Lost talk with Frankey & Sandrino

The output of their collaboration is as explosive as the name of the place where they first met: Butan(e) Club in Wuppertal. Frankey & Sandrino’s productions are made of the right stern stuff to snowball dance floors worldwide with epic moments. After brilliant releases on Moodmusic and Innervisions, the duo had their debut at Zurich’s Drumpoet Community that will be fortified with several remixes soon. Just the right timing for us to catch the duo for an EDHID chat.

Hi! How was your first contact with music and what motivated you to embark on a musical career?
Sandrino: I can’t really remember if there was this one moment particular! I’m fascinated by electronic music since I can remember. It was like a natural progression of my life.
Frankey: I also can’t remember a specific starting point. As far as I can think, I was always doing music. I was part of all kind of bands, a symphony orchestra, jazz big band, choir, played bar piano and many more. It was naturally always there, I never had to make a decision.

You had a residency at Wuppertal’s Butan Club around early ‘00s. How did this time influence your style of DJing?
Sandrino: Club Butan was an important step for me. I learned there to play for different crowds at different times. I played all there like warm-up, peak time and closing sets. However, the most enjoyable nights where when I played all night long on the second floor, which could last up to 10 hours. I also met Frankey at Butan for the first time.

Both of you have/had side projects like Frankey’s D-Nox & Beckers and your Lemon Popsicle collaboration. Do you think that this variety benefits your joint project Frankey & Sandrino or do you want to focus more?
Sandrino: Lemon Popsicle was more a fun project with a lot of compromises as we were three guys with different ideas. But I definitely don´t want to miss it on my musical development. However, now I’m more then happy about the symbiosis between Frankey & me. It fits perfectly!
Frankey: For me it’s always important to keep myself inspired by listening and doing a very wide range of music styles. So yes, I feel that our project is benefitting from my other projects. Switching between different styles always has a refreshing effect on me, so I can keep up my excitement, no matter what I’m doing at the moment.

How would you describe your respective roles in the studio?
Sandrino: Frankey is the nerd, I mean he´s a genius. This guy can play everything!
Frankey: It’s worth mentioning that Sandrino is not into so many different music styles then me. He is deeply into this specific kind of music; more than anybody I know. So he has a very clear vision about every detail of our music and I’m the one with the technical and musical skills, so it’s a perfect symbiosis of both strengths.

Your Save EP on Innervisions was an essential tune of Summer 2013 and ‘The Edge’ in particular turns into a massive dance floor seduction after an easy-going kick-off. Did any of the countless feedback surprise you?
Sandrino: Yes, we´re surprised as we didn’t expected such an impact. We knew that Save is something special (at least for us) and I think that Innervisions was the right home for this EP to reach out the right listeners.
Frankey: Yes, it was somehow a surprise but in the same time it was not, because it’s a kind of funny story how Save actually was born. One day, Sandrino came to the studio and said: ‘I have a vision of a track on my mind, that we’re going to produce today and it will be released on Innervisions!” So, we made that track and it simply got released on Innervisions… no kidding (smiling).

You worked already with UK-based singer Jinadu for your remix of Alessio Pagliaroli’s ‘Distractions’. How did the collaboration for your new EP on Drumpoet Community evolve? Do you think that his voice has a melancholic note?
Sandrino: Melancholic is the right word. We always try to add something melancholic to our songs, me sometimes more than Frankey (Frankey would now say drama; smiling). Sasse showed me the original of ‘Distractions’ and I straight ahead felt in love with the voice and lyrics, so I sent Frankey the song. He felt it also from the very first moment so we decided to try the remix. Jinadu liked it too so we got connected and tried out an original production. Lost was born (smiling).

Who is going to remix your Starchild/Lost EP?
Frankey & Sandrino: Hyenah, MUSK, Washerman and Adriatique.

You launched together with Moodmusic head honcho Sasse White Rabbit Music (WMR) in 2012. What kind of sound aesthetic are you aiming for the label and what is your release policy?
Sandrino: WRM was a spontaneous thing to release our own music. There’s no concept or release plan for it. For now we concentrate on Frankey & Sandrino and the label is not active now.

Your remix of Chopstick & Johnjon ‘Dreading The Light’ is available for download for promotional purposes. How important are cookies like this nowadays?
Sandrino: Not sure what to answer. On the one hand, you have the producers who needs the income. On the other hand, you have more and more successful streaming platforms like Spotify and now the upcoming Beatport Stream. I think a free giveaway for the fans out there is a nice cookie but I like the idea of releasing a song on a physical medium like vinyl and to pay for it. Music should still keep a value.

What’s next?
Sandrino: Spending more time in the studio with Frankey to finish some of our new ideas. We will release a new song called ‘Cephei’ with really killer remixes in April.
Frankey: What’s next is usually the same as what was last: music, music and music again!

Frankey & Sandrino on Soundcloud