John Talabot

Gerd Janson

To my left is a young man from Barcelona, who often gets mentioned in articles and interviews as the hyphen between indie and dance, which is an atrocious expression. Indie-dance? And you’re also doing Balearic house music, which is another atrocious expression. But we have the man himself here, recording for Permanent Vacation, doing remixes for the likes of The xx, Tahiti 80, as well as Shit Robot on DFA, which is a great name. He goes by the name of John Talabot and please give him a warm welcome. [applause]

John Talabot

Hello.

Gerd Janson

John, you told me you have a very hard time defining yourself in music and what you’re doing. Do you want to try?

John Talabot

Yes, I’m always being situated in the house scene but I really don’t know if I make house. Sometimes I make it, sometimes not. But I’m not sure if house is the only definition to my music. I don’t have a real definition of my music.

Gerd Janson

What’s the definition of house?

John Talabot

I don’t know, but I know the style and how it’s been sounding for ages. Sometimes I’m not really focused on that sound, but I’m tagged as house. Why am I always tagged as house or tropical or happy music when I’m making some dark tracks? I don’t understand.

Gerd Janson

I forgot to mention that John is also involved in a label – I don’t know how to pronounce it. Is it High-vern?

John Talabot

It’s “Ee-vern,” it’s in Catalan.

Gerd Janson

Hivern Discs, and Hivern is Catalan for?

John Talabot

Winter. Because that’s when we make music in Barcelona. In summer we don’t make music. We go out and hang around, but we don’t make music.

Gerd Janson

Never in summer, as a rule?

John Talabot

I don’t know, but I think we don’t make so much in summer. I’ve never had air conditioning in my studio so I don’t make it.

Gerd Janson

But you could move to Madrid and then you could make music all year, telling from the weather right now.

John Talabot

Yeah, but I like Barcelona. I like the vibe of the city, and I like that my label is focused there. It’s good for me, it’s a good definition of life in Barcelona.

Gerd Janson

So Barcelona is important for your music. It would sound different without Barcelona?

John Talabot

I think so, yeah. Sometimes, when people ask me if I would move to other cities, I’m not sure. I’ve seen a lot of musicians losing their identities surrounded by another city.

Gerd Janson

Berlin?

John Talabot

Yeah, I didn’t want to say it, but yeah. Some musicians lost their identity going to another city and being surrounded by another atmosphere, other clubs. So I like the city [Barcelona]; it’s a city that is quite active, not the best for clubs, of course. There are better cities and better places. But I like the limitation that we have in Barcelona. It’s not a big city, it’s a small city and that’s fine for us. We have our own place there and we can export our sound, being from Barcelona. Sometimes it’s better to be in a small place and export yourself than being in a really big city like Berlin, where there are so many musicians and labels and people making music and it’s crazy.

Gerd Janson

How did it start for you in Barcelona? Was there a certain club or record shop or radio show? What was your initiation or epiphany?

John Talabot

I didn’t have an initiation in music like a lot of people. I didn’t have big brothers and my mother liked ‘80s Spanish bands and my father only blues and some Beatles stuff. So there was a point that I discovered the music in the clubs and going to clubs like Moog, places like that. I go back later. First, I discovered techno and later I discovered Joy Division, for example. That was my process. I never had an older brother who showed me Joy Division or came to my house with that record or in my school. I didn’t have that opportunity. I first discovered Jeff Mills.

Gerd Janson

But Jeff Mills is quite an alien phenomenon in itself. What was it that attracted you?

John Talabot

I don’t know. When I went to a club and I discovered music, I’d never experienced music so loud. So the first impression was, “What’s that?” Later I kept going further into music, discovering different styles, moving from styles like the first Warp, the first Rephlex records. All the music that I could find in the club, I liked to continue discovering more and more and more until I arrived in the ‘60s and ‘50s. I didn’t have the usual process; I didn’t discover music, like if you grow up with a band or whatever. I discovered some strange Rephlex records, like Aphex Twin before bands that are more popular.

Gerd Janson

You started DJing, having come from record collecting.

John Talabot

When I started going to the clubs, it was a problem. When you heard a track the only way to know it was going to Soulseek or buying it in a record store. There was no internet, so you didn’t have the opportunity to know music through YouTube and going by labels or artists. Now it’s quite easy to find good tracks or whatever, but in the beginnings of 2000 and the end of the ‘90s it was harder. If you liked a track the DJ was playing, you had to go and ask him what it was. I always went with a notebook, writing it down. This is what I’mn going to buy.

Gerd Janson

Like a real trainspotter.

John Talabot

[laughs] Totally, yeah.

Gerd Janson

And you were never shy about it?

John Talabot

They called me window-licker sometimes, because I was in the window of the DJ booth. [laughter] I remember that, it was funny. But it was different from today.

Gerd Janson

It was hard work.

John Talabot

Yeah, it was hard work but you didn’t have the opportunity to find so much music then.

