_ _ __ _| | _____ ____ _ _ __ __| | ___ _ __ / _` | |/ _ \ \/ / _` | '_ \ / _` |/ _ \ '__| | (_| | | __/> < (_| | | | | (_| | __/ | \__,_|_|\___/_/\_\__,_|_| |_|\__,_|\___|_| _ _ _ _ _ __ ___ | |__ ___ | |_ _ __ (_) ___| | __ | '__/ _ \| '_ \ / _ \| __| '_ \| |/ __| |/ / | | | (_) | |_) | (_) | |_| | | | | (__| < |_| \___/|_.__/ \___/ \__|_| |_|_|\___|_|\_\ ____ / \ / \ | \ | __ __ | / / \ + | ( O O _| | \ \ / + | | \ | \ | / \ _ /\ \ / \ \__/ \ \____\_ / \ / \ / + / / \ / / \ / / / \ / / / / \ |\ / / / / \ \ ||\ / / / / ) ) /||_/____/ / / / / \ | / / / / \_ | / / / / ------_____ / +------/ / +___/ \ ----/ \ \ \ \ | \\\\ \ | \\\ \ | \ ____ | \ \ | | \ \ | | \_____\ | | \ \ | | \ /|| \ / | \ \ | | \ \ \ | \ \ \| \ \__ \ | \ | /___| An interview with Alexander Robotnick send in by Panos Pandis let's start with the lyrics of his classic 'Problemes D'Amour': Les Yeux que tu regardes J'ai peur qu'ils semblent pas humains La main que tu caressesm tu sais qu'elle n' a pas l'exacte chaleur, aua Aua! C'est le cri d'un robot souffrant d'amour aua Aua! Meme sans ses larmes il pleure toujours aua La bouche qui veux t'embrasser Tu vas bien t'apercevoir qu'elle n'a pas de gout, aua Aua! C'est le crie d'un robot souffrant d'amour, aua Aua! Même sans ses larmes il pleure toujours, aua Mais l'amour n'a pas de règles Ça reste le même dans les siècles La nuit je ne ronfle pas Et le matin mon haleine n'est pas mauvaise Aller, je t'invite chez moi ce soir J'ai pas de toilette, pas de cuisine mais viens quand même, aua. Aua! C'est le crie d'un robot souffrant d'amour, aua Aua! Même sans ses larmes il pleure toujours, aua J'aimerais tellement faire l'amour avec toi Même si on me juge vachement mécanique, aua. Aua! C'est le crie d'un robot souffrant d'amour, aua Aua! Même sans ses larmes il pleure toujours, aua Mais l'amour n'a pas de règles Ça reste le même dans les siècles La nuit je ne ronfle pas Et le matin mon haleine n'est pas mauvaise (Lyrics of Alexander Robotnicks' Problemes d'Amour - Maurizio Dami 1983 Firenze Italy) ////////// MAURIZIO DAMI, aka Alexander Robotnick, aka the TB-303 wizard. His iconic hit "Problèmes D'amour", a flop according to him, since "it only sold 10.000 copies", had a huge influence on the Chicago and Detroit scene in the early 80's. Maurizio did not start producing until his early thirties. In fact he began learning jazz guitar at the age of 27. Knowing that it was unlikely to become a professional guitarist at that age and having already been exposed to the sounds of Kraftwerk et al, he turned to electronic music instead. In case you need a refresher or you are unfortunate enough to never have heard any of MAURIZIO's music, here are some representative tracks: + Problèmes D'amour - Alexander Robotnic's signature track. Produced using a TB-303, a TR-808, a Korg Mono/Poly, a guitar and lyrics by himself. + Dance boy dance - Some say that this track is probably Robotnick's second biggest hit. It was originally produced as the sound track to a theatrical play. + The Analog Session - A fairly new project by MAURIZIO and LUDUS PINSKY (Lapo Lombardi). A live performance with full analog equipment featuring LUDUS handmade modular synthesisers. PANOS met with MAURIZIO in Firenze Italy and had a long chat about music, synthesisers and some totally unrelated stuff. ## How did you start making music? My father and my mother knew how to play the piano. So when I was a child there was a pianoforte in my house. Back then every time I would play the piano my father would yell at me to stop, because, as I understood later, I had a curiosity for all the odd intervals, as they sounded more interesting to me. I was playing a note and then a sharp 5th and then a sharp 2nd etc. So I did not think about music for many years but then in the 70's I went to Morocco with some friends by auto-stop (hitch hiking), all the way from Italy. One afternoon I was in the Marrakech square, in a little, lets say coffee shop. Old people would go there to smoke weed and the trick was that after you inhaled from the pipe you would try to blow the smoke as far as you could. It was like a game, the one who would go the furthest would win a free pipe, the worst of all would have to pay for all the others. These people had spend the last twenty years of their life doing this. So I joined them with a friend