housemusik

Borta på gobananaz har Benny intervjuat självaste Fred Falke!

Benny: Hello Fred! Tell us about yourself and your musical career!

Fred Falke: Hi Benny! I'm 35, I live between France & Spain. I started my career as a bass player. When I first heard the sugar hill records (grandmaster flash, Melle Mel ...) I wanted to combine music instruments and sequencers , so I bought my first drum machine, a synthesizer and a 4 track tape recorder. This was my first home studio.

Benny: You've recently released a new EP called "Music For My Friends". I must say I love this stuff and each track are different. Can you tell us something about this new EP?

Fred Falke: At first, Kris (menace) told me he wanted to release a track from me on Work It Baby, so I sent him "Last Wave", he liked it. Then I suggested we should have a b-side and I recorded "Sanctuary". Finally I told him that it would be great to go for a 4 tracks, and "Love Theme" and "808pm @ the beach " made their way to the record!

I wanted to release an EP with 4 different moods, so everyone can find something he likes with this EP. Some of my friends like cool house stuff and some others prefer hard stuff, so I decided to do music for my friends with cool and hard stuff!

Benny: A lot of people loves the french way of doing house music. Words like filter house, trashy, funky, disco always comes to mind. The frenchmen really know their music. Can you tell us something about all this? How this sound came up in the first place. We want to know all about it!

Fred Falke: That's true. I don't know exactly how to explain this, but as far as I'm concerned, I have a big collection of funk & disco LP's , and I listen a lot to these, so I guess they influence my music. I've always been a fan of filters. When I played bass in bands, I used filter box on my bass, so this FX naturally came to my mind when I started producing tracks.

Benny: Who or what is behind your musical inspiration and why?

Fred Falke: Daft Punk, Paul Williams, The Who, Chic, Snoop. They all had a big impact on my music. I listen a lot to AOR music. I like the sounds in these records, warm and clean. "Discovery" is my favorite electro album ever.

Benny: You've been releasing some really nice work over the past years together with Alan Braxe. How did you two meet each other and how come you get along so well?

Fred Falke: Alan wanted to work with live instruments and I wanted to work with machines, so we started working together. Now we don't have the same musical directions anymore.

Benny: John Dahlbäck chose your track (together with Alan) "Intro" as one of his top 5 tracks all time. Which one of your own tracks are you particularly satisfied with?

Fred Falke: Rubicon

Benny: What kind of equipment do you use for producing?

Fred Falke: I have a very small set up, in fact my studio is in my living room! I have a DAW, a couple of synthesizers, my old samplers which have a "magic sound" ( ASR-10 and SP1200) and a bunch of vintage pedal FX.

Benny: What do you think of the house music today and what's the next step?

Fred Falke: The house music scene is very innovative today. The way of producing has changed a lot. Now you can make a track with your laptop. So many people can make music, it is really cool. To me the next step, as in every genre, is the combination of house with another style of music. Mixing influences brings the music to the next step.

Benny: Who's your favorite producers? Both local and world wide!

Fred Falke: Snoop, The Neptunes, Daft Punk, Scott Storch, Air ...

Benny: Please list your top 5 house tracks of all time!

Fred Falke:
Mike Delgado - Byrdman's Revenge
Robert Armani - Circus Bells
Harddrive - Deep Inside
Daft Punk - Digital Love
Together - So Much Love To Give

Benny: Is there any upcoming new talent in france that we should look out for in the near future? Maybe someone who impressed you a lot?

Fred Falke: There are many new talents on the french scene now.

Benny: Can you give us a peak into any new tracks or collaborations coming up in 2008?

Fred Falke: I've worked on a track with Felix Da Housecat, should be released soon. I will release a single in the next months, and work with Kris Menace. I'm also working on a pop album, and on my own album, which should be released this year (if I get a deal!).

Benny: Is there any particular club/venue you really enjoy playing at and do you have any places you really want to visit and play?

Fred Falke: I will be playing in Australia in April and I m really excited about it. I'd really like to play my music wherever I can! Europe, US, Asia...

Benny: What do you think about blogs like this and Internet in general? Some people might say it's bad for the music and the artists, but some people say it's the complete opposite.

Fred Falke: Blogs are part of our environment today. You can't make it without them! I think it is cool because people can react to music very fast.

Benny: Finally. Freedom of speech! Tell our readers and your fans whatever you want. The word is yours!

Fred Falke: I'd like to thank all the people that support my music, it is really encouraging to get nice messages or comments on MySpace and that pushes me to make better music. I will try to play more live sets this year, so I can meet people around the world that appreciate my music.

Thanks Fred for this interview. I really appreciate it and I hope my readers do aswell!

Love,
Benny