After spending a few years playing in electro-pop wonder band Van She, Michael Di Francesco aka Touch Sensitive is back with his debut EP and a spot on the brand new Listen Out lineup. In the middle of his latest North American tour, Michael caught up with us to chat about his collaboration with Anna Lunoe, a secret track debut and that awesome new video clip for his single 'Pizza Guy'.
Pulse: You’re kind of a multi-faced music magician, you first released songs under Touch Sensitive back in 2004, then did some more stuff under a bunch of other names as well as Van She. Why the choice to start releasing songs under Touch Sensitive last year and this year? Mainly because I just got busy with doing the Van She stuff and then doing the Van She Tech stuff was my outlet for dance music. I kind of always mucked around at home and did stuff but never really put anything out. During that time though Chad and Nathan [Future Classic] were like ‘oh you know we should do something again with Touch Sensitive’ but I just never had time or never really had the drive. And then last year when I did the one with Anna Lunoe it kind of reignited my interest in it, I guess.
How did your collaboration with Anna Lunoe come about? I’d known her from just like around the scene and I’d heard a track that she’d done with Wax Motif [Love Ting], it was like a Brothers Johnson disco sample and I thought it was really cool. So I was like ‘Oh hey I like this thing that you did, we should do something!’ So one day she came over to the studio and pretty much within the first sitting we had the rough beat and the vibe down. I mean stylistically it changed, god knows how many times. She is such a hard worker though and I can be quite flakey at times. In my own defense though I have been busy!
Back to Touch Sensitive, your debut EP that was released earlier this year, all the songs on it have incredible layers throughout. when you’re producing your tracks how do you go about doing it? Do you envisage the final sound and head towards that or is it kind of like each beat and line separate and see what fits where? It’s usually a case of one idea and putting it in the computer and then quickly having another idea and seeing how they work. So, you know, I’ll have a melody or pads or drums and I’ll put one part in and then I’ll just build up sections as a loop. So for 'Pizza Guy' for example, I started with the riff and then obviously the drums and then the bass, the bass in that song changed a few times as well actually. Or the other thing that’s really cool is I’ll just be flipping through synths on a preset and I’ll find one that works and because it sounds a certain way or has certain characteristics it makes you play parts that you wouldn’t normally play. It’s a little hard to pinpoint exactly how it comes together because it does change, but that’s roughly it.
Is there a certain reasoning behind the ‘pizza’ theme of the EP? Yeah! So what happened was Nick from Van She who I did the Van She Tech stuff with had a club night in Sydney called Pizza. So when I had done the track and I needed to bounce it and sent it to Future Classic I called it Pizza Guy and it just stuck. I guess it’s a kind of ode to him, which is fitting because he’s in the film clip as well. So that’s kind of what it’s about I guess, not that that means anything to anybody else, but that’s what it meant at the time. The cool thing about it though is that it can mean different things for everyone.
The video clip for 'Pizza Guy' that was directed by Entropico had that amazing delivery boy story line to it. Did they also come up with that concept or was it someone else? I’m pretty sure the credit for that one goes to Nathan at Future Classic. He was really keen on doing a video clip for it but I was like, ‘Oh man, it’s just background music, like no one wants to see a video clip for that, no ones going to care’ but he was pretty persistent and was like ‘Nah man, what do you think about this idea, we’ll borrow a Ferrari and we’ll do all this stuff’. So yeah I just kind of went with it and then we got some of the other Future Classic guys to jump in the clip, which was fun as well.
The track was debuted secretly through a Classixx mix, what was the reasoning behind dropping it like that? What happened was Classixx were in Australia for Sydney Festival and we all ended up at this barbeque that Future Classic were throwing, everyone who was in town for the festival turned up for this afternoon drinks thing. Anyway when I left, Nathan played the track to Classixx and they were like ‘We’re doing a mixtape for Fader can we please please use this song?’ and Nathan said yes on the condition that they couldn’t reveal the name and just put a question mark next to it in the track listing. So yeah it was cool because it helps having someone like them like it, and like it enough to put it in their mix. I was mortified though that he’d played it to people when I wasn’t there. I think he knew that if I was there I wouldn’t have let him play it [laughs].
You are on the lineup for the new Listen Out party this year, but this year's been a pretty massive one for you in terms of performing - you’ve been overseas a lot plus you had a show earlier here at the Opera House. Did you ever think you’d play there as Touch Sensitive? I’ve played there before with Van She as a part of Vivid Festival a few years back but I never thought I’d be playing there again myself. I would never even have though to do a Touch Sensitive live show if it wasn’t for the guys at Future Classic being like ‘You know, you could play live bass, you should do something.' So I tentatively agreed and they booked me my first gig supporting Bicep at the Adult Disco party and that was pretty cool. I actually really enjoyed it. But no, I never really thought that a live show would be part of the plan, not that I’ve really ever had a plan.
Has there been a favourite performance space so far? Oooh that’s hard! I guess the Civic Underground is pretty good, as far as a first gig goes that was probably the best I could’ve ever hoped for. I don’t know! I think it’s more to do with the party itself and who’s in the room and what the people are like. I’d be happy to play in someone’s lounge room, with shitty speakers to twenty people if the vibe was awesome. I don’t need lots of production to do what I do and have a good time. I think because I used to play in cover bands back in the day so I’m not deterred by shit conditions because I’ve worked in shit conditions, so when you work in good conditions it’s even better. As far as internationally goes, I’ve only played in America so far and they’ve all been really good.
Is there anyone on the Listen Out lineup that you’re really keen on seeing yourself? Yeah I’m interested to see Disclosure and John Talbot and Duke Dumont. The great thing is because it’s over four weeks I’m going to get a chance to check out everyone's shows so that’ll be really good. It’s going to be awesome.
You recently posted about the sad passing of legend George Duke on your Facebook. Who else, if anybody, would you list as your musical influences? That’s tricky. My musical taste is pretty broad. For a while I was turning my nose up at disco and funk, for whatever reasons, but now I’m kind of getting back into it. I went to this party the other night and it was just disco and funk and out of the whole night I only knew five of the tracks they played, but it was still amazing. I always hear lots of records that I really like the sound of but I don’t necessarily always know the artists. I also really like all the old Kashif productions and anything Lindsay Buckingham did. Old house is great as well. I think there are definitely people that stand out from particular genres and it depends what kind of music I’m making at that time that kind of determines who my influences are. I don’t think I can compress it down to one in particular.
Have you been tempted to try out making music in a different genre outside of electronic? Hmm I don’t know. When I worked with Ladyhawke years ago we started making some tracks that were pretty grungy with drum machines and stuff that we never got round to finishing, so hopefully one day I might get around to finishing those ones off. I’m sure one day I’ll get sick of machines and sequences and whatever and I’m going to want to play in a band again with drums and stuff, and when that time comes I guess that’s what I’d like to do.