TF Archives

Luke from Brancaccio & Aisher - I've Given Up Random Women

Author: Jonty Skrufff
Wednesday, June 11, 2003
"I used to smoke lots of weed- tonnes of it, but I haven't smoked for over a year now, I've knocked it completely on the head. I still go out and have a few drinks but I know when to stop now, I don't do that four days with no sleep and lots of random women anymore."

With his new Pete Tong endorsed single Everybody looking certain to become one of the biggest club tunes of 2003, Luke Brancaccio looks poised to enjoy the same lifestyle boost he last had two years ago when 'It's Gonna Be A ..(Lovely Day)' burst into the UK top 40. Though unlike last time, he's given up marijuana and transformed his day to day activities after success translated into serious ill health.

"I got a bit carried away and got really ill last year and couldn't do anything for 6 months. I was bedridden," Luke told Jonty Skrufff this week.

"It was basically about too much partying and no sleep and I ended up having proper physical exhaustion. I couldn't stand up and had bad dizziness and needed to cut everything out and relax."

12 months on, he's signed to leading DJ agents TrustTheDJ and is back in the production saddle with long term partner Bruce Aisher. The duo's follow up to Lovely Day, Everybody, was unveiled at the Miami Winter Conference this April, where Pete Tong made it is track of the event, and comes out on John Digweed's Bedrock Records imminently.

Skrufff: Your new single Everybody is a very simple track, did it come about by accident or design-

Luke Brancaccio: "We wanted to do a very simple track that was club friendly rather than one that was made for people to sit at home and listen to. Usually it takes us weeks to do anything because most of our music is very intricate and we can spend ages on sorting out tiny parts so we wanted to do something that was simple, big and a big old skool- going back to that slightly American acid house style. So it was pre-planned in some ways but it was luck the way it turned out. For us, doing one track in two weeks is quick and this one we did in six days."

Skrufff: You're signed to Bedrock, a label still closely associated with trance, where do you stand on the term-

Luke Brancaccio: "Every tune we do is really different. We have done a few trancy things in the past but we've never sat down and thought in terms of 'now we're going to do this or that style'. That's been a problem for us because our tunes vary from tune to tune. We've got a really punky tune coming out soon and another which is American style hip hop. We've also done a remix for Distinctive which is peak time trance/ house. We've always wanted to do music, I know it's a cliche but it's true."

Skrufff: Do you engineer your tracks together-

Luke Brancaccio: "Yeah, Bruce is a computer wizard and I DJ and we've been working together for four years and longer individually before that, so we both know how to use computers inside out. If anything breaks down he knows how to fix it but we can pretty much swap roles."

Skrufff: How did you connect in the first place-

Luke Brancaccio: "We met through a mutual friend who was an engineer for Rollo, Bruce was signed to Rollo's label Cheeky Records at that point as the Beatnik but he never got released with them, though did play on Dido's album. I was friends with Rollo and that lot and we met through a mutual friend of Rollo's. We started making music together and decided we wanted to continue."

Skrufff: Brancaccio & Aisher doesn't exactly roll off the tongue as a band name, did you consider using a snappier name-

Luke Brancaccio: "We ended up with this name because we were both DJing and people knew who we were individually when we teamed up. We've done other tracks under names like White Room and Divider and people liked the tracks but didn't know who we were. DJing is a lot better for people getting to know your name. Brancaccio & Aisher is a mouthful and not particularly interesting as a name but once they've got it,<
Tags