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While Bruno Pronsato admits his introduction to techno came later than many of his peers, most of those same artists would likely agree that it’s not taken him long to find his sound. A sound distinct enough to make the former hardcore and metal band member one of the most exciting names of today.
Having finally achieved his breakthrough in 2007 with "Why Can't We Be Like Us", the romantic techno artist now aims to break the mould once again with his new alias, Archangel, a name that’s allowed Bruno to reach back to his rock and pop roots, which he does with ease on the forthcoming “The Bedroom Slant” LP. With this record available soon, we caught up with the abstract yet organic Pronsato and discussed his latest album, his history in the world of metal and hardcore music and what it was like to collaborate with his hero Peter Gordon.
The name Bruno Pronsato is widely recognised across the techno music world and is well respected. However, your real name is Steven Ford. How did the name Bruno Pronsato come to be and why? It was just actually a name from my girlfriend; it was actually her brother's name. When I made my first record, I wasn't too serious about music or anything at that point so I just, I thought why not have some fun and change my name?
Prior to gracing the world of techno, you were into metal and hardcore, playing in a band called Voice Of Reason along the way. Can you tell us more about that? Yeah, it was just my brother and I were kids, and some of the first records I bought were like metal and hardcore records, you know? So we formed this little band and kept it going for 3 or 4 years, and then we slowly tried to get into something a little bit more hard scene, sonic deep style stuff. Yeah, that was the first step we tried to do.
And how exactly does working in a metal band compare to producing techno music for you on a personal level and as a whole? Playing in a metal band is completely different because you're sort of reliant on three or four other people to complete a track or tour with. Producing music by yourself means everything is left up to you – how far a track goes or whether a track gets finished or not, or how many times you play is all pretty reliant upon yourself. One of the things that I have found difficult in a band was having to rely on other people, like girlfriends and jobs and stuff like that, and you're really inspired to make music. In a band, you know, you have to wait two or three days to get some ideas together, it’s sort of depressing, it can be kind of crushing to creativity a little bit.
Where did your passion for techno music originate and who were your major influences? I came into techno really late. I started out into the record label Mago Sound. I guess when I was like 27, no 25, actually, and I just slowly led into techno. I mean I remember being really, really super inspired by Pantytec's first album. The “Pony Slayslation” album was a huge influence on me. I had listened to techno and I had bought Plastikman early on, and I had bought some other classic albums. Never good records, but I was just putting my feet in the water as they'd say, and that step was really good, but it didn't blow me away. It didn't make me want to make that kind of music. It wasn't really until I heard the Pantytec Pony Slaystation album that I really decided to get into making that sort of stuff.
What did it feel like to finally get your first major breakthrough on the electronic scene in 2007 when you released "Why Can't We Be Like Us"? It was a shock I have to say, I still really haven't…I guess that was sort of a hike night in my production career. It felt strange. It always seemed like a pipe dream, it always seemed like I was having fun, so when the sort of minimal success of that happened, it was enough to keep me going and keep me living in Berlin and keep me excited enough to keep releasing.
Speaking of album releases, you are soon releasing your newest album under your Archangel moniker, “The Bedroom Slant." Would you tell us a bit more about what this album is about and how you produced it? With this album, I tried to have a little bit more of an acoustic feel to it. I wasn't so about the dance floor necessarily. I want to really bring some other influences to the music that I had normally brought to music. I wanted to bring some more of my rock background to the album. I wanted it to sound… Especially in the last couple of years I have really been digging the new waves sound, the ‘70s, so I really wanted to bring sort of an arch-rock thing to the album, then I wanted to keep it a little bit more acoustic.
I had Peter Gordon play sax on one of the tracks, on “Steal The Groom.” I had a double bass player that I really loved named Yonatan Levi do some work on it, and a friend of mine named David A. Powers do some piano stuff, so there's a little bit more guest appearances on the album from, I guess you could say, “real musicians.” I just wanted to have a little bit more of a musical feel and a tad more of a pop feel to it, sort of like a proto-pop techno album or something.
What was it like to work with Caro, and your hero, Peter Gordon, and how has he influenced your career? Well, of course it was magical to be able to work with Peter. I never thought I would be able to do something like that in my lifetime. Luckily, the label manager of Foom, Benjamin Freeney works with Peter. On every album I do, I have a track with Caro, at least once or twice a year I try to collaborate with Caro, so he's definitely one of the key players in the stable.
I had him on this “Steal The Groom” track. I just felt like it was something Peter could add some magic to, so I took the chance and asked Benjamin to contact Peter and see if he was interested in the track. Then I sent him all the parts to the track and yeah, he laid down five minutes worth of back stuff and I just sort of edited it out to fit the track and to fit the mood to fit with the vocals and stuff, so yeah it was fantastic. I definitely will be working with Peter in the future more.
Also, with Archangel, you’ll be providing your own vocals for the first time. How did you find this experience and what does it offer to your album? I think the next step in production for me and making music for me was to use my voice. I've always used it in my music but in a slight under the radar sort of way. But I wanted it to be more of the forefront this time. I'm not a trained vocalist, I've never really done vocals – actually I'm quite bad at vocals – so it was pretty gruelling to add vocals to the tracks, which means I had to do many, many takes to get the vocals to sound the way I wanted them to sound. I didn't necessarily want them to sound like the perfect singer but I didn't want it to sound like I was an awful singer either. I just wanted to keep this middle ground. Using vocals adds a lot more depth to the track. There’s the space in between sounds that's sealed up with the voice, so it just adds and the tracks become a lot richer and fuller. For some people, they become a lot more interesting because of the lyrics.
You've released tracks with several labels now including Lessizmore, Perlon, Musique Risquee and now Foom. How does working with Foom compare to previous labels you've worked with? All the labels have their own sort of personality in a way. Definitely Perlon and Musique Risquee, they are all sort of the same personality. As far as record labels go, they have and take a lot of care with their artists and they’re very interested in what they are doing. The difference I would say with Foom, and what I've done with other labels, is Benjamin and I were, and this was the first time for me, we worked really closely on the tracks. It's not that Benjamin was art directing, but just that it was such a new way for me to make music and vocals etc. I wanted someone else to have a little bit more of a say in how the tracks were formed.
Benjamin and I spent a lot of time working on a track together like talking about does this part fit here? Or should this part go longer? Or shorter? Usually, I like to run the show as far as my music goes, but I felt this time that I had such a strong connection with Benjamin that his criticisms helped. We actually worked really closely on this. I probably should've given him some kind of co-production credit on the record. His input meant a lot. In the past, with the other record labels I've just sort of given them a track and if they liked it, they liked it, and if they didn't, they didn't. This one, I would say, was a collaborative effort between Benjamin and I, which I would say was amazing.
Finally, where will you be performing “The Bedroom Slant" this year? We will be doing our first show at Panorama Bar this summer sometime. We're still trying to nail down an exact date for that. But the first show will be Panorama Bar, then we're going to be doing Moscow, then we're going to be doing London and then probably Paris or Rome. We're going to try and do four shows with a full band. After that, we will see how it goes. There has been talk of Mutek next year, so I will be taking my friend Yonatan Levi out with me, who does double bass, and a keyboard player. It's finding the keyboard player now that seems to be the task.
"The Bedroom Slant is out on June 2nd on Foom."
Bedroom Slant LP Artwork by Marilyn Thompson.
Listen to Bruno Pronsato on Pulse Radio.
