En åben snak med producer & Remixer Flemming Dalum om hans passion for musik
En åben snak med producer & Remixer Flemming Dalum om hans passion for musik
Welcome to Museo Lokal podcast, thank you, and how it enriches their lives. Every week, I invite a new guest to talk about their relationship to music and how they live and influence the music, insight, inspiration and, hopefully, some fun and exciting surprises. Welcome to Museo Lokal podcasten Musik mit Druck and welcome to Flemming Dalum. Thank you, peter. We're sitting here in your room, yes, and it's waiting with vinyl records everywhere, flemming Dalum. Tusen takk, peter. Vi sidder jo her I din stue. Ja, og det venter man ved ny blad overalt. King of the Cuts.
Speaker 2:Ja, Et gammelt kælenavn jeg fik I nullerne fra nogle hollænder, der syntes, jeg lavede nogle ret vilde cuts, når jeg lavede Edit, ligesom du selv har lavet.
Speaker 1:Ja, ja, du er jo ek cuts. When I did edits, just like you yourself have done you are extremely known for Italo music you told me, just when I came in maybe not so much in Denmark, but a lot abroad, really a lot abroad, flemming, and you have collected a goodie bag for me just when I came in on 25 maxi singles. I could get some at home, as you have made. And then you tell me that you have made 225 maxi singles. Yes, so it's starting to be a lot. That's completely insane.
Speaker 2:There aren't that many, I think, that have made or have been given so much.
Speaker 1:I don't know anyone in the whole world who has issued 225 maxi singles, and it's Italo, the whole thing.
Speaker 2:Yes, largely it is.
Speaker 1:Yes, and should we describe Italo right, Flemming? Because you're quite a nerd about it and for you there's only a certain time horizon. Is it really Italo? It's completely right, and it a certain time horizon, is it true?
Speaker 2:in Italo, it's completely true and it can work completely crazy when you're not so deep into it as I am. But I've also said it in one of the documentaries I'm in and there I got an enormous response from the really old Italo freaks and they said cool. So the definition for me is that the music made in Italy is Italian and issued to Italian companies in the period 1982-86.
Speaker 1:Yeah, shut up man. That's a whole lot of fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it gives a little challenge with the new generation who think Bobby O and Patrick Cowley. It almost sounds like it gives them the full right and they have no problems with it. But now you're asking my hardcore definition.
Speaker 1:That's your hardcore definition, and is that really what you've collected yourself? Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:I've, of course, also bought Bobby O-Ting and Patrick Carly and all this, which reminded me a lot about it. But the pure Italo. That was this definition. How did you get started with this, flemming? Oh, that was many years ago. There has probably always been an interest in music Right back from childhood. I was sent to Klevøy to play and learn to read music. So that was cool. And in high school I went to a band with three other classmates and actually bought a Korg Poly-6, an Ar Odyssey and a Horn L-Piano.
Speaker 1:You were well equipped there. Yes, actually.
Speaker 2:And it pissed me off that day. I sold it when we stopped at the gymnasium and enjoyed it, but I thought it was cool and the tickets yes, despite everything.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And in the early 80s it was the English scene that dominated and it had gotten synthesizers in almost all productions. It was very popular.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's the new wave. We're talking about New and romantic, exactly. That's what we're talking about.
Speaker 2:Yes, completely so. It was Depeche Mode, Human League, Yasuo, Tainted Love and so on, and I thought it was really cool. Then a friend came home from Italy in 1983 with some records from there and he said you should come out and listen to them. And the Italians had also bought these synthesizers.
Speaker 2:But, they didn't have three months of production time like the English, and all the levels were 100% correct and it just sounded super good. No, the Italians thought we can do that in a week, and then they gave it all they had and maybe got a little more bold attitude to it, a little more fanny-wolf, almost imperfect, and that's what I fell in love with in 1983. And also because back then it was Maxi Sengler, as you of course know, peter, but with instrumental versions on the B-sides in the same way.
Speaker 1:I've never thought about it.
Speaker 2:It's the imperfection in it and funny because it's something I really like myself the imperfection Exactly, and I remember we talked about it once, peter, where I had gone over to make computer mix, and they sat in the same room where we discussed if we should put some errors in to make it just a little human. But the Italians there, they had so much desire, and so much desire to become world stars that it was overdue for a week. There was just going to happen something.
Speaker 2:And then with these synthesizers, they just gave you an extra tooth on them.
Speaker 1:And did you start with buying records when you were quite young, after you had had Synthesizer and things like that in school? But did you then discover, as you say, that you actually think it sounds better on the records than what you make yourself, or what should I say?
Speaker 2:Yes, at that point I had to recognize that the English records sounded much better. And then it went deeper into deeper, into this synthesizer style, which was a whole new universe that opened up for me in the 70s. It was the pop rock sound I was actually growing up with, yes, so I was completely blown away by those synthesizers. Yes, and then a tour around the English and then when I suddenly heard those Italian ones, I was actually completely hooked already. After that I heard Koto Chinese Revenge as one of them. And then my friend asked weren't you going to Italy to buy records? It was before the post order. It started with Manhattan in Copenhagen and Ding Dong, if you remember?
Speaker 1:Yes, I remember that.
Speaker 2:Before Street Dance came to town. But they didn't get that much success with it. So we took ourselves down. So we took the road, me and him, 1500 kilometers from Aarhus to Milano and out on the legendary factories Ildiskottur and Disco Magic.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:They don't exist today, no, but they fell behind, came all the way from Denmark just to buy records. So we became super good friends with them and that means that in the next three years, I think I've bought records 11 times. So that was really a passion.
Speaker 1:I've seen some pictures from a car. You have an old picture where it says it's a blue boxcar.
Speaker 2:People were shocked when I posted it back in the 00's Revival started in Italo. No one knew there was a delivery car from Il Discotto. No exactly, I was so lucky to get a picture there.
Speaker 1:So you had traveled to Italy and dropped records from home.
