Luca Musto is an enthusiast of soul, jazz and blues, his electronic music/’slow-house‘ oozes of grooving beats and hypnotizing melodies. With Italian roots reflecting rhythms through spaces into a musical mirror, you might get ready to set up cozy, yet grounded atmospheres.
Whilst some quote to know him for years spinning musical projects all around the backyards of southern Germany, Luca’s vision of deeply impulsive ambiences moves on as the beat does. Not being in a rush with first releases in the schedule, his wide range of downlifting electronic vibes will be spread through several shows around Europe so far. One might be sure that this journey really just begun.
We caught up with Luca Musto to talk about his latest release ‘Proper Preaching’ out on Feines Tier.
Electronic Groove: Hi Luca, thanks for your time today. Your third solo record ‘Proper Preaching’ just came out. How do you feel about this achievement?
Luca Musto: Thanks for the invite. To be honest, mentally it was harder than usual to let this record “go”. On the other side, it feels better than any release before, since it’s my most personal one to date. It is so refreshing to share results of long, sweaty studio sessions with the world, getting feedback and critics. I feel absolutely blessed in this way.
Electronic Groove: Why the title ‘Proper Preaching’? Are you a messenger of God?
Luca Musto: Maybe… But probably not. I‘ve always been very attached to believe in something higher than ourselves though. Especially with losing my godfather, as well as family members and friends. I felt the need to approach and explore a more spiritual concept on this record: with life and death; the good, the bad, the ugly; light and darkness. The layers will appear different for every single one of us but in the end, while working on these songs, the vibe was really liberating and felt amazingly right and pure.
EG: Tell us about the production process behind it in terms of inspiration and technicality?
Luca Musto: The main song ‘Proper Preaching’ was finished first and most importantly as it gave me a raw idea of where the journey could go. The whole concept is basically influenced by spoken word in general, the funk era and hip-hop. I always try to find different approaches, or a bigger picture during the creation, adding small pieces of field recordings I do, or movie dialogues I come across and feel inspired by. But most importantly I worked with my fellow musicians again. They are the guitarist Leo, who‘s been involved in my very first record on Feines Tier as well with his licks. From first grooves and sketches, we ended up in some studio sessions in Berlin, also with back and forth sending of additional recordings. Same for my Cello-player Benny, who‘s a long time friend of mine and has been involved in ‘State Of Grind‘.
EG: This is your second release on Feines Tier. How did you connect with the label?
Luca Musto: Philipp Fein approached me some years ago, booking me for one of his label parties at the infamous JackWho in Cologne. We connected very well and that night was definitely one for the books for me. We started working together for my first record and were quite sure that wouldn’t be the end of the story but just the very beginning. We‘re all coming from a hip-hop background – so the head knocking is real in there.
EG: You are an enthusiast of soul, jazz and blues. All styles very well connected to an era of oppression and racism. How do these genres influence you personally and production wise?
Luca Musto: That’s right. And political situations with growing right-wing parties make oppression feel so real nowadays. Personally, I have experienced racism through different stages of my life, so I could always relate to the bloody tears, the pain and realness in blues music for example. But especially soul and jazz follow me ever since I started making hip-hop and I love to search for new inspiration in all kind of genres. It can be so liberating to not restrict yourself in an electronic comfort zone, to always search for the next impulse of creativity. That’s how I actually came across my solo project in the first place: with trying to combine different influences into something meaningful and contemporary. Like many other genres did before with creating something new from the old – bringing it back in a new way.
EG: Talking about DJing, what was your latest gig that you enjoyed the most and why?
Luca Musto: Always a tricky question, since every gig is so unique staring from the ride to the airport to every crowd, sound system and so on – that makes it too hard to compare. But I was sitting on my couch lately, on a Saturday afternoon actually digging some music to play at my release party the day after. All of a sudden, my phone rang and there was Sisyphos night manager, asking me if I‘d be into closing the open air beach in about two hours. I instantly said yes – grabbed some vinyl, my headphones and ended up having one of the most legendary times ever. A spontaneous, four hours ride straight into sunset. Just perfect.
EG: What are you planning in the coming months?
Luca Musto: I just finished a couple of remixes for KMLN & Roderic as well as for The Revenge. I’m really looking forward to revealing these ones throughout the summer. I’m currently in my studio in Berlin, already working on new material to present them during the next gigs across Europe and Mexico. The theme is just revealing and I’m curious to see where it’s going to take me with pushing this fusion of downtempo and hip-hop.
EG: How would you describe your sound?
Luca Musto: Real.
Luca Musto’s ‘Proper Preaching’ is already available. Grab your copy here.
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