December 24th, 2009

Fromage Disco

Fromage Disco are Nate B and Travis H ( Dr Disconyx) – two melbournites with a keen love of synthpop, post punk and disco. Apart from their eponymous Club night the two have been working as a production duo with future and present releases on Lightspeed Recordings and Sean Bronson’s (of Future Disco fame) Need Want label.

Winston: How did you guys first get into electronic music and in particular your brand of disco and house music?

Fromage Disco: Well we both listened to a lot of hip hop when we were young and I guess it was a natural progression into more beat driven music.  I got into US house such as Doc Martin, Farina, etc and UK tech house like Terry Francis and Craig Richards.  Travis always liked experiemental music, house and disco a bit of rock and funk. Attending clubs like Durr and Trash and a couple east end clubs like bar22, Mother Bar. The mixing of indie, house, disco and club has been going on since 2000 and he wanted to do that, in his dj sets and productions.   Then we ended up meeting on a love of the disco/nu disco scene a few years ago now, inspiring us to find great music both new and old and leading to us starting the Fromage Disco parties back in 2006. We’re big fans of DFA, Eskimo, Permanent Vacation, Tirk, Wall of sound, Delusions of Grandeur, Running Back, and all that and more ends up going in our sets.

Winston: How did you hook up with Lightspeed recordings?

Fromage Disco: Well we know 86 fairly well through the scene here in Melbourne, having him play at our Fromage parties and also having had a residency at his Sweat night.  He was digging our edits and thankfully found he was digging our original stuff as well and that resulted in him remixing our ‘Vicious’ single for Needwant and with the upcoming release of Acidic Strings.

Winston: Whats the story behind your European releases with Need Want?

Fromage Disco: Bit of a needle in a haystack kinda thing.  Thanks to some dutiful e-mailing by Travis the track fell into the hands of Sean Brosnan, fresh from having mixed the first Future Disco release for Azuli and ready to launch his own label.  He was keen as soon as he heard it and managed to get Runaway on duty for the mix.  Thankfully it all came together well and with a great remix.  It’s been a bit of a labour of love but great to get a record out after having had a few digital releases.  The vinyl thing and the Future Disco affiliation were two big perks with going with a brand new label for us, along with the fact that the next few releases include The Revenge, Ron Basejam, and various other artists we rate highly.

Winston: What’s next for Fromage an album , more singles or psychedelic rock opera like The Who’s Tommy?

Fromage Disco: More singles for the time being, a couple of remixes in the works, and later in the year a live thing.  Not exactly sure on the format but I know we would love to get Jack Byrnes (the Vicious vocalist) back on board if we do.  Upcoming releases are of course Acidic Strings on Lightspeed, with a Pete Herbert remix; followed by Repeight which is coming on Smashbang early next year with a Jamie Stevens remix and a host of talented aussie artists which we’re really keen on promoting. Working on another remix right now too for a great Aussie 3 piece that seem to do pretty well for themselves both here and abroad.  Cant reveal much more than that at this stage but keep an eye out in late Jan/Early Feb 2009 for more news.

Winston: What sort of a studio set up do you guys have? is it mostly computer based or actual synths?

Fromage Disco: My studio is computer based, with a Novation Remote midi controller, running Ableton with various VSTs and plugins.  Trav has a MicroKorg, Korg Kaospad and a MS20 Midi controller in his studio, going a bit of both.  While we would like to delve into hardware we don’t really have the room for it and when you can get such great sounds out of softsynths I don’t think it makes that much difference.

Winston: Your European label compiled the superb Future Disco compilation which recently got released here in Australia by the clubbing behemoth – One Love. Do you reckon it might be an example of a shift in clubbing trends toward the more disco oriented end of the spectrum of house music?

Fromage Disco: I think that’s probably the case, if not yet then certainly within the next year or two.  There’s been a lot more exposure for some of the big disco acts coming to Australia in the last 12 months (How was the hype for Tim Sweeney?) and appearances booked by several for some of the big summer festivals.  At the end of the day that doesn’t really bother us though.  As long as I can keep finding good music in this genre then I will keep playing it, but neither of us have ever played an entire set of just disco or just house.  There’s always something else that’s getting thrown in there.  That’s probably more indicative of our own tastes being so diverse and that will continue to keep djing fresh regardless of what happens in clubbing trends.

Winston: Which seminal disco re-editor/remixer would you most want to remix one of your tracks: Walter Gibbons, Tom Moulton, Shep Pettibone or Larry Levan and why?

Fromage Disco: It’s a tough one for me between Levan and Pettibone.  Levan just because he has so many great remixes and is such a legend of the early disco scene.  Pettibone because he always managed to turn in a good remix, even of a really bad or cheesy track.  There’s at least a couple I can think of that I can’t stand the original but he reworks into magic. Travis would kill to work with Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, those buys are uber talented!

Stocking Stuffer edits

The Supreme’s – High Energy (Fromage Mother Edit)

Silver Convention- Fly Robin Fly (Fromage Red Robin Edit)

Northend – Happy Days (Fromage edit)

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