Giorgio Moroder
Giorgio Moroder brought a very European aesthetic to black American dance grooves. Although Italian by upbringing, Moroder did most of his work in Munich and the influence of Düsseldorf’s Kraftwerk can be heard in his work for Donna Summer, which includes two of the ultimate disco anthems, “I Feel Love” and “Love to Love You Baby.” This was motorik music: spacious, trippy, ever-lasting, far removed from the relentless bounce of most disco. He was also a supreme composer of soundtracks, scoring an unlikely success with “The Chase,” the theme from Midnight Express. His footprints are all over British synth-pop, from Pet Shop Boys to New Order to Human League – and it was with the latter’s Phil Oakey that he got his biggest self-credited hit, “Together In Electric Dreams” in 1984.
In his 2013 Red Bull Music Academy lecture, he discusses his earliest recordings, his favorite synthesizers, working with Donna Summer, and more.
Hosted by Torsten Schmidt It’s our very distinct honor to welcome a man not from Bavaria, as most of you might think, but from the beautiful northern Italy
landscape that’s called South Tyrol, Mr. Hansjörg Moroder. [applause] Giorgio Moroder You’re the first one in the last 20 years, since my mommy died, who calls me
Hansjörg. My name is Giorgio, Giovanni Giorgio, but they call me Giorgio. Torsten Schmidt So probably, to get this straight, we are on a continent where most people speak one language. The place you’re born is multilingual, right? Giorgio Moroder We speak Italian, German, and Ladino at home. So you go to the town and you meet friends, you speak Ladino. That’s what we speak mostly. Then or Italian or German. Torsten Schmidt How big was that town that you grew up in? Giorgio Moroder About 5,000 people. Torsten Schmidt Oh, that’s bigger than mine. Giorgio Moroder In the beautiful Dolomites. And, by the way, I just met Giovanotti down here. You know the rapper Giovanotti, the Italian guy? Who has one beautiful song where he raps and he tells about this girl with the big tits and he says, “And they look like the Dolomites,” which are the mountains where I come from. [laughter] Torsten Schmidt Yeah, Dolomites, hip-hop capital of the world. Is there a church in that town? Giorgio Moroder A church? Actually, that’s a good question. A few years ago, I went to a wedding in a small church next to my town. And, you know, people were singing. And they started to sing, “Pater Noster,” a song. I said, “I know this song. Why would I know the lyrics of this song?” I was getting nervous to ask, “What is this song?” I found out that I wrote a song for the church, and they were
singing it, like, in the part of Italy where I live, and it became relatively
famous, and it’s a religious song, talking about churches. Torsten Schmidt Do you get points on it, and credits? Giorgio Moroder Oh, they didn’t pay one penny yet. Torsten Schmidt But you’re doing alright, right? Giorgio Moroder They’re doing okay, yeah. Torsten Schmidt And do you do kind of alright as well? Giorgio Moroder I’m doing okay, too, thank you. [laughs] Torsten Schmidt Speaking of church, because there might be some people that we need to familiarize, maybe, with things you did and did not do. Let’s take it to church. (music: Giorgio Moroder – “Tears” / applause) Giorgio Moroder I didn’t hear this song for the last 30 years. Somebody did a re-recording of it. That one I heard, but this one I didn’t. It’s quite interesting. This is
me, right? Torsten Schmidt I suppose so. Giorgio Moroder It’s quite interesting, the concept of having one simple melody going on. If I
would do it now, I would have changed after, let’s say, 16 bars, going into
slightly different things. But those were the days. Torsten Schmidt And it’s kind of curious. ‘Cause, I mean, you were not a big fan of Kraftwerk at the time as well, because you said their melodies are just too simple,
right? Giorgio Moroder Well, yeah, the melodies are relatively simple, but this one is a little too
simple. Torsten Schmidt So where is the line between simple and too simple? Giorgio Moroder This one is too simple. “Love to Love You” is very simple, too, but has – thank God – a bridge, which is a little more complex, so it’s okay. Torsten Schmidt But why is simplicity or complexity important in music? Giorgio Moroder Well, no, simplicity is great. Complexity is great, too. One thing I know, it’s
to have a song with a simple melody is much more difficult to have than a song
with verse, intro... Because a simple melody, you have to, every 16 bars, get a
new sound or different [modulation]. Kind of the shorter the melody, the more difficult it is to make a song interesting. Torsten Schmidt So, how many different bits would you use in a song like this? Or motifs? Like, how do you go about writing a piece like that? Giorgio Moroder This was just, first, the melody. [hums melody] Which I started, I guess,
with an organ, right? Then the bass comes in, which plays a little different.
Then the drums. Then I had the guitar – broing! – but you’re asking me now, I
heard it first time for the last 30 years, so I couldn’t even get you a better
description of it. Torsten Schmidt Is there anything you remember about recording this track? Giorgio Moroder No, but I know I recorded it in my studio in Munich, in Musicland. I didn’t play the
keyboards. I think that was probably Thor Baldursson or Harold Faltermeyer. The bass was probably Dave King. The drums, for sure, Keith Forsey. And I think I sang it. I think so. Torsten Schmidt You actually sang quite a bit, if we go even more back. Giorgio Moroder Oh god! [laughs] (music: Giorgio – “Looky, Looky”) Giorgio Moroder Those were the bubblegum times. And, actually, I love this song. It became
quite a nice hit in parts of Europe. The “Ooh-ma-ma,” I didn’t sing it. That was a friend of mine. And before it became a hit, we made a deal, “I don’t pay
you, but I buy you a great steak.” So then it became a big hit, and he was left with a big steak. [laughter] Torsten Schmidt Did he go on and write a book about it and tell you how bad the music industry is? Giorgio Moroder He’s still thinking, “Oh God, I could’ve made millions. Instead, I got a steak.” [laughter] Torsten Schmidt OK, so you learned about splitting the royalties really early on, then? Giorgio Moroder No. Steaks, yes, but royalties, no. Actually, it was his idea. I guess he was
hungry, so he wanted a [steak]. [laughs] No, this song went quite well. Can
I tell you a little story about [it]? The song was number one in Spain for
weeks, and I think it was in spring, and somebody called me. There was a big
music festival in Tenerife, and they invited me to sing at the competition. And I said, “No, no, I don’t want to go down there. I don’t want to compete.”
