Friday, November 29th, night club Chair in Nis, Serbia. A chance to do a live interview with Stanny Franssen, a very friendly and interesting guy, before his excellent, versatile and driving set. About 1000 people could enjoy his new unreleased tracks and also a lot of promos which will be actual in coming months. He showed some of his filtering techniques at the decks and a mixture of some easy tech house tracks, funky techno for which he's famous for, and also some pure bangin' Belgium techno all mixed up in an exceptional way. But the real reason for this interview is his first album on Zenit called 'Playing with the blox' in which Stanny expressed his yet not discovered ambient, electro & breakbeat side. So, here it is...

- Atome : This is about your new album on Zenit. Would you say something about it?
- Stanny Franssen : I can say a lot about it. On this Zenit album I tried to do something else, because most of the time people know me for the 4/4 production, so really for dancefloor tracks. On this album I really tried to prove myself that I can do also something else. So that's why the first seven to eight tracks are breakbeat, electro, a bit 'listening' tracks, just to... yeah, to let the people know that I can do something else, too.

- A. : It's a bit different than before, I think. It's your third record for Zenit?
- S. F. : It's a third record for Zenit. I did two 12 inches, and now the album, so..

- A. : How about all the Italian guys on this label, how do you explain the Naples sound?
- S. F. : Well, I really love the Naples sound because from the beginning I was really influenced by it. Yeah, Marco was really a hero for me, now Danilo, Gaetano, Rino are the same for me. So, I consider myself as the Belgian part of Napoli.

- A. : You're the only one, I think, on Zenit who's not from Italy?
- S. F. : Oh, they had also some Swedish artists on Zenit 11. I forgot the name, but those are Swedish guys. But I was the first non-Italian to release on Zenit, that's a fact. And I'm honored.

- A. : About your new releases - is it the music you've done before, or there's something new, cause you're famous for your unique funky sound?
- S. F. : Well, I always try to do something new, for sure, and I always like to put my own influences inside. For example, the new Genetic 12. There are a lot of Brazilian influences, because when I were in Brazil this year I bought some cds and I listened really close to them and... yeah, I took some samples, that's not allowed, but I did it anyway :). And yeah, I put those samples into the Genetic tracks and tried to make a good combination between my groovy, funky techno sound and the Brazilian Latin percussion loops.

- A. : How do you see the future of techno? Where is it going?
- S. F. : Mmm, that's a really hard question. Of course there's always... there's the evolution, for sure, but I think it's gonna be more tech house, because a lot of artists are doing also tech house. I'm looking also at the guys from Napoli - Marco, Gaetano, all the guys, Rino, Danilo even, he's doing also tech house, so lately I'm doing it also. And yeah, I'm feeling ok with it because you can express more funkyness inside tech house than you can do in techno, so... But I love both.

- A. : What about your cooperation with Monika Kruse?
- S. F. : Well, that's also between techno and tech house, because I work together with Patrick Lindsey, he's the partner in crime with all the Monika Kruse tracks. The project I did with him is called Bad Pimps, and we sampled also old funk and disco loops and we made kind of a tech house project out of it. But I'm still gonna produce techno tracks, a bit techno, a bit tech house, I'll have to see how I feel.

- A. : How long were you involved in making 'Playing with the blox' album?
- S. F. : It took me eight months. It's too much, but now I'm happy because it's a wide palette of different sounds. At the end, maybe I felt a bit bad that it took so long, because I made only one album in eight months. That's really a long time, but I'm satisfied.

- A. : How do you like it here in Nis?
- S. F. : Well, it's hard to tell, because I didn't play yet. But, from the things I saw, the people are really nice, that's already very important to me. So, I think it will be really great here tonight.

- A. : Your future plans?
- S. F. : Doing some more records. I'm working on a new Terminal M, I did a new Tortured for Billy Nasty. I'm working on a new Jericho for Jel Ford, I'm gonna do some tracks for MB Electronics, Marco Bailey's label, doing some remixes for DJ T-1000 from Detroit, Ian Void from England for Geushky label, and... yeah, that's about it, what I can remember right now.

- A. : Any thoughts about anything?
- S. F. : Well, just... may the funk be with us.
www.geneticrecordings.com     www.zenitmusic.com     www.elpmedien.com
Lesha, 16/12/2002