Interview: TEKI LATEX (Sound Pellegrino)

Saturday, March 19th. Mark your calendars. Day 2 of the I Love Neon + Highfood Festival, starring Jesse Rose, and SOUND PELLEGRINO THERMAL TEAM (Teki Latex + Orgasmic).

Duke of Swabia is super excited and looking forward to that night! We had a few questions for Teki Latex before he takes over the S.A.T alongside his partner DJ Orgasmic.
Check out the exclusive Duke of Swabia interview below.

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Bio: (source: Resident Advisor)

It doesn't take an expert in musical genres and movements to find out that since the last few months, a new musical family has built itself on the ruins of loud big-beat-like fidget and overly distorted washing machine electro. Inspired by the "less is more" ethics of minimal techno as much as the DIY/sample-anything-as-long-as-it's-got-attitude" philosophy of hip-hop, this new un-named form of groovy and refreshing house music is rising and Institubes' new "little brother label" Sound Pellegrino is proud to be on the forefront of such an exciting phenomenon.

Curated by renowned DJs and taste makers Orgasmic and Teki Latex, (from pioneer electronic hip hop outfit TTC - Teki also happens to be one of the founders of Institubes), Sound Pellegrino has quickly established itself as one of the labels to look out for in 2009, releasing singles by Renaissance man, Zombie Disco Squad, Harvard Bass, Momma's Boy and Douster and generating interest by A-List DJs from all ends of the dance music spectrum such as Laidback luke, Mowgli, A-Trak, Bart B more, Sinden, Pete tong, Riva starr, Chloé to name a few.

Today Orgasmic and Teki latex, the two public faces of the label, unite to form the Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team and they are ready to take that movement to a club near you. Even though their teaming up behind the turntables is rather recent, these two have known each other for 15 years and have released countless collaborations. Going through various musical phases, they have always kept a will to explore forward-thinking dance music that will make the crowd go crazy without sounding stale and outdated. Mixing ingredients ranging from tribal rhythms, pumping tech house and mini baltimore to warped funky sounds with a slice of club rap thrown in for good mesure, the Thermal Team's mineral cocktail promises to bring something refreshing and bubbly to the table. With already 3 mixes acclaimed by the blogosphere under their belt, as well as remixes and original productions as the SP Thermal Team in the works, this new combination of already well established forces is ready to take the house music world by storm.

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Interview: (by Alexander Leblanc)

Duke: When/How did you first get into production/DJ and what still motivates you to do it today?

Teki: My "production" skills are limited to sitting in the studio with Orgasmic, Para one, or anyone of my collaborators, and telling him i want my drums to sound more this way or that way, and i want the melody to go "da da da di" instead of "da da da da"... i'm not really touching the hardware and i don't know how to use abelton or anything. I just know what i want and i learned that by hanging with talented producers for hours and hours in studios since my TTC days.
When it comes to deejaying i was always fiddling around with the turntables before and after ttc shows or during the parties we used to throw, but i bought a pair of CDJs 3 and a half years ago so i guess that's when i started taking the art of DJing very seriously.

Basically it was around the time when my solo album dropped. It was very different from what i was doing with my rap group TTC, it was a pop album made by a guy who wished he was a pop singer, but who really kind of wasn't? Anyway I wasn't really comfortable with the idea of going on tour and giving people a live version of my album, because it meant forming a new band with actual instruments and rehearsing with that band, starting from scratch, doing all the shitty venues we had already played with TTC (a nightmare i didn't want to go through again), being the only vocalist on stage and all sorts of things i wasn't ready to do. So i never got around to putting together this version of my solo live show, yet people still wanted to see me perform and promote my album in a "live" context. So i started doing DJ sets instead, and people loved it and kept asking for it.

Obviously i sucked at first but it soon became a real passion and something i would take really seriously. I didn't want to be that singer/rapper/entertainer guy who was pretending to be a DJ and who would just play random songs without beat-matching or anything. I've been hanging out with DJs all my life and i always was a real lover of dance music, so that kind of set a standard for me.


Duke: Who were your early musical influences?