They said, “Yeah, you don’t have to compete. You just have to sing, and you’re
going to win.” I said, “How can you say I’m going to win?” “No, no, you are
going to win.” In fact, I went down there, I won, and then 20 years later, I
met Iglesias. Not the young one, the... Julio, Julio Iglesias. And so we’re
talking, and he said, “Oh Giorgio, do you know what?” He didn’t say the word
but something like, “I was competing with you in Tenerife, and I became number
two, and you know, I sing much better than you.” So he was my competitor, but
I won, because it was all arranged. [laughter] No, sorry. It was all quality. [laughter] Torsten Schmidt I mean, that at least spared you... well, being a big Willie Nelson fan, he
got to sing with Willie later on, so... Giorgio Moroder Oh yeah, yeah. No, he became relatively famous. And he has a son who is quite
famous, too, right? Torsten Schmidt So we don’t need to worry about him. Giorgio Moroder No, no, no. They are doing OK. In fact, Julio still sings. He’s what, about
70? He’s older than me. So he still sings. He has an incredible career. So
maybe he was lucky that he didn’t win. Maybe he was more, “Grrr, the guy beat
me, so I have to get better.” Torsten Schmidt Maybe he should get you a steak now for it. On that tip, I’m really curious
what’s going to come out of this one. (music: Giorgio Moroder – “Son of my Father”) Giorgio Moroder I always loved this one. This was the first song I did with a synthesizer, with the big Moog. And I think it was the first pop song ever using the synthesizer. I think there was one song, maybe a first weeks or a few months earlier, with Emerson, Lake & Palmer. A song called “Lucky,” “Lucky Guy,”
“Lucky Something.” They used a little bit of synthesizer. But this was the first pop song with a synthesizer. They did a recording in England with Chicory Tip, by using kind of - I don’t think they used the Moog - but that became a number one song almost all over the
world. Except my song, I think, was better, but the cover did better. Although
in America there was a competition between my version and Chicory Tip, and I won. So my version went into Top 40. Torsten Schmidt But, I guess, the royalties both came to you anyway, right? Giorgio Moroder Yeah, that’s true. But no, I was a little sad, because I could have been number one in England, too, but they were faster than me. Torsten Schmidt And I mean, these guys didn’t have a proper moustache then, right? Giorgio Moroder Oh, pooh, nobody had a mustache like me. [laughter] I don’t know if you saw some pictures of me with a moustache, but I had quite
a big one. [photos on screen] Oh, this is still the small one. I have one down here. Torsten Schmidt I’m in between two minds now, because we could go through the pictures and you
tell us what’s going on there, but we maybe save that for a little later.
Because the one thing I wondered about is, the synthesizer obviously wasn’t
your first instrument, because they just were not around when you started
doing music, and they were almost unaffordable, right? Giorgio Moroder Well, I discovered the synthesizer when I listened to Walter Carlos, the beautiful album called Switched-On Bach, which was a classical rendering of Bach’s music but only played on the synthesizer. And it sounded absolutely intriguing to me, to have one instrument which would play an oboe, a violin, and a piano. So I tried to find out who has one, because I wanted to hear it. So I found out that a German classical composer had bought one. I think it was the second
or fourth ever. Torsten Schmidt Which composer was that, actually? Because it’s very rarely recorded. Giorgio Moroder I just did a music for him, “Happy Birthday.” Oh God,
what was it? Well, I tell you later. Anyway, a classical guy. He’s the music director of the symphonics in Munich. Eberhard Schoener, that’s his name. So I went to his house and
he had a beautiful set-up with four speakers, kind of quadraphonic. I said,
“Let me hear what you have.” He had it recorded and all he was playing is a
low note, and it went from one speaker around, and was all... [makes a low,
wobbling sound], a little bit like
Koyaanisqatsi, you know, that sound. And it was great, but it lasted an eternity. And after a minute, I said, “Does the Moog do something else, too?” “Oh yeah, and he does a... [imitates electronic
sound effects],” and I said, “That’s it, that’s my instrument.” Torsten Schmidt And, I mean, how did you go about finding that, then? And purchasing it, actually? Giorgio Moroder Well, I never purchased one. First of all, because I would not have known how
to work it out. At the beginning, the first years, to use the Moog was very
difficult. You had to patch left and right, and sometime it took this guy
Robbie Wedel, it
took him 10 minutes just to get a sound out. So I would rent a studio, or he
would bring it in my studio, and I would use him to get me the sounds. But I
never owned one. Torsten Schmidt OK, so on that note, when going back through your earlier stuff, what was
your first instrument? Giorgio Moroder OK. At the very beginning, I used to play guitar. Not bad, but not great. So I
would play, again, in the Dolomites in Italy, I would play in some resort
places, like in the summer, like two or three weeks during the summertime. And
then I got an offer to become a professional musician, to work in Switzerland,
actually. With a piano, drum, and me as a guitar. And we had very little time
to rehearse, so my guitar, fighting with the piano, there’s always a problem,
because a piano uses so more complex chords than the guitar that we didn’t fit
too well. And plus, I probably was not good enough. So I started to play bass.
I borrowed a big one, and you know, the bass is relatively easy. And so I
started to play bass, and that’s what I did for the next seven, eight years. I
played bass. And then, slowly I started to play a little piano. You know, when
you’re a musician, you have plenty of time, like in all the afternoons, we
didn’t know what to do, so I was playing a little piano, in the bar or club
where we were playing. Torsten Schmidt So that was, like, a dance band, that would play for dance teas? Giorgio Moroder Well, yeah, yeah, like we played pop. We played The Beatles, we played
whatever was on the radio. And we played one or two of my new compositions,
but probably when there was no people in the room, so just to rehearse a
little bit. Torsten Schmidt There’s something I was curious about, what you’re playing on this one here. (music: Giorgio Moroder - “Ja, Ja, Ja (Wie Ist Werbung Wunderbar”)) Giorgio Moroder No idea what this song is. [laughs] No idea. I like the beginning, although.
It’s nice. And it’s German, right? Torsten Schmidt Yeah, it’s in German, and it’s a very critical consumer... against consumer...
