like a little "new wave": do you share this impression of mine, and above all, do you notice that this situation is also finding an echo outside our borders?

Well, Passarani and Pigna People are terrifyingly good and hugely talented… Passarani has a lot more experience and history than me and I respect him enormously; the Pigna guys, besides being super likeable and ultra-skilled, have a collection of vintage synths and instruments that's scary good. Scuola Furano are younger but no less regarded for it, both by me and by industry insiders abroad — it's no coincidence we entrusted them with the remix of "Experiment", and they're now part of the Mantra Vibes roster.

I heard you started out as a DJ — is it rewarding for you, do you feel at ease moving from the studio to the decks? Have you ever thought about a live act?

At first I preferred life as a "studio rat", then ten years ago I tried the thrill of the decks and I went "crazy" for it, I love it enormously. A live act is something that appeals to me and I have a concept in mind, but to pull it off I'll still need to gain a lot more experience and have the chance to actually make my ideas real.

So as not to wrap up with the usual "plans for the future", I'll ask you instead to recommend four tracks to our readers that have struck you lately.

Right now I'm finishing off five remixes, I've just mixed the new Y4k compilation together with Madox, which will come out between April and May, I've finished new tracks that I'm still testing out, gigs, and so on. In short, there's plenty of good new stuff around… I really rate the tracks on Mouseville, Radio Slave, Elektrochemie, and the new Lee Coombes.

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