Teki: My early early influences were things i saw on TV as a child, 80's synth pop, cheesy french and italo disco, tv show themes, Michael Jackson, Talk Talk, Teenage mutant ninja turtles, Technotronic, whatever. Then came Hip hop and later on, house music, even though it was always kind of present in the background... more or less consciously.


Duke: How did you meet your partner in crime DJ Orgasmic?

Teki: We met on a ski slope in Switzerland when we were 15. I was wearing a public enemy tee shirt so we started talking about rap and we became BFFs


Duke: You two have been working on multiple projects and touring the world together for some time now. Ever get sick of each other? What's your secret for such a long-lasting partnership?

Teki: I know him by heart and i know when he is in the kind of mood when i just need to let him be. When he starts mimicking an imaginary shotgun with his hands and shooting at people in hotel elevators i know he's in that kind of mood. The amazing thing with orgasmic is that we agree on music and culture and general aesthetics/taste, i'd say 99% of the time. And when we're on the turntables together we barely need to talk or agree on what track to drop next, we think as one.

Duke: How are DJ Orgasmic and you similar, and different?

Teki: We're similar in the sense that we have similar tastes and we are both obsessed about the idea of "cool" (in the Fonzie sense of the term) and having/knowing things before anyone else. We love talking about music for hours, and coming up with weird theories. We are both huge fans of fine cuisine too.

Orgasmic is very extreme and radical in his choices, either he loves something or he hates it, even if it means he will change his opinion about a track or an artwork several times in a very limited time. I'm more the guy who constantly tries to weight the pros and the cons. Also he's the shy cerebral guy and i'm the loud one who likes talking. -


Duke: What is the perfect setting for your music to come to life? In other words, what’s your ideal spot for producing?

Teki: Other people's studios. I have to say especially Para One's cause it looks like the starship enterprise and it's set up in a way that makes it really easy for us to produce and give life to an idea right away as it goes through our brains. All his instruments, drum machines, synths, you name it, are connected in a way that makes it look like a big fun game of musical Lego.


Duke: Which upcoming artist would you say is an inspiration nowadays in electronic music? Who do you think we should keep an eye on?

Teki: I really think the UK scene has made a massive impact on 2K10 with labels like Night Slugs, Hessle Audio, Ramp taking over the underground. This year it might be France's turn with Canblaster, whose "Master of complication" EP is absolutely immense, + his Club Cheval crew, the Youngunz kids. L-Vis 1990's album is going to be really great and full of unexpected sounds and influences i think. And Para One has a huge year ahead of him with an insane amount of collaborations, remixes and EPs dropping, and production on several exciting albums coming up. Keep an eye on newcomers Jim E Stacks, Grown Folk, Myrryrs, Bambounou, Two Inch Punch, and the PTN records roster.

On the rap front, i think Odd Future are potentially the new Nirvana of rap.

Duke: How do you like the sounds coming out of Montreal these days? (I'm thinking of Jacques Greene, for example, who has a remix of Savage Skulls' 'Caravan' out on your label- Sound Pellegrino.)

Teki: Jacques Greene is really great, he has a groove of his own. Which makes his tracks sometimes a little bit hard to mix... but it makes them more interesting and funky so it's all good. It's crazy that he's developed such a unique style at a very young age. I think the new exciting thing in house music right now is the UK hybrid garage stuff going back to its house roots and merging with the deepest of the deep house scene and Jacques Greene totally embodies that.
It's funny because i recently found out he was working at the Ninja Tune office in Montreal back when we released those TTC albums on Big Dada/Ninja Tune a few years ago.

I also have an eye on Montrealers Markus from LOL boys and Sinjin Hawke. I love Lunice too, he made instrumental hip hop sound exciting again, and not just a modern version of trip hop or beats that didn't have enough charisma to sound interesting without a rapper on them, like a lot of electronic producers trying to "get down" with rap often do.

On another note I wish Hatchmatik made more beats, i dig the raw edits he used to make.


Duke: Do you have any advice for young producers?

