Artist To Artist: Luca Lozano & Orlando Voorn

Last month marked the release of an intriguing split release from two producers with a likeminded sensibility but a degree of distance. Luca Lozano & Orlando Voorn both appeared on a release for Multiplex, a release which showcased two eclectic, electronic producers in their prime delivering rough and ready dancefloor cuts inspired by the hard, edgy sensibilities of 90's techno. 

Both are veterans of dance music, however Orlando Voorn maybe deemed as holding a longer legacy what with his releases for the likes of R&S Records, Fragile Records, Floorwax and more throughout the nineties. Luca on the other hand has been running Klasse Wrecks for nearly ten years and has been a key figure in the revival of hardware driven electronics both as a producer in his own right and as a curator with his imprint.

Both of these figures have a penchant for the traditional roots of electronic music, techno, graffiti and DIY culture has made them what they are today and to be honest we believe it's a perfect fit. 

We invited them to interview one another…

LUCA INTERVIEWS ORLANDO

1. I named my remix after your ‘Baruka’ moniker, the ‘Black Out’ EP is one of my most prized records and I love everything about it, including the amazing artwork. Where did the name Baruka come from and was the project dedicated to anything specific sound and style-wise or was it simply just a way of releasing more tracks but not under your normal name?

Yes I used a lot of aliases that way I would not have to sign my name away to some label. It was also a way to divide the music styles over such projects. Baruka was more the Detroitish way of things. Artwork by the great Abdul Haqq.

2. You live in the states right? When and why did you move there from Holland? Do you think it had an effect on your production sound? I noticed you are also making some Trap beats these days, is that something you do regularly?

I moved out of Holland bout 16 years ago and it had a positive effect on my production I always was very versatile in styles and still am however people like to put you in one category only and place you in a box. I am not about one box I am more like pandora’s box I do what I feel is cool not to just jump on it but to expand my musical horizon

3. Over the years you’ve released so many amazing tracks under so many different names, what do you think made you so prolific and how much time were you spending making music compared with touring and DJing?

I guess you could say people see me more as a producer then dj even with my DMC past and touring around the world doing when younger. Last 15 years it is definitely production that is overlapping the dj ing A bit odd u would think but with all this social media going on nowadays and how much likes one have (or bought) . I am an old school guy I never bought likes for anything and never will. These days it’s all about copy and paste the artists from the other big event and book the same over and over till the next “big” thing.

4. As a DJ I rarely play my own tracks, its something to do with having heard them so many times in the run up to releasing and also being overly critical about the production. Do you play a lot of stuff from your discography? Do you like playing your own tracks?

I like to play new stuff to test it out and see the reaction and hear how it sounds on the floor and I do play some of the discogs as well.

5. The release we did together for Multiplex is your 6th of the year and it looks like you're as busy as ever. How is your studio set up different these days compared to how it used to be? What were and are your favourite pieces of kit to make music with?

Over the years I owned lot of hear from Allen and heath mixers to DDA Profile and enjoyed working with the analog set ups for many years . Equipment : Akai Mac 3000, EMU SP1200 ,Oberheim Matrix 1000 plus editor ,OBMX Oberheim Module, Jupiter 6 , Jupiter 8 Yamaha dx100 ,Roland w30 24 track OTARI Tape recorder. to name some. These days I do it on a Mac ,Ableton,Reason,Logic and good VSTS. The workflow now is way faster then back then.

ORLANDO INTERVIEWS LUCA

1. When and how did you get started doing Techno/House?

I first started producing and DJing in the early 2000s, we used to run parties in Shoreditch in East London and Herne Hill in South London, I really cut my teeth learning how to DJ in bars in and around Brixton. It was a good way of learning how to keep the crowd moving and keep everyone happy whilst still playing the music you wanted to play. I would play everything from Juan Atkins to Talking Heads, New Order to Mike Dunn in order to keep things interesting and keep peoples attention. London was a good training ground in those days, a great mix of people and places.

2. What were your first influences?

My earliest influences with dance music was listening to Jungle back in the late 90s, me and friend would get super baked and try make Jungle on his Atari. We had a battle scratch record and would sample from that, I remember chopping up breaks and patterning them on the Atari and this tiny Akai sampler. I was also influenced a lot by rap music in the early days, that morphed into an interest in Miami Bass and slowly I traced things forward to more classic Chicago House and Detroit stuff. I also really loved Juke music and Baltimore Club stuff, anything a little rough around the edges.

3. And who inspired you?

As a teen I would go to NY Sushi in Sheffield, it was a great club with a really eclectic mix of music. On any given night you’d have a mix of Soulful US House, Underground Hip Hop and Jungle upstairs, it seemed natural to have a musical mix like that in the club and seems strange now that the same thing doesn’t really happen. Some of my earliest inspirations came from the whole scene in Holland and The Hague, some of the first mixes I downloaded from the internet were from guys like TLR and IF. There was an abundance of mixes from them in the early days of the internet, lots of themed mixes around Miami, Italo and Disco stuff. I remember being really intrigued about the scene in the Hague as they would always be very mysterious about it all, its still legendary to this day.

4. How do you approach a remix?

With caution! Remixing can be tough sometimes, I would just listen to the parts and take what I can imagine working with, things will jump out at me and I’ll put a picture together in my head of what it could sound like. Sometimes I use very little from the original track and just build my original track as I normally would. I usually end up making 3-4 different versions and take the best one.

5. What is the difference between producing a track and remixing one?

A remix is totally different in that its not your story you're telling, its someone else’s. I tend to find I take more risks with original productions as I only have myself to answer to and in the case of remixes I’m more cautious as I have to bear in mind another creatives feedback.

6. How was the process for you in this project?

It was a tricky one actually as I had just moved house and away from my old beloved studio, I had no studio to make the music so put it altogether on the road as I was travelling quite a bit at the time. I think I started the remix on a rickety old train somewhere in the Peak District near Manchester! I was lucky enough to finish the remix off in a friends studio, listening to the balance and overall composition with proper monitors and finished it off there.

7. How long you work on one track and what workflow suits you the best?

I tend to find working as short a time as possible usually yields the best results. I would start work on a loose idea in the studio and get it to a stage where I can pattern the track. I can then do that wherever I am, usually in an airport somewhere is best as I’m bored out of my mind and the laborious task of patterning doesn’t seem so bad at those times. I have a tendency to work on things too long sometimes and am trying to pinpoint the specific time in which things start to lose their excitement. Its just as important to know when to stop as when to start sometimes and if things aren’t working that day then I walk away and do something else with my time and wait for the inspiration to strike again naturally.

8. You run Klasse Wrecks. What is the biggest challenge running a label today?

I don't encounter that many challenges to be honest, over the years we’ve learnt to stay in our lane in most respects of running a business. We don't spend large amounts of money on promo campaigns, don't really entertain demos from other producers from outside our small family of friends and this leads to things working nicely and smoothly. We try to run a tight ship in terms of making everything as of high quality as possible and I think this is appreciated by our audience. There are so many labels out there these days you have to work very hard to make your product the best….in the end, dope sells itself.

9. What is the main motivation for running a label?

I just wanna make some great records and somehow be remembered in the future. Theres an innate urge in me to make ’stuff' and be creative and a label is the best way for me to do this, hopefully what we do weathers the test of time. I have no intention on going anywhere anytime soon, theres no reason why Klasse Wrecks cant be still going in 2030 and that my general mindset, we’re here to stay. Let me know if you need anything else.

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