Step into the world of Titan.
DAMA, their new album, is the latest in a long list of projects keeping the Mexican project busy. With their first new major LP in eleven years, they’ve used the time to recruit a stars like Gary Numan, Egyptian Lover and Siobhan Fahey from Bananarama/ Shakespeares Sister.
We caught up with them hot off the back of the ‘Dama Fina’ video to chat everything visual, musical and to really delve into the crazy world of Titan.
We’re still not quite over what we saw in that crazy ‘Dama Fina’ video! For those who haven’t seen it, please explain the concept behind the madness!? We love it.
We had a brief meeting with a director we really respect, Rogelio Sikander – who also made the album teaser. He had us when he told us about the “bad guy” in the story: A sado-masochistic character that performs rituals with beautiful women… It’s meant to be an analogy for the cocaine industry – from the making of it, to its transportation, to the consumer. All the shiny-fancy stuff that’s expected at a cocaine party though, was taken out. So the result’s a little bit sordid. But we thought the cinematography is quite beautiful so the video worked pretty well with the track.
Have you always been heavily into the importance of the visual aspect when creating music?
We think for about the specific form of the video in itself, but we do think a lot about the images that emerge from the audio textures, then of course the song has its own elements – like the scenery, the narrative, the characters in the video, but we’re always open to characters being completely from our imaginations, they don’t even have to be human…
When was it that you really found ‘your sound’ as a group?
It’s hard to say as all of our albums are very different in terms of sound, sometimes almost the opposite of the previous. Conceptually they are similar, we’re always driven by the need to do something new, something unheard, at least from us. We want our music always to say something new, something big and we need to be happy with it.
Can you remember the first track you ever wrote/recorded? If so, how similar/different is it to your recent material?
Yes, tracks like “999” or “Quinto Planeta”- that was back in 1992! They were recorded on a 4-track recorder and everything was clashing in the way we liked it. We used to have 3 drum machines doing different things, the kick drums began to make more textures, to us it was quite experimental music in a way. Sometimes the guitar, keyboard and baseline all clashed, but you could still dance to it. We worked on it and made a little tape for our friends – it spread literally from hand to hand, then suddenly we found ourselves playing sold-out shows.
How many years have you three been making music now and what were you doing prior to music?
The three of us as a group (Julian, Jay, Emilio) – we’ve been making music together since 1997 – before that Jay was playing in a “ little kids” band called Microchips, then in a “ grown up” band called Fobia -
Emilio and Julian used to be in a more experimental band called “Melanima Ponderosa”, which was when they started to used drum machines and a early sampler – haha, it was a tape player that we used to record opera vocals to put in some of the tracks, pressing play at the same time as we started on the track – this was back in a time when no-one in Mexico really had a proper sampler…
If I was to take a joint Titan iPod / iPhone and look on your recently added / played playlist who would I find in there?
You’d find music from the horror films of Agento and John Carpenter, some classical, Kraftwerk, Velvet Underground, PiL, some new hip hop, some old hip hop, Die Antwoord, Suicide, some Trap… we’re into it all, man.
How does the songwriting process work? Is it a collaborative in studio process?
It changes a lot from record to record… At the start we used to sample a lot as we were kind of a funk band, bits of Funk, Jazz or Experimental (stuff like Negative Land) – we didn’t have a vocalist. For our second album we used machines but now we have a proper sampler, so we felt it made the music more complex and danceable – we worked with really cool producers like Ross Harris and Craig Borrel, they were a step beyond man, looping out from our own recordings and using other wild instruments like the Optigan, that makes a complete musical part from a single note.
The third album was all about making songs from scratch, but with 8-bit sounds (A Juno 106 can make all everything sound really good) – the result was I guess something you could call Space Blues… No famous producer this time, we started to flirt with the idea of having vocals with full lyrics, but we were still mostly making instrumental music.
Our new album “Dama” has seen us use all of our previous techniques. We recorded at Sonic Ranch – a great studio, we used Ableton to make the structures and we called in a great producer, Nick Launay – who worked with some really magical artists: PiL, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Nick Cave… For the first time we felt this album had a more traditional musical form, we invited some amazing artists onto the album too, Gary Numan, Egyptian Lover, it’s all come together for this one.
How would you describe your sound in one sentence to a first time listener?
Easy listening music to elevate the mind without drugs, haha. Blues from Outer Space.
Outside of being Titan the group, who are Titan the people?
We all have other projects, we all produce what we do and work as producers of other artists…
What’s the meaning behind the name Titan?
It’s the image of a powerful, wise, divine being – man, woman or machine.
Any plans to collaborate with any other artists right now?
Not for the moment, on the next album probably. But for visuals, we want to find and work with brilliant new directors. They could be established or newcomers, we’re looking for brilliant minds.
Do you feel your Mexican heritage inspires you musically at all?
Of course, but we feel music is something with our borders really. For instance, the father of Mambo music, Damaso Perez Prado was born in Cuba, but considered himself Mexican – or at least he created and developed the Mambo sound in Mexico City, inspired by the sounds of that big city. There’s always been cool music on the border of Mexico and the United States; the way someone like Juan Gabriel found a personal style through hearing Mexican “Corrido” music and American pop was inspiring. We’re always open to good music, wherever it is.
What other artists from the Mexican music scene should we be looking out for?
Miki, Jessy Bulbo, Zoe, Silverio, Moderatto, Lasser Moderna, Sonido Lasser Drakar, Soledad, Mjio, Buffy, Maria Daniela Y Su Sonido Lasser… These guys are all great.
When can we expect a project from you?
Sooooooon!!!
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