Gerd Janson

Before we listen to one of your own tracks, to give people an opportunity to see what your music sounds like, give us one of those window-licker tracks that you found with a pad and a pen.

(music: D’Arcangelo – unknown / applause)

Gerd Janson

What was it we just heard?

John Talabot

This was a record from D’Arcangelo, an Italian act. I think it was discovered by Passarani from his label Nature that he started in the ‘90s. It was one of my favorite records that I always wanted to have, one of my golden records. All the sleeve was golden and it was a treature to find. I just bought it on eBay when I had a little bit of money, because in those days it was expensive to find. It’s one of my favorite tracks by this act. They have another nice record on Nature and they released two or three albums. They are playing Barcelona this week, I think. They played maybe yesterday or next week, I don’t know.

Gerd Janson

But you didn’t go?

John Talabot

No, I was here.

Gerd Janson

And how long had you been searching for that record then?

John Talabot

I remember it was pretty hard to find. At the time there was no Discogs, or Discogs was not so active, so I had to search on eBay and make some bids. Putting the alarm clock at 3 AM to go and make a bid. To buy a record. My mom was like, “What are you doing, getting up at 3 AM for a record?”

Gerd Janson

But you know they’ve invited these sniper programs.

John Talabot

Yes, but I wasn’t sure how it worked. You have to leave your log-ins.

Gerd Janson

You didn’t trust the sniper.

John Talabot

No, I didn’t trust it. Some people told me that it worked. I don’t know if it existed at that time, actually.

Gerd Janson

Do you think the modern times take the fun and the mystery a little bit out of the whole record collecting thing? These days it’s just if you’re willing to pay the price you are able to get it.

John Talabot

Yeah, I don’t want to look old when I answer these questions. But yeah, for me it’s lost a little bit of magic. It’s easier now, but still there are some records that you can’t find. At the end it’s what you want to find, and if you have the force or the energy you will find it. I think Discogs do a really nice job for the vinyl searchers. You can know the price and the median average sale price. At the time it didn’t exist and when you were buying records on the internet you could only hear 20 seconds of the track. And you were, “What am I supposed to do? Should I buy this record? Is it strange enough? Will I use it for sampling? Will I use it for anything else?” At the end, it was your decision to spend €40 on a record that you didn’t know. But sometimes it’s good to do those crazy things. Sometimes when you do that you find really nice records that you never expected.

Gerd Janson

And sometimes it goes horribly wrong.

John Talabot

Yeah, and you try to resell it. [laughs]

Gerd Janson

It doesn’t always work. But yeah, let’s listen to a track of yours that put you on the map. I’ve got it here because you forgot to bring it. It’s called “Sunshine” and it was released on Winter Discs.

John Talabot

No, it was released on May, just before summer.

Gerd Janson

No, I mean because your label is called...

John Talabot

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it was released on our label. It was quite a limited release because I wasn’t sure how it would go, so in the end we did about 300 or 250 copies.

Gerd Janson

As a first run.

John Talabot

Yeah, but it was strange because then it got really popular and was reviewed by some media. Sometimes it’s quite strange that it got into huge media, a release that is only on vinyl, 250 copies. How did it get there? I don’t understand. Sometimes with the internet you have the feeling that everything grows too fast. You put something on the internet and later the media take it and put it in another place, it goes to another place and some people retrieve it and, oh, it’s 7,000 listeners listening to this track? It’s crazy. That’s what I think happened with “Sunshine,” but I don’t think it’s my best track.

Gerd Janson

I didn’t say it’s your best track, but we should listen to it nonetheless.

(music: John Talabot – “Sunshine” / applause)

So if you look this up on YouTube and go to the comments sections – which is not the smartest corner of mankind – someone wrote, “Quite boring for a long time.” Can you talk a little bit about that? Because most of your tracks are long. I didn’t say they were boring, but what’s attractive to you about that?

John Talabot

When I made those tracks, they were some kind of response for what I wanted to play. I’d been resident at nights and I was going to the stores, but not finding music that I liked. So at the end there was a point where it was, “What am I going to do?” I tried to buy records but I couldn’t find something that was exciting. One day I went to the record store and I took five records up to listen to and they sounded really punchy and distorted. They were really raw. I liked that feeling. I was, “Whoa! These records are amazing, I want to play them.” I took them home to listen and when I got there they were some kind of minimal techno records.

Gerd Janson

So you got the wrong bag?

John Talabot

No, so I went back to the store and said, “Hey, when I listen to them here they sounded one way, but when I listened at home they sound like all the other stuff.” They said, “Oh, you listened to it there. Yeah, sorry, it’s broken, it doesn’t sound good.” I realized what I wanted was the sound that was broken.

Gerd Janson

The record player was broken?

John Talabot

Yes, and the sound coming out from the headphones was totally devastating. At the end, it was some kind of error. But I liked what I was hearing, so I decided to focus on that kind of sound. “Sunshine” and the other first tracks were only things for me to play in my sets. I wanted this vibe in my sets, so they are quite boring, yeah. [laughs]

Gerd Janson

I didn’t say they’re boring. They’re long but they’re not boring. I was just pointing it out because in, again, modern times – and we sound like old men now...

