Federico Blank is a renowned DJ and producer of electronic music. His career began in 1999 in Caracas, his hometown and current residence. Today we were talking with him, enjoy this wonderful interview full of sound.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF AS A DJ AND PRODUCER?
I think I am a multifaceted DJ, but in the end I am faithful to my principles in terms of genres, I have been playing Techno, Minimal, Acid, Electro and House for almost 25 years, these have been my main pillars throughout my career.
Generally I adapt according to the place where I perform. I never play because a certain style of music is in fashion, I play because the music I select makes me feel good, and makes the audience dance.
As a producer, I have been making Minimal, Techno, Acid, some experimental music, and sometimes I flirt with Dub since the mid 2000’s. I love to play live with my machines. I love playing live with my machines.
I started years ago doing it with Ableton Live 5 and a MIDI controller (uc33), but the evolution (and addiction to hardware) has led me to perform with more machines (analog and digital).
Nowadays I only play with machines, I don’t use the computer (for the moment) for live sets. With production I feel much more at ease because the creativity flows constantly. In fact, I think that nowadays I like playing live sets more than DJ sets (although it can be questionable).
When you’re a music lover, it’s very difficult to choose only the live set, because you want to constantly download new music, and having it, I will always want to play it; then everything ends up being like the fish that bites its own tail… But honestly, when I’m in the studio, I will always prefer to do a live jam rather than play other people’s music, I think I make better use of the time this way.
WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO START YOUR CAREER IN ELECTRONIC MUSIC?
I went to a rave in a beach called Patanemo in 1998, the rave was called “Urantia”. Patanemo is in the state of Carabobo, Venezuela. It was the first rave that there was in the country with “all the law”; it was organized by a group of Germans and people from all continents came, it was not very massive, but there were quite a lot of people. At that party, which lasted about 9 days non-stop, I heard Acid Techno and Goa Trance for the first time in my life, and that music blew my mind.
That’s when I realized the power that music had over people, and how the DJ is able to make us travel with his mixes, from that moment I knew I wanted to be a DJ.
The DJ’s that played made me dance too much, and I had a special connection with the music that I had never had before, I had too much fun, and at that moment I thought: “I have to learn to do this, I want to make people feel the same way I’m feeling right now”.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE YOUR MUSICAL STYLE?
Generally dark, very bassline and percussion oriented, to which I also add freaky sounds… Clear things and dark techno! I like strange music, out of the conventional, I don’t like to fall into the generic and sound the same as everyone else.
I mainly produce Minimal, sometimes Acid, and lately I’m more into Techno mode which is the genre that is attracting me the most nowadays. I’ve always loved Techno, but I went through a long hiatus where I was very immersed in Minimal and House… Genres can be labels, but within each genre there are very wide ranges of sonic possibilities.
WHAT ARE YOUR MUSICAL INFLUENCES?
They are very varied, from a very young age I was very influenced by Classical music and Jazz that was listened at home, but also listened to a lot of classic Rock from the 60’s and 70’s.
When I got a little older (in the 80’s) and started to develop my own musical tastes, I went through a variety of styles such as: Disco, Electronic, Hip Hop, Reggae, Rock, Pop, Grunge, Instrumental Music, Joropo, Concrete Music, and later, the genres to which I have dedicated my whole life as a DJ.
From a very young age I always liked electronic music without knowing it was electronic music. However, there is a turning point that I must mention; in 1993 I got my hands on a Plastikman cassette entitled “Sheet One”, which by the way has just been re-released for its 30th anniversary. This material totally changed my perspective, and I immediately became a super fan of Plastikman’s Minimal and eventually Richie Hawtin’s Techno.
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR MOST SUCCESSFUL PRODUCTIONS?
Undoubtedly, the most famous track I have released is “This is it”, a track I produced together with Alberto Garantón which was released on the German label Get Physical Music.
My first track that sold well on Beatport, which I am particularly fond of is titled “Dark Side of the Room”, this was under my aka Ordep Zerep.
Recently I have released a couple of tracks that have sold well, one of them is titled “Polvazo” which was released on the Drogalipz JAMZZ label and “Monday Nights” which was released on Sons of a Rave, a label I own.
HOW DO YOU SEE THE FUTURE OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC?
