83 - Alex Fain

Author

Giannis Kampiotis
June 06, 2023

Artist Interviews 🎶 Studio Tours 🎛

Hello music people 👋

Today in the spotlight, Alex Fain

Coming from Italy, he’s been involved with music since the 90s, after witnessing his older brother's passion for DJing at parties. He shares his perspective, and some tips, with us 🎶

Read Time: 5 minutes 📰

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Interview

Who are you and what is your relationship with music?

I’m Italian and I live in the north of Italy in a little mountain town.

I started making music when I was 17 years old, because my older brother’s passion was to play records at parties and one day, almost by chance, I found myself trying the technique of dj mixing and I went down the rabbit hole.

I don't make music for living. It was in the 90s, then the clubs and the music business fell into a crisis and I changed life.

I’ve been a forklift salesman for 15 years and music became my hobby. It’s hard to earn a living with music today, almost impossible at an amateur level.

Which piece of equipment in your studio is essential to your production process?

The drum machines. I always begin from the drums, usually the kick, then everything else is build around it.

I use all of my instruments one or more at a time, but my favorite is the Elektron Analog Four.

What is the least expensive piece of gear that gave you the most results?

Analog Four and Akai Force.

Walk us through your process for creating and producing music.

Making music in the box with the DAW and the mouse bores me. I’m a man of action, not meditation. Usually I record a live jam for 20-40 minutes and then I edit it in Ableton Live 10 and keep the best parts of it.

From that, I build and finish the track within the DAW, but 90% of it is Dawless. I only use Ableton to record and edit, I don’t use plug-ins that much.

What is a production technique that you always come back to?

I always begin with a live jam with the grooveboxes. I can be more creative and I use them everywhere, at home, in the car during lunch breaks, in the bed at night.

I work a lot with headphones on and I love portable instruments. I never have all of my instruments turned on in the studio, I have them scattered around the house, I use my studio only for the final master.

I think I’ve produced more tracks in my car than in my studio.

How would you explain your style?

I’m a cheerful person and I like to laugh, I think that my image as an artist is the same. I try to communicate that in my live sets.

What is a big challenge you have as an artist?

I believe it would be my lack of the necessary talent to become a Big producer and a millionaire haha.

After 30 years of music I think I know that I am capable and talented but not enough to make the leap.

I have my own theory about talent; in a scale from 1-10 , I’m a 9, but the step to make it to the 10 is higher than all of the others put together and only a few make it. Being a 10 makes the real difference.

Has building a hardware setup changed your perspective on music or life in general?

No, creating a configuration is fun, it’s a journey.

The ultimate setup doesn’t exist haha.

One tip on how to spark creativity?

Listen to music and watch live performances of your idols

A book, movie, article, or album that has inspired you?

Daft Punk - Homework

Anything else you'd like to say?

My dream, even if I’m 50, it’s to do my dawless live sets at a festival with 20k people dancing.

Where can people find more of your music and connect with you online?

In Case You Missed It

For jams, knob-twists and pad hitting videos go to G.A.S. Instagram

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