John Talabot

Yeah, it’s long and the reason is I wanted long tracks to play, I like long tracks to mix and put some things on the top. At that time, it was fine for me that it was long. Now, I’m not doing so many long tracks, but when you do music you do it in that time and my feeling at that time was [like that]. Actually, “Sunshine” is a jam session. It was done while I was playing with it and it’s as long as it is because I never cut it.

Gerd Janson

So what are your production values?

John Talabot

When I did that I had one sampler and the computer. I had a 10-year-old computer that I want to change now because I made the other one crazy. I want to move to another computer but I’m afraid of moving to another computer and not being able to do the same music. It’s a little bit stupid but it’s the way it is. I’ve been working with really old programs like [Ableton] Live 4, which is quite old – I think they’re now onto Live 9. The sound changed in that time. I can feel the difference between 9 and 4, for the first tracks I prefer 4.

Gerd Janson

You mentioned a sampler.

John Talabot

I had an Electribe and some drum machines that I use for some percussion. The toms, I think they’re taken from the... I’m not sure what drum machine, but they’re taken from some drum machine. It was quite simple. I usually work with a really simple set-up because I like the feeling that I can control the stuff. When you have all the plug-ins and everything these days, you lose time learning how to use them. So it was faster for me to use the things I had, like one sampler, one program and nothing else. It was more easy for me to control. It was better for me to make music faster and safer.

Gerd Janson

So you would say there is the beauty of restriction?

John Talabot

Totally, I love restrictions. On the album I use a lot of restrictions for myself. Like, I’ll say I want to do this track with only this drum machine or this track with only this synthesizer. One of my favorite styles is Chicago house and Chicago house was born from a four-track machine, one drum machine and one synthesizer. And for me it’s one of the nicest [kinds of] music ever. I know limitations are good if you can be creative with them.

Gerd Janson

So you say if you limit yourself you put more emphasis on the musical idea?

John Talabot

Nowadays, you have so many kits. You have to take one snare and you have 3,000 snares and you spend one hour going [imitates various snare sounds]. So you say, oh, I lost one hour listening to snares and I don’t remember which ones I want to use. So at the end limitations for me are easier because maybe you can get an idea you were searching for. But you limit yourself and try to find that idea with what you have. At the end, for me it’s easier that way. I don’t know how to explain it, but I’ve been losing a lot of time listening to [imitates snare sounds]. I’m tired of that. So at the end I’ve bought some machines for not trying to do that, with kits and everything.

Gerd Janson

We have to get back to the sampler. You like to sample, right?

John Talabot

Yeah.

Gerd Janson

With records?

John Talabot

Yeah.

Gerd Janson

MP3s?

John Talabot

Yeah.

Gerd Janson

Everything?

John Talabot

Everything I can get.

Gerd Janson

Can you talk a little bit about your sample ethics?

John Talabot

There are no ethics. I don’t like ethics. I don’t like the restrictions on sampling, I don’t feel it’s creative. OK, there was a time when people took, like, a Latin track and they put drum percussion on top, a girl singing [imitates voice] and for me that’s not sampling. Sampling is something more creative. When I started my project, I liked about sampling that I could get sounds that I’d never be able to get. I could never have five musicians in my studio recording drums with a mixer from the ‘60s, or the best guitarist in the world playing for me. So in the end it’s some kind of vibe I couldn’t get and sampling allows me to do that. For me, it’s just a game. I try to combine different samples like a puzzle and it’s like a game, you try this and you try that, you try this and you try that. This is good with this part, this is bad with this part. You keep changing and keep tuning and at the end it goes like “Africa”! Wow! Cool, perfect, I’ve made it.

Gerd Janson

So it’s a trial and error process.

John Talabot

I like it when it’s like that. In the beginning when I was making tracks for me to play, it was some kind of error. Error and trial. It’s really simple, actually. It’s nothing that everyone can do. I don’t feel special for doing “Sunshine.” I think that everybody here could do that.

Gerd Janson

But they would need to find your sample sources then.

John Talabot

I’ve been growing, listening to a lot of music and I always put the sample in a folder or save the record and say, “One day, one day I will use this!” At the end, sometimes you use it. Sometimes it has success, and sometimes the track is not good. But I like to collect sounds from strange places and buy strange records that apparently don’t have any special thing, but you can always find that special thing. But I think that this is the hip-hop story. I’m not going to discover anything with this. I only want to put some hip-hop productions into house, so I was listening to a lot of hip-hop, like the Madlib stuff. I liked the sound because it was organic, and at the time I was playing the records didn’t sound organic or with some kind of soul – they sounded really, really unhuman. So it was like, “I don’t want to play more non-human music, more [imitates electronic sound].” I was tired of that, so I started making my own tracks.

Gerd Janson

But how important is it for you that the sources can’t be detected?

John Talabot

Oh, actually I don’t care.

