There are two premises, for me, when it comes to playing.
One is that people must have fun.
And the other one is to generate culture.
My brother was one of the members of the Urban Groove group.
It was, with no doubts, one of the electronic music pioneer groups in Argentina.
Since I can remember, because my brother started DJing when he was twelve
and when I was born, he was fourteen already, so since I can remember, I was surrounded by turntables,
records, synths, 303... [Laughs]
Absolutely every instrument related to electronic music somehow.
At first, it was synth pop.
80s pop, influenced by my brother.
But this was when I was 8, 9, 10 or 11 years old.
And it was then when he started making the transition towards House and Techno and from there on I was influenced 100% since I was eleven, listening to electronic music.
But at the beginning, listening to electronic music was new, it was a weird thing.
In my neighbourhood - I was from Gregorio Laferrere- people would look at me wearing fluo green pants and be like "where is this kid going?".
I would escape, because my mother didn´t allow me to go to after hour parties so I would tell her that I was going to play football in the morning
and I secretly packed my clothes in a bag, got changed and went to the after parties.
At the SouthAmerican Rave, which was a big event held at Parque Sarmiento
it was in that moment that I was seeing so many people, and the concept of the music quickly got inside my head.
By then, I was already starting to make music but I didn´t see it as a career.
For me it was just fun.
I had just got my first computer I started making music with really basic software and it was an adventure.
And it was basically the day of the SouthAmerican Rave... I can remember the flashes perfectly and what it changed in me.
In that moment I decided that I wanted to be a DJ.
Well, not actually a DJ, I just wanted to make music.
I always had turntables at home and played records, but I was more interested in production rather than mixing.
I was surprised by how only using two rhythm machines and a synth you could make a song.
Back then I had no idea of what a career as an artist could be like.
I only looked at my brother who was really famous in Argentina.
And he had a connection with the people, they stoped him to ask for autographs and stuff.
He wasn´t actually supported by my parents because of the music.
But the day they saw his face in the cover of one of Argentina´s most sold newspapers, it was shocking for them and they started accepting it.
But it was really hard for them to accept him as a musician.
For me it was easier, because I already had the know-how from my brother.
He helped me then and through my whole career, even nowadays, I still learn from him.
He is a really important person in my life.
I went to Barcelona because of a family decision.
There was a big crisis in Argentina in 2001, and we had to go.
I had no choice, I wasn´t happy with the decision at all.
I was playing frequently and was really happy with what was going on.
I was really young, only 17 years old. Leaving the country was really hard for me.
The only motivating thing was that my brother was there.
The day I got to Spain was really tough.
The first 15 days where very hard.
And then my mother had the beautiful idea of sending me to Ibiza with my brother, and all the trouble disappeared, of course [Laughs]
Ibiza was other Ibiza, it wasn´t what it is nowadays.
It was much more authentic.
And much more hippie.
In the north, in Asturias, I found an amazing scene, with a really strong musical culture.
In Madrid, was the place where I felt the less identified. It was a place where I had a big growth in production and working behind a label
But not actually played much.
And then I went back to my family in Barcelona, where I felt really loved.
I felt that the Catalans really opened the doors for me.
It was a place where I felt much more like I belonged.
In Barcelona, the culture was always really important.
It´s a culturally speaking, big city.
Barcelona was always related to culture, but in the last few years, like in the most of Europe, the laws have changed
and they got harder, so everything that is underground or culture that does not fits society´s standards, get´s hard to develop.
Hosting "illegal" parties or in the middle of the woods, or wherever, it´s not possible anymore.
When I got to Barcelona around 2003, 2004, culturally speaking it was the main European city.
More than Berlin even, I believe.
It was a city in which there was an spectacular cultural content.
My studio is a bit of a hybrid between analog and digital machines.
And I also work with virtual instruments and effects of course.
For the last three or four years, I´ve been working exclusively with the Elektrons.
I have the [Elektron] Analog Rhythm and Analog Four.
The work starts there.
I start in the morning, with a loop.
The loop mutates during the day, according to how I feel or how´s my vibe that day.
Then I do the recordings in Ableton Live and that´s where I process the sound.
Once I have the recordings, I put all the sounds in Ableton and I process the sound depending how much I need or want to.
Once it sounds like I want it to, I develop the track.
Basically, that´s my way of working in the studio: some analog, some digital and it´s always related to my mood.
I have two clear types of inspirations.
One is the dancefloor.
When I´m making music, I focus on how the crowd will react to the track.
But there´s also lots of other days where I am inspired by my personal daily experience.
By what´s going on in my life.
