From the birth of the project in Rome, releases across Stroboscopic Artefacts & Touchin’ Bass have solidified their success and despite their varying place of residencies between the two of them in the world, there’s a lot of movement happening on the production schedule. It’s a testament to what can be achieved between artists, inattentive of their circumstances, that should navigate you through the trials of creative collaboration.

Those heavy insurgencies we’ve come to expect from the Stellate and Monad series entrench themselves as Plaster lineup for Kana Broadcast 043.

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EC: First up, congratulations on the recent success on SA’s Monad Series. How’d you feel about the record whilst you were both working on it, and how’d it fit with the series intentions and directions?

Plaster: Thank you very much Elliot, we’re glad you enjoyed it!

When Stroboscopic Artefacts asked us about to be a part of the Monad series, we were both in quite different situations. Gianclaudio was coming back from a 2 month trip in Mexico, while Giuseppe was preparing to embark on a new life adventure in Australia; so we were both wrapped up inside an emotional vortex…

For the studio session we decided to set up on Giuseppe’s farm, situated North of Rome. We were there for almost one month, completely isolated from city noise, distractions and the internet. Basically, this was our first real opportunity to immerse ourselves into the Techno world, so we avoided any external influences to keep our sound pure.

Emotionally, we wanted to transmit the feelings that we were experiencing during that period; the sensations of being recharged with new experiences from a trip abroad, and the hopes for a new life experience. We were looking to evolve our identity, but at the same time we had to respect the strong running concept of the Monad series. Luckily, regular interaction with Lucy was fundamental to the creative process. He constantly followed the making of the tracks (with us sending demos weekly) by giving technical advice and illuminating directions that could push our sound harder. This blend has been positively constructive, and helped us in taking a big step forward!

EC: Speaking of where things are going – you’ve just put out an EP on Touchin’ Bass. How do you feel about how this ties in with where you’re both going?

Plaster: Well, this has been a kind of natural process that has grown during the past year. Andrea Parker wrote to us a while ago to get some information about our project, and mail after mail gave rise to a friendship. The Nemesis Ep has a completely different process in comparison to Monad, in terms of the concept and unity of the tracks. Here we wrote the music in an extended process over a year, and the sound varies from track to track, with each showing different dimensions and influences. We felt lucky to have the opportunity of working with Andrea – she’s charismatic and inspiring, and actually we can’t say where we’re going because we are growing step by step and we see good results daily. For sure we consider these new adventures like a new imprint for Plaster.

EC: and being a duo, there must some cohesion in your mentalities and not just music? How do your views on everything work to further the project (and why is it important?)

Plaster: Before being a music duo, we’re best friends. We grew up together since we were 14 years old, so we’ve shared the most beautiful and worst parts of our lives. Most times that we play live, people ask us if our laptops are synchronized or not, and our answer is: “yes, a mental wireless connection”.

But this doesn’t mean that we’re robots or perfectly in harmony! As is usual with partnerships, we’re both different and we have varying approaches to the world and the way of living our lives, even with reference to Plaster. Due to our friendship and common vision of the music, we arrived to a balance where we try to respect each other but at the same time to develop our project in the best way, giving us the chance to express our feelings and ideas.

EC: Distance can be a problem too, especially since one of you is based in a rural Australian town in Northam, Western Australia. Can you tell us what it’s like being heavily connected the scene in Europe but without being ‘in’ it? What keeps you there, and what do you get from it? (inspiration etc)

Plaster: The distance is not a matter of Kilometers. You can live in close promiximity to someone, but be a million light years distant when you don’t have a common direction.

When Giuseppe decided to move to Australia, we thought that it might be a problem, especially because we were starting a new important phase of our project. But then we realized that it wasn’t a limit, but an opportunity. Now we have the chance to expand our music outside the “European Scene” and this could be positive for our sound.
By living in Rome and in Northam, the first technical issue we found was for gigs. It meant that we agreed to a compromise which had never happened before, which basically consists of performing individually, which could sound strange because we’re naturally a duo. It’s a big compromise! Honestly, it’s not the same when you are alone on the stage but for sure when this period will be over (or mutated) we’ll be stronger than before.

EC: Is being disconnected important sometimes, in life in general?

Plaster: There’s no shock if there’s not a pause before. The disconnection helps to look at things from a different perspective, so in my opinion it’s necessary for personal evolution.

In life in general I think that sometimes it’s essential to be disconnected – when you feel motionless and when you need to rediscover yourself especially. Five months ago I tried to switch off my past life in search of new experiences, and I decided upon going to Australia. I must say that my life has completely changed; I’m getting new energies that allow me to feed my soul and open my mind to a wider vision of life.

In my personal experience through the disconnection, I’ve found a new starting point and I’m glad about it.

EC: So we’re moving forwards. With two quick successive records out there, what can you share with us about the rest of the year and what can we expect?

Plaster: In the immediate future we have a new vinyl release called ‘Circular Mechanism’ on SonuoS, which is a single track accompanied by a Substance remix, then at the end of September we have our live debut in Asia at the On-Site Festival (Taiwan).  There we’ll present a new A/V set developed with Lasal, our collaborator for most our visual side.
Moreover, during the last month we’ve started a collaboration with a London based booking agency called MethLab who are busy helping us to facilitate regular bookings.

Due to the distance we’re still organizing our workflow (7 hour difference in the time zones makes this not so easy to manage) because our desire is to write a new album. For the moment we’re doing a lot of brainstorming about the concept and direction. It won’t be easy to make it real soon, but we like challenges.

Thank you for your nice interview, we really appreciated your questions..!

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Stroboscopic Artefacts // Whatpeopleplay