Outtakes x sounDesign

Sonic story-telling and cinematic music approaches

1. Thanks for the interview. First of all, who are the Outtakes?
Barflies, mostly.

2. I thought so haha! Talking about your music, I hear a thread in it, there is a very precise narrative approach. What can you say about it?

Our pieces are built as musical themes for films and the lyrics are written this way, too. This way, we sort of try to let them exist almost as scene working autonomously, with few details that make them unique and add personality. Actually our name itself means waste of celluloid.

3. Yes, that’s it, Cinematic Music. This approach is clear in your videoclips, too. No matter what, you always narrate a story: do you take care of this aspect on your own or is there some sort of Demiurge figure behind you?

*They turn back to check but there’s nobody so they shrug*

4. Your composition is a blend of synthesis and sampling. Can you talk a bit more about your music production?

It is certainly a hybrid approach that mixes without distinction sampling and synthesis; there’s always an idea of what will happen in the end but definitely we do not have a standard method: sometimes we start from the sample, some other from playing a line, some others from a vocal take.

Sky’s is the only limit, my friend *they sip tea*

5. We recently popped in one of your live gigs: which ways does Ableton Live enhance your creative power? Any limits in using it?

Once we finalise a track we then start breaking trough it and chopping it to re-adapt it for gigs. So we can edit them according to performances, line-up, different venues and audience, etc. This way each gig becomes unique; we like to think that we’re always presenting a new experience to the audience. Also, because our singer Chiara controls Ableton when she performs, the software sort of become an extension of her voice, to result in a “one-woman band thing”.

Limits of Ableton? Again, sky’s the only limit;)

6. I’m listening to your music right now, I can guess some artists that inspired you, but let me hear what you say about… Where are you from, Outtakes? How did you arrive to Avant-pop?

We come from electronic music, hip hop, r’n’b and many other things.

We think Avant-pop is a beautiful container where anything popular music and fresh and complex sonorities can get in.

What’s better than a label that don’t actually label? We’re free to do what we want within this realm! Basically, we needed to pick up a genre for Spotify…

7. You guys are from Turin, what is your local music scene like? One thing you love and one you hate about it.

Music-wise, Turin is active, varied, weird but hidden. We hear lot of fresh good stuff, but it’s like everyone is closed in their own circuit. There’s also a paradox in the fact that a lot of big artists come to play from outside, we’re lucky in that sense: Club to Club, Jazz Re:found, Movement, to name a few events.. The best of world music passes from here, even more than in other Italian cities, but local artists struggle to get out.

8. We know you have a lot going on; anything cool to share?

There’s definitely more to come on the video side. But we don’t want to bother too much about how good we are, just keep an eye on our page, everything you need is there! We’ll leave you with a link to a cover by Flume and Chet Faker we loved performing. Bye!

Thanks to the Outtakes for their time!

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Fabio Di Santo