Alexander Robotnick
It’s not often you get to hear tips and advice from an original untutored electro rebel. While Kraftwerk were deep into the Western classical ting, Alexander Robotnick mixed jazz and influences from punk and new wave groups to deliver his very own take on late ’70s dancefloor culture. He began his musical career with a Roland 303 and an 808 which he used to lay down some demential electro, before the independent label Materiali Sonori suggested he try recording disco to make a quick buck. The result was “Problèmes d’Amour,” a self-confessed flop that sold 10,000 copies back in ’83 but, as we heard during the 2004 Red Bull Music Academy, went on to influence Chicago house and Detroit techno along the way.
Hosted by David Nerattini Sitting next to me, there’s a man called Maurizio Dami that you probably know as Alexander Robotnick, so give a big applause. [applause] Alexander Robotnick What is the second one? David Nerattini Around the same time. Alexander Robotnick OK. David Nerattini “Dance Boy Dance.” Alexander Robotnick “Dance Boy Dance,” OK. David Nerattini And what’s your background as a musician and how did you start music? What was your first approach with it? Alexander Robotnick I started with music very late. I was 27. Before, I was involved with other things. I don’t like to say what. I’m sorry for my really poor English. It has been a big problem for my life. I started last year to speak English. When I was 27, I started playing guitar because I was a hippie in that time and I was really dramatic. The guitar was the instrument that I could play at that time. I went to a popular school of music in Florence because in that time there was not so much possibility to study music as we have now. Now if you want to learn an instrument you have a lot of possibilities in schools, private schools and public schools. Or you went to the conservatory where you learned almost to hate music, or you must pay a lot for private lessons. I was lucky because in Florence there was a popular jazz school. I started to learn jazz guitar. David Nerattini You’re originally from Florence? Alexander Robotnick Yes, I am from Florence. David Nerattini And Florence has a reputation for being musically quite advanced, especially during the late ’70s, early ’80s with a lot of punk and new age stuff coming out from Florence. Alexander Robotnick Especially in the early ‘80s. Because for mysterious reasons, in the early ‘80s, Florence became a kind of capital of rock music in Italy. All new wave groups came there to play, in a club called Tenax. For us, the possibility to listen to the big acts, and the nightlife in Florence was really good. Now Florence is a nightmare, there is nothing. Only a touristic town, very boring. David Nerattini Very nice, very beautiful, but a bit boring. Alexander Robotnick Yes, beautiful, because ancient people from Florence built such a beautiful city. But now there’s nothing to do there. I was lucky to be there in the early ’80s. David Nerattini You started as a guitar player, let’s say? Your first band was a regular... Alexander Robotnick Regular, broke ground as a jazz student. David Nerattini A jazz student, in a city well known for new wave punk? Doing then, electro stuff. Alexander Robotnick In the late ’70s, I was a jazz student. But I was aware that I started too late to learn guitar. There was no possibility to become a very good player, so in the early ’80s, I was flashed by music from Kraftwerk and such music. I decided to turn on electronics, because it was easier for me to do something in that, instead of guitar, or playing jazz. David Nerattini Should we talk a bit about your first band? Alexander Robotnick My first band... David Nerattini We have a record here. The guys on the record, it’s pretty funny. Alexander Robotnick It’s really awful. It’s sung in Italian, so you can’t appreciate the lyrics that are really stupid. The track was called “A Fumme Mariuà.” In the Napolese dialect, it means, I smoke grass. David Nerattini The name of the band was Avida. Alexander Robotnick Avida. It’s from the nickname of Salvador Dalí, when he went to the USA. They called him Avida Dollars. David Nerattini Green. That means green. Alexander Robotnick We took the name. We were inspired by Salvador Dalí. David Nerattini What kind of music was this? Alexander Robotnick It’s electronic music. A kind of new wave. A genre of music that is really popular in Italy is dimensional music. David Nerattini We call it that, dimensional rock. It’s like funny lyrics on top of rock music. Not like Zappa used to do, more like a punk band singing some berserk things over it. Alexander Robotnick My equipment during that time was really cheap. I had a sequencer where I