Speaker 2:Yes, both on charter tours, bus tours and regular holidays. We often drove some Eurocar cars back and forth. It filled up a lot, especially on a bus tour where we had 600-800 records at home and it filled up a lot. And then the driver, we had him hide800 plates at home and it was filling up, oh my God. And then the driver, we had hidden them out in the machine room.
Speaker 1:He had said out by the engine, but we were afraid they melted, yes, that it got too hot out there.
Speaker 2:So we then got some people to come in on a pair of seats we could see that were empty. So we could sit all the way home and over where these plates they probably, and these records were probably brought home to Aarhus. Oh, how insane. Flemming A little bit, I don't know if it is.
Speaker 1:I'm a bit scared of that kind of stuff, but it's a fantastic story that you've taken down there so many times to get one specific kind of music. You could say, right, yes, that's just funny. Are there anyone who listens to this at home at that time? Other than you, because I play at that time, but then it's only the big hits. Can you say, like we just said, dolce Vita, ryan, paris now I have to watch out what I say, but those things, garcebo, were the ones I knew at that time.
Speaker 2:And cool. You've played in them, peter, because they're something to Denmark. Can you say?
Speaker 1:They're something that becomes a big hit in Denmark, especially because of Jørgen Myhlus, I think, who presented them in. Is it something like El Dorado or something?
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly there was something with Gastebo. He was also a son of a diplomat and lived for a short period in Helluva.
Speaker 1:If I remember correctly oh.
Speaker 2:I don't know that, no, but there are thousands of them right now. Yes, yes, oh fantastic, and then later. Kim Schumacher of course, yes, yes, who lent a lot of records in the street dance and was the perfect presenter and entertainer.
Speaker 1:Yes, but was he so much on the stage? Wasn't it more high energy?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, he had his strength from New York. He presented a lot of super cool mixtapes from. I can't remember what they were called?
Speaker 1:No, I don't remember, but he presented some fantastic things for all of us.
Speaker 2:Yes, actually, and the way he did it gave an enormous impact, so everyone I know was deeply impressed by him.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's how it was. For me it was very impressive, and that speed and tempo that came in Denmark's radio suddenly was not something we were used to hearing.
Speaker 2:No, so you can also see that many years later, I think there are now that have made some tribute to him.
Speaker 1:He has made some long mixes. I have actually had a guest as well where he tells about the mix and such things, so it's super cool. Flemming, did you only collect the records at that time, or did you start playing with them? How is that? I'm actually a bit in doubt, even though we know each other quite well.
Speaker 2:Yes, I played at a few parties and we also did something in Ridehuset a bigger party there and yes there have been a couple of club arrangements. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:Yes, so you have bought records before everything, but you have a very special love for those four years that define Italo Music for you.
Speaker 2:Yes, most people would probably say that it's a continuation of a 788, and I recognize that but I just think that the shift comes around 86, where the Italians themselves discover their own success and then they start to get better at producing and the machines become different. So it all sounds like Eurodisco. So there you have. Maybe Sabrina in 1987, with Boyce, as maybe the last Italo number, if you can call it that, and do you consider it an Italo number?
Speaker 1:I, you can call it that, and do you consider it as an Italo number? I don't know, it's not right on the edge. Yes, I think you would say that.
Speaker 2:It's made by some Italo producers Claude Puchetto.
Speaker 1:Yes, but who have made things before that right? Yes, where I think they must have made something. In the environment where you have bought records yes, so it's a den omgang hvor du har købt plader også. Ja, så det er lidt en flydende overgang.
Speaker 2:Ja, ja, og fred vær med det. Men de fik bare så meget succes med det, at det kom til at lyde som Jolodisco det hele. Ja, og det kørte jo så I slutningen af 80'erne, der Ja, og så røg jeg jo videre på Havsbølgen, som så mange, and later Techno and then Newbeat.
Speaker 1:Yes, from Belgium. Yes, have you been there yourself.
Speaker 1:Yes no, yes, subsequently I've probably only been on Newbeat on all the tracks. I don't think I discovered that one. I'm very pop in the 80s. I think the first thing I discovered was the end or the end of the 80s, when Ashi came and House was there. That's probably where I started. Otherwise, it's very commercial what I play. I thought until I can see now that many of the things the New Wave people now know from Daddies when they played it and so on. When I see their lists then it was a bit like the same we played there. I can still see that. I've just not thought of it as a genre. When I played something like Wizards or something, then I thought it was just a hit.
Speaker 1:It was in the old Silkebrødder or what we're way back on what's called Ingesvang Kro.
Speaker 2:We're way back.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's right, we're two, three, four four years back.
Speaker 2:Wow, Hold on, time goes. Time goes too fast. And now you're saying I saw you had Rusty Egan on visit. Yes, I had Rusty Egan on visit. It was a fantastic experience.
Speaker 1:I love it. And still insanely good selectors, I think. And a good DJ still, oh cool. A, and still a good DJ, oh cool. I mean a lot. I didn't play records anymore, but I was able to put the music together. Still, that's what you can say. So it was a great experience. Flemming, you said in the intro that you came to be called King of the Cuts. What's going on there? Because you've collected the records for many years. You've also been making some mixes, and King of the Cuts is a mix competition, or how is it?
Speaker 2:Yes, it's a good introduction to it, peter. It happened in 2003, after my children started to get a little bigger, and then I thought it would be fun to see what happens with Italo.
Speaker 2:And then I searched a little bit and found out to my huge surprise that there was a Dutch radio station which really gathered all Italo fans from all over the world to this revival which was suddenly starting again, and there was a lot that posted some mixes and people were completely swarming over them. It was before everything was on discos, so there was really a fight to get the records. And then I thought it's amazing, I have 500 others.
Speaker 2:And then I started making some mixes there and they got enormous attention from all over the world, and it was before Facebook.
Speaker 1:So it was a fun time. It was in MySpace almost. Yes, it was.
Speaker 2:But especially this radio station that had the perfect forum where you could also share those old pictures which I just told you about. So they achieved almost a cult status in the course of 0.5. And then suddenly they made a mix competition, An international mix competition. Who can make the coolest Italo mix? Yes, and then I thought to myself as a three-year-old well, I can try to join in. Even though there were a lot of young, hopeful DJs, I stood up against.
