When did you and Spencer Clark meet up, and how has he NOT landed a release on your label, yet?
I met Spencer during the Skaters era, they came to Bologna at Netmage Festival. I was doing Invernomuto at the time. Skaters were playing on a Roland Lethem movie, and it was legendary. Seriously amazing. I suddenly became friends with the whole crew: James, Labanna, and Spenzy, of course. Some months later they came to my place in east-end Milan, we had a great night, we played football, Lieven destroyed a window with the ball, and the Latin Kings almost killed me the day after. It was good. Good memories.
Two years ago I came to [the] West Coast for a very (unlucky) love-meeting, and so I left L.A. for a small tour on the West Coast with my fella JAWS. We reached Portland and Spencer was waiting for us. We spent three days partying, traveling, and generally having great time. So it was great to meet a friend again, and… we take care of each other.
For example, Spenzy was reading a book David Keenan gave to him and Amy (Spencer’s lovely girlfriend), about paganism in Renaissance art. They came to visit me and my crazy girlfriend last summer, and we spent 10 days driving around and discovered crazy symbols in late-night museums, churches, fountains, and grottos. I will release something of Spencer one day, I’m sure about that. But it might be something bigger than a record. Maybe a[n] Opera?
You mentioned being more of a ‘California person,’ why?
I’ve been traveling since I was very young, and I have friends all over the world, but there’s something in L.A. that make me feel at home. I don’t feel the same in New York. I think it has more to do with the landscape than the social-system or the people. For sure, the fact that L.A. isn’t filled with Italians as NYC is, is probably a good reason.
Once I was at the dub-club at Echoplex in L.A. — I used to go there alone early at night to get in for free — and I was dancing in my fur-coat my mom gave to me; it might be a little weird-looking, but trust me it is cool and warm. So I was dancing and suddenly I was surrounded by girls bouncing their butts. I was keeping it cool: not going too far, not leaving my zone. I was the only white guy at the club besides the DJ. A couple of dudes came to me and asked where I was from. More like where my neighborhood was, or where my affiliation lied. I answered, ‘I’m from Italy, man.’ And they left, with a big question mark in their eyes. Italy is an exotic place where wine is constantly spilling out of public fountains and we are all affiliated to the Godfather.
Do you see the Hundebiss Records based around friendship with the artists you sign?
Actually, I think you can easily read that we like folk music; we are doing folk music for the Twitter age, but without being so lame like all the “internet-culture” music. So you can listen to Dilloway and to Lil Ugly Mane, to Chicklette and Primitive Art, to Stargate and Jaws… And I’m sure you will have good time… And I’m sure they are telling you more about the world we are living in now than Waka Flock Flame or a fucking well-dressed, short-hair revival punk band from Northern Europe, or more than a revival psych rock band from California or some hashtag micro-genre starlettes.
This music is about now, without being novelty, without being banal. It’s expression with no romanticism. It’s an attitude. And it is fun. Please, don’t forget it’s all fun. But not funny.
From what tropes do you devise this meaning of FOLK for Hundebiss?
Raphael Lyon (a.k.a. Mudboy) released a record back in 2005 called This is Folk Music (TMT Review). I really enjoyed that record while listening to Harry Smith’s Anthology of Folk Music around the same time, constantly. So, my idea is nobody on my label is doing experimental or avant-garde music. There’s no avant-garde this days, or maybe there is, but it’s in some zone I’m not interested in. I’m doing folk music, I’m playing with cheap technologies. This cheap technology has a story; the language that technology develops has a story. What I’m doing is easy, easy to make, easy to spread, easy to listen [to] in a historical perspective. I’m talking about now, all the music I released is about now, and it could have an historical meaning in few years.
There’s no fucking retro in Hundebiss, there’s no retro in Dracula Lewis; there’s no vintage, no good oldies, and no place for nostalgia. Plus, I avoid heavy and sterile conceptualism. Listen to the Hundebiss releases; go deep: Dilloway is using tape machines in that record and there’s his little kid crying; he’s talking about his life — daily life. You listen to “Cheetah,” and it’s about to trying not to be late for a date. You listen [to] Problems, by Primitive Art, and you have the picture of two young kids struggling between everyday problems, from racial tension to homophobic society to trying to find the money to pay the rent and survive through another MDMA-night. Then you have Jaws’s Stress Test & Keys to the Universe… I mean the whole Jaws-thing is a gigantic opera about financial crisis. And Lil Ugly Mane: a fictional character, but how deep about the everyday-feeling he went?
Even an instrumental act like Stargate; his romanticism, his reference to trance music. That’s folk to me.
As a label owner and a musician who releases PHYSICAL music in the modern-day, how would you define one’s “ownership” of music?
I think is funny to play with the authorial role; it has always been challenging and always been an issue. I play with samples, I don’t pay for samples because I’m not Kayne, but I think [it] is a shame Jay-Z didn’t pay Lee Perry for sampling Max Romeo.
What emotion/theme do you feel specifically afflicts Dracula Lewis music that’s NOT as realized as people think?
Well, Lisa Blanning at The FADER wrote this: “Dracula Lewis project is evolving from its more abstract noise beginnings to a serrated, but instinctively tuneful and sexy id-rhythmic present.” And I’m very bad talking about my music, so I think she got the point. When I started playing as Dracula, the idea was seriously to play some contemporary folk, using scraps and cheap instruments; I was going through “DESTINITY,” a crazy favela-style second-hand store as my music shop. My aim was to evoke a forest-scenario, like robots tripping in the woods.