could only play a measure, and repeat this measure and less. I built a song with the same bassline, but with a strobe and chorus. David Nerattini Let’s play this, “A Fumme Mariuà.” (music: Avida – “A Fumme Mariuà”) David Nerattini What year was this? Alexander Robotnick ’82. David Nerattini Right before the Robotnik. Alexander Robotnick Yeah. David Nerattini It already has some of the Robotnik signature sounds. Alexander Robotnick Yeah, because it was the same equipment. It’s the only reason. David Nerattini Irony seems to be an important part of your job. Alexander Robotnick Yeah, it’s the fundamental part. I also made serious music in my life, but I was focused for a lot of time on irony in music. I don’t know why. Probably because of my feelings. David Nerattini That’s the way you are. Alexander Robotnick Yeah. Also, “Problèmes d’Amour,” my killer track, as they say. It’s has very ironic lyrics. Also, the music for me is ironic. But people really appreciated the bassline, and they said I started the electronic disco. David Nerattini But you had no disco background whatsoever. You were coming from a completely different background. Alexander Robotnick I love disco music. Especially the disco music close to jazz music. As George Benson, or such musicians. I appreciated a lot, in ’77, Saturday Night Fever. I was the only one in Florence. All my friends discarded the lot. “Ah, this fascist music!” I loved it. David Nerattini One day, you decided to become Alexander Robotnik. First of all, who’s this character, Alexander Robotnik? Because it’s not really you. It’s a character you invented. Alexander Robotnick For me, drama, theater and music are very near, so I invented this Alexander Robotnik, who for me was a Russian immigrant in France. This is the reason he sang in French. David Nerattini He sang in French, but without a good pronunciation of French, because he was Russian. Alexander Robotnick Yes. Because he was Russian. But French people say, “It’s wonderful to see this strange accent.” They thought I was German, but I am Italian. I had a government job in that period, and I was really bored with that job. David Nerattini What kind of job was it? Alexander Robotnick A counter. I had this job for four years. One time, I met Giampiero Bigazzi. He’s the manager of Materiali Sonori, a very small label in a very small town in Tuscany. David Nerattini One of the first... Alexander Robotnick Yeah, one of the first independent labels in Italy. He said to me, “You can get a lot of money making disco music. You need to put a bass drum in four, and you’ll sell ten thousand copies. It’s not important which music.” So I decided to make some disco music. David Nerattini You went back home. Alexander Robotnick I went back home, and I started to work with my Roland basslines, my Korg synthesizer, and a TR-808. But because I was Alexander Robotnik, I didn’t make any disco music at all. For me, “Problèmes d’Amour” was really a flop. Because it sold ten thousand copies, so I thought, “OK, I sold the minimum.” David Nerattini Let’s say that now, ten thousand copies is not a flop anymore. At the time, ten thousand copies were considered a flop. Now if you sell ten thousand copies, you say, “Oh, that’s pretty good.” Let’s listen to “Problèmes d’Amour,” because probably some of you haven’t heard it at all. Alexander Robotnick There are two versions of “Problèmes d’Amour.” The first one, we made in a non-professional studio, with a 16-track recorder, a 16-track mixer, and few outboards. The result was a very dry sound. Then the same track was remixed by François Kevorkian, and it was published almost two years later. But now, I am aware of people who appreciate the original version more, that sounds better in clubs. David Nerattini We’ll have the first one. (music: Alexander Robotnick – “Problèmes d’Amour”) David Nerattini Some of you know this track, of course. [applause] You made this track, thinking of doing disco. Alexander Robotnick Yeah. David Nerattini But it doesn’t really sound like disco. Alexander Robotnick No, unfortunately. Or fortunately. David Nerattini This record came out, and had a huge history through the years. Were you aware that so many people around the world were into this record, and are still playing this record today? At the time, you had no idea. Alexander Robotnick At the time, I was a really provincial guy. I’m also shy, out of character, I still am. When I am on the stage, it’s different, I’m not shy. But normally in life, I am so shy. The worst thing was I couldn’t speak English at all, during that time. My friends coming from New York, coming from London, they said, “Ah, I listened to your track in a club.” I had some sign of the success, but I could not able at