criticism. Giorgio Moroder God, how did you find that stuff? Torsten Schmidt It’s the wonders of the Internet. Giorgio Moroder Must be a genius. Torsten Schmidt It’s the Internet. Giorgio Moroder Oh, God. No, this one I totally forgot. I’m not even sure if it’s me, but probably. Torsten Schmidt I mean, I have the feeling it might be you, because what I found really
interesting when discovering it, it actually sounds a lot like you, and it sounds almost sequenced, without any sequencer or synthesizer being involved. Like, the way it’s arranged. You can hear a lot of similarities, so therefore I was curious. Giorgio Moroder No, I couldn’t tell you anything, because I really don’t remember this one. Except the high part, the “No, no,” whatever I sing, the rest is quite good, actually. Torsten Schmidt Do you find keeping track of your own work is important? [laughter] Giorgio Moroder Well, do you know what? I have good friends. I have one guy, an Italian guy, who loved Donna Summer and who loves me, and every two weeks, he comes, “Giorgio, I found a new song of you.” And then he tells me what it is, I say, “Oh, yeah? Is this mine?” So he found about ten songs of mine, which I
completely forgot. So I have my resources. I have somebody who’s helping me. Torsten Schmidt Because I’m serious. I know so many people that just do so much crazy, creative stuff – great, I’m not cursing here – and they will just give you these b-tapes, for example, and it’s like 300 works of genius on there. It’s like, “Oh, what’s that?” “Oh, I don’t know. I just did sometime,” or whatever. Giorgio Moroder Well, first of all, I would remember if it was a hit. But this certainly was
not. Plus, it’s what? This must have been late ‘60s, maybe beginning of early
‘70s, so that’s like, what, 40 years ago? My memory goes to, “Two days ago, what did I have for dinner?” Torsten Schmidt You’re doing better than me, then. Giorgio Moroder You don’t know what you ate last night, right? Torsten Schmidt Actually, I do, because someone had diarrhea this morning, and we all wondered sort of like whether it was the food or not, but yeah. No, but yeah, usually I can’t. I don’t know what’s going on two days ago. And so that leads me to another thing. It’s like, especially when we go to these things [gestures to the screen], what
does an actual day look like for you these days? Giorgio Moroder Well, these days, my days are kind of retired, except for the last, what, four
or five weeks, when Daft Punk came out, or is coming out, with a new album, where I have one song. And since then, it’s crazy, with interviews and work offers and management companies who want me, and it’s getting really crazy. Torsten Schmidt But, I mean, you could be chilling on the pool and playing a Jupiter. Like,
why? Giorgio Moroder Yeah, I know. That was a great time up there in Beverly Hills, with a Roland... what was it? Yeah, that Jupiter-8, I think. Which I used quite a lot. Torsten Schmidt OK, so let’s say Daft Punk had not happened. What did last summer look like
for you? Giorgio Moroder Oh, great. We were between Italy and Paris. And doing vacationing, most of the time. Doing my crossword puzzles, having a great time. Unfortunately, not unfortunately, then Daft Punk came and, what’s his name, the actor? “And then they pulled me back in.” Torsten Schmidt I mean, we’re jumping in times, but how can I resist this now? (music: Giorgio Moroder - “Tony’s Theme”) Giorgio Moroder This is probably my favorite piece of music. It’s the opening piece for the movie Scarface. And there was a German guy called Klaus Nomi, who had a classical piece, where he would sing, “Ah, ah, ah,” something like that. And I thought, not his
music, but the way he played would work quite well for Scarface. And it’s
quite a difficult piece. If I would have to play it now, I would not be able to. Although I know the melody, but the chord changes, with the bass, I would have to rehearse to find out. And interestingly, I’m working with a very young
guy, 22 [or] 23-years-old, who is a great programmer, and just a few days ago he
said, “And, you know, when I don’t have to work, when I play piano,” the
Scarface theme is the one he likes the best. So next time I have to tell
him, “OK, show me how to play it.” Torsten Schmidt And I mean, the entire genre of New York hip-hop would almost be non-existent
without that soundtrack, right? Giorgio Moroder Well, that’s an interesting thing. The movie came out and was received very badly, actually. When we had the cast and crew show, at the end, on every show, somebody applauds. In this case, nobody applauded. And then one or two guys started to boo. And I was there with the director, [Brian] De Palma, and we were all, “God!” We thought it was the greatest movie on earth. And so the
movie didn’t do too well. But then it came out on video, and it suddenly became a cult movie. Especially American-Afro people, they love this movie. The rappers love it. In fact, I was talking to a guy who works with Jay-Z, and I said, “Do you know, I may re-write the music?” In fact, Jay-Z and a lot of rappers wanted to re-write the songs for the movie, then Brian De Palma didn’t
want. Plus, you know, the movie’s three hours and 20, I think. And I told this
guy, “If I could cut it, I would take out a minute here, a minute there.” And
he said, “You would not do that. Because I saw the movie 50 times, and I wouldn’t let you take out one second.” So that’s that much involved he was, and how much some of those guys are. Torsten Schmidt Can you remember how long it took you to score the actual movie? Giorgio Moroder The main problem with this movie was the score is relatively small. This piece, there are some other pieces. What took so long, and what was a big job, was create all the songs. I think I had nine songs, to create nine songs, and hopefully nine hits. That was hard. That was really difficult. So we had one or two smaller hits with the songs, but I guess, the score was the one a lot
of people liked. But the usual one, it’s probably about two, three months’
time. On this one, I was lucky, because this theme, I composed it while there
was the filming. Normally, I get a rough cut of the movie, then I start to
work. And then mostly you have two or three months’ time. For example, I made a big mistake after Midnight Express. Alan Parker
wanted me to do Fame. And so he gave me the script, and I would have to write the music while they were filming, because they were dancing and all that. And so I read the script, and I just couldn’t figure out what the movie was about. So I passed on it. And I am still mad now, because at the end it was such a great movie. Torsten Schmidt But you did the theme song, right? Giorgio Moroder No, no, no, no, I didn’t do anything for that one. No. Unfortunately. So I
passed on it, and next time I get an offer I’m really thinking, “OK, read it
twice. Think about...” But it was a difficult script, because it was a lot of
sections of the six, seven characters, which each one had a story, and it’s difficult. A movie normally has a story from beginning to the end, while here, that’s a lot of sections. So it’s more in the fantasy of the imagination of the director, how the movie’s going to play. Torsten Schmidt Can you recall what the first movie was that you worked on? Giorgio Moroder Midnight Express. Torsten Schmidt Well, we just prepared something earlier. Giorgio Moroder Oh no, no, no. I know exactly what you’re doing. There was a little, I think,
a mini-porno or something like soft porno, where somebody used my tracks. It was not me doing it. [laughter] If that’s what you’re refer to. Torsten Schmidt Actually, no, but that sounds kind of tempting. [laughter] Giorgio Moroder Let’s see what he found. (excerpt from an interview for German TV show Auf Los Geht’s Los, followed by
“The Chase” from the Midnight
Express soundtrack) Torsten Schmidt That must have felt really, really weird. Giorgio Moroder It was quite kind of nice. The guy is a famous German TV [host]. Torsten Schmidt My grandma liked him a lot. Giorgio Moroder Sorry? Torsten Schmidt My grandma liked him a lot, so that’s why I got to watch him. Giorgio Moroder The one thing, which I obviously now don’t like, is I didn’t really play. I was just faking the playing. It was a computer who played the little “Doddle diddle diddle.” So I didn’t do it. Torsten Schmidt Yeah, but nevertheless, I mean, it must have felt kinda weird, with, you know, with homeboy touching you all the time, and it’s like, “Yeah,” and then, “Oh,
