Feeling sensitive

Back in 2004 Touch Sensitive (aka Michael Di Francesco)’s debut single Body Stop was one of the first tracks released on Future Classic.

Cloaked in anonymity, its cosmic vibes and Italo authenticity made it a cult favourite among DJ circles from East London to Brooklyn.

Now a fully fledged in-demand producer, Michael reflects on where it all started.

‘I was into music all through high school. When I left I studied music at university – I was doing a music degree. I played double bass and I was into jazz and fusion,’ says Michael of his more traditional start in the music industry.

‘I got into going to clubs and started hearing music, and realised that it was basically chopped-up samples that I was listening to. At the time that was how they made dance music. I started researching how those sounds were made and what you needed to make it.’

It was the ‘do it yourself’ construction element that appealed to Di Francesco, and that it was the ideas of the creator that mattered most.

‘When you buy a musical instrument or a machine it doesn’t come with ideas, so the machine is secondary – if you have an idea you have to have the means to make it work!

‘My first-ever bass teacher was Justin Delalo. I remember going to his studio and he had this wall of records. Part of the lesson was his pulling things out and my listening to sounds I had never heard.

‘When you are learning bass and you hear something that has a prominent basslines, it absolutely draws you in. I love old vinyl; it’s the best. You can look at it. You can see who was involved in the productions.

‘Today everyone is a ghost producer, unless you are the artist yourself; no-one will know who you are because there are no credits on anything!

‘Vinyl tells a story.

‘So that was where my love of vinyl started. There was another guy who really inspired me, called David James. I saw an ad in the paper for a synthesiser. It was before I had any and I went to his house to buy one; it was an Oberon. David James lived in a warehouse and he was a hoarder – he had every synth you could imagine. I pretty much spent all of my money at his warehouse! I spent every cent at this guy’s house.

‘When you buy equipment like that and it breaks you have to take it to be repaired and by talking to people who repair I learnt a lot. I also used to buy all these old keyboard-player magazines. It was a retro approach to learning synth.’

For Michael, it was his Oberon that was his first love.

‘I have a lot of synthesisers. At the moment I use an Oberon. I am coming around to using the computer. I think I liked using synths because I like having lots of things to turn on. You can use the computer though and have lots of replications. There are more options than you need and it’s a trap you can fall into, right up to the end of a track, looking for more effects or ways of changing the mix.’

Most recently Touch Sensitive did a remix for Rufus’s track Sarah. ‘I started with a clear vision so it was much easier. It is simpler that way, when you know where you are going, rather than stuffing around looking for direction.’

One of Touch Sensitive’s impressive new works is Pizza Guy, made with Aussie boy wonder Flume.

‘I am still into that early late-70s Italo disco – it’s got all those elements, so I did a rough instrumental for Pizza Guy and vocals for me are a tricky thing. Unless they are amazing, I tend to just go with the music. I showed it to Flume and he said, “can I do the vocal?”

‘I am always trying to do something that is good. I am pretty critical about what I think is good, especially when it is mine. Usually the first idea is the best idea. Sometimes you have to go around in circles to get to where you started! I say that now, but it’s really hard to put into practice. An idea can come in a flash, and I can flesh it out, but the little details that tie it together, the finer points – that’s what I thrash around coming up with.

Touch Sensitive brings his music to the Beach Hotel in Byron on Sunday. Free Entry. 8pm.’