all to go to USA or London to follow my career. So I stayed in Florence, and nothing happened. David Nerattini Technically, how did you make this record, because of course, this is ’83, so there is no such thing as sync or MIDI stuff. Alexander Robotnick Yes, before the MIDI era, during the time it was really complicated to synchronize equipment. The synthesizer work with a system called contra-voltage and gate, this means that you could control by the alt of a drum machine as a Roland 808, a bassline synthesizer. But when you recorded you have no sync on the tape. You had only one shot to make music, the rest you could play. I invented a trick that was I didn’t touch the velocity control of the drum machine. I recorded some instruments, and then I played on fly the start. David Nerattini Finger-synchronizing. Alexander Robotnick Finger synchronizing! There are many tracks that are finger-synchronized. David Nerattini Have you ever thought about finger synchronizing? After you did “Problèmes d’Amour,” you did this whole record? Alexander Robotnick Yeah. David Nerattini You had a little success, you said, “Let’s do a whole...” Alexander Robotnick Yeah, as I already said, it was not a success for me. So I turned on different kind of music. I’m really curious about the music of the world so I can’t stay on the same kind of music more than two or three years. David Nerattini You didn’t believe yourself as an Italo disco guy? Alexander Robotnick No, because, at the time, Italo disco was the most awful music in the world, I think. Now I understand that there were other people underground, as I was, that made very interesting tracks. At the time, I didn’t know them at all. For me, Italo disco was Sandy Martin or people from Ibiza, this awful thing from the ’80s. David Nerattini Yeah. Alexander Robotnick I didn’t thought about me, I was an Italo disco pioneer. Also, because I liked a lot of new wave and electronic music, and I didn’t listen at all to Italo disco during that time. David Nerattini Like everybody else, I think probably all of the guys that were making Italo disco weren’t really listening to Italo disco, but just kept doing it. Alexander Robotnick Yes, every day I’m discovering some interesting track of Italo disco that I didn’t know at the time. David Nerattini They’re coming back from other countries, that’s the weird thing. What happened after you weren’t Alexander Robotnick anymore? Alexander Robotnick Yeah, because my dream was to live by music, I decided to get out from records and to be involved in soundtracks, in fashion soundtracks and such things. David Nerattini Right after that, you joined this group of Giovanotti Mondani. Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici, multimedia type of group doing installations and theater and TV and music and electronics. Alexander Robotnick It was... David Nerattini The early electronic graphic. Alexander Robotnick In computer electronics, in art installation, and such. We made a lot of shows and also in Japan, also in USA during the time. Now it’s different, you can sell a video installation for a lot of money. During that time, in art, if you wanted to sell something, you must have some object to sell. We had no object to sell, you could sell a video casettes. David Nerattini How was that experience? We have a record from Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici, we should play. Let’s put this original vinyl back, because I’m afraid I’m going to spoil it. Alexander Robotnick There are too many in my life. It’s OK. This one, this kind of remix, a track called “Love Supreme” as the John Coltrane one. David Nerattini This was the sound for some installation? Alexander Robotnick No, this record we made is not from installation. During the ’90s, they say this was a kind of start of acid jazz. I made this in ’84. (music: Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici – “Love Supreme”) David Nerattini How come I never heard this track before? This record came out in ’84, but really didn’t come out. How many copies? Alexander Robotnick About 7,000, so that’s pretty rare. I’m not sure you’re going to be able to find it. It was almost in USA, this record. David Nerattini After this was still as Alexander Robotnick? Alexander Robotnick After we stayed here two days, really. David Nerattini Let’s talk about what happened after the Robotnick thing. Alexander Robotnick After Robotnick, I was involved in a world music, because, as I already said, I’m really curious about the music of the world. In ’85, I had my first trip to India, and I was really fascinated by that music. I mean, in Europe, in their music is known especially for the work of Ravi Shankar. Ravi Shankar is not so much considered in