and one of ours went over there and then he brought the Oscar back. Hey!” Giorgio Moroder Oh, he was a great actor. I could not have done anything, right? I could not have smacked him. Torsten Schmidt Maybe, maybe not. But I mean, nevertheless, even in this bizarre, awkward dialogue, “What is this thing? We have such a thing here. And what is it? Is it a computer? Is it a…?” Giorgio Moroder Well, don’t forget, that was, like, ‘76. Nobody knew what a synthesizer was, nobody knew what a computer in that sense was. So for him it was something totally new. Not only for him, for everybody. Torsten Schmidt And I mean, there’s generations of kids out there who just went, like, “Uh, I want that one.” Giorgio Moroder Well... Torsten Schmidt I mean, at the time, you may have probably not realized it, or thought it was
one of those promotional things you might have to do, in a way? But it was really inspirational. Giorgio Moroder Which one? The TV show? Well, you know, it’s like, I’m here. They asked me to come here, and so you do it. And that was probably the most important TV show in Germany at that time, and so they asked me if I wanted to go there, and so I went. Torsten Schmidt So, at the time, you still lived in Munich, right? Giorgio Moroder Yeah, that was ‘76. Yeah, well, half and half. I moved six months in ‘78, ‘79. Torsten Schmidt First of all, how did you get from playing in those bands over to Munich, and then working there a lot more? Giorgio Moroder Well, after playing, I think, seven, eight years, I decided that it’s enough,
I have to do something with my life. I wanted to be a composer more than a
musician. So I was able to save quite some money for a year. I decided I’m
going to work for another year and then I stop and I try to become a composer. So I wanted to do the tour of Europe, going to Berlin. I had some connections
in London and some in Paris and decide where am I going to live, and where am
I going to work. So I went to Berlin, and I went to this publisher, and they
didn’t really like any of my songs, but they said, “It looks like you’re a
good sound engineer. We just opened a little studio. Why don’t you become our
sound engineer?” So I said, “Great. At least I have a job in the company,” right? So I worked for one month, and then I said, “No, this is not right. I cannot be a sound engineer in a publishing company where everybody else composes.” So I gave up my job and I said, “OK, from now on, I’m a composer.” And I was very lucky, because I had my first hit with a guy called Ricky
Shayne in, I think, probably four, five months after I moved to Berlin. And I
stayed there for, I think, four years, then the life in Berlin was too difficult, you know, with the Wall, and you could not leave the city, and so I moved back to Munich, which is much better, because then on the weekends I would go home to Italy. And so I moved to Munich. Torsten Schmidt The food was better, too. Giorgio Moroder The food was better. Bavarian food is great. Torsten Schmidt So, how did the studio situation in Munich evolve for you, then? Giorgio Moroder Well, I lived in an apartment building which had hotel, residence, and restaurants, and I found a basement, like this room, basically. Second basement. And I built a studio there. And somehow I was lucky and not lucky.
The second the studio was built, I had the first client. T-Rex, what’s his
name? The guy who died. Torsten Schmidt Marc Bolan. Giorgio Moroder Yeah, and he booked the studio for two, three months, and then the Rolling
Stones came in, and then Deep Purple. So I had a hard time in getting into my
own studio. So that was the situation. Because if you say “no” to one, they
are never going to come back. So that was a little bit of a problem. But I did still a lot of work there. Torsten Schmidt Why on earth were these bands recording in Munich? Giorgio Moroder The Rolling Stones? Well, first of all, it was a good studio. Very nice. First, I had a nice, very, very, small desk called Helios, which Mick and especially... Ian, Ian, who died a few years ago. Anyway, the engineers, they loved it. Plus, in England there was a tax problem with all those guys. They
had to record some of the stuff outside England. So there were only a few, two
places. One was in Paris, the Château [d’Hérouville], somewhere outside Paris.
And Musicland, in Munich. And plus it was a great combination. They had the hotel, they could rent an apartment, they would take the elevator down to the studio, there were restaurants, in a nice section of Munich. So they loved it. And we had everybody there – Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Uriah Heep, John Lord. All the heavy, basically English groups. Torsten Schmidt And you also found a singer there as well, right? Giorgio Moroder Just a little singer. What’s her name? Oh yeah, Donna. [Donna Summer]. [laughs] So I did a demo, I forgot, for an American group, and I wanted some background singers who would sing with good English, without an accent. And so Donna came in and two other girls, and we loved - Pete Bellotte and myself — we loved the way she sang and the way she looked and the personality. And a
few weeks later, we did a song which became a small hit, nice little hit
called “The Hostage.” Then we
had a second song called “Ladies of the
Night,” which did OK. But then finally I did “Love to Love You, Baby,” and that was the start of my career. Torsten Schmidt Let’s probably listen to that for a quick moment. Is there any section in the 16 minutes 49 that you would recommend we skip to? Giorgio Moroder Which I would recommend? Torsten Schmidt Yeah, right now. Because, I mean, obviously we would love to hear it in its entirety, but I guess we do that later. Giorgio Moroder That’s the section where she moans. That’s my favorite section. Which I guess is, what, at five minutes? Or five, six minutes in? I guess. [referring to interviewer] That’s my expert. He knows my songs better than I do. (music: Donna Summer – “Love To Love You,
Baby”) Torsten Schmidt As anyone can hear, it’s a typical Bavarian way of playing bass. Where did you
find your musicians at the time? Giorgio Moroder [comments over music] The bass is a guy called, I think he’s American or
English, Dave King. And interestingly, just lately, I found the original tapes, the 24-track tapes, so I was listening to the tracks, each one by itself, and I found the beginning... OK, this song was done in two different times. The first time we did about four minutes, three-and-a-half minutes. And
then, I guess two, three weeks later, we extended it. And Dave played the same
bass. So I was listening to the beginning, and he plays like... [imitates
bass part] And full of mistakes. Not big ones. And once you switch to the second part, he plays much better. So it’s to show he probably learned it better and it sounded good with the mistakes, and without. It’s interesting, the same guy played one part really well and the other one not. Torsten Schmidt I guess, that’s what they call funk and stuff. Giorgio Moroder Yeah, yeah, right, right, right. Although I must say the second part, where he played better, it sounds better. Torsten Schmidt I suppose, we’re gonna hear a little bit of that tonight as well, right? Giorgio Moroder Of what? Torsten Schmidt Of this. Are we gonna hear anything of this tonight? Giorgio Moroder You mean at the club? Do we? Yes. OK. I have to ask him. [talks to someone
offstage] Not enough moaning, but that’s OK. Torsten Schmidt It’s still early in the day. Just leave the moaning ‘till later. There’s another song you did, with that same singer, and here’s another so-called live performance of it, which features amazing percussion playing. (video: Donna Summer – “I Feel
Love”) Torsten Schmidt I guess, we’re going to hear plenty more of that tonight as well. Giorgio Moroder Yes, I know that we’re doing it. Torsten Schmidt Who, of all these people, were actually involved in the recording of the song? Giorgio Moroder Me and Donna, and that’s it. Torsten Schmidt And who are the rest? Giorgio Moroder Oh, that was a show. I don’t think that was live, that show. Maybe she sang it
live, but it sounded... This is really difficult to play live. No, the tracks,
I did the whole thing. I’m not a good musician, but this was relatively easy.
