Currently residing in sunny Los Angeles, Michele Balduzzi (better known as Phonat) is signed to OWSLA imprint by way of London oddball electronica outfit MofoHifi.
Having made a name for himself by constantly making people second guess his next musical endeavour – flirting with fidget, disco, breakbeat, downtempo, drum’n’bass, hiphop and everything in between – Phonat is not an artist content with churning out a formulaic or tried-and-tested sound. Yet everything he does has a distinct sonic signature to it.
His second EP for OWSLA is eagerly anticipated and, off the back of his latest single featuring Jolie and the Key, we thought it a good time to catch up with the man himself and discuss his catalog so far, the state of the plug-in industry, some chin stroking production chat and Juventus.
Zeros and Ones: Hey man! Thanks for taking the time to talk to us. How’s L.A. treating you and how was the recent studio move?
Phonat: Good man, just moved into a loft in Downtown where I have my home studio. The acoustics are shite so I’m mostly mixing in headphones, but I’m using OWLA’s studios every now and then.
ZO: I’ll start from where I bumped into you. I remember a summer disco mix from 2011 that’s sadly been taken down from SoundCloud; in a strange turn of events your most recent mix for Nest HQ is quite disco-y, so in a way it’s come almost full circle. What inspired you to do this mix?
P: I get bored really easily so I’m always trying to do something different from the last one. For this one it was nice to go back to something simpler, more housy/disco. But it also all happens by accident: I bumped into a lot of nice housy/disco tracks on my hard drive and that’s how it came about.
ZO: …and four years later you’re still playing that Tiger and Woods tune?
P: That’s my screen saver (and it was the only tune I could mix with Fire…).
ZO: Actually before that mix I’d seen your Computer Music Producer Masterclass interview from 2009 and have been using the CamelPhat trick since. In an odd turn of events that issue had the second article I’d ever had published – small world!
P: CamelPhat is the best value for money plug-in ever.
ZO: Tell us a little about your most recent single, ‘Fire (feat. Jolie and the Key)’:
P: It’s been an interesting journey. I met Jolie (singer) through a friend and I loved her voice instantly. I wanted to do something with her exploiting her full vocal potential and try to make an actual song rather than a “track” if that makes sense. And I’ve worked with a few amazing songwriters (Sam Grimley, Jake Filed, Gianluca Pizzorno) so it was a bit of a collective effort which was new for me as I mostly work by myself or with my partner in crime, Hal Ritson.
ZO: Ahhh Hal, do you still get to chat to him much?
P: I try but he hardly replies, the fucker. I did a three-minute edit of Genesis’s Invisible Touch intro looped for him and he ignored me.
[Zeros and Ones can confirm that Hal is indeed poor at replying to IM]
ZO: Talking of Hal, let’s go back to the beginning. You signed to Heavy Disco Records back in 2005, previously living in the sleepy Florence country-side. How did this come about?
P: I went to London for the first time in 2003 ‘cos I wanted to be a professional musician and brought many demo CDs of my music with me. I ended up washing dishes in an Italian restaurant in West Hampstead for 4 months so I went back home in Florence and I discovered this thing called the internet which was kinda cool.
Breakbeat record labels had demo/A&R sections where you could submit your 128kbps MP3s without having to physically knock on their door. One of the labels I ended up sending stuff to (and one of the very few that replied) was Heavy Disco.
ZO: And not longer after that you started work on your debut album on Heavy Disco’s sister label MofoHifi. I know it’s something we’ve discussed at length before but how did moving to London and the city itself influence and affect your own sound?
P: Despite the failure of my first trip I fell in love with the city instantly. It had (and it still has) everything a musician can dream of: the best record shops, the best clubs, the best (modern?) musical heritage. And it’s filled with some of the most talented people you can find. So the first big influence is the competition/comparison.
All of a sudden I found myself working in a studio with people like The Young Punx and Chase & Status instead of being surrounded by my family and wild boars. That was a huge push to up my game in all its aspects.
Furthermore London has its own unique feel: it’s grimy, gloomy, dark but thriving, creative and fast-paced vibe definitely made a huge impact on my own sound. It’s not a coincidence that certain type of sounds that reflect those feelings like dubstep, garage, jungle and drum’n’bass developed there. They make the perfect soundtrack for London – a grumpy, sad, exciting and beautiful place; I miss it very much.
ZO: Perhaps this had more of a direct influence on the Cockroaches EP that came directly after? For me this signified a big shift in your sound and this is the record that first turned Skrillex’s head which led to your first release on OWSLA – another move away from the frenetic onslaught of edits and glitches heard in earlier Phonat material.
P: Yes, the Cockroaches EP was the first one where you could really hear the London influence I think…it takes a few years of bad weather and baked beans to fully become a Londoner!
And yes, it was the EP that got the attention of Skrillex and OWSLA which lead to the Identity Theft EP.
In that one I’ve started to experiment and pay more attention to reverberation and space while before I was focusing more on dry, in-your-face rhythmic cuts, patterns and glitches collages/montages.