Gerd Janson

You don’t care if it’s recognizable?

John Talabot

No, if the track is good. I remember when the second Daft Punk album came out and nobody realized they were all samples. Later with YouTube everyone was, “Wow, they’re all samples. It’s incredible.” Nobody cares at the moment if they’re all samples or not, only if it’s good. OK, if you sample, say, “Billie Jean,” and make your own track. Oh, cool. Really nice. [sarcastically] But if you take some time to put some elements and samples together that apparently don’t fit together, I think that’s a good process for being creative. It’s a good way to start making music.

Gerd Janson

And you’ve never been afraid of somebody knocking on your door?

John Talabot

Totally. Actually, I sampled one of the most important bands ever but nobody realized. I’m quite happy because I was really afraid, and nobody came and said, “Hey, you did that?” So it’s the way you do it and with what ending. If you want to sample the Beatles because you think that you’ll be successful with a version of one of their tracks then you’ll get busted, maybe. But if you use it for a creative thing, like you like that sound and want it for your track, then I think that’s good.

Gerd Janson

Is that also how you approach your remix work, then?

John Talabot

Sometimes. With remixes it’s a story of hate and love. Sometimes, being a remixer is the best thing you can do in music. But sometimes it’s pretty hard putting all that effort into something that’s not your own. It’s like picking from another guy and making... For, me it’s exhausting. So I don’t approach remixes only by the samples. Sometimes I like to play keyboards, or sometimes I only leave the percussion. Sometimes I use everything and combine it differently. Every remix is different because every remix has different parts. Sometimes you’ll receive a remix and at the end you decide not to do it because at the end you’re unable to do something good. “I can’t, it’s not for me, I can’t work it.” This happens to me sometimes.

Gerd Janson

But they pay you to work it.

John Talabot

Yeah, but you get better at the end so it doesn’t matter. You say, “I can’t do it, sorry. I tried it but I didn’t feel it, so I was unable to do it.”

Gerd Janson

No, I meant that sometimes people tend to do remixes because they’re well paid.

John Talabot

Of course, it’s a good income, especially for people who have labels and have to pay for releases. It’s always good to have some income because you have to advance money for the label and I put a lot of the money that I make in remixes into the label. Sometimes it’s good to make remixes. I feel proud of some of the remixes I’ve done, so I’m quite happy with them.

Gerd Janson

Do you want to show us one of those that make you proud?

(music: The xx – “Shelter (John Talabot Remix)” / applause)

So what was it we just heard?

John Talabot

It was a remix of “Shelter” by the xx. I’m quite happy of it. Sometimes you receive tracks and you feel you will not be able to do better than the original. I really liked the original and was really afraid of doing the remix, but in the end over the years I felt it was one of my favorite remixes because it has the vibe of the original but with my style. That’s the point of making a remix, I think – putting your point of view on the track.

Gerd Janson

And what was the xx’s point of view of your mix?

John Talabot

They didn’t want it. Actually, it was some kind of strange connection with the label. I was doing a record for the label and they sent me a record and I was, “Wow, I really like this track.” They said, “Yeah, you can do a remix.” “Cool.” They sent me the stems and I made the remix and one year later they put it out. “We realized that we like it.” That’s nice.

Gerd Janson

So how hard or annoying is it for you to work with other labels while having your own?

John Talabot

For me, it’s not annoying. Sometimes you get better with people and sometimes it’s not so good. Sometimes, when you work with big labels to make remixes it’s quite hard because you have deadlines and that kind of stuff that I hate. I can be working one day on a remix and if I don’t like it I have to throw everything [away]. Sometimes people don’t understand that at the end it’s some kind of creative process and you have to be inspired to do it. I know inspiration comes by working and all that, but at the end it’s not true. You can be two, three, four days working on something and at the end you say, “I don’t like it, I don’t want to put it out.” So you have to start again. Sometimes with remixes you receive tracks that are not good and you have to make them good from your point of view. I don’t like putting out remixes I don’t like. If I see that I can do it and if it’s the deadline and I don’t have it, I say, “I can do it if I have more time. If not I can’t do it.” So at the end it’s what you want to put out and the quality you want to put out. You can be doing remixes every week if you want, but you don’t want to bore people. I think I’ve been doing too much remixes. [laughs]

Gerd Janson

So you have to learn to say no.

John Talabot

Yeah, but I like to do them.

Gerd Janson

So what are you looking for if you give someone your own music?

John Talabot

Sometimes money, sometimes you like the track. It depends.

Gerd Janson

I don’t mean remixes now, I mean your own music, if you want to work with another label.

John Talabot

Sometimes, it’s that I like the label and I want to be part of it. I don’t know how long I’ll be in music, but I want to be happy after ten years and look back and say, “I think I did the correct thing and worked with people I wanted to work with and I’ve made the things I wanted to make.” I don’t want to look back and say, “Oh, I should’ve worked with these people and I should’ve worked with that one.” If I want to work with someone I try to get in touch with them and I try to do things with them. If I don’t like the label or whatever, at the end I say I don’t want to work with them. When I think of my career, my project, I try to be proud of everything I do. That’s something I have inside. I want to be proud of everything I do and everything I work on. Even if the track is the worst track, I want to be happy with the remix, to be able to say that I’ve done my best and I’m happy with the result.

