It’s a star-studded collaboration on Toolroom Trax as cultures collide between original Latin flavours and big club beats from STBAN and James Hurr.
Latin House producer and label head of Flamenca Records, STBAN makes his debut on Toolroom Trax with a collaboration that’s feels fresh and authentic. Known for championing house music laced with flamenco influences, STBAN has been carving out a lane that fuses tradition with the underground that stays true to his roots and sound.
On this new record ‘El Camino’, STBAN once again teams up with Josemi Carmona who layers original flamenco inspired instrumentation which is making these two quite the pair. To elevate the record further, they’ve invited Soleá Morente one of Spain’s most celebrated vocalists to deliver stunning original lyrics. Soleá’s career has spanned everything from indie flamenco to high-profile collaborations which brings an expertise of organic flamenco edge.
We spoke to STBAN about the production process, releasing with Toolroom and his plans for his label Flamenca Records.
On El Camino, the interplay between Josemi Carmona’s guitar, Soleá Morente’s voice, and James Hurr’s beats feels seamless. From a production perspective, what was the hardest part of bringing those very different textures into one coherent track?
From a production perspective, the hardest part about bringing these different textures into a cohesive tract was the fact that, in terms of rhythm and beat, flamenco style is nothing to do with electronic music. In flamenco the beats are different, the style works on three beats or eleven beats, compared to four beats in electronic. So this was the hardest part, particularly for our guitarist Josemi Carmona when he had to record the flamenco parts of the song over the electronic composition. Also once the song was done we then decided to work with James Hurr and as any fan of James knows, his beats are much more dub and club orientated. Our goal for El Camino was to produce a song that really worked on the dance floor, in the clubs, and by the end of the process the track was totally on point thanks to the professionalism of each producer and the musicians involved. In the latest version that has been released, we took a stylistic decision and removed Josemi’s guitars from it. So he remains as featured because he was the flamenco producer and artistic director.
Flamenco rhythms can be unpredictable and off-grid, while house is locked to a strict 4/4. How do you decide when to tidy things up for the club, and when to leave the raw flamenco swing intact?
When we produce flamenco with electronic, we place electronic music as the base, then we bring in flamenco musicians, so in the case of ‘El Camino’ Josemi Carmona on the guitar, we also work with Enrique on trumpets and Bandolero for the cajons, the Spanish percussion. We leave them totally free to feel the electronic beats and add their individual flamenco styles and rhythms on top of it. Sometimes that can give the piece more grove, other times it takes it more off grid.
When you’re layering flamenco guitar over house grooves, are there particular frequencies or sonic spaces you carve out to make sure both elements can breathe without stepping on each other?
The electronic part of the sound is found more in the lower sections, in the drums and in the bass, so the flamenco parts reside more in the medium and high frequencies.
You’ve got flamenco in your bloodline. Was there a moment growing up where you thought, “I need to take this music out of the living room and into the clubs,” or was the connection something that grew slowly?
To be honest it was a step-by-step route. Growing up with flamenco in my family, and of course with it being such a huge part of Spanish culture and my heritage, it’s always been an idea of mine to bring flamenco to a much bigger audience. In 2010 for example, I organised a flamenco event in Lausanne, bringing the Escuela Nacional d’Espagne to perform Carmen in front of more than 1000 spectators. But I also had a fascination with electronic music, going to different clubs and dance floors all over the world and so bit by bit the idea of fusing the two different genres together and bringing this sound to a vast global public became my ultimate goal.
In your productions, do you lean more on live recordings and performance energy, or do you sometimes sample, chop, and rework flamenco elements like a hip-hop producer would?
We very rarely sample. Most of the flamenco music you hear is from recordings from real musicians in our studios. We spent many days in Madrid recording performances of our musicians, we took a lot of lines that we’re able to use in different songs, we also bring our musicians to our main studios in Switzerland to record as well. These sessions let us capture the energy and soul of the performances in a way that you don’t get from using samples, because the musicians are with us and understanding what we’re doing bringing flamenco and electronic together and that gives our sessions a very unique feeling.
Who were the first electronic artists that showed you how underground dance music could carry cultural or regional identity, and did that influence how you approach your own sound?
For me one of the first electronic artists I followed was Frankie Knuckles. I loved the beats and the rhythms of his underground sound; he was one of the first of the big artists to come out of underground dance music. I also really love – and perhaps it’s because it’s the whole fusion between Argentine Tango and electronic music – Gotan Project. That was almost 20 years ago but it still sounds incredible today.
Your tracks bridge very traditional instruments with very modern software. Is there a piece of hardware or a plug-in that you find essential in making those worlds meet?
Well we use Logic software and Ableton of course, but for the compression of the guitars and the flamenco we also use Side Chain compression software, that’s essential for bringing both sound together seamlessly.
If we played one of your very first demos back-to-back with El Camino, what would surprise us most about how your sound has evolved?
That’s a very interesting question because we actually started El Camino more than three and a half years ago. From the very beginning it was more vocals and sat more in the high and mid frequences because of Soleá Morente on the vocals and fantastic musicians like Josemi Carmona. So the original track probably sounded a little more “pop” or radio ready. When we bought James Hurr in, then you can clearly hear the difference because he made the song absolutely for the dance floor, with a club groove, so it’s very different from the first iteration.
El Camino is out now on Toolroom Trax
