ABOVE THE CLOUDS

Close your eyes and shut off everything that engulfs your mind and surrounds your inner-body. Make sure you are laying down on something comfortable, something that makes you feel “in the zone”. Take a deep breath followed by some more if you feel like you need it… Oh wait, stop stop stop… I forgot to tell you the most important thing – you can probably tell I’m pretty crappy when it comes to this relaxation stuff, best left for the experts ey? What you should do first is cue up some tracks by my current (well, they have been under my radar for a while) favourite downtempo/dreamy disco Belgium wonders Aeroplane and hit the play button and the rest will come naturally.

With their dreamy melodies, divine bass lines and scrumptious disco beats, you would think you were living it up large in heaven already; or somewhere above the clouds (either one is good). I really don’t know why these guys were not given the Waves at Night treatment earlier but alas, other blogs have got that all under wraps. This post is long overdue. Their music is magic. Period.

Aeroplane is made up of Stephen Fansano and Vito de Luca, whom I was lucky to get into contact with for a little interview:

WAV: Firstly lets begin with a quick introduction; please the tell the readers a bit about your background? Also, what musical talents do you guys have?
VITO: Stephen started to dj at the age of 15 or so , I started learning music at the age of 8 or 9. I play guitars and keyboards. That’s all we have

WAV: How and when did Aeroplane form?
VITO: I owned a record shop something like 6 years ago. Stephen use to come and buy records. He wanted to produce music and at that time, I started buying some gear and producing. We talked and felt like we could do something together. We went trough different projects and Aeroplane is the one.

WAV: Does the name ‘Aeroplane’ have a hidden meaning behind it? Any significance?
VITO: Not really, it was the name of a track, and we thought that it was good sounding for a band name, and it was also fitting with the music we do. No legend behind it…

WAV: What artists have made a special impact on the way you view music?
VITO: We are really impressed by pop artists who can make good pop music in an original way. We are also big fans of the psychedelic years, from the 60’s and the 70’s. Also really influenced by the 80’s italo disco synths and drum machines, all this mixed together…
To name a few and without being really original let’s say Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Lucio Battisti, Moroder, Vangelis, Elton John, The Beach Boys…

WAV: Favourite all time album and artist?
VITO: I will say Pet Sounds, from The Beach Boys, that’s the only one that I’m sure Stephen will agree with me

WAV: Lindstrom and Prins Thomas are two producers I really admire that create the space/italo disco sound. Obviously those two and of course others are a huge inspiration, as illustrated in your music. Do you see yourself working with either Lindstrom or Prins Thomas on a project in the future? (not including the the remix of the Lindstrom & Solale track)
VITO: We have a lot of respect for them, they helped us a lot by playing our first 12″ in their DJ Sets… Working with them ? Why not ? Even if our sound is now different… Less disco…

WAV: There seems to be a great hype emerging for the space disco/italo disco sound. Has this genre of music always been your first love?
VITO: Not really, it’s a part of what we like, we will now explore other things, but to make people dance, for our dj sets, disco is the word…

WAV: Could you please go into detail about the song writing process and what techniques are used in the studio.
VITO: I’m afraid that there’s nothing relevant to say… We just have an idea, can be a beat, or something else. And then we start working on chords and melodies, the most important part for us. Technique is not the big part of our work, we produce with what we have, even if now we are really deep into analog!! And we hope that are sound will be more “True”…

WAV: Do you and Stephen play different roles when it comes to production or do you both work together on every aspect of a track?
VITO: We have our particularities; Stephen is about structure, programming sounds, and the final mix, effects and all that stuff. I’m more about arrangements, chords progression and playing instruments.

WAV: You both have done a wide range of remixes for artists like Das Pop, Coyote, Lullabies in the Dark (Vito’s side-project), Cobra Dukes, etc. etc. Tell me the thought process involved when making a remix. Do you have a clear direction from the start?
VITO: When there’s a vocal we only keep it first, and we rebuild the whole arrangement. Then we see if we can use some sounds from the original, if not, we only keep the vocal. But the idea comes quick, if not, we don’t do the remix.

WAV: The Cut Copy “Hearts on Fire” remix is magical. Were you surprised when you were approached to do a remix for them?
VITO: Yes ! It was very cool ! And we had a lot of fun doing it !

WAV: Will the remix of MGMT’s “Electric Feel” get a proper release?
VITO: No it will not be released, and to tell the truth, I don’t know where all these people found it… That’s the blogs problem

WAV: You both are residential DJ’s at Ghent club “Make Up”. Have you always had a passion for DJing? How did it all come about?
VITO: Stephen is THE deejay. I came seriously to deejaying when we start to produce and people asked us to deejay. I’ve done it before but for fun. Stephen really knows how to make anybody dance.

WAV: A debut album is expected to be released on Eskimo at the end of 2008. Very exciting news indeed! What can we expect to hear on it?
VITO: It will be for 2009, we are hard working on it. You can expect something different from our 12″… but not really different, it’s still Aeroplane, but … I don’t know how to explain that That’s the music we really want to do.

WAV: Not many people would know about your other alias – Javelo and also The Spankers. Can you give a quick run-down of what these two other musical projects are about?
VITO: Oh my god… The Spanker’s is our very first project, we did two remixes and that’s it, no original track were released even if we played a bit live. It was rock’n'roll.
Javelo is when we start working seriously, but we were not experienced enough, and the sound is not as big as it should… But you can hear the beginning of Aeroplane coming behind the early Javelo tracks.

WAV: It’s only one week away till the tour begins and also until you two start performing for us in Australia. How are you feeling about the tour?
VITO: I will not be in Australia, Stephen is in the plane as I’m answering this interview, but I know he is very happy to do this ! If you see him in a club in Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney, just ask him !

WAV: Any closing words you would like to tell the readers?
VITO: Keep flying high !

MP3: Aeroplane – Aeroplane Dub

MP3: Aeroplane – Pacific Air Race (Dubclub Mix)

MP3: Allez Allez – Allez Allez (Aeroplane Remix)

MP3: Cut Copy – Hearts on Fire (Aeroplane POP Mix)

MP3: MGMT – Electric Feel (Aeroplane Remix)

The tour dates for where Stephen will be cruising and playing in Australia are as follows:

Aug 15: Future Classic Label Night, Bar Soma, Brisbane
Aug 16: Future Classic Label Night, Sydney
Aug 22: Aeroplane, La Di Da, Melbourne
Aug 23: Aeroplane, Sugar, Adelaide

Their songs and remixes are not the only amazing things they produce. For a while now there have been many top-notch mixtapes flying around, quite recently a summer promo mixtape and also a RA mixtape. My hat goes off to twentyfourhours, a brilliant blog that has posted many Aeroplane mixtapes in the past so please check that blog out.

Lastly, buy their records/releases/etc. (here for vinyl); that’s my final request.