Gerd Janson

So is there a life after music?

John Talabot

I hope so. I think the music business is quite cruel. Sometimes you are here, sometimes you are there, and I don’t know where I will be in five years or ten years. So I want to do now what I have to do and give the energy to the project that I think it should receive. I don’t want to do things that I don’t feel and I don’t want to put energy into things if I don’t feel them. This project is special, and I want to feel it like that. If I feel in two years’ time that this project doesn’t have identity, then I will leave it, I will take it out.

Gerd Janson

Nile Rodgers said the other day that he thinks when you’re a musician or a producer and you have fun, you always find a way to make a living out of it. How hard is it these days and what do you think about that?

John Talabot

I suppose, he’s a producer and he’s quite good at doing what he does.

Gerd Janson

I guess he doesn’t have to worry about where the milk comes from.

John Talabot

Exactly. It’s easy to say when you’ve done what he has done. Everybody would like to be like him, but I don’t have the talent or the skills that maybe he has and I have to accept that. I’m doing what I’m doing, but I don’t know what I’ll be doing in five years. So I want to focus now on this project. If I feel it’s going well and if it goes further, that’s cool, and if it doesn’t work I’d prefer to leave it and say, “That was the project, it was nice, a really special time of my life,” and look at it like that.

Gerd Janson

Connecting to that, how hard is it for you to run a label then? How do you keep the balance?

John Talabot

It’s funny but it’s a lot of work. We have to make special designs and that stuff, bring records and make silk screenings, the kind of shit that leaves plenty of ink on the floor of your house, and you have to clean it later and it doesn’t get out easily. It’s something you have to do for passion, you don’t get money or anything, only the passion to do it. For me, having a label is part of my project too.

Gerd Janson

So when you talk about ink and silk screens, obviously you still try to put out vinyl.

John Talabot

Yeah. I try to put out vinyl and we do it the best way we can, spending more money than we get. [laughs] It’s a bit of a suicidal business. But it’s part of my project, so I feel that part of the money I get I have to invest in that.

Gerd Janson

Is it nostalgia?

John Talabot

Nostalgia? No, it’s part of my life.

Gerd Janson

I mean, putting out records.

John Talabot

No, it’s a limited business, I know that. But it’s not nostalgia. It’s something that I want to do, something I like to do. I don’t know, when you have vinyl, you have digital. Sometimes people go to the physical store to see what’s going on and you don’t have the same music in the physical store as the digital store. I don’t know why, but people like Four Tet or Caribou are only putting out vinyl. They’re doing quite well, so I think they’re doing vinyl in a good way. We like doing vinyl because it gives you some kind of status in the music business, I think.

Gerd Janson

So you think if someone takes the effort to put out something physical it gives it the stamp of quality, because it takes work to do it.

John Talabot

No, no, the quality depends on the music. But he’s taking a risk on what he believes, so you have to take care of that. Maybe it’s not the best music, but if someone decides to spend €1,000 on putting out a release, then he believes in what he’s doing and you have to take that into account. There’s a lot of people who don’t trust their music and don’t think it’s good enough to put on vinyl, because they think the people who like it won’t consider vinyl, they prefer to buy it on digital. That’s their target. But we like to put out vinyls. We’ve been buying vinyl since we were kids and we like to do it.

Gerd Janson

But it’s not vinyl-only, right?

John Talabot

No.

Gerd Janson

I always find that’s a very Western Civilization kind of thinking. If you put out something that’s vinyl-only you exclude a great part of the rest of the world who just don’t have this old-school record shop DJ business model. Every big city has a DJ shop and you go there and buy records. You know what I mean?

John Talabot

I’m not sure.

Gerd Janson

If you go a city like São Paulo, for instance, there’s just no shop for DJs.

John Talabot

OK, people get digital. But at the end sometimes you decide to put out vinyl because it’s something special you don’t have, or there’s a sample that you don’t own the rights to. For different reasons you can make it a special, make it only limited. Being vinyl or digital depends on the label conditions. Some people want to put everything on vinyl and only 500 people have that. Later, the internet will spread the release on forums and in some parts of the world through blogs and whatever. Sometimes labels prefer to get money from the digital and put it out on vinyl and digital, sometimes they decide to only put it on digital. I don’t think it’s important if the music is good, I don’t see it as important. I don’t understand if a track is better for being on digital or vinyl. If a track is good it’s good. Sometimes there is – I don’t know how to say it in English – some kind of mysticism of vinyl. “I have to get that because it’s only on vinyl and it will be raised to €40 on Discogs and I don’t have that release.”

Gerd Janson

It’s better than a stock market at the moment.