India. His wife is much better than him. During the ’70s, he made a soundtrack of a famous movie called ‘Chappaqua,’ and immediately, for us that never had something so different from Beatles and Rolling Stones. It was really something special. He became so famous in Europe. When I got there, I discovered really interesting music, so different from our music. I decided to play different music than European music from there. I was involved in the African music, with Indian music, with many groups. Recently, I published two records in India. This, for me, is a big satisfaction because probably I will have few rupees from that, but for me, it’s so important. David Nerattini Your take on world music, of course, is from a European point of view. Were you interacting with the African, Indian musicians? Alexander Robotnick Yeah, also, British music, Algerian music. I worked a lot during ’90s in that music. Then I can say, I think it’s really bad but it’s true. After 11th September, there are not so much work for this kind of music, and our request of concerts went really down, and I had the end of ’90s for me was a really bad period without money, without work, with nothing. In the 2000s... David Nerattini Stop, should we listen to some of your world music? I mean, we’re talking about music, but listening is something else. Alexander Robotnick This is a group called the Masala with a basuli player from Mumbai. (music: Masala – unknown) Alexander Robotnick The guys of Materiali Sonori, there’s no label in this small town in Tuscany. They are really friends. I have no problem with them. Now if someone asks me for our license, I do this directly and if they asked too, they ask directly. If they ask the label too they do this directly. David Nerattini Gentleman’s agreement. Alexander Robotnick A game. It is a game. David Nerattini So what were we saying? It was a comeback. Alexander Robotnick Yes it was a comeback. David Nerattini Who really brought you out of your shell once again? Alexander Robotnick [laughs] So, for me, I consider the “Problèmes d’Amour” as a kind of evergreen, so I was not surprised to find it in a lot of compilations and a lot of bootlegs. For example, I had this bootleg, the most famous and it’s really good, I like it. It’s the last one I found of “Problèmes d’Amour” so they are almost 15 bootlegs of “Problèmes d’Amour.” But the real change for me was when I received an e-mail one year and a half ago by a guy that ask me, “Did you still DJ? Do you still DJ?” And me, instead of to answer, “I never did Djing in my life. I hate Djing,” I thought, Maurizio, don’t be stupid as you are for your life. So I answered, “Yes, I’m still Djing but with laptop.” Then I went to buy a laptop. [applause] And the occasion went from a French organization, Grosso Modo, they provide an advance for the festival to DJ for the first time. They didn’t know it was the first time for me. David Nerattini So how was that? After so many years of doing music, first time Djing in front of a lot of people? Alexander Robotnick Yes, it was a wonderful experience because I changed. I completely changed my evaluation about DJs. So I thought I had no consideration for them because I am from a generation that considered a DJ as someone that could not dance and could not get girls, so he stayed in a corner to play records. [laughs] David Nerattini That’s not so far from the truth, by the way. Sometimes. Alexander Robotnick I still can dance. But then I when I started to DJ, I realized that it’s not so easy as job and I spent almost one year to learn how DJing and now I have much more consideration for them. And I was really lucky because the first time I DJ, I do DJing in my life, I played with Kiko and Michelle, that I consider the stars of DJing. So they appreciate my work, they appreciate my DJing and this for me was a real kick to keep on this job. And then I started to go around DJing everywhere in Europe and in New York City and I, because of, I never land DJing to mix CDs, OK... I can mix CDs in time because it’s easier. But I am not able to mix records. It’s not so difficult but I have no time to learn it. So I decide to invent a new wave, a new way to DJing and this is what I would like to show you, my personal way to DJing. I think the message to take home – how can I say this? – the message to take home is that I started as a guitar player but I started too late so I turn on electronic music. I was not able to have really professional equipment so I invented a music that didn’t need professional equipment. And now I’m not able really DJing, so I invented a new way to DJing. So the message is if you are not able to do something rightly, invent your personal way to do it. At least you are