INSIDE THE SECRET WORLD OF LUCA BACCHETTI

Luca Bacchetti has soaked up a wild aural palette as a globe-trotting DJ. Still, returning to a bungalow in rural Tuscany allowed him to shape his debut album, Secret World.

"Even when I'm producing in the studio, I feel like a DJ. I love to arrange and mix my musicians and their performances like tracks," says Luca Bacchetti, enthusiastic about his conductor-like approach to making his debut album, Secret World.

"For me, the biggest buzz comes from the encounters between musical worlds that initially seem far apart."

Sonic disparities seem central to Luca's approach, gently ebbing and flowing at the heart of his new record. After over a decade of DJ'ing worldwide, from DC10 to Tokyo's Womb, the infamous Burning Man festival, and beyond, his name is associated with killer club cuts for labels including Crosstown Rebels and Defected. Yet, the Italian opted to take creative refuge in the tranquil beauty of his Tuscan homeland to create the 13 tracks on Secret World, his boldest artistic statement.

Originally conceived as an ambient piece, the scale of Secret World became broader as it was pulled together over several weeks in a bungalow at the Il Ciocco resort. Luca gathered friends, musicians, and fellow travelers to record using a mobile studio in the heart of this rural idyll.

One of the most exciting aspects of the project was placing the musicians in an unusual recording environment, disconnected from the frenzy of everyday life," he explains.

"I felt very strongly that the recordings should occur in a bungalow in a forest. I was convinced it would condition the mood for everyone working on the record."

Luca stitched together recordings of the performances after dark, overdubbing during solitary sessions, using recordings from the woods and snippets of sounds he'd captured while traveling as a DJ. Secret World may have seen him physically return to his roots to work. Still, with the help of live musicians, it also led his music into bold new pastures, some way beyond the global dancefloors where he's made his name.

“Even though you'll find club references across the album, the musical language used differs. I wanted to try and reconnect with our natural surroundings, and the most challenging objective was translating this into music."

Luca began his musical journey as a young DJ and beat-lover in the early nineties. Tuscany is an area of jaw-dropping natural beauty. Still, no record shops or clubs were to satisfy his musical obsessions in Pieve Fosciana, the tiny village he called home. So instead, Luca turned to the radio to get his fix, setting his love for hip hop alight, then embracing the alien house and techno pulses emanating from the cities of Detroit and Chicago.

"Radio saved my life. There was no internet. But radio helped me learn about hip-hop. Then I landed a job at a radio station, started working on shows, and found my way to drum 'n' bass, electronica, and techno," he reveals.

"I grew up listening to everything: electronica, blues, jazz, soul, funk. I am a huge music lover," he says.

Secret World demonstrates the depth and complexity of his taste. While the track ”Black Swan” swirls in a riot of psychedelic guitars, other album tracks dispense different moods, from the reflective state of “After the Silence” to “Fervor De Buenos Aires”, a rhythmically complex moment capturing South America's distinctive musical flavors. Luca is excited by the new sonic territories he's entered.

"I knew I wanted to go in different directions to what I'm known for and say something more than I've ever done before," he states.

"Because of my job as a DJ, I'm very much a traveler. So I wanted to squeeze all the emotion of the places I've seen and visited into the tracks of this album."

BACK TO HIS ROOTS

At the start of 2018, Luca decamped to the Tuscan bungalow to start work on Secret World. Joined by a collection of Italian accomplices, including Stefano Onorati (keyboards), Andrea Guzzoletti (trumpet), and Leo Di Angilla (percussion), he aimed to reconnect with the natural environment around them, then let this influence and inspire the recordings.

"I have lived all around the world, from Barcelona to the US, but Tuscany is where I first started dreaming of music," he explains his decision to return to make the record.

Growing up in a musically remote region made the younger Luca want to leave his hometown. Still, now, in his forties, perspectives have changed.

"When you return to your roots, a place you didn't like when you were younger, you might realize that it's full of treasures, which happened to me. This record was an opportunity to rediscover them, then show them off," Luca explains.

Luca initially started recording over two three-day sessions in the bungalow to capture the various components that made up the sounds of a 'Secret World'. Then, he left for an Asian tour before returning to record once again in the wilderness after his galavanting was completed. Other musical strands and aural knick-knacks complemented the performances captured in the woods he collected on his travels.

"It was a straightforward setup in the studio, and thankfully, the natural acoustics of the bungalow studio at II Ciocco helped us enormously and didn't require too much adjustment," he reveals.

"We recorded everything through a UAD Apollo Twin audio interface with a pair of Adam A5X monitors. The DAW was Ableton Live 9, and we hooked up some additional gear, including a Moog Sub 37, Arturia Minibrute, and a modular system. This comprised Intellijel, Make Noise, Mutable Instruments, Expert Sleepers and Doepfer modules. It was the most essential part of the setup we used during the recordings.”

Luca lists many musical gear that helped him construct the album. During the sessions, he was open to experimenting to let the songs, like the landscape around them, flow as naturally as possible. How did he make the creative process work with his collaborators while making the record?

