«Giorgio Moroder: from Disco to Daft Punk and Beyond»

Daniel Siwek
«Giorgio Moroder: from Disco to Daft Punk and Beyond»
Music Connection Magazine

«HIS SIGNATURE, that famously sequenced synthesizer over a four-on-the-floor beat (on Donna Summer’s smash single “I Feel Love,” the album From Here To Eternity and “The Chase” theme from the Oscar-winning Midnight Express soundtrack), is fundamental to electronic dance music the way a James Brown sample is to hip-hop. But wait—this Italian-born producer is a go-to sample source in hip-hop as well. In rock and pop, his collaborations with Blondie, Bowie and Cher and soundtracks for Flashdance, Scarface and Top Gun (for starters) helped define the sound of the ‘80s. But aside from a Grammy-winning reunion with Summer in the ‘90s, Moroder has until recently been in semi-retirement, leaving it to Daft Punk to pick up the mantle, which they did; and with their collaboration/tribute to the master (the Grammy-winning Random Access Memories) they introduced him to a new generation the way Tarantino did Travolta. Now, 30 years after his last album as an artist, the 75-year-old Moroder is DJing large festivals and has dusted off his other voice, the vocoder, for a new star-studded release that at once sounds completely vintage, yet with toplines that wouldn’t be out of place in a Martin Garrix set at Tomorrowland. Moroder is either a shining example of “what’s old is new”—or it truly is déjà vu.

»MC: On the new album, debuting at number 1 this week, you celebrate the past, but your collaborations are all very much in the now. Tell us who’s on the new Déjà vu record with you.

»Giorgio Moroder: I was really surprised. First of all, the idea was to get some good names: some big names, then have some new guys––some new acts which are not that known. Obviously I have Britney Spears, who is huge, and I have Kylie Minogue, who is a big star. I have Charli XCX, who was on that big hit last summer, “Fancy.” But then I started to work with Sia, who is a great composer, lyricist and singer, but she was not yet the great composer that she became with “Chandelier.” Then I worked with the relatively unknown, like Foxes, Mikky Ekko, Matthew Koma and the Swedish singer, Marlene. And I have a great singer, Kelis, who has had some hits, but didn’t break big yet. So I think it’s a great combination of stars but then you can discover new talents.

»MC: You have a history, especially with your hit soundtracks, to pair the right singer with the right track; did you approach these new collaborations like you did when casting those soundtracks?

»Moroder: Today it’s a little different than for a movie: obviously you cannot have a movie with an act that doesn’t fit; like with American Gigolo, Blondie fit it so well; Flashdance, Irene [Cara] fit it so well. Now I don’t have to worry if it fits a movie, but it has to fit my style. I pick the voices, which fit my personality, which is mostly dance music; but I like to work with someone like a Mikky Ekko who had that wonderful ballad with Rihanna [“Stay”]. So I think picking the artists now is a little different, but not totally, from picking a singer for a movie.

»MC: Do you think it’s fair to say that Daft Punk and their tribute to you on their Grammy winning Random Access Memories introduced you to a new generation of fans?

»Moroder: Absolutely, although I must say Daft Punk, generally speaking, don’t appeal to the very young. I mean, I don’t think a 15- to 18-year-old guy bought Daft Punk. But it certainly opened my world to the younger people. And you know, Sia’s listenership is huge, and Charli XCX is really up to KISS-FM radio level. So I think Daft Punk obviously got me back in the business, first of all, and second, like you said, opened up a whole new set of listeners and, hopefully, buyers.

»MC: Working with chartbusters, is it almost silly to ask if Giorgio Moroder, former chartbuster and the godfather of electronic dance music, is determined to have a hit record in 2015?

»Moroder: Oh, absolutely! I wouldn’t do anything right now, especially at my age, that would only be played on the oldies station. I did that stuff 30 years ago; now I want to do what people love to hear now, absolutely. But, even though I’m very happy with this record, if I do a next one I think it will probably be even more adventurous. I don’t know how long EDM is going to survive in the next years, but [my music would] maybe be a little more cutting edge, so that not only would I get people interested in what I do now but in some of the songs I would hopefully create some new sounds.

»MC: Back in the day, you were making current pop music while you were inventing the electronic disco that was the foundation of many subgenres of electronic dance music that followed. So you influenced two audiences––the pop audience and the electronic dance music audience. But how do you feel about these crowds merging now that EDM has become the new pop?

»Moroder: Yeah, you are right. Basically EDM could not survive if you only had people who liked electronic music or people who like pop; it’s a great combination. The other interesting thing is, when I DJ, I now can do what I could probably not do 10 years ago, because not everybody remembered my songs.

»But now, due to the Internet, the young kids––and I mean 18-20 year-olds––they know my songs, and I’m completely surprised. And in that regard, my audience is from young to the 40s and some over 50 who grew up with my music. So it’s very interesting, this large amount of different ages in my audience.

»MC: Younger fans looking for your old music, that kind of makes you a legacy artist. There have been a few reissues, but much of your solo work has yet to be reissued domestically. Are you interested in getting people to buy your back catalog?

