We talk to the duo behind ‘Brick House’ and the new Essential New Tune ‘Need In Me’.
Flashmob burst onto the scene last year with the explosive ‘Brick House’, the debut single for a duo who have – in one way or another – been involved in the music industry for most of their lives. Their third single ‘Need in Me’ was snapped up by Defected and was promptly made Essential New Tune by Pete Tong, subsequently shooting straight to the top of the Traxsource chart and steadily climbing the Beatport Top 100.
Here we speak to the group’s Alessandro about changing styles, hooking up with Get Physical’s DJ. T and handing out vinyl in Space...
You only started releasing music as Flashmob last year… how long had you been producing together before you released ‘Brick House’?
We've been producing together since 2007. We met by chance during a gig in Italy and we just became immediate friends. It was obvious we were complementary from the first minute we met. We’ve produced under various aliases though, one of which was quite successful.
How about as individuals?
We have produced many tracks individually too, and then also with our two names associated and again with a single alias that we'd prefer not mention. We were producing a completely different kind of music at the time, but yes we have always been in music. Actually I think we've covered every possible job in the business.
What kind of music did you grow up listening to you?
For me, it was fairly successful mainstream groups things like Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Bronski Beat, Simple Minds, Jean Michel Jarre, Iron Maiden, Police, Mike Oldfield, Super Tramp and on early American, German and English underground scene. Danny was more into electronic stuff from early on, things like Depeche Mode and then later Royksopp, stuff like that.
What was the catalyst that made you start Flashmob?
The whole idea of Flashmob was to make music for the sake of it. We wanted to change style and we were not happy about anything surrounding our previous project; the people we worked with, the labels that were not paying us and the whole idea of becoming a relevant act in the music industry as a ‘must do’.
I suppose it's one of those phases many DJs or producers go through when something isn't working anymore and you are not even enjoying the studio or the gigs. So we stopped and said to each other "Let's just go back to the roots, and start a new journey made of simplicity and quality”. Most importantly we just wanted to have a good time. Shortly after that we produced Brick House but were not sure what to do with it.
So how did it end up being released on Get Physical? Did you know the guys there already or did you just send them a demo?
I sent it to a few labels I knew from working as my previous project, just to have an opinion, but they all turned me down. Despite that both of us were still sure this was a track that could work really well and so we spent around four months getting together a mailing list with the idea of sending it to all the underground DJs we loved, so that’s what we did.
We then started getting some great feedback and that gave us the strength to enlarge the list even more and within six months everyone was playing ‘Brick House’, from Loco Dice to Jamie Jones, Damian Lazarus, Dennis Ferrer, Solomun, Lee Curtiss, DJ Sneak, Claude VonStroke, Tania Vulcano, Pete Tong, Davide Squillace, Laurent Garnier and many many other friends.
From the beginning the idea of Flashmob Music Group (our label project) was just to produce our music and not to necessarily release it, but maybe just put it on vinyl to give it out to the DJs we love. So we printed 100 copies and went to Ibiza's DC10, Space and Pacha to give out the vinyl.
We spent hours waiting for the DJs to come in. I remember waiting for nine hours to give the vinyl to Dyed Soundorom; we looked like two aliens by the end of the night, and ridiculously I was using my baby boy's diaper bag to carry the vinyl! You use what you got when you're broke, right?
Once back in Milan I was browsing on Facebook and one Thomas Koch contacted me on Facebook; it took me a bit to realize I was talking to one of the most important people of our business and one of the guys who founded Get Physical Music, DJ T.
He was actually getting in touch as he just wanted the promo and then I thought I would mention it was unsigned and that we had no intention of releasing it. Mr T. said to me that he wanted ‘Brick House’ for Get Physical and that this track was meant to be. So Danny and I just thought we'd give it a shot and decided to license it to them. In no time we were playing on a Get Physical Night in Berlin with all the guys of the label who I must say are really, really nice.
So it took quite a while for the record to finally be released…
Absolutely, but it stuck around in the Beatport Top 100 for over 3 months, so I guess there were at least a few people who were glad it was finally released. This was a case of DJ T. having a good ear for good records and about us really believing in something.
Deciding to end the previous project for something new – that came with zero certainties – was very scary, but we both trusted in ourselves and our music. After meeting DJ T. I realized how lucky we had been to be spotted by someone like him. Not only he is one of the best people you can meet but a really, really competent musician and as we all know that is not always the case with big DJs, especially regarding taste; that is a quality very few have. So thanks, T.
And now ‘Need In Me’ has been made ‘Essential New Tune by Pete Tong… why do you think you’re first releases have been so successful?
I believe that hard work and talent always find its way.We are really serious about what we do and 100% dedicated to the cause. We have been through thick and thin together to get to this point, so it's gonna be hard to stop us!
Do you have a particular ethos behind the music that you make together?
Keep it simple and try to make something people will love, dance to and play.
What else have you got in the pipeline, production-wise?
We are just going to see what happens with ‘Need In Me’ .Everyone is telling us it's the anthem of summer 2012 (not just Pete Tong, who we wanna thank) so we're sort of not sure what to do next; after a big record it might be wise not to release!
Nevertheless we are working on some beats for Get Physical, really underground stuff and then we'll be meeting the Defected guys in London at the end of this month to talk about the future; Defected is actually flying us into London for a meeting; how cool is that?
