Luca C & Brigante haven't put out a huge amount of music so far, but they've still managed to cement a strong reputation as a production force to be reckoned with. Their early releases, including an edits EP and the already classic Different Morals (featuring Ali Love) catapulted them into them limelight. Both hailing from Milan, they me while out clubbing four years ago and found common ground through their roots and their love of music. With a new EP featuring the legend himself Robert Owens, and an exciting artist album project in the pipeline, MEOKO sat down with them to get the lowdown on their story so far and what's in store for them...
So, all I know is your recent history, how did it all start?
Luca: We haven't been together that long, so the recent history is the history. We met in London, and the first track we did was a remix for Ali [Love] Diminishing Returns, which is a track I co-wrote with him. After that we released an edit EP of two Italian tracks, which is now worth a lot of money... it's worth £50! Because we did a limited run of 200.
Brigante: It was 300 because we had to re-press.
How did you actually meet?
Luca: We met in a club in London.
Brigante: We come from the same place, Milan.
Luca: After the edits EP, we did Different Morals, which did really well last summer.
Brigante: Then we started working on the album.
Luca: We started working on a bunch of stuff for various purposes, including an album. We released a six-track EP/mini album in November. So we released Different Morals, which was a dance tune, and the EP, which was more like an artist project.
So is that the direction you're going in then?
Luca: We go in all different directions, we love electronic music, house music, we like rock, reggae, everything...
Tell me about the next single.
Brigante: I would say the next single is the follow-up to Different Morals. It's a club record with Robert Owens.
Luca: Remixed by Kenny from Art Department.
So how did you hook up with Robert?
Luca: When we signed to Southern Fried, they asked who we'd like to work with and Robert was on our list.
Luca C
It must be satisfying to work with someone like that.
Luca: Yeah it's really cool, he came to Ibiza because we were living there at the time. He came and hung out for like three or four days, it was supposed to be two days but I had my birthday in the middle of it and we ended up staying up and writing and stuff. He's a cool guy, I still speak to him and he became good friends with Ali.
Brigante: He had plenty of stories from the old school...
...I can only imagine! So, individually, how did you get into making music?
Brigante: Like most people I guess, I started with my school band. I caught the bug from there. I was very lucky because, at the beginning of the nineties when I was first getting into clubbing, I had a friend who was putting out electronic records. I was going out to clubs and listening to dance music but I didn't really have any idea how it was made, like the computer and the sequencer and the drum machine, I didn't understand what they were – but when I first saw them I was like, “Wow that looks easy, I can do it as well”. I say I was lucky because not everybody had the equipment, so for me it was amazing to be able to go in their studio and use a computer and synthesisers. I didn't take it seriously at all... until I moved to Ibiza in 2001. I started going to underground parties, and I met other people who were producing.
Brigante
And Luca, how did you start making music?
Luca: I started playing piano when I was 12, I had lessons for about two months but then I realised I didn't want lessons I just wanted to play. So I would play for like three or four hours a day by myself, for years. Looking back, I wish I'd carried on with the lessons... I started playing in bands when I was 13/14, punk bands and stuff, then I moved to England when I was 18, didn't play for a while. Then I started playing with this band called Cazals, we got signed to Kitsune, started touring and did the usual stuff. Went on tour with Babyshambles, Bloc Party and basically we went on tour with Daft Punk in Japan. We did our own headline tour and an album, then a year after the Japan tour we split up and I started making electronic music, I hooked up with him and we started doing electronic stuff.
What pushed you into electronic stuff?
Luca: I've always been into it. When I was a teenager I went to punk gigs, but I had different groups of friends so I used to go to clubs as well – especially in summer. Like in Tuscany I'd go to underground house clubs... so I've always liked electronic music. I was really into sixties soul, reggae, northern soul and then I started collecting disco music – like rare disco tracks, italo disco, cosmic stuff... odd records, while I was playing in bands. Then I gradually moved into buying house music and DJing house.
So now you two are working together, how does it work?
Brigante: [Laughs] Complicated!
Luca: I think now we've got to a point where we know each other enough and are aware of what the other one can do, we're in tune with each other. It works well, obviously it takes time to find your feet when you're working with someone else. He's more technical than I am, I tend to work more on the musical side of things, although he's musical too. I'm getting better with software now – I think maybe in six months I'll start calling myself a producer! [Laughs].
What stage are you at with the album then?
Luca: It's there, we just kind of.... taking our time.
Brigante: There's lots of people involved, so logistically, it's taking a bit longer than normal.