original. David Nerattini Do you have any questions? Questions, questions, questions? No questions, so we’ll go... Oh, you’ve got one. Audience Member I was wanting to ask you, when was it exactly that you found out the full extent of “Problèmes d’Amour” and the full importance it had? At what stage after you made it did you realize the impact that this record had on scenes not just in Italy but around the world as well? Alexander Robotnick I think that you are immediately aware if a track by you is a really good track or not. Recently I discovered the original full tracks cassette with the demo of “Problèmes d’Amour” and I was written over, “This is a bomb!” I was really aware of it. I consider to make a killer track is a chance. You can be the most good player in the world but the killing track doesn’t come. You must take the chance when you do something really good, you should be really involved to push it out instead of me that stayed in Florence smoking joints. David Nerattini So your music, as Alexander Robotnick, had an impact on the Chicago scene and the Detroit scene? Alexander Robotnick Yes, I discovered this many years later by internet. Because browsing the internet and putting Alexander Robotnick in the search engine, it showed so many results that I was shocked. I realized that “Problèmes d’amour” was something really popular in the world. Audience Member Yeah, I was just curious about the... What is this? [looks off to the side] Oh. A funky beat. Anyways, on the 12"s, some of the first ones have these really large labels. Alexander Robotnick Ah yeah, the large label was really a good invention. A large label is like this. [waves around record] So our distributor from Chicago was impressed by this large label and he listened to this record because the most difficult thing is to get listened to by labels, so this was the reason because labels listen to the track and the track was good so it was a success. Audience Member On "Problèmes d’Amour," what sound is the bassline? Alexander Robotnick The bassline was Roland TB-303. Audience Member OK, of course. My suspicions were correct. Alexander Robotnick It was a really cheap machine and so it was affordable for me. But it was really a nightmare to program it. I mean to program a song. To program a part of it, is very easy. In fact, the bassline during the late ’80s and the early ’90s was using acid music, putting only a part and repeated and with variation in filtering. This was a good effect but for us, in the early ’80s, the most important thing was to have something to program a song. Because we came from ’70s, where the use of electrons was the same as in the early ’90s, so to have a simple sequence and variation in sounds. In the early ’80s, we liked to build a song with electronics. So this was important and to program the bassline was really a nightmare. I was able to do it, I don’t know why but I was able, and I went to many studios only to program the bassline. People ask me to work in this and program bassline, so I was considered a bassline musician that year. Audience Member So you’re like a live bassist of the TB-303. So what year was “Problèmes d’Amour” composed? Alexander Robotnick I composed it in January of ’83. But it went out one year late. Audience Member And the demo version? Has this ever been released? Alexander Robotnick Yes. Hot Banana, a French label now, published the demo version. David Nerattini So the “Problèmes d’Amour” demo track was made with a 303. What drum machine was that? Alexander Robotnick TR-808. David Nerattini And what else? Alexander Robotnick And Korg Mono/Poly. That’s all. And voice and my guitar. David Nerattini So let’s get to the now thing. Audience Member Hold on, sorry, there’s one more, with the “Problèmes d’Amour” fetish. So how did you feel when you heard the François Kevorkian remix? Alexander Robotnick I like. During that time, I liked a lot the work by François Kevorkian because he respected the song. He didn’t change any line of music but it sounded really professional because it was released in New York in a big studio with professional equipment. As I said, now people prefer my not professional version because it sounds better in clubs than the François Kevorkian one. But in radio, as pop track, the François Kevorkian one is much better. Audience Member Cool. David Nerattini So you’ve seen the whole thing, let’s say from guitars and amplifiers to laptops now? Alexander Robotnick Yeah, laptop. How can I say about digital and analog? I don’t think this is so interesting to go down in this argument because it is a question of taste, and probably digital equipment still has not the powerful of analogic equipment. Especially for bass, especially for drums and so