Hi Dohg, thank you for doing this interview, how are you doing?
Hi, thank you Ed, right now I'm pretty busy with Blue Velvet. We are writing some new tracks, one of which is a cover that will be published soon. Personally, I'm involved in many projects as sound designer and producer. These things take a lot of my time, but they allow me to discover new musical forms.
You started Blue Velvet in 1999 together with Andy Head, how did you meet and why start Blue Velvet together?
Andy and I were schoolmates back then. I was playing in various bands, but nothing that really fit me. I wanted to form a band where I could create a personal sound, which I could not find in the music I was listening at the time. I knew that also Andy was interested in music making and I gave him my demos to convince him to form a band. After listening those tracks he contacted me and we started collaborating. Three months later we released our first demo, in which there were four tracks.
In your bio you write: “The basic philosophy of those musicians was to take inspirations from the industrial music already in commerce like Ministry, NIN, Einsturzende Neubauten , ecc... but with new characteristics.” Did you had an idea in the beginning what these characteristics were or did they take shape later on?
At the time we started, industrial music was practically unknow in Italy, so it was difficult to find the works of many bands. Actually we did not know any industrial band. At the end of our first gigs, people were asking us what kind of music we were playing but we could not really define it. The first industrial album I bought was the Downward Spiral, by NIN, and I had to wait three weeks to receive it, because I had to import it. It was in 2000 and after that album, I started to buy material from Ministry,NIN, Einsturzende Neubauten, etc...
Later on you added Malcolm 11 and DarkendDawn to the line-up, why did you need extra members? What are the roles of each member in the band?
Andy and I needed to complete the line-up with a bass player and a drummer, and we wanted two musicians who could understand what we wanted to do. When we met M11 and Darkendawn we immediately understood that they could really improve our songwriting capabilities. Interestingly , their musical background was very different from mine and from Andy's . We started writing new songs together and in 2006 we released our first full-lenght album, “The Third”.
You seem to have a line up for a rock band but your music has a very strong electronic / industrial feel, wouldn’t be a traditional industrial line-up be more easy? What is the reason to have this line-up?
At the beginning, Blue Velvet music was centered on traditional instruments as guitar, bass,drums but also synths and groove box. “The Third” reflects this mix of electronic elements and more typical rock instruments. When we started writing “Rotation”, we wanted to leave all this behind us, to create something completely new. We imagined as a new chapter of Blue Velvet, completely based on electronic music. We divide between us the use of keyboards and rythmical parts. During gigs, we use three MIDI controllers connected to computers and a pad drum to mix the machine and the human elements together.
How would you describe your music yourself?
It is difficult to explain our music, even to ourselves, because for us is a art in continous evolution, and it would be impossible to define it in a static way, The most sensible way to describe our material, would be to call it a blend of electronics, experimental rythms and melodies. If we wanted to talk about genres, we could cite Drum'n'bass, Breakbeat, Industrial, Techno, IDM, TBM, Ambient and much more...
Often a first is a big learning experience, was this the same for you, what lessons did you learn of this album?
Surely we learnt a lot. “The Third” was our first professional production, we had the chance to meet many experienced musicians, who taught us a lot about new machineries and recording methods.
How does Blue Velvet work on songs? Do you work as individuals or as a collective?
The songwriting is mainly done by me and Andy, then the track is arranged together with M11 and Darkendawn.
What are things that inspire you in songwriting?
Our songs are inspired by everything that sorrounds us, by the social conditions we live in and by undergroung artistic forms, other than music. At the foundations of our music there is a futuristic concept, not influenced by any political ideology. Lyrics and sounds are created to express the beginning of an 'alternative to the usual dogma. In fact the title of the new album "Rotation" contains the meaning of the inevitable change toward a very rapid “growth for growth”.
Your new album is called “Rotation”. When you compare it “The Third” what progress did you make?
Surely, today we are in a very different situation with respect to time we produced “The Third”. During this year we accumulated a great deal of experience. In fact, if we would produce “The Third” again now, the result would be completely different. New technologies and capabilities have surely pushed us to a new sound. If someone would ask me this question in a year or two about “Rotation”, I believe I would say very similar things.
