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"I think that the final result with Dandelion EP is the perfect mix of everything I’ve always loved and listened in music"
Alberto Melloni creates music that works in all settings and transcends genres. His openness to a wide range of sound is what has both made him a widely loved favourite, but also someone who operates in his own parallel musical world. We had a chance to talk to him, so enjoy your reading and check out his latest releases.
Hey! Where can we find you right now? How did you start your day?
Hey guys! I’m in Italy at the moment in my hometown Riccione which is a small town on the Adriatic Coast, a nice place to live in, just one step away from Rimini - the beating heart of the Italian club culture in what is the “Italian Ibiza”. My days here start pretty early in the morning, a good breakfast and then go immediately to turn on the machines at the studio.
How are you living the current situation because of COVID? Has your work been affected a lot? Do you think there is hope?
When this pandemic situation started last March here in Italy we couldn’t go out from home so I moved some instruments - synths, audio interface, studio monitors etc.. from my studio to my home and I set up a small corner in my house where I can continue to produce music while i’m safely at home. This is basically what I did everyday for three months, this is probably what most music producers did in this period. I’m pretty sure we could listen to so much “lockdown-music” during this 2021, and this is one of the reasons that make me think that surely there is hope - the fact that in spite of everything music has never stopped, is pure hope.
I feel like the underground scene will continue to persist. Do you think we can go back to "normal" events and festivals?
At the moment we still can’t see the light at the end of this tunnel but sooner or later I think we surely go back to events and festivals even if I have the sensation that probably COVID will forever change something in terms of security measures, logistics and organization. So in the future,I don’t know if events will be “normal”as we used to do them before the pandemic situation, but I think that the whole event sector will find a way to come out from this situation stronger than before.
How have you adapted to recent circumstances?
I’m trying to do my best, I'm trying to be as productive as I can, actually I think that everything I do every day is concerned with music, but not always production. One thing and maybe the only positive thing about this situation, is that I have a bit more free time, time for doing things that I’ve wanted to do for a long time like finding new music or studying some particular musical-techniques and stuff like this.
What can you tell us about your work on the Dandelion EP? What does each track contribute? What have you learned from the EP?
I think that the final result with Dandelion EP is the perfect mix of everything I’ve always loved and listened in music, there is surely a strong side with a more electro, italo and disco feeling, but I think there’s also a kind of punky, rock and new wave vibe in both tracks that I really love. I’m also really happy to have it on Midnight People, which is a label that perfectly fits the mood behind this EP, with two remixes from two great artists like Rees & Johannes Albert.
Has your sound evolved a lot, since your first works? And where is your sound heading right now?
I started my solo project less than one year ago and one of the goals I set myself is to have no restriction about what kind of music I'm making. I just want to do music, let the ideas flow through the process whatever they came from and wherever that takes me. If you listen to my first works, they are really different from the Dandelion EP - and I like this. My opinion is that music is an art, if you are a musician, a painter, a poet, a dancer or whatever, you are always influenced by what you feel and do in that particular moment of life. At the moment I rediscovered a lot of music from the dark wave side of the 80’s, stuff that I've listened to a lot when I was 16 or 17 and I think that is coming out from the music I made in this period.
Your music seems to be linked to places, landscapes and moments. What else plays a fundamental role in your music creation process?
Actually I’m a guitar player, I've studied guitar and music theory for years and I've worked for years by teaching guitar in several music schools during the week while I was doing gigs during the weekend. What I've learned during all these years, is that it surely plays a fundamental role in my creation process. Thinking about it I realize that very often I start a new project from a melodic idea rather than a rhythmic idea, sometimes from a riff on the guitar, sometimes from a couple of chords on the piano and being able to play different musical instruments even if the computer is off is probably the most fundamental things in my process.
What is your current production setup and what instruments are essential for you?
I’m a devotee and radical Ableton Live user, all my music is made, mixed and often even mastered with Ableton Live so probably this daw is my really essential instrument but, beyond that, for the latest releases I often use an Elektron Digitone which is one of my favorite synths ever for the workflow and the great sounds of the Elektron instruments and for the incredible and infinite possibilities offered by FM synthesis, I can do an entire track from this synth. I use a Korg Minilogue which is as simple but very powerful and recently I’ve added to the setup a Beheringer clone of the Arp Odyssey. I was a little skeptical about it before I bought it, but since the first sound I've made from it I fell in love with it.
What projects are you working on?
In these days I’m preparing some music with some other musicians and producers, a couple of EPs that I hope I can make you listen to by the end of this summer and I’m working on a live set, to play my music live and bring it to a new dimension with synths, guitar and drum machines…always wanted to do that.
What can we expect from you this 2021?
Definitely a lot of new music, and of course hoping that we will be able to come back to gigs and events.
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