Speaker 1:Yes, but I think you must have had some knowledge of some records that you might not have known.
Speaker 2:Yes, and it can sound very nerdy, but I love telling a story with a mix and many people think that sounds completely stupid. What does that mean? It means that many of the mixes I've done around here I try to tell a futuristic, room-traveling story, combined with these instrumental Italo synths.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And so it of course comes with a whole lot of film samples from Dune and Star Wars and others. Okay, nice, and that was a bit of what was in the time then.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So many of these Italo covers, at least the more obscure things they have spaceships and robots on the past. So many of the Italo covers, in any case, the more obscure things they have spaceships and robots on the covers and I think I used some of that storytelling style in this short mix and they completely run backwards and then I win that mix competition and that really started in 2005.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So then it rolled in with offers of remixes and edits and other mixes.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So that was probably the starting point.
Speaker 1:That's where it really got into it again, after you had maybe just gone and collected the records at home and you get some children and there's a little adult life in it and then suddenly the children are so big that you actually get your passion back again, or what I completely agree.
Speaker 2:And I also think that giving your passion back to the new generation. That triggered me completely. So it was enormously exciting to see whole people from Holland and other places around the world be deeply impressed by these things. The passion that you saw in the comments. That gave me even more motivation to do more.
Speaker 1:Yes, because it's pretty wild Flemming because it's all the big Italian numbers, both obscure, and it's pretty wild Flemming because it's all the big Italian numbers, both Obscura. And I've said Dolce Vita, but recently also Dolce Vita.
Speaker 2:You've been allowed to remix right.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly, or been asked to remix. Yes, it's pretty insane in a way. I think that we're sitting here in Denmark and so many people don't know you in Denmark, but if you come out and if you practice this a little bit, then it's. I don't know if there are any who are bigger than you in that right now or have done in the last 10-15 years.
Speaker 2:That's a good question.
Speaker 1:Peter, it's also hard for you to say of course.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm actually really into being a front person or anything, and that's also why I don't play anymore, but I think it's funny for me to create that and see people's joy. Yes, I think it was Thorsten Bukabutta you talked to who said that the creation process for him could be really exciting. Yes, and that's when you sit and play at Dolce Vita, as you've heard over 40 years ago, and suddenly get a new version of it. That gives you something.
Speaker 1:And can they find all the old tracks and tunes you can get?
Speaker 2:No, they have been lost almost all of them. Most of them. There are some who have been good at it, for example Savaraj Roberto Zannini, who later got Dan's World Attack Records and Corona Rhythm of the Night and Hits Up through the 90s. They have been better at it to hide them digitally.
Speaker 1:Yes. They have been a bond that probably doesn't go over the top, I think, from that time.
Speaker 2:Yes, they have been a bond that probably has not been overplayed, I think, since then. Yes, many of them have been small, obscured companies that have largely closed the day after. It is completely impossible to find them there. But it has just made me, peter, that after 10,000 hours I could listen to all the elements and play all the chords or the arpeggios and the bass.
Speaker 1:So you've completely recreated it all instead.
Speaker 2:Yes, and that gave me a huge advantage in the remixes, because when they were remixed it was more edit style, you know. So you just put some drums over it and EQ the old drums a little bit in the sound picture yes, exactly. And then you make some cuts at the start, make the intro a little longer yes, exactly, and tweak the sound a little bit so it's not completely boring.
Speaker 1:I do make it completely boring, but it's. So it's not a remix, not at all. No, no, but it's crazy enough that you've been creating it all.
Speaker 2:Yes, there are also some people who ask me how do you get time for it?
Speaker 1:Yes, I was about to say you have to use so 225 maxi singles.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:It takes a little time. Yes, it does, it does. And how long is this Flemming?
Speaker 2:It's only 10, 12, 15 years, maybe, yes 15 years, roughly speaking, since I won that mix competition. Yes, then it's completely gone. Yes, and then it's extra cool now, in the later years, it has the. It's great that in recent years the biggest Italo-club, syks has made a collaboration with me, and I've been super happy about that. They buy all the rights back in the mid-90s, okay, when the legendary Disco Magic went on tour. Yes, then they buy all the rights to many, many, many thousands of the biggest Italo hits.
Speaker 1:Yes. So that means that I can just say now we can remix this and that, yeah, and you've recently made a whole mix that's been released on vinyl too right, yes, and there's a lot coming in the future too, yeah. So, flemming, now we're sitting in your living room here and there's, I have some records, but there's so many records here. How the hell do you keep the family out here?
Speaker 2:Yes, good question. I have also been allowed to have my girlfriend Charlotte in our new house and get a house for it, so I have to limit myself a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yes, or else it should be a big house. Yes, exactly, and do you still buy records?
Speaker 2:Flemming yes, there are no reissues. That I find funny. Then you get them in promotion or I'm not sure. So I don't buy that much.
Speaker 1:No, because you must have been able to collect those at least been able to from 1982 to 1986, right, yes, yes, they must have be here In principle, peter.
Speaker 2:My collection was complete in 1986. Yes, and it was quite unique, and every time I've written it on the net people have fallen behind. Yes, because they've been collecting for the last 20 years. Yes, but it was after all the tours down there, and then in between the tours we made a deal with a local record company here in Aarhus so I could be up to date between the old Music Maker, if you remember.
Speaker 1:Yes, I can remember that, but what?
Speaker 2:was it that was down there? Well, I mean.
Speaker 1:And was it?
Speaker 2:Kjelda at one point. Yes. First it was Bjarne who had it yes, and when my friend and I got down there in 1983 and asked him. They said I heard. Yes, and then my friend who was a fluent Italian called Ilta Scotto Disco Magic and ordered all the new ones. And then they got Lehman Transport. And then a week later they were there and everything was sold on the way. Yes, so, bernd, when he got his eyes on it, he said that was a good deal, and then he took over a little.