on. But I think it’s only a question of time. It’s probably still early for this and I started to work by computer at 32 beats and 96 kilos and the things are much better. But I’m aware that plug-in synthesizers still didn’t reach the richness and noise produced by analogic synthesizer. They seem to suffer in lack of medium frequencies, and in understanding the medium frequencies harmonics that are most important frequencies in music. So that I think is only a question of time. So in the meantime I collect again some analogic synthesizer from my friends. I don’t want to buy them, but I have many friends collector of analogic synthesizer. And I record some track on my computer and so my technique at present is half-half digital and half analogic. David Nerattini You made a record a couple years ago. The Alexander Robotnick come-back record, but it was a digtal thing. Alexander Robotnick Yes, it’s digital thing and it was really criticized for this. People was expect I used the same equipment in the early ’80s. But, you know, things change. So it has been critical. Then I went to Kiko Studio in France with Michel Dieca and they... I went there and they showed me around bassline. Oh my god, it was 20 years that I didn’t touch that machine. So I had to learn again to program it and we in a day we made “Viens Chez Moi,” the final track with Michelle and... David Nerattini Let’s listen to it. Let’s listen to it to understand. Alexander Robotnick I have my DJ set, this track. (music: Alexander Robotnick – “Viens Chez Moi”) David Nerattini So, since you have an influence on the Chicago and Detroit scene and now you have a bit of influence back. Alexander Robotnick Yeah, probably, probably yeah. But now I have a kind of mission because I like clubs, I like disco music, I like dance music, because this is my life. But I am really bored about the measure repeated endless with some variation in sounds. I like it for 15 minutes, I can dance it for 15 minutes but then I get bored and I go out from the club. So my mission again is to put some music in dance music because I think, OK. To dance a kind of tribal music based on bass drums and so on is good as African people did that from centuries ago, but I think the emotion you feel when you dance is something so good, it’s really different. You must try to do it. So my mission is to introduce in my DJ sets some very old song from the ’80s, but because I am aware that the sound is not so good with respect to the present sound, I started to add it to make a re-edit of those tracks and that’s what I would like to show you now because you know we can talk a lot about art, about life. But at the end, it’s only talking. It is nothing. So I prefer to show you how I work because it’s the most useful for you. If there is a time, I want to show you some technique. David Nerattini Do all that we need to know. Alexander Robotnick [shows track on computer screen] OK, I can take a track that I love from the ’90. It’s “The Perfect Kiss” by New Order. This is the track. (music: New Order – “The Perfect Kiss”) Now I want to show another work. David Nerattini How much do you interact in real time with these tracks? Alexander Robotnick Yeah I sync ”Problèmes d'Amour,” I sync some tracks. I put inside some bass of my tracks so I can sync. Then I can choose a kind of automatic pilot as now or to mix the tracks live, and often I mix tracks live. I have a small keyboard with controls, with USB cable and I can mix tracks in real time. It’s really fun to do it instead of I can stay like this. [crosses arms] The computer space, not so fun, so... I can put effects and I can do a lot of things, but basically what I can do is to change the order of tracks so when I want to do this I use other programs such as Ableton Live. Now there is another track interesting that is from Scissor Sisters. I like this remix, Paper Faces remix, the track is really famous. (music: Scissor Sisters – “Comfortably Numb (Paper Faces Mix)” / applause) Audience Member I heard your fusion of Indian and electronic music and I think it’s cool. I felt some kind of emotion as a receptor. The question is, as a producer, what is your opinion of the problematic of time to show some kind of emotion with a not on a logic system? Alexander Robotnick Yeah. Audience Member As a producer, we make music and sometimes we don’t a constantly emotion, we get a global emotion in one song. What’s your opinion about the problematic of time to produce or project some kind of emotion at the moment you are making music? Alexander Robotnick Yeah, obviously if you are in your house, in a studio to produce music, it’s supposed that you have some emotion. That is why you play music. Emotion in music is something, you must