I used the Moog, of course. Took down the click to sync up. I had eight knobs
with eight notes, so I would find the first one, “Dumm, dumm, da-da-da-dehn.”
I found the eight notes, and so by playing one key, I would hear... [imitates
synth arpeggio] So then, if you move the key to, say, from C to E-flat, you
do... [imitates chord progression] So I chose the tempo. I took down the
bass first, which took probably at least an hour, because every four bars, every eight bars, it went out of tune, so we have to tune it again, drop in, cut, do it again. So that took a long time. And then Robbie Wedel, the guy with the big Moog, gave me a white noise, like, “Shhhhhh,” you know, all the frequences. And with that one we found the right frequence for the hi-hat,
like “Chick chick chick.” Then the right frequence a little lower, I guess at
800hz, like “Tok-tok.” Then I used one polyphonic synthesizer, I forgot which
one. So it was all by myself, all added. The only thing which did not work was
the bass drum, the kick. The Moog was like, “Foof foof foof,” instead of “Tok
tok.” So Keith Forsey had to play the kick. And it was not easy, because, you
know, drummer, I used to play with hands and two [sticks]. So he was there
just playing this one foot, like, five minutes, which was quite difficult. Torsten Schmidt You should’ve gotten Jaki Liebezeit or someone. Giorgio Moroder What? He did a good job. Torsten Schmidt So, did you reinforce the drums later? Giorgio Moroder No. The one thing which changed dramatically, first of all, I did not have the melody when I took down the tracks. I just said, “First of all, let’s get the
bassline and then put the chords on,” and then I composed the melody, and gave
it to Donna. Donna wrote the lyrics. Then we recorded it. And when we did the mix, I asked the engineer, Jürgen Koppers, to give me a little bit of a delay on the bassline. So suddenly instead of hearing, “Dunn dunn dun-dun dunn,” I heard, “Doodle doodle ddl-ddl doodle...” I said, “Wow, great! This is totally new.” In fact, I think that was the moment when “I Feel Love” was really
created. And we took at least an hour to find the right amount of delay,
because at that time you couldn’t really measure it. Now you say you have a
tempo of 120 and you put a certain delays on, so now it’s easy. At that time,
we had to search, “A little more, no, a little less, no, it’s too much.” So in
the end we found a good solution, not the perfect one. Then I think I made a mistake by mixing it. I had the original on the left-hand side. On the right-hand side of the stereo, the delay. And the delay is, of course, now I know, it’s not absolutely perfect. So, if, in some of the discotheques, if you were too much on the right-hand side, you would hear the up, and it was not easy to dance to, because it was not really perfect. So I should have made it in mono. A lot of things which I could have done better. Torsten Schmidt Let’s go back to the studio. You spent quite a lot of time in the studio, right? Giorgio Moroder Then, yes. Now, I remember, I was just thinking the other day, in ’86, when I did Top Gun, I think I had two weekends off in the whole year. I was that busy. Torsten Schmidt But I mean, obviously, that was a totally different beast, that we will get to in a minute. But how did you actually get yourself into the state where, in the studio, you would have the right delay, to create something that works really well on a dancefloor while your technical set-up is anything but a party? Giorgio Moroder I didn’t get the question. Torsten Schmidt Well, when you’re in the studio, you have to be really focused on figuring all the technical details and so on and so on, while being on the dancefloor is the extreme opposite of it. It’s very hedonistic, it’s like out there, people are having fun, sweating. Giorgio Moroder Well, first of all, I always used great musicians. And the better the musicians, the better the songs become. The more creative the musicians are, the better. With the electronics sometime, the problem is, now it’s easy because it’s all synced, it’s so synched you don’t have to worry about too
much. But the problem now is that you sit by yourself most of the time infront of the computer. You do all the things, and you have your own opinion
and that’s all you have. While, if you use musicians, like I did so much, I
had five guys, they all gave me always their input. Like, the guitarist would
come up with a great line, so that’s a big difference. Technically, except “I
Feel Love,” which was really technically difficult, the rest I used the
synthesizer more like an instrument than an automated machine which plays.
Except sometimes, if you do arpeggios, of
course, they have to be
computerized, because that’s how you do it. But generally speaking, as I said,
now it’s different because it’s all synced. It’s no problem. Torsten Schmidt Speaking of sync, there’s a lot of press shots from you from back in the day,
where you’re actually not holding a synthesizer or anything but a sync box.
Like that was your instrument, almost. Giorgio Moroder Well, yeah. I mean, without the sync, you can not do anything. So you have to
sync up all the machinery. And, as I said, now it’s very easy, with MIDI and
everything is synced. But at that time, to synch up, for example, two 24-tracks, it was a big job. And to sync up a video, for example, when you do a movie, synh the video with what you’re playing was difficult. And sometime I used the click, which we always put down, as an instrument. So you would put
the click in a phaser and move it, “Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch,” you create some effects just with a click which you put down. Torsten Schmidt Speaking of big jobs. (music: Giorgio Moroder – “E=Mc²”) Torsten Schmidt What can you recall about this one? Giorgio Moroder OK, the idea of this one was I wanted to be the first one, at least in the pop
world, to record something on digital. So I found Dr. Stockham in Utah, who had a
stereo machine computer, which recorded digital. In fact, I think he invented
digital recording. So, I wanted to do it as much as possible as a live track.