Speaker 1:There was something to add there. Yes, they have been wild enough. You must have been some of them who have been interested in it.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, and one of them, my old buddy, michael. He took over the store for a period. And then it was Street Dance with Boris, yes, and later Jesper, yes, and then it was our common friend René Kirkegaard who created his own store down there in Borgade. Yes, exactly yes, that's almost the whole story.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, oh, what a fantastic feeling. What's it called? Well, I think I can remember I'm making a song where I sampled a record that I actually don't know what it's called. It's called Body Electric.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Which sounds very, very Italian. Yeah, and I know I have it standing. I don't think I've bought it myself, I think it's, you know, bought, like I bought some or got some of them. So it was standing there in between and there was just such an insanely good electronic drive in it which I sampled and used on one of my records. And then I remember I played it for you and you said that's damn Danish. I said no, that's not Danish.
Speaker 1:It was some other obscure. He says no, it's not Danish, it's one or the other. And then it turns out it's a guy called Sten who in the early 80s makes a lot of things on a record company called Harlequin. Daniel Deneuve.
Speaker 2:Yes, completely right.
Speaker 1:So you try to copy the Italian style.
Speaker 2:Yes, he was asked by record companies. Just like Laban blev spurt, der I 1984, som ikke gjorde, lavet noget, der lød ligesom det her fra Sydeuropa. Ja, Og der lavede Sten da både en Dolce Vita-core-version, og så lavede han sit eget Body Oil Extract der som gik hen og blev ret sjæld, rare and obscure in the collection crisis.
Speaker 1:It was obvious to me that it was pretty cool. I didn't know anything about that when I was sampling it. I didn't know anything about that, but you actually come to talk to Sten in that period, or?
Speaker 2:you get in touch. Yes, he has always been angry about using synonyms and some name tags, but that was to make it more authentic, so he had some Italian name tags, yes. And then it went a time before I found out that it was a guy from Forrest who lives 10 kilometers from me. Yes, so one day in 2008, I called and said are you sure you have a very, very, very well-known record? No, that was Hans Sørum, right? No? And then I was invited out to his studio in the basement there and out on the frost, and since that day, we've done a lot together in the next ten years.
Speaker 1:So it was great to see how he, of course, became insanely happy to see that his old things found some meaning here 30-40 years later and you ended up actually re-producing Body Electric and remix it or make a new version of it or whatever it is right.
Speaker 2:Yes, right, there were. Original voices were also thrown out.
Speaker 1:Oh, that was it. Yes, and they were also recreated.
Speaker 2:Yes, so everything had to be recreated. So it was also an exciting process and I must say, sten, thank you so much the ten years we sat in his studio together. It's amazing what you've learned. It was analog equipment, so it was old synthesizers that had to be tuned and warmed up before they could be used.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, yeah, because he was so good at it. You could hear that in the productions that were there that time, so you must have learned a lot of things from what you've used here yourself the last ten years, right? Yes, I agree, it's a completely crazy story that Body Electric. It's you who spotted it and I stole it from someone else and I got completely nervous about it being so well-known so you could ruin a sample film.
Speaker 2:But it happened. Fortunately didn't it? Yes, fortunately no, no.
Speaker 1:Flemming, how A collection like this Now I know for sure what records cost. Is it unvaluable or what?
Speaker 2:That's a good question. In the 00's, when I presented all the things that weren't on Discogs, they were sold for far over 1,000 kroner. The ones that were found, and I would have given two eyes to them.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:Back there on Elkiskottshv had given them two eyes. Yes, exactly Back there on El Disco Magic. Yes, so yes, it's probably a deal. Yes, yes, if you count it all together, I don't think I'll sell it anymore. I've unfortunately sold it out over the years. It filled a part of my old home so my dear ex-wife was a little tired of it.
Speaker 1:Yes, we can understand that. Yes, that we can understand. Actually.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I also hid some in a gutter, which unfortunately ended up. Yes, what happened to them? Yes, I had a gutter where there was room for a lot of plates, so I needed to fill it up.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And there was some wall dust down there so I taped them well to the boxes so there was no dust in the plates. Yes, I should never have done that because, you know, sometimes here in the spring we have minus two degrees one day and then eight degrees the next day. Yes, and the condensation that was created in these boxes. They could not be turned on, they were totally hermetic because of all the tape and that meant there was moisture in them. Yes, so unfortunately it ended with under yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, no, that's scary. Yes, a little. Yes, have you bought some of them again?
Speaker 2:or what have you? Yes, I've had to find some again, but it wasn't in the talon I had hidden.
Speaker 1:No, you had hidden them that weren't so important to you. I think they were something along the way.
Speaker 2:But I must say, Peter, that when I visited you out in Brastrup, you had a perfect set-up. Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1:I still have a pretty nice set-up. Now it's on the second floor in our house after we moved to Copenhagen. Have you had any studies there? Yes, but it hasn't been lit in the seven years we've lived there. I don't have any more ideas to make music. It's all over.
Speaker 2:You've also been busy with the club and so on.
Speaker 1:Yes, I've been busy with the club. I still buy records and still play a lot. I still like to find records.
Speaker 2:Are there any old ones? You lack.
Speaker 1:There are always some old ones.
Speaker 2:I lack. Yes, because I can remember many years ago. You really found some rare ones.
Speaker 1:Yes, I still do, I still do. I find some, but I think actually, after Holland Fleming, that there are some that are better to find than me. And there I am so lucky, like Pac, as we just talked about, when I came out in Cannes on Tullinsgade is insanely good at finding some things, and then I have a couple of other pieces which are also good at saying when they've found something. So it's still a success to find some really funny things.
Speaker 1:I don't think I'm so good at reading anymore. I've become bad at reading. I've become a little maly and go to Discogs and buy them, so you're not out and dig yourself. No, it's so rare. Last time we were in New York and things like that, where you walk past so many record stores, I couldn't. I couldn't actually. No, I don't know. I think I've been in records enough in my time, yes, but I know it.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's the same here. Now I've come to this, where you, just when you want one, you buy it instead of for going to look for it, and I would also say, peter, that in the 80s you were completely blown away by coming into these big distribution companies like Disco Magic and Il Disco. There were maybe more than 100,000 records, so you crawled almost around the walls and opened all the boxes and you were totally swine to dust and shit. But it was fun at the time.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's fantastic what I mean. And now we just talked about Before. There are some legendary pictures. Then you also have another legendary picture From a fellow friend, and the pictures are actually both. They are both from you, in front of a record player In your apartment, in your youth apartment. And from Kjell Tolstrup.