ZO: Let’s talk production then. You’re a Cubase user and have been since day dot. What is it about the DAW that has kept you loyal?
P: Mainly the audio editing capabilities. I do use Ableton for some tasks as its time stretching algorithms are the best and most intuitive, but when it comes to cutting and pasting Cubase is still the top player in my opinion.
ZO: Probably my favourite off of that EP was Don’t Talk, Now. Can you tell us a little about what it’s about?
P: I had loads of fun playing with reverbs and bandpass filters – it’s a cool trick to shape atmospheres and ambiences. I did a mix of band-passing synths then applying reverb and/or keeping the synths full and band-passing the applied reverb in send, then playing with automating volumes, send amounts and frequencies of the filter frequency and resonance. My favourite filter for this kinda thing is still the good old GRM tools one.
ZO: So that leads nicely onto my next question actually. What plug-ins are currently doing it for you and which can you not live without?
P: If I had to live with just one plugin it would be Reaktor, but I’m kind of cheating because it’s an incredible suite of hundreds of plug-ins. It comes standard with some pretty amazing stuff from beasts like Razor or Lazerbass, which I use for 99% of my basslines/subs, to simple stuff like Akkord or Space Master, which has to be one of my favourite reverb.
[ZO: Yes Space Master and the whole of Reaktor is awesome]
It can be expanded with some third party stuff like the Twisted Tools ensembles which are great and inexpensive… plus all the free NI community stuff! Makes you feel like you’re shopping for vinyls at a huge flea market…where everything is free!
ZO: As someone who’s nearly 100% software, what do you think about the current trend of companies producing so much throwback stuff (particularly the Roland Aira series, Korg releasing an Odyssey, Arturia software etc).
Are we in a golden age of technology or are you a bit tired of software developers churning out yet another analog emulation soft synth?
P: I personally think we live in a golden age as there’s something amazing available for every type of musician. There are fantastic platforms/instruments/toys both in hardware and software form, the choices are virtually endless. I don’t think it makes a difference per se what you end up with. It’s all about what works for you. Whether you’re the type of producer that likes to build and play with your own Max/MSP granular instrument or program an acid bass line on a 303-like piece of hardware, there’s a great option for you out there. Both computer nerds and live performers can achieve great results, I don’t think it’s a matter of what tools sounds best per se but what’s the best tool(s) for me to achieve what I have in mind.
Whether you’re the type of producer that likes to build and play with your own Max/MSP granular instrument or program an acid bassline on a 303-like piece of hardware there’s a great option for you out there.
[After teasing Phonat for some juicy beef he said, “Fuck 808/909 trap kicks and anyone who uses them”. Honest]
ZO: Perhaps because your music is not only difficult to pigeonhole but also because you seem to jump from one thing to the next, it bizarrely seems to polarize some people, especially those who are producers themselves.
I think in a strange way the freedom that the internet has afforded people in terms of music discovery has fed into a larger need to further compartmentalize genres and producers. Have you been a victim of this?
P: Your analysis is scarily on point. Growing up in a place with very little (current) music culture and scenes I ended up having loads of different/diverse music influences but nothing really stuck with me and that reflected my compositions. I get bored of things, I feel the need of trying something new and maybe then I’ll circle back to the starting point.
Marketing wise I guess it makes my product harder to sell as music is not just a collections of sounds but it’s also often comes with a lifestyle, with a specific image, age group, fashion, clubs and so forth. It’s a lot about clans and being accepted and part of something much bigger than solely the music you’re listening to. It has always been like that and it’s even more accentuated today as the immense amount of music, genres and cross-genres available can be really confusing in that respect for the listener.
The more you have a defined identity in a specific sound and a specific music-related culture the better. It has to be said that it’s also true that thanks to the fact that it’s really easy to consume/stream vast amount of music for free (instead of having to buy expensive physical formats) people are more curious and open to listen to things that they probably won’t ever listen if they had to buy a CD or vinyl.
ZO: Who’s doing it for you production-wise recently?
P: Sam Gellaitry, Tom Misch, Tennyson, Hundred Waters, Louis The Child to name a few.
ZO: Is the Bobby Tank collaboration ever going to happen?
P: Yes!! We’re actually working on something together as we speak. I’ve been waiting for this for too bloody long.
ZO: So what’s next?
P: A hair of the dog ‘cos I’m hungover. Or a nap. Or both. Music-wise I’m finishing (read struggling) some new tracks for an early 2016 EP. Or maybe a sequence of singles. Maybe a double LP with picture discs ‘cos they’re dope. Or nothing. I’ll think about this tomorrow.
ZO: Juventus XI from the last 20-or-so years?
P: FFFFUUUUUUUU OK everything else didn’t matter – this is important.
Zidane, Baggio and Del Piero in the same XI might be a bit too much but it’s fantasy football so what the hell!
ZO: Thanks for talking to us!
Zeros and Ones editor Ali Jamieson (left) and Michele (centre).