I had Harold Faltermeyer, he programmed all the basslines and the effects on a
little computer called, I think it was called The Composer. Like notes. It was
almost like typing numbers. Then I bought ... they’re called the kind of the
piano players. You know, you could buy kind of a gadget like this, which had
keys, to put on top of a piano, you program it, and then the program plays, the fingers come down and they play the instrument. So I had one of those machines on the piano, one on the Fender Rhodes, one on the JP-8. So I had about six or seven live pianos which would play. Obviously, what was not live
was the voice. And the drummer was live. So we recorded the whole thing, I think, in two or three days, and at an incredible cost. I paid, I think, $10,000 a day to get the machinery and all that stuff. And then the problem was, you know, whenever you record, you always want to edit, change eight bars
here, four bars there, and we could not really do it. I would tell Dr. Stockham, “OK, take those eight bars out and join the two others.” So it took him about ten minutes to do that, but we could only hear it at that time. We could not hear all the edits. So we had to wait, I think, two, three weeks before I could hear the final thing. So we went to Utah, to Salt Lake City, and then finally I could hear how I did the edits, and I almost had forgotten
already how I did it. Because it took so much to render those digital numbers. Torsten Schmidt Who’s this Harold Faltermeyer guy that you just mentioned? Giorgio Moroder He is one of the best recording guys I ever met. He worked for me for, like,
10 years. And then he did a lot of movies. He did Beverly Hills Cop one [and] number two. He had the big hit recently, about two, three years ago, with a song from Beverly Hills Cop, called “Axel F.” Chris, how is the melody? [offstage, Chris hums it, then Giorgio hums it] So he’s a great musician,
very talented guy. He did about probably 50% of Donna Summer. He did several movies, he just composed a very successful musical. And he’s a great guy. He’s German. He’s a Bavarian, a real one. Torsten Schmidt Well, he’s got his own village, right? Giorgio Moroder Yeah, he’s wealthy, and he knows how to live. He has his own little cabin up there where he disappears. I think he has a little studio there and goes to hunt and goes to play golf, and when he has time, he works. But he’s good. Torsten Schmidt How did you meet him? Giorgio Moroder He was in Munich at the time, in the late ‘70s, when I recorded with Donna and
some other acts. And my guy, Thor Baldursson, who was an absolutely top
keyboard player, he left. He went back to Iceland. And so I needed a new one,
and that was Harold Faltermeyer. Torsten Schmidt Seeing that you just mentioned Hollywood, can we bring down the lights a little bit? Can we, actually? (music: Berlin – “Take My Breath
Away” / applause) Torsten Schmidt So, when you score something like that, is that a different process than when
you go for the main theme or the dramatic bit? You know, when it’s getting a
little closer, in cinema? Giorgio Moroder This one, the moment I saw it, the moment in the movie I saw is when he follows her with the motorcycle and then they fall in love. So I started to work on that. First I had the melody. And then the second thing which I did was the bassline. And that became a little bit of a problem, because I think I
used the Roland Jupiter, I think the Number Two, I forgot which one. Which, you could get the bass sound but then I added the vibrato and I added some stuff and it played, “Dun dun dun-dun dunnnn.” And it worked really well, so I did the demo. Actually, this was interesting, because usually I start from beginning to the end with the melody. This one, it took me a day to think, because I had... [imitates the main melody], then I wanted to... [imitates the bridge melody], or... [imitates chorus melody]. So I was debating between the two sections after the first part. And I still have the demo. So I
decided on the second one. So then I presented it to Jerry Bruckheimer, the
producer of Top Gun, and they loved it. So now the problem became, OK, let’s
record it. And I could not find that sound anymore. I thought I saved it and I
just, I could not find it. So, in this instance, I’m playing the bass and some
other stuff because they’re part of the demo. And then Martha of the Motels
did a recording. They didn’t like that one. Then Paul Young was ready to record, but then he passed. And then finally, I had a little hit with a group called Berlin, and Terri Nunn, a great singer, she sang it, and it worked quite well. Torsten Schmidt The second when you knew, “Damn, I lost that sound”, I guess, going to see Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, that must be the most pleasant meeting ever, right? Giorgio Moroder Saying that I lost? Well, they didn’t really care, because the demo was quite good. In fact, a famous producer called me about three, four years ago. He wanted to re-do the song with Jessica Simpson. And he said, “Give me the sound.” I said, “I don’t know. I don’t have it.” “OK, OK, so I’m going to find a way.” So he found [the bass sound], it is not the same, but similar. Torsten Schmidt OK, there’s the director, when you do a soundtrack, then there’s the producer. Giorgio Moroder Oh, Jerry Bruckheimer’s the producer. Torsten Schmidt Yeah. But I was just going to ask about your relationship, and something that you probably learned, because rumor has it that especially Mr. Simpson was quite a character. Giorgio Moroder Oh, you’re talking Simpson? Yeah, he was a great guy. I mean, I usually was
dealing with Jerry Bruckheimer. And it looked like, yeah, I could relate to
Jerry better. Simpson, sometime he was a little too much into drugs. In fact,
he died on an overdose. But very talented. When he was functioning, he was
functioning really well. But my main contact was Jerry. Because I did several
movies before Top Gun. I did American
Gigolo, I think I did Foxes. I did Cat People, where he was a line producer. So Jerry Bruckheimer was my guy. Torsten Schmidt So you talk actually more to the producer than the director in this process? Giorgio Moroder Well, Jerry is such a personality and so much into music, I think he decides
mostly on what music goes in. And I remember, for example, Top Gun, I didn’t
write the score, but I know that Tony Scott was involved so much in mixing and
recording the soundtrack that he almost didn’t care about the songs. So in all
those movies, American Gigolo, it was always Jerry who decided on the songs. Torsten Schmidt That movie Top Gun obviously came at a time when there was a certain political agenda to it attached as well. I mean, it was the height of the Cold War, we all thought we were going to die any second, sort of, or we were made to believe. And, I mean, there you were as a foreigner and doing probably the most Americanized movie ever, to the time. That must feel interesting, right? Giorgio Moroder Well, do you know what? I’m staying out of politics. I know there was a problem with Libya at that time, but I just did the music. And the one thing, it’s terrible to say, one thing which helped the movie a lot was that, exactly when the movie came out, exactly the same two weeks, they had this big problem with Libya, where they were bombing Libya. So it kind of, for the movie, was a perfect time, here Tom Cruise is this Top Gun guy and they were bombing
Libya. So I think it was a great promotion for the movie. Torsten Schmidt You’re starting to wonder whether it was a Citizen Kane/Hearst scenario. Giorgio Moroder Yeah, it’s a little sad, but they were happy, I guess, the producers. Torsten Schmidt Hmm. Well, but I mean, at the same time you were also doing the main theme for
the 1984 Olympics, which was heavily dominated by the boycott of the Russians,
which was the counterattack of boycotting [the Moscow Olympics]. Giorgio Moroder It looks like I’m always into some political problems.[laughs] Yeah, that
was when Russia didn’t come to the States, because the States didn’t go to Russia, right? Four years earlier. I didn’t really care if they were there or not. I just wrote the song “Reach Out,” and I was happy with that. Torsten Schmidt But, almost even then, I wondered, like, what was the briefing like for the
Olympic anthem? Giorgio Moroder What? Sorry? Torsten Schmidt What’s the briefing like? I mean, how does that work? Someone calls you, is like, “Hey, you wanna do the Olympic thing? And it should be about this...” Or [how does it work]? Giorgio Moroder No, no, no. For example, OK, in Korea, in Seoul in ‘88, the record company was
PolyGram, I think. There was a good friend of mine who was the head of PolyGram. At the time, I was in Los Angeles and he said, “Giorgio, I have to come to Los Angeles. I have a great idea.” I said, “You don’t really have to come. You can tell me this whole thing on the phone.” “No, no, I have to come.” So he came to Los Angeles and said, “Look, I have the rights,” or the
record company has the rights, “of the music for the Olympics. Do you want to write the main theme?” I said, “Yeah, yeah, great.” So he said, “But, you have to come to...,” I think to Italy or Switzerland. “There is this group called Koreana, two girls and two guys from Korea. I would like to record with them.” So I went, and they were playing in a terrible kind of restaurant, and it was,
like, nothing like being a star or being great singers. But they were commissioned to sing and they were Korean, so I composed a song and I played it to this guy in Hamburg, and I said – oh, by the way, I composed it at lunch. I think I was at Spago, and it’s called “Hand in Hand.” I took a piece
of paper and wrote down the notes before I forgot. I went home and composed it and started it. They loved it. They loved it. That was a great thing. I asked for the video of the Asian, the Asian ... they had the, not Cup. Asian Olympics. Not Olympics. Where they had great videos of the Asian Games. So I did a video with those tracks, where you see the athletes. And so I went with the record company guy. And, by the way, the original singer of the demo,
which is Joe Pizzulo, which is
still my best friend, the voice on the recording are not the guys, the Korean,
it’s him singing. So I went there and I showed them the video with the music.