Speaker 2:And then there is a stack of records when there is, among other things yes, there I have already known as a very, very young yes, already in 1981 I discovered that he also had a music interest and we lived on each side of Brabrandhallen on Engdalsvej there in Brabrand. So we started to see each other and he came over and mixed all day long. So my parents were about to get completely worried and asked him if he was going to do something else If you couldn't do anything else.
Speaker 1:Yes, because you have a 12-tiger or a 1200, I think Two of them. Yes, it's very early to have those things. Yes, actually.
Speaker 2:So that gave a lot of fun sessions there. And just the picture you referred to, peter, that was a fun story because Kjeld wanted to make a Heaven's Heavens a mega-mix that we sent to a record label in England, okay. So that made him go crazy and it sat in the same box and it was with a cassette tape recorder with a manual pause button, something so obscure. Shortly after it only came with an electronic pause button where there is a ten-part.
Speaker 1:Pause or delay yes. So a pause or a shift yes a shift.
Speaker 2:But with the old technique there, which I had already used in 1982,. Well, there you could stop necessarily on a drum beat, and then you change the records and then you release again, and then you pretend you mixed as if nothing had happened, but just with some new records.
Speaker 2:Yes wow, and that went up in Kjell's head. Yes, so it's been exciting to follow him in all the years. Now you heard my parents' concern about his way. They knew him really well. Yes, yes, but as my grandfather said, you'd rather start reading something, so you don't follow Kjell's footsteps. Yes, and that's what it was yes, so I read to an engineer and that was fine.
Speaker 1:But the passion has held on anyway.
Speaker 2:Yes, and you often think about it. I think if you had followed it like the dead and like yourself, peter, and spent your whole life on it.
Speaker 1:Have you forgotten it a bit.
Speaker 2:Yes, you sometimes think about it.
Speaker 1:Now I think you're a little in the eye of the hurricane already in the early 80s, in what you love, down at the clubs, at the places, in Milano.
Speaker 2:Yes, I was completely clear there. But then Kostøven Formud came to the studio and I didn't have the right connection. No, so if they had switched back then, or if they had somehow come into contact with the right yes, then it would have been a different story today.
Speaker 1:Would you have hoped to have moved down there and seen what happened?
Speaker 2:Yes, maybe not completely, but I traveled so much down there anyway. So but would you have done?
Speaker 1:that today. If you knew what you know today, maybe? Yes, I often think about it. I don't know. We're just as old as before. We started to travel for 11 years. We were very much about taking an education and things like that. I often think that I'm wasting something in my life. But no, no, hey, shouldn't you have packed your wallet there in the early 80s and then moved to New York or whatever it might have been, and then taken it over and saw what happened?
Speaker 2:And that's what's so cool about listening to some of your other podcasts, where you can hear how people have tried to live the dream they have.
Speaker 1:Yes, I think there are actually a lot of people who have been better than the others, yes, or at least better than me. Mine comes late and yours too.
Speaker 2:It's like 43 years old you start to mix in the world. Yes, it's completely right. It gives a little stuff to think about. What? About the children, are they interested? In music too, when they went to school, it was my biggest fans, so I went up and picked up my son in first grade where they could hear an Italo Megamix I had given them, so they came running over and they were my biggest fans.
Speaker 2:How fantastic, I would say. Quickly they became a little more independent and found their own style. That's my son, and my dear daughter too, despite everything.
Speaker 1:How did you guide them? Flemming?
Speaker 2:Did you guide them?
Speaker 1:to go on a mission, or to say remember to take some education, or what.
Speaker 2:Yes, now you touch it earlier, peter, and I think it also applies to you that you support almost what they want. Now, where we two may have come from a generation that my father said you'd rather not go to Kj. At man støtter nærmest hvad de vel nu om det, hvor vi to måske kom fra en generation at min far der sagde du må hellere la være med at gå I Kjelds Fodsbro, og så prøv at få dig en uddannelse?
Speaker 2:Ja, Og så gjorde jeg det. Ja, Det er jo også fint nok at det er ikke noget jeg fortryder. Nej and yes, I have really told my children that they should only deal with what they want to do. No matter what it is, I will probably support them. It's a bit late now, even though the politicians are starting to say we should all work and so on.
Speaker 1:Yes, they find it out themselves. We should probably find out how much we want to work. I think, of course, we should have a society to run. It's not something we want to go into. I have no understanding about it at all, so it has to be honest.
Speaker 2:Have you ever been to Italy in the late 80s? Yes, I have actually once.
Speaker 1:Yes, I think it's in the wrong direction because I think it's in the 80s. Yes, and it's in Rimini, wow, and we are very impressed by the DJs that play there. They mix and it just runs and it just sits in the shell. It was really wild.
Speaker 2:Which clubs were you on? I don't know, you have been close to some of the most legendary Italo clubs, which is in Rimini or what?
Speaker 1:Yes, there was.
Speaker 2:L'Alto Monte Studio, the second world studio, which had a spaceship on the facade so you were almost sucked into another world.
Speaker 2:And then every evening, the Creatures played a fantastically spectacular show where you actually destroy the dance floor with some big robots running around and then some false snow comes down. And then the Creat snow comes down and then these creatures come out. They look like aliens with some horns out of their arms and look like 800-900 years old creatures. Wow, and one of the shows they kidnapped a young lady and took her up on stage and just her up there, okay. And then during that crazy show, there comes also a drumstick up from the basement. The dance floor is simply a roof and it goes up to these insane scenes which you can still see on YouTube.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, were you down there, and experienced that, yes, and that's probably one of those defining moments in one's life where the passion really sets you up, that you, as a young man who sucks everything to yourself, experience something that was so insane Because I've also been to cool clubs in London and New York and all kinds of other places but again that fucking pain that they would make a space show. That was so insane and they had state-of-the-art laser shows there that blew us over.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then we were creating that space flyer, the spaceship that came up. That was very famous in a film called Jocks from 1984. Yeah, so there you can see something of it. It's on the net.
