BOTTIN INTERVIEW

Bottin has been producing some of the choicest nouveau disco cuts of the last few years. His string of 12” releases on Gomma, Italians Do It Better, Perso and Eskimo Recordings are second to none and in the same vein as heavyweights Lindstrom or In Flagranti. His full length LP Horror Disco, released on Steve Kotey’s (Chicken Lips) Bearfunk label, topped a few of Onion contributors’ best of lists last year. It helps a little when you produce Italo-esque disco to actually be Italian, Venetian to be precise. It’s not just his nationality that makes his productions so impressive but rather his attention to detail and a talent for finding a space-out groove.

From reading other interviews you seem to like using obscure vintage synths rather than the more classic synths sounds, can you explain why? Do you find that a physical piece of hardware is more likely to inspire you?
Well it started out by chance, as a friend gave me a rather obscure Italian synth from the late ‘70s called Farfisa Syntorchestra. That was the main sound source for the Horror Disco album and I'm still using it in almost all my current productions and remixes. They I started buying other stuff and now I have about a dozen keyboard synths, including well known ones like the Juno 6 (which however underwent various modifications, including a midi retrofit by Australian Mungo Enterprises). I don't really get my kicks from software instruments, I like to sequence the synth and then tweak them with my hands, as the track is being recorded. It's not just for the sake of an old school approach; I just find it easier for me to work this way rather than programming everything, from sounds to filter movements on the computer.

When did you initially begin DJing and what made you get into it?
When I was living in Treviso (as a Fabrica grant holder) I didn't really like the music that I heard in bars and clubs. So, together with a more experienced DJ friend from South Africa, we started doing our own nights. Music was a mix of funk, Afro, acid jazz and trippy electronica. The music I'm playing now is a direct evolution of that; I've just grown a lot more club-savvy.

  Bottin - Discocracy (preview) by eskimorecordings

Do you have different ways of approaching/preparing countries in terms of music and your DJ sets?
I have one approach, which is moody improvisation but also preparation of new remixes, edits, special tracks that I never stop producing even when I'm travelling. My biggest fear as a DJ is getting bored with myself, so I always try to surprise both myself and the crowd with a handful of new DJ tools I play for the first time at each and every gig.

It seems like you have been doing a lot of different genres of music as a solo artist from lounge and breakbeat as Bluecat, I was wondering how you found yourself with your particular brand of Italo disco?
Anything I've released under Bottin (which is my real name) has always been disco or (Italo) disco-influenced. What I did when I started 10 years ago was of course different, but I think the electro/funk feel has always been there. That's also the case with Tinpong, a project I did with vocalist Joy Frempong and that will hit the shelves later this year. The term ‘Italo disco’ can be deceiving since most people associate it with a very specific style of music being mass-produced in Italy in the ‘80s and most of it was rather bad synth pop music with cheesy vocals. There were of course notable exceptions (especially in the early 80s, basically until 1983) but that's not obviously the music I draw my inspiration from or that I DJ at clubs. For me, Italo disco is disco music produced by Italians (or Italian ex-pats), it started before the ‘80s and includes Giorgio Moroder, La Bionda brothers, Simonetti (Easy Going, Capricorn), Malavasi (Macho, Change) and Celso Valli (Tantra). Now, after a rather long hiatus, it's somehow happening again. A handful of Italian producer, regardless of what commercial Italian dance music has been in the past 20 years, are now making disco again and I strongly hope this will result in a second wave of Italo disco, although we are not very well organised here. Producers like Rodion, Francisco, Mammarella, Discodromo, Simone Fedi are all Italian, although none of them release their music on Italian imprints and so it's hard to create a real scene. Then labels like Italians Do It Better (in which I'm the only Italian artist) are often said to be ‘Italo’ labels just because of the name. It's really difficult to grasp what Italo is nowadays.

  Bottin & Rodion - Galli (Give It Up) by eskimorecordings

My understanding is that Italo disco was created out of necessity because it was difficult to import American records, so Italian producers decided to have their own take on. Do Italians have the same fascination for Italo disco as the rest of the world or do they consider it a cheap substitute?
Most Italians never even heard of the term ‘Italo disco’ and, from what I hear from old school DJs and collectors, most DJs in the ‘80s would consider Italian production a cheap and commercial and would avoid playing them. Now some young clubbers may call an ‘Italo disco party’ what a few years back was called an ‘’80s revival night’.

I’m always interested with the influence of Baeleric (early acid house) and Chicago house has outside of the UK and the US on club scenes. I’m wondering what your take was on the influence of house music in Italy?
Personally I wasn't really interested in clubbing or dance music in general in those years, so I don't really know what the influence might have been. What I know is that some records produced in Italy by Italians had a relevant influence in Detroit and Chicago productions. I'm talking about Kano, Capricorn, Robotnick, just to name a few. After all, the bassline in Jamie Principle's Your Love (1985), considered one of the earliest house tracks, was "stolen" from Electra's Feels Good (1982) produced by Sergio Cossu and Franco Falsini.

I really like your edit of Steve Miller Band’s Fly Like an Eagle on Perso. Are there plans for anymore edits on the same label or others?
I'm still somewhat reluctant when it comes to releasing edits. They were all created for personal use - for playing out and never with a release in mind. However after I've played them for a year or so I might as well share them and a release a good way to do it. Perseo (sublabel of Italians Do It Better) has just started and there is of course more in the pipeline. Also the Sage Oil / Hot Lizard release (on Artifact) will soon get a follow up (within this year). I've also done a four-track re-edits EP, issue 8 in the Magick Edits series, although many people don't know they are my edits since my name is (intentionally) barely visible on the record.

  Bottin: Fly like a beagle (Perseo/IDIB, 2010) by bottin

How did your collaboration with Rodion on Galli (Give It Up) come together?
In 2007 I was in charge of booking DJs and electronic acts for a couple of venues of Venice Carnival. I liked Rodion's album, booked his live set and loved it. We’ve remained in touch ever since. Then when I got a gig in Rome we decided it would serve as an occasion for a studio collaboration, so I stayed there for a full week during which we produced both Galli and Piazza Venezia. It was really a refreshing experience for me, since, for basically the first time, I could move away from the computer and focus only on synth parts, melodies etc. And on top of that I could fiddle with a whole new sets of synths, since we did everything in Rodion's studio. We've recently produced two more tracks, this time together with Francisco (Pigna/Jolly Music/2020).

What else do you have planned for 2010?
Touring, touring and touring. I'm now slowing down and being very selective when it comes to remixes, I feel don't have enough time for my own production anymore. Releases already scheduled are Tinpong (a mini album on Nang UK) and a new 12" on Eskimo called Discocracy, which is being pressed as we speak.

Words: Winston Reed

Bottin plays Sugar on Sat Sep 25.

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