Which worked perfectly, because if they liked the music, I don’t know, but
they loved the whole package. So that was a great idea to present the song
with the video. Torsten Schmidt Before we go to questions, there is at least one more soundtrack I would love
to play. (music: Blondie – “Call Me”) Giorgio Moroder ”Call Me” with Deborah Harry and Blondie. Again, Jerry Bruckheimer. He said, “I need something really driving, really kind of rock, but still pop, for the opening scene of the movie when he, the gigolo, Richard
Gere, drives into the city ready to conquer Hollywood.” And Blondie was the first choice, we didn’t ask anybody else to sing, because Blondie had such a great image at that time. They were the hip group at that time. And so I gave the song to Deborah, and she came up with this great title, “Call Me.” So we recorded the song, with a group, here in town, I think at the Electric Lady
studios. And it was quite interesting, because I always used to be working
with musicians, right? Professional musicians. They were all great musicians,
but, you know, still a group. So, things which I remember. The drummer, a
great drummer, but if he could have done, he would have done one fill every two bars. So he was [imitates drum fills] So I said, “OK, I know you’re a great drummer, but can you do it every eight bars? Possibly every 16?” “No, but it has to...!” So we did have a fight, a creative fight, and he still was
drumming. And now you hear it. It’s okay. He did well. The only problem then, we recorded it here, I took it back to Los Angeles, and we added the solo. And they didn’t like it. They said, “Why didn’t you come back here and I could have done it?” And said, “Look, we had a deadline. It had to be done.” And we did it. And it sounded well. But one of the problems with both groups, with
Blondie and Berlin, they never really wanted to play the two songs. For Blondie, their song was, for example, whatever they had, that’s what their song. This song didn’t really fit with their image, right? So they didn’t really like to play it. And the same thing with Berlin. Because it was not
Berlin, it was Terri Nunn. So they had a problem because they had their own songs, which they loved to play. So those two groups always had a little problem with their biggest success, actually. Torsten Schmidt I’m pretty sure there’s some participant questions here. Please wait for the
mic. It’s coming from this angle. Audience Member Imagine you were sucked into a vortex and you popped out and you saw a version
of yourself in your twenties. What’s something you would tell yourself to help
yourself along your musical journey in the next 40 years? Giorgio Moroder What I would have done? Audience Member What you would tell yourself? Yeah. Giorgio Moroder ”Do exactly what you did.” [laughter / applause] No, actually, if I could go back, first, I would probably have done some movies which I did not do. One being Fame, which was such a great movie. Probably I passed on some groups. One was Duran Duran, which then they had these great songs. Uh, what else? One thing which, coming back now, after
Midnight Express, for the movies, I should have gotten away a little bit from the electronic. Because the second movie after Midnight Express was a terrible movie, which I don’t even mention. But the next one was... I forgot which one. Anyway, I used a lot of synthesizer. So, by that time, the
synthesizer, the way I played became so known in the, I’m not saying cheap movies, but, for example, TV movies, a lot of people used that sound. And it became kind of, “Oh god, not again, that sound.” And I had a good chance, but I didn’t take it, in Scarface, I could have used more instruments, like real strings, real, whatever, guitars, or whatever, to get out a little bit of that only electronic thing. Then people started to say, “OK.” But if I watch a movie now called Drive, it’s basically what I did 30 years ago, right? So
now it’s coming back, but in my case I should’ve changed a little bit more
into more like, say, the normal way to do it. Torsten Schmidt I guess, there’s a lot of people in this room who feel like you shouldn’t
regret that too much, because, especially that kind of synthetic feel in
Scarface, has worked for a lot of people. Giorgio Moroder Yeah, but there’s some sections which I... oh God, I hate that. But it worked at the end. Audience Member Hello. Can you talk about, if you remember, about the album Einzelgänger? Giorgio Moroder Well, Einzelgänger is a very interesting project, which I, until somebody like him found in the Internet, right? I didn’t even know that I had done that song, that album. I did it in ‘74. And I released it at the same time with Donna Summer, my album and a group called Schloss, at Casablanca. And it was definitely an experiment. I listened to the part of the songs now, [and] I’m kind of
surprised how interesting it is. It’s not commercial at all, but I used a lot
of vocoders, a lot of little things, and I’m going to listen again and see if
I can get some ideas out of that one. Audience Member I’m just on the edge of my seat. Thanks for coming. This is fantastic. I was going to ask you to tell us some stories maybe about the Casablanca years and From Here to Eternity, and that sort of era. Giorgio Moroder OK. Casablanca, as we probably know, the owner was Neil Bogart. Great business
guy, great promotion guy. Probably the best promotion guy I’ve ever met. He
signed Donna Summer in a matter of 10 minutes. I was there. I played him “Love
to Love You, Baby,” he loved it. I didn’t have an album, but he loved it. He
released the single, which started to do okay, but not great. So one night he
called me and I was still in Munich at the time, he said, “Look, I had a party
last night and everybody was asking, ‘Can you play it again and again?’ So why don’t you extend it?” So in a matter of two weeks, or three weeks, I extended that song, I came up with the B-side, and that was actually the beginning of “Love to Love You.” That one then started to be played in the discos, on radio. But generally speaking, Casablanca was a mad house. A lot of drugs. I remember sometime I would come in at 11 and everybody, not only Neil, was already there. [laughs] But promotion-wise, for example, the crazy guy, when we were in New York with Donna, and it was Donna’s birthday, so obviously he wanted to do something very special. So he had a big cake, like probably four, five feet long, done in San Francisco, with “Happy Birthday,” and, I don’t
know, a little palm and little thing. And he booked, in order to get it there intact and in time, a first-class, two-seat flight and the cake came in on that plane. That’s to show how crazy and how good of a promoter [he was]. So it was in every newspaper, every TV show, “Donna Summer’s birthday came by first-class.” [laughs] So, crazy guy. And the one problem, not a problem, but there was three main acts. One was Donna, one was KISS, and one was the Village People. Torsten Schmidt Interesting combination as well. Giorgio Moroder Each one hated the other. KISS were pissed at Neil Bogart because they said,
“How can you have the best rock group in the world? How can you have that
disco girl?” And then the disco girl, Donna, was like, “How can you have this four, six Village People next to me?” So it was a little bit of a conflict. Thank God we never met together. Torsten Schmidt Nothing but good family vibes. Giorgio Moroder Yeah, right. So, that’s it. And then, unfortunately, Neil Bogart died. No,
actually, before he sold the company to PolyGram, and that was the end.