Teki: Don't copy too much and make 10 songs for yourself that no one will ever hear before you start putting stuff up on Soundcloud or sending stuff to blogs. Take DJing seriously! It's a great discipline and it will teach you how to make tracks other people will want to play, and dance to, if that's your goal (and it should be! Clubs are fun and dancing is not a dirty thing). Also, "putting up a track on soundcloud" and having 40 comments from your friends doesn't mean becoming official in the world of music, and having a couple of djs play your song doesnt mean you're an important artist who will last forever. Pay your dues!


Duke: What is your favorite city or country to play in?

Teki: London has been great recently! Sydney is amazing too. But nothing beats playing a small club in Tokyo, hanging out with amazing people and eating insane japanese food. I like playing wherever the food is good.


Duke: What are the top 3 most-played tracks/artists on your iPod at the moment?

Teki:
Panteros666 - Kegstand
Ellen Allien - Down (Fuckaloop - aka Tacteel and Para One- remix from 2004)
Marcus Price & Carli - Var e Nääääken


Duke: Describe yourself in one word.

Teki: Everything


Duke: Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga?

Teki: Biebs! he's not that bad and at least he comes from an R&B background that i can relate to musically, as opposed to a rock/guitar backround that i really don't care for. Gaga tries too hard and i can't help but see the tatooed ex-emo/metal groupie in her whenever she opens her mouth, and again that's not my culture.


Duke: What's the scene like in France today? How has it changed over the past few years?

Teki: It's changing all the time! Half of the people are still into the hard distorted french touch 2.0 vibe from 2007, half have moved on and want to hear something a bit more challenging or sexy. With crews like Club Cheval, Youngunz and Marble i think we're on the right path.

Duke: You've been to Montreal before. How do you like playing here and how does it compare to other cities?

Teki: I love it there! Some of my best memories of clubbing were the parties from the Peer Pressure / Sharp A l'os era, especially summer 2007 which is remembered by many as "Summer of Danse la Poutine". Between 2004 and 2008 we would go to montreal to play a TTC show, and various members of our crew would play DJ sets here and there at clubs and afterparties and we would do ipod battles and whatnot, at a different spot every night of the week.

Back then, there was really a bubbling party scene in montreal, the music and clothing styles were very advanced, club kids would dress up and go crazy. I think it's a bit more quiet now? (you tell me!) but i get the impression there's still lots of underground parties and people making moves on a more discreet level.


Duke: What should we expect from your set on March 19th?

Teki: A crescendo going from deep vibes to weird riddims, from the mind to the booty via the soul. Or the other way around?


Duke: How well do you know Jesse Rose? Have you already played with him?

Teki: i met him once at a Made to play party in paris. We had plenty of drinks and plenty of fun, he seems like a great dude, i'd like to take him to Romanos my fav portuguese chicken spot in Montreal. Oh and poutine too! Jesse Rose you are about to feel the wrath of the T REX Poutine from La Banquise.


Duke: What direction is Sound Pellegrino taking for 2011. What should we look forward to this year? And what's currently cooking in the Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team kitchen?

Teki: We're not taking a specific direction other than the one that was always kind of latent in our artistic vision: bridging gaps between scenes and sub-genres of the great House Music Nation. We want to take the hot Deep House ladies and put them hand in hand with the UK funky/garage nerds on the dancefloor and make them sweat and make love, all that while the super serious dark techno heads get drunk with the xtced-up ravers, and the distorted electro kids turned-tech-house chin-strokers make dances.

We just dropped the Savage Skulls EP to great success, we have a High Powered Boys EP (that's Surkin & Bobmo of Institubes fame) ready to be released, with remixes by Tom Trago and Julio Bashmore. Then comes a Style of Eye EP, and the much anticipated Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team EP which we are currently working on. We have a great weekly Podcast with a new Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team mix full of exclusives every week + hilarious interviews and guest mixes every now and then, check it here: http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-sound-pellegrino-podcast/id409700483

Also we're gonna have tee shirts and goodies soon! so check out http://soundpellegrino.net/ regularly.

MERCI MONTREAL

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For details about the event with Jesse Rose + Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=150117191709846

Links:

http://www.myspace.com/soundpellegrino
http://www.mixcloud.com/soundpellegrino/
http://soundpellegrino.tumblr.com/