Luca: The thing is, it's like... it's as if a band is making an album. Most of it is played live, it's not like the usual electronic producer in his bedroom type of thing.
Brigante: It's songs yeah, so in the beginning the songs were recorded in more than one way before we decided which way to go with it. Processes that bands do more than producers making dance records, so you know... that took time and we have more material than we need.
Is there a unifying theme behind the album?
Brigante: We tried to make it so there's a coherent theme behind it, but it's difficult to judge sometimes from the inside.
Luca: I think it's pretty coherent. Basically, it's us and the people that we've been making it with – our friends. Ali sings on quite a few tracks on the album and I've been friends with him for ten years... and even the people who've been doing sessions are friends.
Brigante: We made an effort to bring all the people we're working with to us, to work with us.
Yeah rather than do it remotely... so was most of it made in Ibiza? Is there anyone else on there you can tell me about or is it hush hush?
Luca: Yeah mostly in Ibiza. Well you know Ali's on the because I just mentioned him...
Brigante: ...It's not really hush hush, but there are so many people involved and the tracklist isn't finalised.
Luca: It's now turned into a band project, it's not just Luca C & Brigante, the project is called Invisible Cities, which was the name of our first EP/mini album. So there's a lot of people involved...
Where did the name Invisible Cities come from?
Brigante: It's the name of a book by an Italian author called Italo Calvino a very respected writer of the past 50 years, he was very well known for his surreal literature. Invisible Cities is one of his most famous books and I like to recommend it to everybody because it's a cute little book. Basically it's Marco Polo talking to Genghis Khan after returning from his trips and each little chapter is him explaining a different city. But because there is the premise that they don't understand each other (because they speak different languages), the interpretations and descriptions of the cities are very...cosmic. The city with the glass bridge, the city of opposites...
There seems to be a cosmic theme with all the stuff you're doing?
Luca: We're into things that you can call cosmic/psychedelic.
Brigante: When we started the album we were listening to a lot of stuff from the Italian cosmic scene...
Luca: ...of the early eighties, psychedelic disco mixed with rock. It's a whole fucking other thing, it's very specific.
Brigante: The leading DJ from that scene was Daniele Baldelli, and there was Beppe Loda. It's named cosmic because it was in a club called Cosmic.
Luca: It was the first superclub in Italy, it opened in like 1978 and the whole décor inside was space-themed. The DJ booth was a spaceship, they were playing really down-tempo, tripped out early electronic mixed with disco, you just have to listen to it to understand it...
Brigante: It was a very genre-defying style of playing, very Balearic...
Luca: They were playing like halftime, 45rpm at 33rpm – you can check it out online, it's very well documented.
Would you say your stuff is influenced by that in some way...
Luca: ...it's inspired by it, and related, but we haven't made a cosmic disco album – we've made a cosmic album in a different way. A lot of the instruments we've used are from that era...
What instruments were you using?
Brigante: A few guitars, synthesisers and drum machines from the end of seventies/beginning of the eighties. Also the way that we recorded, we tried to record it in a way that gets you to a certain sound. A lot of the stuff is not sequenced, I think that's the main difference between stuff from the end of the seventies and the eighties – the invention of the sequencer. We did a lot of recording in takes, where you actually play stuff... in a way we were complicating our lives. We were taking away a tool (sequencer) that we've learnt to use as part of the music making process.
Did you find it difficult?
Brigante: Everyone involved can play instruments to begin with, it wasn't that difficult – it just made the process longer. In a way it's good to have to work in a way where you make decisions on the spot and you don't have time to think too much. When you're recording live takes you have to decide on the sound right there, sometimes it makes things more interesting – it's scary and there's no going back, but it's good.
So, the album is pretty much finished, are you now working on stuff beyond the album project?
Luca: At the same time as making this album, which is a proper artist project, we are making dance EPs, like Morals, and this one (Tomorrow Can Wait) and another one after that. And we have other projects we're involved in separately. I've got Infinity Ink and Hot Natured...
Brigante: ...I've done some stuff with Ali, more dance music. We've got one EP ready to come out on No.19, dunno what it's gonna be called yet because... that is another story.
Luca: Basically there's a group of us, and it's always the same people! We're linked by the fact that we all live in London, we all go to Ibiza and we all like the same music...
So you're all working with each other and then going, “Shit we need to think of a name for this!”
Luca: [Laughs] Yeah basically!
Brigante: Yeah, we do it and then if we decide it deserves to be out there, then somebody's gotta think of a name for it.
Luca C & Brigante on Soundcloud
Words: Marcus Barnes
