053 – Roberto Rodriguez

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robertorodriguez.fi | soundcloud | serenades.fi

Melbourne Deepcast: 053 Roberto Rodriguez by Melbourne Deepcast

Next up on the Deepcast is an artist who’s been instrumental in shaping the Scandinavian house and techno landscape since the 90′s, whilst rising to fame through labels like Compost and Delusions Of Grandeur. Roberto Rodriguez is a name synonymous with deep house, and along with his huge body of work under solo aliases such as Manolo (Delusions Of Grandeur/ Dikso) and collaborations such as Future Beat Investigators (Sonar Kollektiv), a long and successful career on the road has become home to the Finnish producer who doesn’t appear to be slowing down.

Roberto is due to make his first appearance down under next year, and he’s mixed up episode 053 in true style to give us a taste of what to expect. Catching him on route to his weekend gig in Hamburg, here’s what he had to say..

You’re somewhat of a veteran of the deeper house and techno scene and have released on labels like Compost, Plastic City, Freerange and Delusions Of Grandeur plus a host of others since starting out in the 90′s. Is the fire still burning now as much as ever all these years later?

Sure thing. Its still there after all these years. I think its now even bigger than when i started making music way back in 1987. I think its mostly because things have always been moving forward and evolving. Both, my own career and the music we love. I´ll never get tired of seeing smiling, happy people having a good time. Thats what its all about.

Tell us about your Manolo alias, which was responsible for a very well received EP on Dikso this year, following up from your Manolo release on Delusions in 09. How would you describe Manolo and what’s next for him?

I originally made up the Manolo moniker for releasing music that didn’t perhaps fit so well under the Roberto Rodriguez name. For more of the disco and slower stuff. But during the past few years the musical output on both of these names blurred. So lately i’ve used Manolo as a moniker for edits and booty remixes. But yeah – mostly for stuff that doesn´t fit so well under Roberto Rodriguez. We will see some more Manolo stuff coming out somewhere in the future for sure.

The Dikso release is doing quite good.  After people saw the video of me playing it during in my Flow Festival live gig, the hype in the web started and now its out and is running and running …

What other projects have you been working on lately? Will we be seeing any new Future Beat Investigators tunes dropping anytime soon?

For the past year a big project for me was of course launching the Serenades label and getting it to a good start. The label is now in its fourth release as we move on to 2012, with some really nice releases lined up. Also during the past year and a half I’ve been preparing my first ever solo artist album as Roberto Rodriguez. That has taken most of my time this year and i´m happy to say its now finally finished.

After its release next march, i´m pretty sure we will head back to the studio with the FBI (Future Beat Investigators) guys. Its actually amazing that we originally did all the FBI stuff in a very few sessions many years ago. So a new weekend session with the guys could possibly give us 3-4 new releases!

Also in the post album plans is to wake up our Track n Field project after its 5 year hibernation. The previous album took 6 years to make. Hopefully this time it will happen much faster.

Word is that you’re set to tour Australia in the new year, have you been out this way before?

No i have never been there. Always wanted to go, so i´m pretty happy about coming!

Can you tell us a bit about the mix?

Its a two deck, one mixer & one man mix with some of my favourite party tunes of the moment. The mix starts off with one of my favourite deep house releases of the year – Trevor Deep Jr.´s Do Right! on the new HPTY from Helsinki. Moving all the way to Norway with the brilliant feel good Todd Terje remix of Bryan Ferry´s Alphaville.

What else do you have coming up that we should be keeping our ears out for?

Haven´t done so many remixes this year due to my album duties, but there has been a few which are now coming out. Next one seeing the light of day is a remix i did for Scope. Its the first single of Scope´s forthcoming album on Large. Its a lovely song called Seven Reasons.

Another one that is coming out soon is a mix i did for Jacques Renault´s & Marcos Cabral´s On The Prowl. Its a new release from Epithet and the track is called Blue Note.

Oh and i also did a remix for the next Serenades release which is a lovely synth pop song from Juho Kahilainen & .Computer.

Tracklist:

Trevor Deep Jr. – DoRight! [HPTY]
Manuel Regnet – Joy (James Johnston Remix) [Assembly Records]
Lovebirds – Keep Coming (Axel Boman Mix 2) [Freerange]
Actual Proof – Huff & Puff [Local Talk]
Alexkid – Class Of 95 [Freerange]
Mercury – You Lift Me Up [Gomma]
Tornado Wallace – Underground Sugar Caves [Delusions Of Grandeur]
Moullinex & Xinobi – X Marks The Spot [Discotexas]
Factory Floor – Two Different Ways (Second Way) [DFA]
Prommer & Barck – Journey (Kink Remix) [Derwin]
Bryan Ferry – Alphaville (Todd Terje Remix) [Virgin]