Speaker 1:Well, that's a good idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we knew it, so we wanted to get in yes, yes and no, no. I said it's in the toilet, you can't get in there.
Speaker 2:You weren't allowed to do that. No, but then it ended up that, my friend, he got over it. At first we had heard some tianers but they weren't quite ready for it. Then we had to get the manager and then it ended up that we were allowed to get in. So we had to get the manager, and then it ended up with us being allowed to get in. Okay, so I can say today that I've been in the space fly, wow. And my friend, he blew so Well, he broke all of it. Well, it's just again a horrible picture of how big the passion was for such young people.
Speaker 1:Yes, you have been completely crazy, bitter Flemming. Yes, you have been completely crazy about that, Flemming.
Speaker 2:It has been completely insane, yes and then it's just fun to have experienced those places that now don't exist in the same form. Yes, L'Altromondo exists still, but it became a techno club many years later and that room ship didn't come up anymore. It stopped 20 years ago. And then I also experienced Cellophane, which is also a well-known club.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So if people want to see something, they can use Google, or there's a sea urn on the net if you search a little from the tour there or from those tours.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, when is that Flemming that?
Speaker 2:Can you remember that? Yes, it's right in the mid-80s. So I think I was there in 87, just like you were actually. Wow, and in 86. We end up there completely by chance.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can't remember why we drive down there. Four boys, yeah, four. Yeah, I have no idea what's going on in Rimini at that time. No, no, but.
Speaker 2:I actually visited Rimini recently again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, with my family. I have no idea what's going on in Rimini at the moment, but I've actually visited Rimini recently.
Speaker 2:Again, yes, With my family.
Speaker 1:Yes, when we took a trip through all of Italy, but it seems a bit like it's been quiet since 1987.
Speaker 2:We were there last.
Speaker 1:Yes, I was there last year with my girlfriend and it wasn't the same. No, it wasn't the same experience. No, it wasn't.
Speaker 2:No, so you were completely right to stand still and the club culture has totally changed. In the 80s it was a cannon party.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, it was like Italy's Ibiza, or something, wasn't it? Yes, absolutely Because it was like a party. Yes yes, it's called by Rimini right.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly yes.
Speaker 1:And then a trip to San Marino right up there.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, fantastic, we can recommend that.
Speaker 1:Yes, you can always recommend that, and there were also cool record companies. There was something called Disco Pew I can remember that we bought records there when we were there. Yes, I can remember that.
Speaker 2:So they had all the things that we might not have known in advance. Yes, so you can imagine when you're there at L'Alchimondo Studios the huge discotheque, a place for at least 5,000, and then you hear something you didn't know. Yes, it was almost a shock.
Speaker 1:And you couldn't just say Shama.
Speaker 2:No, and you couldn't even get up to DJ Bull.
Speaker 1:No, if it was that.
Speaker 2:It was 3-4 meters up under the ceiling, so there was just a little sweat on the forehead Until we found them the next day in Disco Pew.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, Because we had no idea how much money you had spent on records At all. No, I almost didn't think about it.
Speaker 2:You didn't want to think about it, did you? No, no, no. But I think we talked a little about it, peter, when you interviewed me at Demers Radio that later in the Italo-bølgen I was in House Techno, newbeat and so on.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And I think we mentioned that you spent 16,000 kroner a month. Yes, for one For one month, yes, but you can tell yourself, peter, that no we're not talking about that. No.
Speaker 1:It's secret.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's very secretive. It's very, very secretive, it's very secretive. But I think, just by looking at, the sizes. People can see what kind of a crazy person you are yes, completely.
Speaker 1:You have used all your money for it or at least I have. And I think you have also used a large part of your money for this.
Speaker 2:My great luck was that I lived at home for a few years there with my parents, and then I didn't have to pay anything for it. So all my free time jobs were up to these tours and to cook all the dishes I wanted. It wasn't everyone who had that opportunity.
Speaker 1:So it was lucky. Yes, that's something to see, flemming. Flemming, have you ever thought about? Because I think, when it's so big abroad and with 225 maxis in the last, it's only the last 10 years, I think, isn't it? Yes, yes, you must have had a lot of expectations about coming abroad and playing, absolutely a lot yes, and you haven't said yes.
Speaker 2:No I had a commercial job in a consulting house in the 00's where I drove dams around all week and I didn't make sense when I came home on weekends that I would also travel there. So I couldn't say no to the family. So I said no to the madness in me there. You must have done that. I have also done that the last many years Plus.
Speaker 1:I also say no to a lot of remix things because I simply don't have time for it, not if it's so many, because it also takes a little time to make them, I think.
Speaker 2:Exactly. I have my good ordinary work, which I'm actually happy. It's a nice balance, peter, to just rush into your dream world and get the Drug and the music in the evening.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly, but couldn't you? I think if it had been me, I had a period of 10 years where I toured the whole world, and that would not have been without. It has given some fantastic experiences, I think.
Speaker 2:Yes, it can be a little bit of a challenge.
Speaker 1:Well, it's not too late, is it?
Speaker 2:Oh, I think, aren't there many young, fresh people who want to go out and give it a go?
Speaker 1:Yes, but it's not necessarily that they're better is it but it's no.
Speaker 2:But it's nice to hear you've had some good experiences with it. I've had some fantastic experiences and I remember Kjeld talking a lot about his tours and all the connections he got in London.
Speaker 1:It was crazy.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, so I can see the idea in it.
Speaker 1:Yes, but I'm thinking about all the underground things that have been there. It's been there for a long time now, yes, and it's not, although we I can remember that I also started to collect some of these things up. They are placed in 2000 and what? 7-8 pieces maybe, or something like that. I think there are nine, ten, twelve pieces there, or something like that. Because there were suddenly too many in the Balearic set. You started to play and such things. Right, yes, but I think there must be there. It's a huge one again and has a big revival. That's what I meant, but it hasn't gotten any smaller.