Nothing worked, PolyGram was a record company, while Neil Bogart was a label
which he owned, he could do whatever he wanted. The second Neil Bogart was
with a big company, they didn’t let him do the crazy things, and then it went
down. Then disco died, Village People kind of... KISS were still doing well. Donna left, went to Geffen. The Village People, I don’t know where they [went]. I think they stayed there, but they are still doing OK now. So that’s the end of Casablanca. And then lately was bought by – Chris, what’s his name? The guy who was head of Sony Music Entertainment? – Tommy Mottola bought
Casablanca and tried to revive it, but I don’t know if it worked. Torsten Schmidt Out of the eight million songs that we could play, I would have one more. But do we have another question? Audience Member I just wanted to ask you about Metropolis, and how it was working and that, if you’d share some stories. Giorgio Moroder Metropolis, first of all, it took too long to do. It took me about a year
just to buy the rights, to find some additional footage. By the time I
recorded the songs, and by the time the songs came out, they were dated. I
wanted to re-do the song with Freddie Mercury, but, you know, I was able to
convince him to do it right at that “Love Kills” song. So I knew the sound was
already out, so I could not go back and say, “OK, you know what? I think we
have to re-do it.” So the whole thing was a little bit of a mess, it just took too long. I think I worked more on the movie in itself, finding the right copies to edit and do the special effects, and I should have been more interested in the sound. But I remember, a great thing was, I was trying to
find some footage, because a lot of footage of that movie was lost, so Enno
Patalas, who was the expert in German Fritz Lang movies, Murnau movies, he
said, “You have to search. There may be a guy in Australia, in Canberra, which
may have something.” So I wrote the guy and I said, “Do you have any stuff?”
And he said, “Yes, I have about 20 seconds or so.” And just the day before the
tapes came, I was reading a book and it says, “And that scene, in the stage in
where they run, that scene is lost forever.” And the day after, I had a video with that scene. So that was great. I was the only one in the world, except him, to have a copy of the movie with that scene in. And I had great reviews, and I had terrible reviews. Some were bad, bad. One guy said, “Oh...” a really bad critic. And I thought to myself, “Well, if you like the movie but you
don’t like the soundtrack, just take the volume down.” Because the quality of
the movie is very good. Now, of course, Enno Patalas and the Film Institute in Munich found some of the original footage and they cleaned it up digitally, which I wanted to do but it was by far too expensive at that time. So now, obviously, they have a beautiful movie, took out all the scratches, got the timing perfect. But at that time until now, my version is beautiful. Forget
the soundtrack, but the visual is beautiful. Torsten Schmidt You just mentioned reviews and critics. Is that how you generally deal with
them? Just dial down the volume? Giorgio Moroder Chris has some bad experiences with bad reviews, but he said, “Just don’t
read the reviews.” In fact, thinking of bad reviews, I remember that in the ‘70s, I used the synthesizer quite often, in ‘73, ‘74 especially. At that time I was in Germany. And one of my songs, probably a bad song, some critic says, “This Moroder, whenever he does not know what to do, he uses a synthesizer.” So I said, “OK, that’s it.” So I didn’t touch a synthesizer for, like, two
years. Until “I Feel Love,” I didn’t do anything with a synthesizer. Torsten Schmidt So did you, you know, go and buy him a steak then? Giorgio Moroder Ha ha! I don’t even know he was. So sometimes it’s okay if you read them, but
it’s better not to read at all. Torsten Schmidt Let’s probably go here for a second. (music: Giorgio Moroder - “To the
Bridge”) Giorgio Moroder Must be from Cat People? Torsten Schmidt I was lucky enough to actually find it in a non-scratchy vinyl thing, yeah. Giorgio Moroder Yeah, it’s Cat People, right? But I don’t know who did the long version. This must be the long version of the theme, right? Torsten Schmidt I guess so, but I was more interested in, like, do you realize, with stuff
like that, how insanely popular you are with current producers that really
draw from this stuff? Giorgio Moroder Well, again, if I read the critics, I must say... Torsten Schmidt Forget about the critics. I mean people who actually do stuff. Giorgio Moroder No, no, if I read what people write in the newspapers or in the Internet, they
mention me quite often. And sometime, like, for no reason. Like, sometimes
they say, “OK, this reminds me of Giorgio Moroder’s...” - whatever. And then
sometime I go and check the song, and I say, “It doesn’t have anything to me.”
It’s a synthesizer, but... That happened quite often. Especially the bassline
of “I Feel Love,” I hear it quite often in different ways. Like, Madonna did
one song, and instead of... [imitates bassline], she changed one note. And
it’s her song now, so what can you do? Torsten Schmidt You think we can do one more song, maybe? It’s actually a long one. (music: Giorgio Moroder – “Evolution“) Giorgio Moroder [comments over music] In fact, you’re going to hear this song tonight, the
first song of the evening, yeah. Torsten Schmidt Is there a bit of a story to this one? Giorgio Moroder If I’m not wrong, this is the B-side of ... the A-side was a science-fiction movie, which I didn’t write the music but I recorded the ... Chris, what is
it? Battlestar Galactica. Yeah, I
did a recording of the original music, and this was the piece I... It’s called
“Evolution.” And it’s, what, 18 minutes? Torsten Schmidt Um, 15? Giorgio Moroder Fifteen, yeah. Yeah, this has a great style. [music continues / fades out] Torsten Schmidt And if you wanna know how the next 11 minutes go, you have to come to
Output tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in giving a very warm hand for
Mr. Giorgio Moroder. [applause]