The Tape

Phonat Interview + New EP

Written by gzabriel on Thursday, 2 of April , 2009 at 8:30 am

Phonat is a mythical beast capable of crafting the most majestic and soaring of dance music as well as the most creative and carelessly stylish. His previous works, such as Learn To Recycle, have shown both his musical and technical skill as he effortlessly hops between genres using the same set of sounds and makes it all cohesive and brilliant. Phonat’s new EP is out and the man does not disappoint.

DOWNLOADS AND EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW AFTER THE JUMP

It opens with Get Down My Dirty street which slowly but surely builds itself into a funky and moving jam full of horns, stabs, and guitars, all of which Phonat uses to perfection to make you dance. The next track is Ho Visto Un Quadro Verde which takes a departure from Phonat’s more familiar material. Stripping down to just drums and synth (with some vocal snippets) this is as minimal as things get for Phonat but you’d be hard pressed to find a spot of boredom. Phonat is constantly flipping and switching things up and it’s obvious that this is neither derivative or repetitive, but much rather something evolving and inventive crafted by the hands of a master. The title track from the EP seems the most dancefloor friendly except for the fact that it may shame songs following or preceding it. Set Me Free is like a classic 70′s jam you’ve heard before but don’t know the words to, or the moment in a stadium rock show when it breaks down to just the chorus and claps. It’s unforgivably big and full of strings, synths that fill rooms, guitars, and vocals you should probably sing along to. As usual Phonat keeps it all flowing and shifting with style and it pays off, the whole EP just sounds great. It’s dance music at its best, exciting, creative, and fun. Do yourself a favor and listen to it.

We got the chance to ask Phonat a few questions too.

1.Your music sounds very organic and alive. What is the process that goes into creating a song for you?

The process is different from song to song. Sometimes I come up with an idea and I get down on Cubase trying to reproduce what I hear in my brain, sometimes I just mess around with sounds until I get something good.

Most of the times is a mix between the two, I start messing around with random noises then at some point I get to know how I want the track to sound like.

But I am really really fussy about my stuff! I can spend a month just trying to get a 4 bar loop right programming some synths or creating a pattern of snippets of samples.

2. How would you describe your sound if it were a summer blockbuster?

I’d say 50% thriller cause you never know what’s gonna happen next, what the next song will sound like and 50% comedy cause I don’t take myself and what I do too much seriously.

3. If you had to save the world what song/songs would you do it to?

I’d be definitely listening to the A-Team theme!

4. What music are you listening to in general? Who are some of your favorite producers/labels right now?

I try to listen to as much and different stuff as I can, most of it it’s dance and electronica but I do listen to a lot of indie as well.

I’m really enjoing Lorenz Rhode, Damn Arms and Fourward at the moment, also the latest Prefuse 73 and Nightmares On Wax albums on Warp rec are on heavy rotation in my ipod.

But I’m really looking forward to see AC/DC live at Wembley this summer!

5. Where did you get the idea to make Learn To Recycle and how did you do it?

I got the idea simply getting bored of listening to some music that sounds like stuff you’ve heard a billion times and repeats the same loop for 6 min and a half.

I wanted a song with radical changes throughout it, something unexpected, so I thought of having this journey between genres that are quite unrelated each other. But still keeping always the same sounds and melodies, recycling them from genre to genre. Most of the music we do nowadays is just about sampling and recycling older ideas so I though I should make it clear!

6. If you could have a conversation with one person throughout history who would it be?

I would like to meet some artist like Van Gogh that has been struggling a lot during his life to tell him how successful he will be after his death with his works been sold for billions of pounds and see his reaction.. Would he enthusiastically start to produce more artworks or would he set fire to the sunflowers?

7. What does the album (hypothetical or not) sound like? Who’s on it? When can we all hear it?

My debut album is nearly finished and is gonna be released on Mofo Hifi in a couple of months time.

Many of the tracks are co-produced with Hal Ritson of The Young Punx and virtuoso rock guitar player Guthrie Govan played some guitars.

It’s very difficult for me to describe how it sounds! A bit like Learn To Recycle the album jumps from genre to genre but with ‘something’ that keeps it all together..

8. What first got you into making music and why do you keep making it?

I started cause I was rubbish at football when I was a teenager and I keep going cause I don’t want to spend the rest of my life working into a random office!

Phonat- Get Down My Dirty Street

Phonat- Set Me Free (Extended Mix)

Buy the EP here.

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Category: Interviews

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