Speaker 2:No, it's quite incredible that I've had a revival in 20 years, is that it? And I've seen a lot of people come into this bubble and then jump out of it again. I've just kept all 20 years. Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1:All 40 years, actually. All 40 years, yes, actually.
Speaker 2:And it's fun to see that new players are coming on the stage. And over time the style has also changed to a little more vocal Italo and to a little more new Italo, where it's new production, and to be able to do that. When I got into it in the 00's, that was when I stopped it with obscure B-sides and full knell on the send-in-signals where it was blown back. Yes.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, but then it will happen that many of these artists they have suddenly gone up for them here in the last zeros and first in the tens Suddenly, friends are familiar with what I have said to the old artists Are you sure you are a hit, an underground hit on the net? Yes, they don't know. No, so many of them have dug up again and tried Because of the net, maybe right in front of them.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, and try to, because of the internet, maybe right in front of them.
Speaker 2:Yes, and that's also what, in the 00's, gave me all those connections which I didn't get by playing out like you have, peter.
Speaker 1:No, no, that's it, that's it. I've also gotten some connections via the internet. That's not it, but it's insane that it's such interesting because it's a very narrow world, as you started to say. It's very nerdish to say that there are four years which are the most important, roughly speaking.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's a niche. Yes, you should see that. So smart people in the industry say that they are excited to see if it dies out, when now all of us middle-aged men no longer want to get started? Yes. Then it really comes to getting the LACMUS test. The test if it can hold, yes, that's it.
Speaker 1:Yes, but you will be V-Flamming.
Speaker 2:Yes, I can't help, but let it go. Yes, but you will be a. Vflemming yes, I will hardly let it go, and also because Syks, who I work closely with. They have a fantastic background and it keeps me up to date. The next thing I'm going to do here is to use Brian Nye's Torkensudder Night yes, and.
Speaker 1:I've also sampled it. Yes, I can remember. I'm getting really riled up today. No, no, I'm sorry, I get a lawyer's account or something. No, no, you don't, because I haven't sold anything, so it's so easy, it's really yes, yes.
Speaker 2:So that made me try to see if I could add something. Yes, it's sometimes difficult with the most famous, I mean Dolce Vista.
Speaker 1:I had a little bit of a fear of performance. I can understand that. It's one of the most. It's one of the absolute greatest, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Yes. So I would say, on the 12th summer I made it. It reminds me a lot of the original, Maybe just a little harder and a little more modern in some way I've actually bought it you have.
Speaker 1:Yes, I had to. I had to because it was one of my dreams back then, and when you now had mix and toy and had to offer money, I thought but I have later made a club version where I go a little more up with break it, which I have always been crazy about.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's a fantastic break there, a completely crazy break, so that I got blown away when I heard it. I still use it at the same time.
Speaker 1:Do you? Yes, I use it. I use it from break today, but I also use it from instrumental side. Yes, and then you know where people know what it is. Yes, and then mix it out again, but there can be a really good.
Speaker 2:It just pumps the mood away when you hear the sound come back, and it's probably not you who's mentioning it, peter, because it was also what Gjeld Solstrup asked me for in 2008, when he wanted to introduce the Danish audience to Italo and I was going to make a mega mixer and have an interview in his Unka Bunga there. He also had two specific wishes he had the break from Dolce Vita and the break from Gazzivo Masterpiece.
Speaker 1:Also legendary, yes exactly.
Speaker 2:That would be to say it also revealed that he had a really good ear for it.
Speaker 1:Yes, he had a fantastic ear for it. If there are no of else, that's in doubt. No, no, no, there's no one else that's in doubt. Flemming, I'm sitting here and thinking it's strange that you don't take those Ups.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Ups when it's there. Why I think I want I'm really happy that I've been there. Do you understand what I mean? There are some experiences I wouldn't have had without. I think it's also because I've had my time and now I know that I've taken them. I take them late. Mine is in the late 30s and 40s. I take my things away for real. You don't think you'll get to To get through it.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm sure I will, but but you?
Speaker 1:don't think it's worth it.
Speaker 2:No, not at all. I think I spend so much time on it during the week that my weekends have become a bit happy with my dear friends. Yes, that's why.
Speaker 1:I'm happy. But it could well be, it could well take two weeks or three weeks and say, well now, now I want to go around to those places where I've made things for them and where they still don't play it and where there are people who are interested. It can be people from festivals or parties or anything like that who have had a bid for it. So I think there must be not because I'm supposed to be the engine in your project, but there must be some experiences that I think will be some huge experiences.
Speaker 2:I would also say one of the things I've thought about in the was that I said no to playing at Bergheim in Berlin four or five years ago. Yes, Because the first Italo documentary film I was in was to be promoted, and then they had arranged an arrangement there, and I often thought it would have been fun to say that I had played at Bergheim.
Speaker 1:What is the reason for you to say no?
Speaker 2:and it's fun to say you've played at Bergheim. What's the reason for you to say no?
Speaker 1:Well, I was busy with work and family and Remix, as he said, or is there also something in that you haven't played in so many years?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Is there a little Now. It's Mix you're making at home and stuff, and it's not because I'm going to go on and on, but I'm just thinking, if I've had a long break, then you can well doubt your own abilities if you have to do things. Yes, I mean, is there any kind of performance anxiety also with a man who has become so big within a genre that they maybe only have seen in documentaries, only heard things from? You know that yourself. If you have someone you really look som de måske kun har set I dokumentarer, kun har hørt tingene fra, det ved du selv. Hvis man har nogen, man virkelig ser op til nogen, man har fulgt nogen, man har hørt deres ting og så skal ud og høre det og så bliver man skuffet.
Speaker 2:Ja, det har du fuldstændig. Er der noget?
Speaker 1:legende skuffelse, der kunne ligge bagved også.
Speaker 2:Ja, altså du ram. It's a really good question because some of those I've been inspired by over the years from abroad they've really hit on the mystic side of me that I haven't been out playing so people didn't know me and they thought it was strange and weird. Everyone else wanted to run out and play everywhere, but now, due to the circumstances you've heard of, it's just always take care of yourself and to stay at home.
