The confusing clouds around Dusty Kid

The confusing clouds around Dusty Kid

19 May, 2009 | 4.56AM

• Written by: Zack Rico
• Filed under: Music News: boxer recordings, dusty kid

Confusion circles Dusty Kid like a dark cloud. Broken English spews from his Sardinian mouth, as disjointed as his musical background. As a former classicist turned techno producer, Paolo Alberto Lodde stands on the divide, one foot in the past, one foot in the future. His debut album ‘A Raver’s Diary’ is equally perplexing, swirling from memorable song-based techno to solid dancefloor tools. And, he also insists, he is a girl.

“I’m a girl in a man’s body,” says Dusty Kid, who sometimes wears a tshirt that reads ‘I’m not gay, I’m a girl’. Dusty is obsessed by shoes, like “all normal girls in this world are shoe addicted”, and his dream is to see America’s Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon, because a friend once told him that “in a previous life I was a hippy’s son living with indians”.

Dusty Kid’s quirkiness also extends to his longplayer, which boldly manages to capture a clubbing night out musically. “A Raver’s Diary was conceived as a concept album, and I was trying to describe my vision of a rave trip, from the beginning, when you meet your friends and you start the journey, to the rave via a car journey, till the end when you come back home to the sunrise,” explains Dusty Kid in this in-depth interview from his home on the secluded island of Sardinia, Italy.

How do you think growing up in Cagliari, Sardinia, affected your introduction to dance music?

There was a huge club in Cagliari called The Global City where Marascia [famous Italian DJ] and big guests from the rest of the world played regularly. The first time I went there I just realized that techno was what I wanted to produce. Before that, around 2000, I was only into breaks, chemical beats and other stuff with no four to the floor kickdrum.

Is Sardinia quite cut off from the global dance music scene?

Not at all, after The Global City closed lots of small clubs started to book interesting DJs and artists. And actually there are few producers here that make good music, like Marascia, Renato Figoli and Alessio Mereu.

What was it about techno in particular that made you want to produce it?

I found techno very psychedelic and strong at the same time, and very danceable.

With your background in classical music, how did techno sound to you? Did you think you could bring more of a musical song-based structure to it?

Definitely, yes. I mean, since I was a child, I had listened to electronic music at home as my parents sometimes listened to Vangelis and Kraftwerk, as well as classical, rock and folk stuff. I was always attracted to those weird sounds. And my approach is that I’m always trying to make songs, even without words, not just dance tracks.

What’s wrong with tracks?

There’s nothing wrong with DJ tools, they’re just a different way of producing electronic music, more of a DJ way than a musician way. To be honest though, after lots of melodies and songs, I’m starting to actually get more into the DJ stuff, so I’m now trying to produce something rhythm-based instead of melody-based. And I must confess that.

Your album has some songs on it, but also some driving DJ tools like ‘Here Comes The Techno’.

I’ve never been interested in DJing, and as a producer I only play live, but now I’m starting to get interested in it, but only in a personal way, like at private parties.

A couple of years ago, I used to be a ‘selector’ and play in clubs where people did not dance, so I was able to play all kinds of music, from techno to rock and folk.

Are you still strictly a live act in clubs?

Yes at the moment. I prefer to play live instead of DJ because when people come to see me I want them to listen my music, not music from other people.

When you play live though you don’t get much chance to enjoy the party as you have to be completely focused on what you’re playing. DJing allows you to play music and enjoy the party at the same time easily.

Do you have enough of your own music to play a long live set?
Yep, sometimes I play for six hours. Keeping a dancefloor dancing for hours only with your music is such a great and fun experience, especially because you get enough time to experiment a lot.

Isn’t it exhausting? I haven’t heard of many live acts that play six hours.

I find it fun. You got all the power of the music in your hands, and you can decide when to bomb the dancefloor and when you need to take a break. You can control everything yourself, and you’re not slave to other artist’s tracks.

What set up do you use when playing live for six hours?

Since I always play far away from my home I can’t take all of my equipment with me so I just use a laptop with some MIDI controllers and a synthesizer, or sometimes a drum machine. I use Ableton, and all of the songs I produce are in my laptop split into eight or more channels, so I can combine elements of different songs easily. I have thousands of sounds, blips, and loops that belong to tracks that are still incomplete.

It sounds like a purer way to perform.

Yes, I suppose it is because people are listening to you and not to your favourite tracks of the moment.

Do you have the same philosophy in the studio? Do you write all your own songs, and lyrics (eg: ‘Nemur’) and avoid sampling?