I’m still in that mood, but suddenly I’ve started to write some songs, and with songs you need a topic and with beats you need to stay focused on the movements of your body. So my music became something more sexy, very primitive and gaunt, in a basic way. And to be honest I’m quite happy about the audience response. Now is time to give ‘em something unexpected.
What was the first release you EVER owned (on cassette, LP, CD), and can you recall a specific memory that reminds you of this release?
The record was a 7-inch produced by an Italian label called Applequince, a compilation of punk/hardcore bands from Italy: the packaging, the songs, the incredible attitude that was coming out from that record, was simply impressive.
Actually it wasn’t the first record I owned, but it was definitely the most inspiring in my young age…
In your newest mixtape, you’ve a variety of producers and collaborations… How did you make this possible, and was translation ever an issue, or was translating the VIBE of your TRACKS more of an issue?
You are a smart guy because you understand potentials and you reveal the truth behind the curtains. Yes, I did have some problems, in particular with Primitive Art and Orphan Fairytale. Primitive Art sent me a very good loop, it was amazing, something like Craig Leon playing [the] District 9 soundtrack; I fucking hate to talk about music like that, so I’m sorry to you and your readers, this is not Vice Magazine, but hope you got the picture.
For some reason, we ended up playing in the San Diego suburbs for a marine that just came back from Afghanistan, and I was 20 years old and I was like: there’s no way I’m gonna play for a fucking marine.
Anyway, Primitive Art, sent me that loop, I’ve started sing on top, in Italian, it was fun. Jim from Primitive Art came to my place for three days, and we did a bunch of takes, we came out with an Italo-Spanish song that was dope. But my friend Matteo Pit from Primitive Art said it wasn’t cool enough. So what I can say? We will save the energy for a new songs in the future, they need to finish some new recordings, the world is waiting for that. Then Orphan Fairytale told me I totally misunderstood the mystical vibe of his song; well, I’m not a mystical person, I’m a Mista Thug. She’s gonna use the song in the new record she’s working on; that song is dope and it will sound much better without my vocals.
The rest of the people was stoked, amused, interested in other people[’s] reaction[s]. Some people never get back. So this mixtape it was definitively an experience. At the end of this adventure what can I say: it was a a fun project, very challenging, very difficult, very fun somehow. I will never do it again.
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat is the sample at the beginning of this mix (NOT D/P/I, but the voice)? I can’t place it and feel foolish.
It’s from a spam video about “How to Improve Your Bank Account.” The guy — the voice-over guy — is going very deep and harsh on the video; he apparently has a secret way to gain profits and his gonna tell you (the listener) the secret an old friend of him decide to share with the world. I listened to the fucking video thousands of times, still have no idea what the secret was about, but I was feeling very horrible because I was the target, he was very specific about my economical situation, about my bank account; how the finical crisis affected me personally; how the future would be disastrous if I don’t make the right decision right now.
So, I sampled the first part, then I put a laser sound and an explosion. “Never dreamed to have your bank account look something like this?” SWOOSSHHHH BANNNNNGGGGG: fuck you and my bank account, fellah.
Oh, shit, that’s right. You and Alex played some sets together recently in Italy, no?
I was touring as opening guest for some dates of the latest Sun Araw Euro tour, and I was feeling my old set was a little to harsh for the crowd and their fan-base, so I came up to Alex and I said: ‘What if we improvise every night?’ It’s just so rare being together with him that [it] would be stupid NOT TO use this time in a more creative way. Of course, he was more than down, and I think we did a couple of great shows; for some reason it was like riding a big wave, feeling the wind trough our hair. Our craziest set was in Lubijana.
Considering your latest release is referred to as a “mixtape,” what constitutes it as a mixtape? How are mixtapes perceived in Italy?
Man, stop talking about Italy like a weird remote place in the fourth-world! Italians are pretty much like New Yorkers, but they don’t call everything organic, we call it “bio.” A mixtape is something that has changed its meaning during the years: back in the days it was something like a homemade compilation, then it became something very creative in the hip-hop culture, from recordings of the jams to the first experiment with R&B, a capella, and hip-hop beats.
More recently it became something like an unofficial album, something with a bunch of producers, and one rapper or a full crew singing on top of that. Is important that is UNOFFICIAL, so is something fresh and spontaneous, wild and funny. I’ve listened to way too many Trap-A-Holics and Gucci Mane mix tapes in the last [few] years.
And I think is kinda funny in the TECHNICAL XTC mix tape there’s basically no hip-hop. So, the mixtape is available at Dat Piff for free but you can get also some physical copies through my website and soon at Boomkat.
If you COULD collaborate with others that you haven’t yet, who would it be?
Powell, Nate Young, Jennifer Herrema, Kate Bush, Martin Rev, Alan Howarth, Bizzy Bone. I would love to produce a dub-power electronics record with Fka Twigs. I know she’s a Whitehouse fan.
Who would your dream tour mates be?
I think that Italian tour in 2012 with me, Bill Kouligas, Luke Younger, Steven Warwick, and Dennys Tyfus was almost perfect. Touring with my friend Lorenzo Senni is also amazing because we are wild and chill at the same time.
When’s that U.S. tour, boiiiiii!?!?!??!
I will come to U.S. in springtime for sure, so please write me if you wanna book some gigs. I’ll end up in Vancouver B.C. for sure. So write me fellas. I just need heavy bass.