of mine and in front of us there would be two people, one playing a socra, a primitive oboe from Morocco and the other one playing a hand drum. And you know, smoking this weed for an afternoon a day, playing this game with old people and listening to this music, every next day I would still hear the music in my head. And one week later I still had this music in my head. And I would start to add different instruments, or play with my mind only the bass sounds or the drums or make some chords. So I said to myself, ok I can make music now, because if I can make music in my head then I can also make music outside of it. That is how I started and I started with a guitar because at the time the most affordable instrument was the guitar. I got a second or third hand guitar. By that time I wasn't very young, it was 77', I was already 27. One year later I went to a popular school in Florence to learn music and I learned modal music, popular jazz music. And this is how I still compose music. ## How easy was it back in the day to obtain your equipment? I don't come from a wealthy family, for me most of the time it was hard to buy these synthesisers. In the late 70's and early 80's synthesisers where still very expensive, you needed to work for six months maybe to be able to afford one. I started with a Casio keyboard, the kind of stuff for kids and then came the TB-303, the 606 and then the 808 that I exchanged with an amplifier because I was a guitarist at that time. ## Do you regret selling the 808? No, honestly, no. I think it is important to have an analogue synthesiser, at least one, in your studio. But, an analogue drum machine, why? I think there is no difference between a sample of an 808 and an 808. You can not really listen it. Maybe if you make something really obscure where the 808 plays a big role and you can listen to the very subtle difference between one hit and another... and then the 808 has no shuffle and this is not good for me, for my music. The 909 has this possibility and is much better and I think the bass drum of the 909 is unforgettable and still relevant. For the rest you can use a plugin! ## Earlier you mentioned tapes, do you still use tapes? Yes I do sometimes, I like to use them to compress the bass. ## While talking about hybrid synths... When memory was added to the synthesisers, the possibility to memorize a sound, for us was like science fantasy. When it came out we where enthusiastic about it. But 30 years later I think that it is better not to save any sound. I don't save any sound. Every time I find it again, because every time there is something different, it depends on your mood it depends on the situation. ## What about India and the Indian TexPress? I started going to India in the 80's because I like Indian music, I go there every year. I have a couple of friends there that are into production and are also djs, I told them about my idea of a compilation of dance music by young Indian artists and they brought me in contact. Also, I met some of them while playing music in India. Sometimes they might not understand why I prefer one of their tracks over an other, but I have a vision about this project to be something that you can listen to from the beginning to the end and not just a compilation. You can read more about the Indian TexPress here ## Any suggestions to future artists? Go local! Build an audience on your block and then on your city and then in the club you use to hang out. Don't think about the whole world immediately because the world is just the sum of little things. To me nowadays it is important to get local and build an audience that you can turn to when you are not famous anymore. Dutch musicians for example, their music was really in fashion in the early 00's when I started dj-ing, Rotterdam and music from the Netherlands and Belgium in general. Three or four years later it was not in fashion anymore because house music came back again. But these musicians had deep roots in their cities and in France etc, because they had local audiences they managed to resist and reach their next peak. ## Thank you MAURIZIO! ## Studio equipment list + Oberheim SEM + EDP Wasp + Roland JX-3P + Roland JUNO-106 + Roland TB-303 + Rolad SH-101 + Roland Space Echo RE-201 + Korg Mono/Poly + Korg Stage Echo + Korg Microkorg XL + Vermona drum machine