John Talabot

I’ve seen records that have gone up to €80 two weeks after they get out. Some people will go to the store and buy two, like they’re gold. “In two years I will sell them.” So yeah, maybe you’re right.

Gerd Janson

We talked about restrictions and you restrict yourself as an artist. Not in terms of what you put out, but for you to sit here in front of the cameras is new for you. You try to keep your face out of the limelight. Can you talk a little bit about that?

John Talabot

That was totally an artistic decision, I didn’t want to do photos with my face. It was nothing to do with Burial or things like that. I play with my face, I don’t wear a mask or whatever.

Gerd Janson

You play with your face?

John Talabot

Yeah, I play with my face the way it is. [laughs] That’s nice sometimes, sometimes it’s not so nice. But I didn’t want to have those typical DJ photos.

Gerd Janson

Sunglasses, headphones.

John Talabot

I don’t feel it, I wanted to do something different. I don’t mind that people don’t know who I am or how I dress. I want to be more ethereal or something like that. For the first years I only had one logo and that was enough; I didn’t want anything else. I don’t do a lot of interviews and that kind of stuff, because I don’t like doing that.

Gerd Janson

How did that work for you in these days of Facebook video raves?

John Talabot

Some people get more angry than others and don’t understand it. But in the end, it’s an artistic decision and they have to understand I’m doing this because it was something I wanted to do. It’s for students of the Academy and I wanted to do it. But sometimes it’s like, “We want to interview you for TV,” and it’s like, “I know what questions you’ll ask me and I don’t want to be there.”

Gerd Janson

What questions will they ask you?

John Talabot

I don’t know, like, “Why are you not showing your face?”

Gerd Janson

Like I just did. [laughter]

John Talabot

Yeah, but we are here and I understand you have to ask that question. It’s part of my project and restrictions. It was something I didn’t want to have my face in magazines, I feel strange with that. I realized I didn’t feel comfortable with that and it was better that I put some kind of paper in my face.

Gerd Janson

Speaking of artistic decisions, what was your artistic decision to do an album? You do music that is more or less oriented towards the dancefloor.

John Talabot

[hesitantly] Yeeeah.

Gerd Janson

Depends on the dancefloor, but music you can dance to. What was the concept for doing an album? It’s not full of dance tracks, is it?

John Talabot

No. You’ve heard it. [laughs] It was a decision that I wanted to make an album without any of the tracks that I’d previously released and I wanted to make an album that wasn’t focused in any age or time. So I wanted to make new tracks with a different vibe. It’s a mixture of ‘80s, ‘90s tracks, I don’t know. It’s really typical what I’m saying and I would like to explain it in better English, but I wanted to make something that has some correlation between it. I didn’t want to have punched tracks in the middle. I wanted to have a whole concept and I think it was a dark concept. I didn’t want to set the album in a special age. When you listen, I don’t know if you have the feeling that it was made nowadays or that it could’ve been made 20 years before.

Gerd Janson

But it’s made in the winter, right?

John Talabot

[hesitantly] Yeees, but some tracks were made in the summer, in my studio sweating like that. “I have to finish this, I have to finish this!” Some kind of titanic work. I think I put too much of myself in the album, I took it too seriously. I’m not sure it will work out. At the end maybe I did a strange thing that I shouldn’t.

Gerd Janson

Should we listen to a strange thing?

John Talabot

Yeah. Maybe.

(music: John Talabot – “So Will Be Now” / applause)

Gerd Janson

So you played the dance track off the album?

John Talabot

Yeah, the last one. I didn’t know which one I had so I played this one.

Gerd Janson

And the voice is sampled?

John Talabot

Yes, it’s sampled and sung by Pional, a friend of mine here in Madrid, and we combined something with his vocals to make that kind of different effect.

Gerd Janson

So, even if you have a singer, you sample him?

John Talabot

Yep. Yeah, that’s true. I didn’t think of that. But I like to manipulate the vocals the best I can. Sometimes it’s easier for me to have a vocal and do my job and having the vocal, rearrange it the way I want, than have someone in and say, “Go ahead and sing.” Sometimes it’s easier for me to have the vocals and use it the way I like, as if they’re an instrument.

Gerd Janson

So you record the singer and then send him away?

John Talabot

Not always. With “Families,” I did the track, then later I met the girl and we decided which vocal theme we wanted. She sung on the top and it was perfect. But sometimes it’s difficult for me to explain to a singer what I want because I’m not a singer or a musician and I don’t know how to explain myself in English. Sometimes it’s hard. [laughs]

Gerd Janson

You could find Spanish singers.

John Talabot

Yeah, but they don’t have good accents in most cases.

Gerd Janson

They could sing in Spanish.

John Talabot

Yeah, they could sing in Spanish but I haven’t made a Spanish track. I have to.

Gerd Janson

And it would sound strange for you on a track like this to have someone sing in your native tongue?