Electronic music will always exist, but it will mutate into other styles and merge with other styles. However, I don’t have a crystal ball to know exactly what will happen.
Nowadays both Reggaeton and Trap are among the most listened genres by the new generations, I don’t dislike them, but I don’t consume them either. One can easily see how powerful the influence of Reggaeton is on other genres, for example, there is currently a trend in which they are merging a lot of Tech House with Reggaeton vocals… I don’t particularly like it, but the public loves it.
At some point new musical styles will emerge, and maybe Electronica will be seen as a style for the old school, just as at a certain point happened with Rock, Jazz, and many other genres.
We have many years of history of electronic music, and I feel that we are close to the emergence of a new musical wave that will change the current paradigms. But I repeat, electronic music will not disappear (unless there is a world catastrophe and we run out of electricity).
wHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE MAIN CHALLENGES FACING THE INDUSTRY?
Nowadays the industry has changed a lot, now everything moves through social networks, in general, the more followers and the more handsome or beautiful you are, the more famous you will be, no matter how well you play or produce. We live in a mediatized society, and engagement is the first thing promoters look at before hiring a DJ.
Obviously everyone wants to make money, and that’s fine, but in the old days promoters were mainly based on musical quality and not so much on fame. So, if you’re not super famous, and you have a spectacular look, it can probably make it a little uphill to get ahead.
On the other hand, you don’t make money selling records or songs anymore, the money is in publishing, in syncing audio pieces in commercials and movies. Selling vinyl and digital songs is still important to project your career, but it is far from being a considerable income for record labels and producers.
Finally, the democratization of technology has created a huge wave of new DJ’s and producers. Nowadays it is very easy and affordable to be a DJ, and it is also very easy to get the necessary software to make music. This is why I think the industry is quite saturated with music that is not that good, and DJ’s that are not very well prepared.
TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE ABROAD.
I have had the joy of living and playing in several countries outside of Venezuela, among them Spain, Germany, United States, Peru, Aruba, Mexico…. In each place the vibe varies, and when you live outside your country and start from “zero”, you always get a good dose of humility for your spirit. This makes you grow a lot as a person, and it is one of the experiences I value most in my life. I love to travel, and to play for new audiences, especially those who know the genres I play.
Evidently in Europe there is a great electronic music culture, as well as in the USA and some other LATAM and Asian countries. The case in Venezuela is different, since, currently reggaeton took over everything and the younger audience has been exposed to the genre for almost all his life, so the collective idiosyncrasy is very oriented towards Latin, this does not mean that there are micro tribes that have other tastes and preferences, but, in the case of Venezuela, we are the minority.
Sincerely, what I would most like in this life is to travel continuously with my music and play all over the world, what I long for the most is to be a true citizen of the world.
–WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO YOUNG PEOPLE WHO WANT TO TAKE UP MUSIC AS A PROFESSION?
Let them do it, when you feel a passion you must follow it, against all odds. It is important to be constant and disciplined, music requires a lot of study and practice, and as the saying goes, practice makes perfect.
Music and art in general have their ups and downs, so it is important not to get upset when you are at low points, in that case what you have to do is work harder, and better times will surely come as a result of your effort. This is not a fad, it is a lifestyle, it is not a phase, it is for life.
It’s also important to be able to cultivate skills other than music so that you don’t starve when you’re at your peak. But it’s important that those talents are complementary and that you enjoy them.
Music gives many joys, but it also gives many worries, living purely from music is not easy for everyone, only a small handful of artists make it during their entire career; you must fight for that dream, but being aware that you have to eat and pay bills.
HOW DO YOU HANDLE THE PRESSURE OF PERFORMING LIVE?
After 25 years of career, I still feel butterflies fluttering in my stomach before every show, I think that’s what keeps me in the game and alive.
Once you get in the booth, let’s say you’re on the third song, and you feel the audience reacting positively that pressure is taken off and you start to connect with the audience, and from then on it’s all tastiness and magic.
It is important to always have a positive mind and visualize what you want to do musically, that way you can effectively transmit the sound discourse that is part of your artistic approach.
For me, music is magic, you can do wonders with it, that’s why people love it so much. It’s important to give the best of yourself in every show, so you have to be in a good physical and mental state to be able to perform properly for the audience.
HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR A SET?
For my digital DJ sets, I start listening to all the songs I have of the genres I think I can play and from there I select tracks; obviously the same week of the show I download a lot of new music, and based on that I create a playlist with at least 100 songs if I am going to play for 1 to 2 hours, if I am going to do an extended set, I take a playlist of at least 500 songs, plus all the other playlists I have created for previous shows.
If I’m going to play on vinyl, I usually try different records until I create a good collection of pieces that I know have cohesion and work with each other, I usually take about 80 records, each with a minimum of 2 or 3 songs. I’m not one to prepare the tracklist and be methodical in order, I prefer to improvise depending on what’s happening on the track.
When I go to play a live set, the preparation is much more meticulous, I spent months creating new patterns on my machines, and practicing every day the interaction between the machines and the sounds I have created. It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s very fulfilling, I really prefer to play live rather than DJ sets because the possibilities for improvisation are much wider, and the level of originality is much higher.
HOW DO YOU INTERACT WITH YOUR AUDIENCE?
The way I like the most is playing, and making them crazy with the music, I really like to raise the energy and emotion levels of the public with what I do. Otherwise through social networks, I really like to do live sets through Instagram, that way I’m always in constant activity and communication with the people who appreciate my work, those people are my reason for being, the music I make and play is for them, but obviously also for me, I spend many hours working in the studio, and if I didn’t enjoy that, none of this would make sense.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH RADIO.
I have always liked the radio, since I was a child I listened to it with great enthusiasm. In 2002 I moved to Barcelona, and there I started an internet radio project called Kremadelik. At the time it became the first internet radio in Spain that played electronic music 24x7x365.
At that time I was a novice, and basically what I was looking for was experimentation, so this project was not something super serious in the strictest sense of the word, but I took it seriously and I liked it a lot. This evolved and for a moment I had a pirate FM radio in Barcelona, thanks to a transmitter that an Irish friend lent me; but this did not last long because the police managed to triangulate the signal and they fell into my house, the place from where I was transmitting the signal. Fortunately I was not arrested because I was not at home, but I had to dismantle the project.
Many years later, in 2020 I had the opportunity to have a radio program in Venezuela, it was called Mixbehave, and it was transmitted by Líder 94.9FM in Caracas, and for a while we went national. I started the project with my friend “Clara en lo Claro”, but later she left the program and I was left playing music alone, this lasted about 3 years approximately.
At the beginning of the program we played quite commercial electronic music, mostly House, but since Clara left, my roots came to the surface, and I started to play a lot of Techno, I was happy playing Techno for an audience that really didn’t know who I was, or if they liked it or not, but finally the station managers asked me to play more commercial music again, and I really preferred to retire from the program to follow the Techno path.
WHAT HAS YOUR EXPERIENCE BEEN LIKE RETURNING TO YOUR HOME COUNTRY?
I am very happy in Venezuela, I love Caracas, and I think the situation of the country has improved considerably, however, there is still a long way to go, there are still many deficiencies, especially in the cultural, educational, health, infrastructure sectors….
However, if you live in your bubble and manage to have a good income, life is good.
Venezuela has amazing places where you can have a great time, and I believe that with everyone’s effort we can make the situation continue to improve.
Something I like a lot is that I feel “safe” in the streets, 10 or 15 years ago you were always scared because something bad could happen at any time, but now crime has dropped a lot, which allows you to move around calmly, and this is also contributing positively to the tourism that we need so much in the country.
I loved the experience at Líder and I am very grateful for the opportunity they gave us, I love the radio, but I think my music has no place there because it is far from being commercial.
WHAT DOES FEDERICO BLANK BRING US THIS YEAR 2024?
Music and more music. My main focus is on production and my live sets, as well as a cycle of Techno parties that I started last year called 909 with which I’m trying to recreate a Techno scene in Caracas, and I say recreate because Techno had become extinct in the city, and I would dare say in the country. So mainly this 2024 is going to be Techno, very Techno!
As I always say, it is an honor for me to be able to talk with music and art personalities here in Underton, very grateful to this incredible artist such as Federico Blank, Venezuelan who leaves us in style wherever he appears, I hope you enjoyed it, I invite you to follow him in all his social networks and digital platforms.
Bandamp: Sonsofarave