Studio Talk – Massimiliano Pagliara About His Debut Album

Massimiliano Pagliara grew up in Lecce. After moving to Milan he is now based in Berlin. He has released his debut EP on Daniel Wang’s Balihu imprint und further releases on Rush Hour, Meakusma and Needwant. His debut album “Focus For Infinty” is his second release on the german label Live at Robert Johnson and it is the first artist album to be released on the label. In this tech talk Pagliara talks about the production of three tracks taken from the album:

1. ” HARMONIZE”

“As is often the case, this track came out of a little jam which  I did with my beloved Roland TR-707 Rhythm Composer. This time I had it going through the Korg DVP-1, which is a great digital voice processor from 1985, and a Roland DEP-5 to achieve a certain kind of reverberation. This certainly made it sound rougher and dirtier.
Initially, it was meant to be just like a pure 707 madness track, with those shuffled hi-hats driving the whole thing, but of course I couldn’t resist also including some synths.
And so, I turned on my beloved Roland JX-8P and those sorts of “brassy-stringy” chords came up, which were then replaced by the Juno-106 in the final version.
Then suddenly I started to feel like: okay, this could be the epic track of the album, so let´s do an extended mix and get deep!
In fact, I started to have some  kind of  “Detroit – ish” and “Chicago-ish” sound – reminiscences, from Omar S to Carl Craig to Larry Heard, whose work I have always really digged and of course I still do! Well then, I had no more choice,  I HAD TO bring in some strings, some piano, some  727 congas, and finally a Prophet 5 solo and some guitars by my all-time favorite guitar player Jules Etienne.”

2. “NIGHT FLOW”

“This one is definitely the case where I almost used all my machines to do what you end up hearing. Starting from the acid line which is not coming from a 303, but from a MAM 33 MK2, a great analogue rack version of the 303 with the same 18 db Filter but without a sequencer.  In fact, I was arpeggiating it through the MicroKorg, which by the way was also used for the sentimental / emotional vocoder ending. The song is almost divided in 2 parts: in the first one, the focus was mainly on that acid line, supported by the sweepy  pads-melody, which once again comes from the Roland family and more specifically from a  JX-3P. In the second part I just let it go.  It was a very particular moment in my life, and this vocoder “liberation/confession” at the end became definitely the highlight of the song, and every time I listen to it, I still get goosebumps  (the Germans say “Gänsehaut”) …:)”

3.  “GONNA GET YOUR LOVE GONNA FIND YOU”

“I started this track by programming a simple beat with a Sequential Circuits Drumtraks, and by playing a sort of funky  and funny acid line with the Prophet-5.
I didn’t think of any vocals at first, until I finally had the fantastic chance to meet Sigrid Elliott, a black singer from Chicago, doing a performance here in Berlin.
I had just started this track when this happened, and since she was so incredible, I waited until the end of the show, and talked to her and asked if she could come by sometime in my studio and try to sing for me. That was magic! She came by, we did the recording, and finally the whole track got another dimension and started to become funkier! It was so much fun!
At the time, I also just got a Korg Poly-800, which normally is a quite underrated synth , but it´s actually capable of nice and warm sounds. In fact that´s what I used for those pads in the middle of the song, as well as for those funky brassy chords. But the bass line is of course coming, AGAIN, from the fabulous Juno-106, which is definitely my favorite Bass-Making Synth!”

Massimiliano Pagliara’s album “Focus For Infinity” is out now on Live At Robert Johnson. You can buy it on whatpeopleplay.com. Please check the wpp player below.