Basically yes, but if I sample something, I always declare my intentions. For the album for instance, I sampled James Ruskin and I put him on the credits, declaring “he’s techno!”

For my track ‘Here Comes The Techno’ I wanted to sample another quite famous techno artist as well, but he didn’t allow me to sample his song. He didn’t like the track probably, even though what I was trying to sample was only a fucking drum machine loop. I could have just sampled it without asking permission, but that’s not really what I’m about.

That’s very honest of you. One of our users said this about you: “You can tell Dusty Kid is a student of theory and a huge collector of analog gear. I think we need more people such as him, Eyerer, Boratto, Babicz etc. putting out techno.”

That’s nice to hear. I did something that comes from my classical background on a track for the album called The Fugue, using only analog gear.

I didn’t use MIDI to record them and I just played all of the synths live. If you listen to it closely, you can hear that there are lots of tracks a bit out of time and not perfectly in sync with the rhythm parts.

Why do you say “It comes from my classical background?” Did you approach the writing of the track like it was a piece of classical music?

Exactly. The Fugue was conceived to imitate Johann Sebastian Bach’s ‘Art of the Fugue’. The fugue was a kind of a new way to write music during the 1600 and 1700s. It’s impossibile for me to explain it in English but let’s just say that everything comes from a simple melody, where different voices imitate the melody in their own individualistic way.

If you listen to Bach’s ‘Fugues’ you can probably agree with me that they’re very psychedelic and mental.

How many synths do you have?

Around 20. Most of them are analog.

Is the Jupiter 6 still your fave?

My faves are the Jupiter 6, Jupiter 8 and SH101. Andromeda is good as well.

What is it about those synths that you like?

Well I could play the Jupiters and SH101 even if I was blind. The Jupiters allow you to do everything your mind is able to imagine on a synth while the SH101 sounds better than any other synth I’ve ever played. But if I had to chose only one gear to produce on, I would probably go for a sampler, a good one with a keyboard on it.

How about ‘real’ instruments? You can play the piano, guitar and violin. Did you use these on your album?

I played guitars on the album, but I’m not as good on that as I am on piano or violin. I played the piano too I suppose, as I played lots of keyboards. But what do you mean by real instruments? Is a piano a real instrument and a drum machine not?

Fair point. But did you ever face that type of criticism or snobbery when transitioning from classical to electronic music? What about from your parents?

Not really.

When did your big break come?

Big break? Am I famous? I dunno, probably with the Duoteque project first then probably when the first EP was released, with tracks such as ‘Cowboys’ and ‘I Love Richie’.

What do you think of techno today?

The scene was very good up until five or six years ago, but now there are two things that make the scene good and bad at the same time. Nowadays people are allow to produce music by just using a computer with free software, and that’s very good because everybody has the chance to express themselves.

But now the market is full of tracks and not songs, with absolutely no sense, made with no knowledge, and generally they’re heartless. There is still good music of course, but is becoming harder to find interesting productions.

What do you mean by “no sense, no knowledge, heartless”?

By no sense, I mean a lot of producers don’t know why they made a track. Regarding knowledge, they don’t know how that track was made and heartless, because again they don’t have a reason for making a track.

OK, so why did you make ‘Nemur’ then?

A Raver’s Diary was conceived as a concept album, and I was trying to describe my vision of a rave trip, from the beginning, when you meet your friends and you start the journey, to the rave via a car journey, till the end when you come back home, to the sunrise.

‘Nemur’ was conceived for the end of the journey, from a romantic point of view. Maybe you meet an interesting guy or girl at the rave, you enjoyed the party together, but who knows if you’ll meet them again?

Do you ever meet interesting girls or guys at clubs and raves? Do you have a special someone?

Yes, I meet interesting guys sometimes. I’m not a lesbian.

[confused] If you weren’t making music what career would you have?

I’d be a rich wife.

[very confused] Why do you refer to yourself as a girl?

Because I am.

I don’t understand?

[laughs] Let’s just say that I’m a girl in a man’s body.

Ok. How many shoes do you have?

[laughs] Countless.

Why are you so obsessed with shoes?

I think all normal girls in this world are shoe addicted. I’ve got loads of shoes that I have bought but have never worn.

A lot of Italian men are metrosexual apparently.

Probably yes, but you’re forgetting that I’m an Italian girl not a man.

Right, right. So I’m speaking to an Italian girl (man) who used to be a classical musician but is now making techno, who struggles with English! This is all quite bizarre.

[laughs].

Well, finally, have you got any tips for aspiring producers?

Don’t let your computer makes rules. You have a brain and a heart, so just use them to make the computer play for you.

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