That´s where the emotional part comes in.
There are Flug tracks that you can tell are more emotional and others are much more energetic.
I enjoy the most when there are no rules of any kind.
Luckily, for me it´s almost most of the time.
I make music without thinking in "what are they gonna say?" or "where can it be released?"
I just try to make music that I like and that I´m gonna feel good listening to it and playing it.
Insert begun right after I left the City Hall.
Casually, I got together with two people who had the same club vision I did
so the three of us created Insert.
Insert is purely a Techno club.
Where people just go to dance.
Ibiza´s party concept reached Barcelona a lot in the last few years, so most clubs are filled with
flying confeti, fireworks, VIP rooms, pictures...
Well, a concept that I believe leaves behind what you really do at a club that is dance and listen to music.
For me, a club is not only somewhere you go have fun, but also you go get culturized and learn.
I have a 17 years long career and I still learn something every night I go out.
I still learn and that´s my idea.
The most important thing a club can have is an audience that understands that.
So this club generated a culture in this 300 or 400 people that come every sunday.
People who come to listen to music and try to understand and spread out Techno music as a culture.
I met Chris [Liebing] through Pfirter who had just released at CLR.
We met in Barcelona, the first time.
And after that he started playing a bunch of my tracks.
So, one day, at a Sonar Festival, I gave him an USB drive with some tracks, we had a conversation, because he had played two of my tracks at that festival.
So we talked after he finished playing, we talked, he said he really liked my music and I gave him the USB drive.
The one day I´m listening to a CLR podcast and in two hours I listen two three or four of my tracks, the ones that where in that USB.
So I sent him an email, thanking him for playing my music.
And he answered saying "I couldn´t identify who gave me those tracks and I couldn´t contact you
I´m very excited that we are in contact because I loved your music."
From there on, we started talking a lot and one day he said "I want you to release in CLR"
I sent him the tracks.
As soon as he told me, I started making music like crazy.
So I sent him around ten tracks.
And he answered that none of them were what he was looking for.
And after one month, I got another email from him saying "I´m sorry for changing my mind but there are three or four tracks that I´m playing always and I want to release them."
And then we arranged the EP.
From there on, our relationship started growing.
Nowadays, he is someone I really hold dear and a big influence for me.
Thanks to this age of technology, there are so many young kids
with so much talent and projection, and they can make it happen really quick.
So, out of nowhere, someone pops up that makes you go "wow".
So, I believe we are living a time where the diversity given by technology is showing it´s results.
And it´s full of artists that are good, with quality, talent, flight, strength, elegancy...
It´s amazing
Honestly, I´m really happy with the moment in music we are living nowadays.
But, there´s also something that bothers me.
Lots of artists follow trends.
And then, they fall.
When the trend goes down, they don´t know what to do.
So maybe there are artists that you really like, but then their music stops being trendy and they can´t continue to make good stuff.
There´s also a standard in music that annoys me a bit.
I don´t like how everything is standarized in Techno and if it´s not a reverbed kick and lots of pads behind it, it isn´t cool.
So there´s this standard in music I don´t like.
But, aside from that, there are lots of artists who know how to flow and they can go this way, or go that way, up, down, and they are always good.
With my daughter I have an incredible relationship.
She is what keeps me living, along with the music.
I would say those are the most important things in life.
So we have an amazing relationship, we share lots of time together.
Thanks to my job, we can share lots of time.
I take her to school, I pick her up. We enjoy lots of time.
For me, my work time is my work time but, when I´m done, I always try to focus in her.
Many times I do that, and many times I fail, because this is a full time job and sometimes you have to answer an email or a phonecall and you dont find the time you want for your kid.
That day, it was the first time she connected with my career.
She always asked me "Dad, what do you do for a living"?
It´s really hard to explain a kid that you are a DJ.
So that day, it was a daytime festival.
Digital Festival, in Barcelona.
So, we arranged for her to come.
Honestly, it wasn´t allowed.
We had to make it happen, and we weren´t supposed to bring her to the stage.
She had to stay in the back, because kids weren´t allowed at that festival.
But then they brought her to me... What can I say? I get goosebumps. [Laughs]
It was a feeling so beautiful as the first day she rode her bike.
She being there, watching me play for thousands of people, appreciating what I was doing, it connected us somehow.
Watching friends and people I know that, unfortunately,
in the world we live in, isn´t happy.
Because their jobs wont let them or because they only live to earn money.
And they don´t have anything else in life.
I believe I am a lucky man.
I am someone who lives from what he likes doing and that, nowadays,
in the times we live in, isn´t easy.
