A Conversation With Danny Serrano
Effortlessly balancing a will to experiment with an unwavering commitment to the founding spirit of house, Danny Serrano is one of electronic music’s most exciting artists. Mixing up styles and moods, but always focused firmly on the dancefloor’s needs and desires, Danny sets have energy, precision and most of all, soul. Danny is also set to release ‘Craft‘, his artist album via his ‘Serrano’s Kitchen‘ imprint on September 18th. We also had the opportunity to have a chat with Danny about the album, and more too!
Hey Danny, welcome to Dance Rebels! Please introduce yourself too; where are you from, and what is your role in the music industry? Hello nice to e-meet you, I’m from Spain born in Madrid and a fan of music in general.
What inspired you to pursue your career in the music industry? What was the biggest sacrifice you had to make, to enable you to pursue your career fulltime? I’ve always liked music since I was little, I love funky rap etc … when I started DJing I also worked in a fish market at night, I had to go after playing at the club to unload trucks of fish without sleeping
You’ve had a lot of success on music labels, including outings on Knee Deep In Sound, Truesoul, Stereo Productions etc, which is great! Throwing it back to the beginning though, what record do you think got the industry big names attention, your ‘breakout’ track, and why too? I think my tracks “Esperanza” and “Kumba” with my buddy Mendo were great tracks and changed my career.
Later in September you’re also set to release ‘Craft’, your album via your ‘Serrano’s Kitchen’ imprint, what inspired you to produce an album? How much thought, time and effort has gone into making this 9-track LP too? I wanted to make different music during this last year, “Craft” is part of this process, I wanted to show another side of myself as a producer looking for a more melodic sound.
The album features vibes of all sorts, including Progressive House, Indie Dance, Melodic House, Techno, and Hard Techno, how important is it to be diverse in your sounds as a producer? What would you say your ‘signature’ sound is too? I come from Tech house and House, but my sound is changing towards a more melodic techno sound, that’s why I made this album
From the album, what is your personal favourite track? And also why? A lot of the tracks in the album contain vocals too, how important is a top top-line nowadays from your perspective, as a producer? I love producing vocal tracks, for me they are special, a beautiful voice on a track is something with a lot of feeling. My favorite song is all album but maybe I’ll stick with “Bimba” is dedicated to my pet
Times are difficult in life ATM, due to the obvious and unfortunate happenings associated with COVID-19 [twat], how has this affected your career, and how have you adapted? Has this album been one of the benefits of being in a lockdown previously, with more time to produce etc? This album was created before COVID. We are living in a very difficult situation that affects our sector a lot, hopefully everything will go back to the way it was before and no more people die in this world, I think this will change our lives forever.
Please provide 5 pieces of kit that you used to make your new album. These can be hard or software, and also please also provide examples (e.g they were used in track 1 by X) etc. This album does not have hardware in production; it is created all with plugins from Arturia, Logic, Maschine. I love arturia’s pusgin I use Moog a lot I think it has very good sounds, the kick and percussion are from Maschine, it is a perfect tool to make fast rhythms
Where have your drawn inspiration and ideas from whilst producing this album? What has your daily regime be whilst working on the album? Any set patterns you follow daily etc? The only inspiration is my moods when I’m in the studio, I like to make music and I’m not looking for a sound, I like music in general.
If you could give one piece of advice to any young/upcoming producer about music making, what would it be, and why? Also, for your record label, what sort of music are you looking to sign to it too? All producers in the world are welcome to my label, I only look for music that makes me feel, and one piece of advice is to always work hard to achieve your dreams, nothing is impossible
Finally, your dream collab; if you would work with any artist on a record, featuring any vocalist, who would it be, and why? What venue would you want to premiere it in too?! Uff my dream is to be nominated for some Latin Grammy and produce the album of some international artist.
Pre-order Danny Serrano’s ‘Craft’ LP HERE