John Talabot

Not at all, no, I could understand what they’re saying. Sometimes Spanish people have the feeling that it doesn’t sound good or it’s difficult for us to hear a track when it’s made in Spanish. For example, when I listen to some Spanish tracks there are a few musicians that I like who can sing in Spanish. El Guincho is one of them, I he has made his own style singing in Spanish and I think it’s really difficult. And I don’t feel like working in Spanish at the moment.

Gerd Janson

But maybe in the future. You mentioned “Families” – that was for Young Turks. It’s another one of the...

John Talabot

It’s part of the four-track EP that was released on Young Turks. My main objective was working with a singer, Glasser. I really like her vocals, so I tried to meet her in London and make her sing on top of the track. I’m quite happy with the results. I really like the track, I feel proud of it.

Gerd Janson

But the album won’t be released on Young Turks?

John Talabot

No, it’ll be released on Permanent Vacation. I think it’s quite a strange one for them.

Gerd Janson

Why is it strange for them?

John Talabot

When you listen to the album, sometimes you feel it’s not what you’d expect from a label like Permanent Vacation, but I don’t care too much. They decided to put it out and it’s their label so they’ll know what they want. At the end I gave them the album and they said, “Yeah, we like it, we want to do it and we will do it your way.” They didn’t ask me for any changes. I know that sometimes people focus Permanent Vacation in one style or whatever. It’s difficult to put some music on there and my album is quite strange.

Gerd Janson

And why don’t you put it out yourself, because you have your own label? You could be artist and label owner in one person and have total control of everything.

John Talabot

Yeah, that’s true but I signed a contract with Permanent Vacation and I want to release it there, of course. But there is some relationship with them and they trust in the project and they want to do it, so I think they have to.

Gerd Janson

So you think it’s also important for an artist to sometimes give his stuff away to someone to make them work with it?

John Talabot

Yes, I’ve never worked an album before. I would like to, but I think I need distance from my music and give it to another person and say, “Finished – now it’s your job and I won’t do anything. It’s your time, you have to invest your time in selling it or throwing it into the fire, but I don’t have to do anything with it.”

Gerd Janson

And they didn’t want to put your face on the cover?

John Talabot

Yeah, it’s my face on the cover. No, they don’t care about it, they are really nice people.

Gerd Janson

That’s good. Should we open it up to any questions from the audience, if there are any?

Audience Member

Sorry, this might not be a fully formed question. I was talking earlier today about the concept that if you record the human voice, even if it’s only a short bit of the voice, that it captures something of the life that they’ve lived and their experiences. Do you share that sort of opinion? Is that anything to do with why you sample things?

John Talabot

I think I don’t understand the question. It’s my fault, my English.

Audience Member

If you sample someone’s voice, even if it’s only a small amount of the voice, there’s an element of the experiences that person’s had, the life that they’ve lived, the things that they think, even if it’s just a small amount. I wonder if that’s an opinion you share or it’s something you’ve thought about. Talking about sampling, and even sampling someone you’ve got access to...

John Talabot

I don’t know if it’s about the sample itself or how you use it in a track. Sometimes using a really short sampling of the voice, it can give you an uplifting moment that, for example, in the rave they used to put that kind of vocal on top in the moment to...

Gerd Janson

The climax.

John Talabot

Yeah, the climax of the track, they put that repetitive vocal in. But I’m not sure if it’s the vocal itself or how you use it, or I don’t know if I understood the question.

Audience Member

You can look at it as a technical exercise. You pick out a vocal and you know that the sonics of it will make people feel a certain way. So it doesn’t matter what the intention is. Or it could be the other way, where it’s more about the feeling of the person who originally recorded it and you’re tapping into their life.

John Talabot

But sometimes you distort so much the vocals so that in the end it’s not even that person, so you don’t understand what they’re saying. I think it has something more to do with how you relate it to a style or a moment or an age or a track that reminds you of that vocal and you feel, “Yeah, that’s good ‘cause it reminds me of that way.” Or a lot of people are using that resource for doing dubstep or that kind of thing, like pitching vocals. Or, for example, the Knife use the vocal and pitch-shift it down and have that strange vibe on the vocals. I’m not sure if it’s what it says or what you record; it’s the effect on itself. It has to do with a feeling that you have. It’s how you modify the vocal. For example, I’m not good with lyrics, I don’t make songs. When I was doing the track with Glasser, I explained to her what I wanted. But I’m not good with lyrics, like saying, “Yeah, I feel this and I want to say it.” For me, it’s really difficult and I’m not sure I can do it. Using vocals for me is like using an instrument, too, so I like to use it that way because it’s the only way I know. It’s for giving some kind of feeling to a track, not only using synthesizer but using a vocal too. It’s been that way since I remember, even music from the ‘80s and ‘90s.

Gerd Janson

It doesn’t have to make lyrical sense to you?

John Talabot

No, not at all. Like I said, I’m not good with lyrics and songs, so at the end I like the vibe the vocal gives it to me but I don’t care what it’s saying or what language or whatever.

Gerd Janson

Unless it’s not Spanish.

John Talabot

Yeah, unless it’s not Spanish, that’s true.

Gerd Janson

Another one. Can you pass the mic, please?