not think about emotion. You have emotion when you play music so you must think about technical things. You must think about chords. This is your thinking. You do not have to think about if this emotion is right. Thinking is nothing, the result is important. So if you are focused in chords, in techniques, it’s easier for you to put out your emotion. If you think about something of yourself, this become immediately fake, this is not true. It became something that is not your, but is part of you. You see it and you can’t understand anything. You must concentrate on music and study music and studying techniques for producing music. Others, your friends, your people can say you have a good emotion or not but you can’t say this. David Nerattini Anybody else? Audience Member When I make a mixed tape for myself or other people, I follow much the same technique that you just explained, but I also would do things like scratching or just bringing in beats by using a turntable. One of the problems that I find when using this approach is that I get very stuck to one tempo. When I begin, I get a sample and I might build on top of that sample and I find that after half an hour that my mix is still running at hundred and eight beats per minute. Do you stick to the same BPM or do you try and... Alexander Robotnick No, I change BPM. I improve BPM. I start from 126 and at the end I play 133. When you DJing you must improve BPM. It’s very good DJ can also go down in BPM without people stopping the music. But I start DJing only last year, so I’m not so able to do it. For now I start from a BPM and I grow to a higher BPM. Audience Member So you would tend to go up? Alexander Robotnick Yeah. David Nerattini Technically how you do that? Alexander Robotnick I do a single fragments as one at one 126, 126.5, 127 and then 128... I choose one BPM. There is no reason because I choose that but I choose 126, 128, 130, 133. I use this for BPM and to connect different BPM I use to do some fragments faster, faster, faster, and I reach the new velocity without you feeling this. Audience Member Thank you. Audience Member Hello. Talking about this matter, how do you technically do this in Cubase. I mean do you use some non four-on-the-floor fragments? You use some kind of bridges to lean those pieces? David Nerattini [speaks Italian] Alexander Robotnick I basically don’t use loops. I use only some drum loops and sequences by me to improve the danceability of some old tracks. With new tracks often I don’t need to do it. So I don’t like to choose only a part of a song and repeat it endless, because I respect the original song. For example, I don’t like to pitch the songs, because if you’ve written a song in a tonality this was important for you and if you sung a song in a tonality this was because your voice was the best in that tonality. If I do like this with a turntable, I don’t respect your music. I think so. So I do only stretching, I modify velocity but I never pitch up or down music. David Nerattini [speaks Italian] Alexander Robotnick I choose from the beginning or the end of a track a loop of four-measure loops and I repeat it to introduce a new track. So when I edit a track I always look for the segment that allow me to go out from the track or to introduce the track. David Nerattini So, you said you’re doing the same editing thing on your own music? Alexander Robotnick Yeah. David Nerattini Do you follow the same rules? Alexander Robotnick Yeah. David Nerattini I mean you cut out part that you don’t like of your own songs? Alexander Robotnick [laughs] No I did it with “Dance Boy Dance,” for example. “Dance Boy Dance,” the original one, is played at 120 BPM or 99 BPM. So it’s very slow for present music in clubs. So I have been able to improve the BPM of “Dance Boy Dance” to 128 BPM without changing the feeling of this music. David Nerattini Or the pitch. Alexander Robotnick Or the pitch. David Nerattini Can we listen to it? (music: Alexander Robotnick – “Dance Boy Dance”) David Nerattini So to finish this lecture, what can we expect from Alexander Robotnick in the next years? Alexander Robotnick I hope I have one more year to work. I know things change so fast and I don’t know how many times this new electro wave still keep on playing. I did so many things in my life, so many different kinds of music, I’m not afraid to change again music. But at present, I love a lot electro and I want to play it. David Nerattini OK. Thank you very much. Alexander Robotnick Thank you.
So here we are. You’re known basically for two major songs. Major for us but not as best sellers and for you, of course. For two songs in the early ’80s of electro, so-called, Italo disco stuff. Let’s get before that. What was your first...