Blending live instrumentation, and introspective dance-music patterns, it announced Etxebarria as a major new talent in the making and placed him alongside the likes of John Talabot and Recondite as part of an up-and-coming generation of producers doing exciting new things with synthesizers and drum-machines.
In the two years since that record, the young producer has seen his stock continue to rise, taking part in Red Bull’s Music Academy in Madrid and unveiling his full-band live show at Sonar 2013.
What’s more, this summer sees the release of his second LP, ‘We Walked Home Together’. Like its predecessor, it’s a record that takes a wide net of dance-music influences, from house to acid to electronica, and reconfigures them according to Etxebarria’s unique vision.
From the kicks, piano licks and Thom Yorke like falsetto vocals of ‘We Walked Home Together’ to the droning synths and dreamy acid squelches of ‘Every Day Is Blue Monday’ to the wistful 303s and menacing vocals of ‘Claim Of Planet Earth’, the album exudes a powerful presence. It might not be the soundtrack for a big night out, buts its use of slowed down and reshaped dance-music tropes make for a listening experience that you can lose yourself within for hours, if not days.
I Voice got in touch with the Spanish producer to ask find out a little more about the man behind the music.
I am still learning a lot about myself as a musician & as a human, so whilst I think my releases are coherent in the last three years I have changed my production [style] a little bit... If I could begin by asking you a little bit about your background as a musician. Are you from a musical family? When and why did you begin to produce dance music?
I started so early with my musical career, and my brother Hibai is a professional musician with a long career. I stopped my classical lessons when I was a teenager and completed a course in sound technician studies.
Then, when I saw my brother sampling 10 years ago it opened a new world for me. There was a record store in Bilbao called Cybertech, which is still running, and it was there where I start listening to [labels] like Kompakt and Dial.
When you first started putting out releases, why did you decide to use the name El_Txef_A rather than your own name?
I sent a demo to a magazine called Trax when I was like 17, and I didn’t have a name to sign my music back in those days [so I used El_Txef_A]. That magazine chose me as a promising young producer and I appeared on a sampler CD with artists like Apparat, and after that I started to sign all my productions as El_Txef_A.
Your sound is pretty unique; a lot of it is slower than most other house and techno, makes use of lots of live percussive elements and feels a bit more introspective than your average dance-music record. I am interested as to who the artists were that inspired you, and how you arrived at your sound.
I am still learning a lot about myself as a musician and as a human, so whilst I think my releases are coherent in the last three years I have changed my production [style] a little bit. During that time I have been listening to and investigating David Sylvian and Peter Gabriel, and I think this influenced my recent productions.
You were involved with the 2013 Red Bull Music Academy in Madrid. How do you feel that experience influenced you as a musician?
I was called to be at the Madrid Bass Camp of the Red Bull Music Academy last year and it was so good! I live a little bit outside of the scenes in Madrid and Barcelona, and so it was a good chance to get to know other great musicians from Spain and learn from them, even more than the lectures or the studio jams.
Most of your releases have come out on your own Fiakun label. Could you tell me a little bit more about the label and its ethos.
Yes I release my albums on my own imprint Fiakun which gives me a lot of freedom to do what I want. I have also released on labels like Permanent Vacation, Suol and Pets Recordings in the last year, but that has tended to be compilations and remix stuff. With Fiakun, we have our workspace in Gernika and is run by seven friends. We are learning a lot each day and doing what we love. We have artists like Kasper Bjorke, Daniel Bortz, James Duncan and Matthias Vogt releasing on our label, which is a real dream for us.
I love to be involved with an album because I can be focused on something for more than a year and learn more about myself as an artist...Tell me about how your new album ‘We Walked Home Together’ came to fruition. Did you have a clear idea of what you wanted to do in advance, or did it just sort of ‘happen’ so to speak.
Yes, I had the main idea for the album in my mind; I started thinking about a simple concept of a calm walk home through the countryside with someone you love. I did some drafts and I went to Berlin to record four tracks and I realised that it [had the potential to be an album], and so I decided to make an LP again. I love to be involved with an album because I can be focused on something for more than a year and learn more about myself as an artist.
The album features a lot of collaborations, from Meggy’s vocals on Every Day Is Blue Monday to your brother Hibai’s sublime piano keys on ‘We Walked Home Together’. Do you prefer working with others, rather than solitarily?
I am used to creating alone. I compose the first drafts on my own, then I see if someone can help with something that I can’t add myself. My brother is a professional pianist so every time I feel a track needs a piano I call him. Also with the vocals, I used to sing on my own in the demos, but I know I am limited as a vocalist, so I tend to search for a good option for each track.
I released with Woolfy on Permanent Vacation and I love his magical voice. I did a draft of a track and his name came to my head immediately. He lives in California so we did all the work via internet.
The music critic Alexis Petridis once said that the best disco records were those that blended euphoria and melancholy. It would seem that this could be a fitting description for the album. Were you aware of this during the recording process? Was it an aesthetic you were aiming for?
I use music as a therapy and its true that I try express to my honest side. The two years that I was making the album were very turbulent and I think it has been captured in the album.
The longplayer starts with some beautiful colors and becomes darker as it goes on and finishes with a real calm. I tried to capture the most extreme sensations, so as you said, people can feel some euphoria on the album .
The album was recorded in the Basque Country, where you’re from, and in fact that last track features the Basque folk band Napora Iria who sing in the region’s Euskera language. Do you feel that your musical identity is informed by the place you grew up in?
Of course. I used to listen to lots of Basque folk due to my parents and Basque music always had such sad harmonies which have definitely influenced my music.
Despite having found success as an artist you’ve remained in Bilbao, rather than move to one of the dance-music hubs such as Barcelona or Berlin. Why is that?
Living in Bilbao and Gernika gives me more freedom. If I need something I can fly to Barcelona or Berlin, but for my personal career as a musician I think it’s better to be out of the main scenes. It’s true that you have more opportunities in the big cities and more movement and more intensity, but I think I need the calm.
Beyond the release of the album what do you have lined up this summer that you’re excited about?
I am so excited for my first tour in Asia, I will be performing in Osaka, Tokyo and Shanghai and then I have a huge USA tour, playing in cities like New York , Chicago, Detroit and Miami. We are also doing a label party during off-Sonar in Barcelona, with a super interesting line up with Dave DK from Pampa, Till Von Sein and many more. Due to the album release I will be touring the whole summer, which makes me so happy.
3 Years of Fiakun x Captcha at Room Mate pau
Thursday 12 June 2014 - 13:00 - 22:00
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