»Moroder: It’s great that they come out with the old catalog and revive a little bit of the interest in it, but I’m much more interested in seeing what’s happening now. You know, the old stuff is great, and some bad, and it’s nice to have, but you know we live in 2015.

»MC: Your ‘70s “I Feel Love” sound was so monumental and influential, but what do you make of your ‘80s soundtracks inspiring the new artists of synth wave and retro wave like Kavinsky on the Drive soundtrack, for example?

»Moroder: It’s quite interesting. You mention Kavinsky, or actually Cliff Martinez, who did the music for Drive: when I first heard it I said, “Wow! Is this a sample of one of my sounds from a movie?” So I was surprised at how well it worked. I must say, the style is pretty much the same but the sounds are really good. The sounds today, especially the ones Cliff and Trent [Reznor] use, are sounds that I would not have been able to create at the time. But it’s interesting that Trent won the Oscar for The Social Network using the kind of style that I used in my early soundtracks.

»MC: Déjà vu is a bit like what you did with Donna Summer on I Remember Yesterday, where you paid tribute to the past, present and future (“I Feel Love”); is that what you were going for again?

»Moroder: I was thinking I should have great rhythm––not really EDM. But then there would have to be a reminder that there was a disco time, especially in the song with Sia, where I added the guitars, the strings and the Fender Rhodes. I didn’t want to go completely, “the disco days.” I wish I would have an idea––not necessarily a sound because there are plenty of new sounds––but a new style of recording.

»You know, I’m going to promote this album for several months, and then I’m going to start thinking what the next sound or style will be. I have to work, you know, try things out, basically do what Skrillex and others did so well with the dubstep. But I have to come up with something, which is today, and hopefully somewhat of a future sound.

»MC: Can we geek out for a minute and talk about the groundbreaking E=MC2 album, which was the first electronic live-to-digital release?

»Moroder: Let’s say it was direct-to-digital in the sense that I think all instrumental stuff was direct, but the voices were not because I overdubbed my voice. First of all, I’d heard of that digital two-track machine from Dr. Stockham of Soundstream in Salt Lake City. I always wanted to be at the front of what was happening in technology, so I thought that it would be great to record the whole thing live-to-digital. It was an enormous job. I had several people playing live, I had some computers playing basslines and stuff, I had Fender Rhodes players fully automated and preprogrammed—unfortunately what happened is that I was so concentrated on the technology that I kind of forgot a little bit of the music side of it.

»But it was great, it worked quite well and wasn’t that where I sang the credits through the vocoder? Somebody reminded me a few months ago and I listened again, and it’s really funny. “Tea and coffee by Laurie Howard.”

»MC: C.K. Lendt’s book KISS and Sell mentions that you were in talks with the band to possibly produce their 1979 album, Dynasty, and when I interviewed Gene Simmons for Music Connection in 2002, he claimed you borrowed the melody from that album’s single “I Was Made For Loving You” when you did “Call Me” with Blondie. What do you make of Gene’s recollection?

»Moroder: You know what? I don’t remember at all. I know that KISS was at Casablanca and I was at Casablanca, but no. I probably heard it [“I Was Made For Loving You”], and it has some similarities, but there are always similarities. I don’t really believe [the story about me producing KISS], because KISS were so pissed at us––at me and Donna—because they were the rock gods and we were those stupid, well, not stupid, but we were “those disco guys.” I never heard that they asked me to produce a song or an album, and I don’t remember ever talking to them.

»MC: After watching Dave Grohl’s Sonic Highways documentary series, I’m sure people would want to know more about your Musicland Studio in Munich, where you recorded “Love To Love You Baby” hits. And also, what about Larrabee Studios in Los Angeles?

»Moroder: Musicland was my studio in Munich, and we had The Rolling Stones recording there, we had the last album for Led Zeppelin, but then when I moved to the States I was becoming less and less interested in it so I sold it to Mack, my engineer, who took care of it. And he did a lot of recordings with Queen and with Freddie Mercury, but then he moved to the States, too. So unfortunately that studio doesn’t exist anymore.

»Larrabee was the studio that I had in North Hollywood on Lankershim [where Moroder worked with Sparks on their No. 1 in Heaven album], but I also remember working in the Larrabee studio on Larrabee St. in West Hollywood.

»MC: One last question... It’s been 30 years since your last record; how do you feel now that Déjà vu is finally being released to the world?

»Moroder: All I can say is that I’m very happy with the results. For now, I have great reviews––not too many people have listened to the whole album, but I’m really surprised how good the reviews are––and if I look at iTunes, the preorders are great and the preorders have five stars, for which I’m also very happy.

»MC: Great to talk with you again, Giorgio.

»Moroder: Okay...so I guess I’ll talk to you in about 10 years? [Music Connection’s Daniel Siwek last spoke with Moroder for the magazine’s first issue of 2001.]

»For more information, visit facebook.com/giorgiomoroderofficial.»