Audience Member

What are your plans regarding a live act? Can you give us some idea of what it’s going to be? When?

John Talabot

I don’t know when but I’d like it to make it with another person. I’d like to have some vocals in the tracks and I can play some stuff together with him. I think I’ll do it with Pionale, too. We need to prepare that. I don’t want to be with my computer doing a live show because at the end I’ve done that in my studio and I don’t have a lot of fun doing this kind of things for a live show. So at the end I’m preparing a lot of percussion, maybe more band-oriented but not a band because we are only two people.

Gerd Janson

So it would make more sense in a festival than in a club?

John Talabot

I’m not sure. Actually, it’s quite strange. I’ve seen a lot of live acts. Electronic artists are bringing the band concept to the club. Like the live act of Nicolas Jaar, who’s bringing the instruments into the club. It’s nice because people react really well to that vibe. I think people have become a little bit of tired of looking at people with laptops, so they’re happy to have people playing stuff in a club too.

Audience Member

Yes, please.

Audience Member

I really enjoy your music. Simple question – why drums?

John Talabot

Why? I don’t understand.

Audience Member

For me personally, I’ve been going through this battle in my head of why do I even need drums for some things. Your stuff is really ethereal and dreamy and I can almost imagine it as long, extended ambient pieces. I’m curious if you ever do that stuff and then think, “This needs drums”? What is it about the percussion?

John Talabot

Actually, when I start making music usually the first part I do is the drum programming, that’s something I really enjoy to do. When I started the project the only thing I was looking for is some music that I wanted to play in my sets. At the beginning it was created for that reason, that’s why they are long tracks, they are boring tracks.

Gerd Janson

I didn’t say they were boring.

John Talabot

No, no, no, I say it because of the YouTube people. I really take the YouTube people into consideration because they are the people. [laughter]

Gerd Janson

Yeah, yeah, sure.

John Talabot

I will speak with that guy, I think. I’ll ask him what I should do with my tracks to make it better. So the drums are part of my music. The drums, then the melodies, it’s the combination of both. So I don’t know why they say ethereal, I think it’s quite aggressive. And I didn’t want that for the album, that’s why I reduced the drums on the album. I didn’t want 11 tracks of punching your head over 15 minutes like “Sunshine.” I’ve never listened to a complete house album, only maybe the complete Daft Punk album or some other bands like that. But I’ve never listened to a complete house album, so I didn’t want to make a house album.

Audience Member

Have you considered making tracks without drums?

John Talabot

Yeah, but I’ve never done it. [laughs]

Audience Member

It’s scary.

John Talabot

So maybe it doesn’t make sense for me at the moment.

Audience Member

As far as your creative process, you said you like to start with the drums. If you can give us the order in an arrangement of a track. How long does it take you?

John Talabot

It really depends. Sometimes, I like to sample an old drum kit I found in some records. I like to sometimes use the drums as melodies, so I like to tune it to make melodies with drums, like sub-frequencies, to take it to the tune of the track. So it depends a lot on what I’m looking for with the track. But what I’ve been doing mostly is finding a good kick drum first. When I’ve got that, I move to the other parts of the track. I focused on the kick drum because I wanted my tracks to get punchy. It has a bit of relation to what I was listening to at the time. I was listening to hip-hop and I wanted to have that feeling of the kick drums that were more analog, more live, not so digital. I didn’t get it how I wanted, because it doesn’t sound as analog as I wanted. But it’s quite the way I could get it, it has the vibe I wanted. When I start making a rhythm I usually start with the claps, hi-hats and drums. This is how I learned to DJ and the things I like when I hear a rhythm. I’m quite simple like that.

Audience Member

Hi, I found it good that you said you didn’t make music in the summer. I think a lot of us over-fixate on making music 24 hours a day. I just want you to talk about what taking summer into winter and being creative does.

JOhn Talabot

The creative process is something that I’ve been, how do you say it in English? I experienced this year a hard creative process with the album, and I lost part of my life on the way. So it’s been a little bit painful because I had been trying to put a lot of effort on an album, and when I sit to make music I never know when I will finish. There are some people that they will spend, like, four hours doing a track and they will get something. I’m not that kind of person because I think I'm not a good producer.

Audience Member

I think you’re a great producer.

John Talabot

No, no. Producer like producer, you sit down and you do your job. Like when you pay a producer, you want a guy at your side that comes here and says, “OK, we will spend five hours and we’ll get a rhythm, a melody and we’ll have a track.” Like The-Dream, if you see videos of The-Dream on the internet doing a track in like 45 minutes, and he makes two hits. That’s when you want a producer, you want a guy on your side making that. And I don’t do that because I don’t feel it and I don’t get the point. So in the end it’s like my creative process is very slow, and that’s why it took so long making the album. I spent winter and summer making it.

Audience Member

Thanks.

Gerd Janson

Any more? So I guess...

John Talabot

It’s over?

Gerd Janson

It’s over. John Talabot, thank you very much. [applause]