Speaker 1:So it's also the mystic that makes it even more interesting. Yes, actually.
Speaker 2:There was one from Sætland who once told me that it was part of history. I remember that, and that can be true.
Speaker 1:Do you think you're?
Speaker 2:right? Yes, it can be true. Sometimes I feel sorry that I don't look be snubbed.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you do, because you can't use it for anything. You get scared. I just think I can see there's also a point in the mystique that makes it what's it called? Print the legend, or what's it called? What's it called? It's called that. It's called that. The legendary status you get because you're not accessible can actually grow more than if you come out and say, no, I've seen it. Yes, then it wasn't wilder.
Speaker 2:No, that's completely right. It's not conscious I do it or have thought it's a strategy.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:It's been practical circumstances that have played out in that way.
Speaker 1:I think it's the same with the things I've experienced in New York with Paradise Garage and the Loft and things like that. Now I've experienced the Loft later, but maybe it's also the magic in that I haven't experienced it that has made it even bigger. Now you've discovered those things in Italy, but it's in a young age, so there's still magic. It's just as magical for you, for us who've only heard about it, or maybe even more because you saw it.
Speaker 2:Now I'm curious which clubs did you see in New York? I?
Speaker 1:saw no clubs in New York. I've seen the Love Party, but that was in London where David Magusa held them in after the game. I've seen that many times, but that was in London when David MacCouse Was holding it with the following I've seen that many times and heard it many times and it's been absolutely fantastic. But I would have liked to have experienced Some of the original things when I look back, but when we talk about that, then there can also be Some of the magic. Yes, it's been with some of the 80's that you've seen later and thought I've never done that. Yes, it has been with some of the 80 bands you've seen later on and thought that should never have been done. That's completely right. There have been some illusions about it, I would say, because it's not what it might have been.
Speaker 2:No, and that's also what's happening in these years within the Italian revival genre that these artists suddenly discover that they've been popular again, and then they're out and there performing with a microphone.
Speaker 1:But that's not what it was.
Speaker 2:No, it's not the same, and it's nice that people get a little out of it now, because it was a terrible industry back then. Many of them almost didn't get a penny for it. No, dolce Vita was almost underscored on the back of a napkin and then sold 8 million copies afterwards.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yes, so there are many crazy stories there where the artists have remixed it. They write to me here many years later how cool you have made a remix and we can like it and so on. It's fantastic. Can you hear that? Can I run high for a long time? Yes, but they write that they were young and stupid that time and they didn't really make any proper contracts.
Speaker 1:So, yes, they had the rightness. They simply lay with some record companies or those who have made some.
Speaker 2:So those of them who have had some half-big hits have almost not gotten any of it no, and that's also a bit in a way sad, but it's super sad and it must also be scary when you've made something as young and see it bloom again.
Speaker 1:It's nice to do, but it must also be a bit boring, so you still don't get what you deserve for it.
Speaker 2:Yes, actually, yes, despite everything, you were smart to come to some slightly larger companies in Belgium in your time.
Speaker 1:I, I was smart enough to get to some bigger companies in Belgium, I still don't get my money. It was quite funny. You just said it now, not because I'm going to sit and deliver some, but because I'm doing it anyway, some what's called Bearfunk that Jacob and I were on and that I've also made myself. Haven't been very good at paying in the last 10 years. And then there's actually a really funny story Now.
Speaker 1:I had Rusty Egan on visit Because I get sent all the votes, all the scores, from we Fade to Great for 10 years ago no, it doesn't fit Eight years ago maybe. And just to know, you can do whatever you want. And that tells what was his name, rusty? That it's a play that has reinterpreted them like you do. And then the rights are actually they don't actually have the rights to that and it's a contract they're going to sign and it's something with Steve Strange is dead and there's been a lot of things about their rights, he tells.
Speaker 1:And then he says and it's something with Steve Strange and death and there's been a lot of things about rights and rights. And then he says and it's him here, and now I'm not saying who the name is, but it's him here who has snitched me and I say it's fucking lying. It's the same man who snitched me. So we have a common story in that the last 10 years no one has taken money from what we've done since then and received money for what we have done from there, and I have just received. I sent him an SMS the other day where I wrote try to see what I got the next day. I actually get my royalty statement, but I have not seen the money yet. I get the statement, but I unfortunately do not get the money.
Speaker 1:So I think it has not only been the 80s and Italy that have not been too good to get paid.
Speaker 2:No, it is a difficult industry.
Speaker 1:It has always been a difficult industry. Yes, it is Really. Yes, flemming, here to the very last, I have asked everyone, when we are not here anymore and we have to bury ourselves, or how to have your funeral ceremony. Should there be music for Flemming Dalums funeral?
Speaker 2:That was a good question.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:It could be very cool, but I think that the relevant decisions have to be made when we get there.
Speaker 1:It will be them who will choose that.
Speaker 2:I have no wish for it.
Speaker 1:It could have been a 60 minute long mega mix with the best Italian things.
Speaker 2:Yes, my dear parents heard, for example, it could have been a 60-minute long mega-mix with the best Italian things.
Speaker 1:Yes, my dear parents heard, for example, dolce Vista so many times in the 80s that they almost have it as a number 40 years later. Wasn't that fantastic, Wasn't it? Fun with your parents that you were allowed to do it yourself. Yes they were deeply impressed. Admit to your father that you might not have taken that stupid education.
Speaker 2:Anyway, he unfortunately went away. No, I just, but I hope he sits there and looks down.
Speaker 1:And says that was the only wrong decision he made.
Speaker 2:Yes, he did it with good intentions.
Speaker 1:No, it's on my parents too. That's how it is, Flemming. Thank you so much for coming by and listening to some of it. It's been absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 2:You're welcome and thank you, Peter.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this week's Museo Lokal podcast, Music my drug. I hope you've enjoyed the music's fascinating universe and found inspiration for your own musical journey. If you'd like to listen to today's guest's list of songs, you can find the list on Museo Lokal's Spotify list on Spotify. Thank you.