How did the recordings of this album go, did it all work out as planned? What was the hardest thing in the recording process?
Rotation has been written twice, practically. The Hard Disk containing the whole project, got damaged when the album was almost finished. This, of course, doubled the time we where thinking it would take to release “Rotation”. To produce “Rotation”, we used Pro Tools HD3 to record the drums, then we used a bunch of virtual and analog synths, and Ableton Live to mix up the various loops. First of all we looked for the right sounds and we adjusted the drum parts in easily manipulable loops. Later on we focused on the bass-lines and leads, taking care of the frequency spectrum. Eventually we recorded the vocals, but in a way it resembles more to a synthesizer than to a human being.
When listening to the album we can hear so many different sounds and style, what thought kept popping up in my head is Science Fiction, does this make any sense? Does Blue Velvet have a futuristic sound?
I agree with you, we surely are heavily influenced by the futuristic concept. It would be nice to a create a name that would fit our music but so far, we did not come up with anything.
Was it hard to make a homogenic album with all these different influences and sounds, how did you manage to do this?
Actually “Rotation” came out very smoothly. We had an idea: recreate on track, what we were imagining. The project took a well defined shape, even the tracklist had a very clear structure. The homogeneity of this album derives from that fact that it all started from a clear idea, without focusing on influences from various musical realities.
The song that stands out is the last song “my sad happiness” which is some kind of piano ballad. Why did you put this on the album, is it a special song for you?
Many people ask us about this song, how it is completely far from the rest of the album. If you listen to it carefully, you will see that it carries the exact concept of “Rotation”. “My Sad Happiness” is the soundtrack of a movie where moment of desperation alternate with moments of joy, exactly like our daily lives. We suggest to listen this song with the lights off, letting the musical waves to stimulate the senses.
Is “Rotation” an album that people should, in general, listen at home or enjoy in the clubs?
Well, I think that this album contains some many different elements and feelings, that it would be difficult to define the place where it fits the best. Many Djs contacted us from whole Europe, because they think that our songs would be perfect for their sets and they were looking for something completely new.
On this album you have chosen the hard way by not using really standard “4 on the floor” beats, is Blue Velvet a band that likes to challenge themselves, what will be the next challenge?
We really love challenges, and we always want to find new ways to conceive our music. Not “4 on the floor” beats are at base of “Rotation” and we really enjoyed breaking beats and mixing them with synths lines and arps to make things more complex and interesting.
You have done some live shows already since the release of “Rotation”. How did people respond to the new songs? Do you stick to the album versions or improvise and modify for live shows?
We already did around ten gigs, since the release of “Rotation” and the response of the audience have been different depending on the type of location we were playing in, Our live sets try to invove the audience also visually,using lights that we programmed to follow the songs and our movements. I suggest to watch of our live sets on internet to realize what I am talking about. There three type of people at our gigs: some start dancing from the beginning, others don't want the show to end and finally there are people that ask a lot of questions at the end of the show, about our instruments and visual elements of the show. We actually manage to reproduce “Rotation” live as it is in the album. The most difficult part has been to transfer the various loops and sounds at the same quality of the recordings(24 bit/96Khz)
What can people expect of a Blue Velvet show, how do you manage to grab the attention of the audience?
I don't really know what people expect from our shows, but we always try to surprise the audience, with the music, the lights and of course our presence on stage. If people pay for a live show, they deserve a great performance by the band. We always try to involve the audience actively in our live shows!
Any last words for the readers?
We want to thank you for this interview and all the people that have been close to us and all the friends we have found throughout the world. To name a few: Daria Dasha (Precious Little),Tying Tiffany , Sonia Jurlina , Greg ( convulsions sonores),Popman (Electraumatisme), Electrohead Promotion, Venus Lovechild(synthetic sensations), Sanson and more...
Thanks
Dohg
Blue Velvet
www.myspace.com/bluevelvetmusic