"I always started songs with my foundations, the groove, and the bass, then I moved onto the recording of several overdubs. When working with musicians, I bring them ideas, often singing them to help them understand the melodies and where I want to go with the music. I use this process until I have all the elements to build a song. Then the arrangement comes later when I work alone at night."

The record's range of styles sprang from a series of recording sessions with the percussive talents of Leo Di Angilla, who helped place the sonics outside the club. His playing reverberates through Secret World, helping create many of the album's best musical scenes. "We recorded his percussion playing in the nearby Ciocco Studios, assisted by producer Gianni Nuzzi. I wanted to do something that would work in different environments. You can play certain tracks in a DJ set, but I needed the music to act as a soundtrack for a greater range of moments, too."

Percussionist Leo is mainly present in choice moments such as “La Ruta Del Sur”, “After The Silence” and “The Bridge”. Other innovative textures included the string sections created by Omisphere 2 on the title track. Weaving these various aspects together helped Luca develop many song structures and arrangements.

"I finished Secret World working in the studio in the box," he says. "This time with Ableton 10 and mainly using Waves and UAD plugins. My faithful Genelec 8030A were the monitors during this phase. Rather than be led by my technology, I aimed to serve the songs as best as possible."

Although Luca has used the more recent 8050s, he's a massive fan of the older studio monitor model.

"I've used the 8050s, but there's always a risk of increasingly turning the volume up, louder and louder. It's a vice of mine, whereas the 8030A is perfect in my studio setting. They have great definition in the low frequencies and always manage to tell me the truth when I'm in the mixing phase."

MUSICAL AMBITIONS FROM A SECRET WORLD

Although many creative ideas for the songs on Secret World had been orbiting Luca for some years, it took his approach as a DJ. Then, it transposed them onto the studio, where they sparked into life. Luca believes this allowed him to break with musical conventions and gave him freedoms never enjoyed by traditionally trained players.

"DJs are allowed to break the rules in the studio and go against the grain. For musicians, playing music or releasing songs that they see as full of mistakes or errors is blasphemy. But as long as the grooves and melodies work, I like the imperfections to be there."

So, how does he communicate his ideas to professional players as a confessed non-musician? Luca uses visual images to show off the directions of his musical thoughts and dreams.

"Images are so important to me. My track “Black Swan” was born at the Burning Man Festival in the US. It's a special, unique festival where I absorbed so much music. So, in the studio, I wanted to create a song to capture this mood and feel the desert's humidity and dust. Music should express this sense of danger and tension. And I tried to get my performers involved in thinking about their music like this."

Essential production advice

Luca's exciting move from behind the decks and into the studio. It should help paint a bigger picture of him, not only as an artist but also as a character. Secret World is a profoundly personal album, demonstrating a more excellent, more sophisticated musicality only hinted at before. Luca believes any other DJs looking to take the plunge and start crafting their beats and grooves must wrestle with their aims to realize their ambitions.

"You need to understand the motivation, why you want to be a producer. If you want to be an artist, this is more than just performing at festivals or making money," he states.

But with technology now being so agile and more readily accessible than ever, Luca states it is easier for DJs to make this transition.

"It's important to try and surround yourself with only what you need for a project: the real studio is inside your head."

"With a laptop, you have a musical bomb in your hands. Thanks to powerful computers, plugins, and drum machines, it's so easy to access amazing sounds now. And there are plenty of great producers to look to. Someone like Four Tet is making incredible music but with a super easy, simple setup. It's inspiring."

However, the Italian is concerned that having a world of sonic tools at your fingertips has drawbacks. "It's amazing what you can access," he says, "but you must impose limitations to get the best out of your music. You're all set if you have a drum machine and something to create beats."

Has he any advice for DJs looking to make a similar creative leap and express themselves as artists outside the club?

We used many machines with this project and spent some time mic-ing up our live instrumentation. You need to think carefully about marrying the two when working on this kind of music where these two separate sounds come together. At the same time, it's essential to try and surround yourself with only what you need for a project: the actual studio is inside your head.

So, with the album now out on the broader World and picking up critical praise, Luca is keeping himself busy working on promotion for the record and daring to dream about a potential live show, something he wants to be more of an event than a traditional gig.

"I want to explore the options of a live show involving different installations and visual artists. With this kind of album, it makes sense to go further with the experience and root it in the environment where it was created. I want to do it so people are bowled over, sit up, and take notice."

Luca also reveals that he was advised not to make the record, to instead concentrate on DJ'ing, but the album was something he needed to let out. It's partly what makes the record so honest, personal, and born out of the landscape that shaped him.

"You have to take a risk – which I did with this album – but the setting was crucial.

This is why I prefer intimate and isolated places; everything becomes clear… even when there are voices around you, nature communicates; that's why I love my homeland and live in Tuscany. But although I'm proud of the results, I'm now thinking about the next steps. I want to do more, learn more, and say even more."

Original interview Credit: https://musictech.com/features/luca-bacchetti-secret-world/

Visit lucabacchetti.com to find out more.