Pier Bucci speaks about the story behind his latest EP
Q: Pier, why the Moog Rogue?
P: The story of the Moog Rogue with me started in ’97. I was in New York, and I was with a guy from Nicaragua. I had just bought two pairs of Carhart pants, and one pair was too big for me – I had made a mistake. This guy said ‘Hey listen man, you give me the pair of Carharts, and I will give you this keyboard. The Moog Rogue’. Well, I said yeah, cool! He said ‘I don’t have midi, I don’t have the power supply, I’m not using it..’ So I took it!
After that another friend took it to France, and he got the power supply and everything for the keyboard. Then, when I went to Germany to live in Europe, I met the guy, and he gave me my Moog. And there I started, right? All my career, the track ‘Tita’, with Crosstown Rebels, all my well-known tracks – all were made using that Moog Rogue.
So basically, after 25 years of having this Moog in the studio, I decided to celebrate it’s 25 years with me by doing an album only using the Moog Rogue.
Why the Rogue? Why analogue? Well, it’s a little keyboard. Very simple. Very, very simple. But – and I don’t know how – it is emotional. You cannot dosomething like that, or create this emotional thing, with any digital keyboard or machine – from my point of view. That’s why I love this keyboard. It is one of my best and favorite tools that I have. And that’s why I decided to do this album, and this EP.
Q: What was your intention when you decided to do an EP and an album using only the Moog Rogue?
P: I wanted to just create emotions, and I don’t know.. it was giving me a nice feeling, to be able to make every sound with this Moog. These days, it is very fashionable to use analogue stuff, these synthesizers, these modular systems. That’s why I decided to get the complete analogue sound, and to do an EP with a lot of emotions. Let’s say – a lot of feeling. You know.. as an artist, working on the feeling in music.
Q: Do you think music needs emotions?
P: Well, music, from my point of view, should create more than emotion. It is something that makes people feel things and also makes them think a little bit. Like meditation, or more than mediation – feeling good, you know? For sure, positive emotions are a good feeling, right? And for me, my intention with music is to create aesthetics; beauty; with the notes and with the instruments. That’s why I like so much to use this Moog, or analogue stuff in general – because they are tools that give you fast results. Because they have their own emotion, you know? And, at the same time, the frequencies, the bass lines, and all the sounds are so pure and so crystalline. These things, for me, are elements of aesthetics. And these aesthetic elements are the elements of a song that make you feel and think.
Q: How was the experience doing the EP?
P: The experience was great! Because basically, I finally was able to achieve results similar to the music I like from the 90’s. I really like WARP records, and all this analogue, alternative, positive, very beautiful music from that time. And finally I discovered how they did it! Basically, it really opened my eyes and my feelings to the music I really really like. If you asked me, ‘Pier, which music do you really really like to create?’ I would say it is in that style. Like my tracks ‘Tita’, or ‘Éternelle’, or ‘Pipostrack’. This is the kind of music I like to listen to at home, you know? And it is the kind of music that gives me, like I said before, more emotions and makes me feel, and the sensations are incredible. So the experience was very nice. Quite difficult to do everything with the little Moog.. but it wasn’t so extremely difficult. If you have the right cables, the right tools, and the right system, you can do an album like this. And that was the challenge for me, you know? To do an EP, an album, using only one instrument. And, of course, I decided to do it with the Rogue.
Q: What are you expecting with this EP?
P: Well, first of all, it is very nice to do an EP and release it on the label of a very good friend, you know? And my expectation with this EP is simply that it is a new release where I’m trying to show, in a way, my art. Not just showing my art like an egocentric guy, you know, or something like that. This music showed me, and can show others, that you can do very nice music; that the ways you can create are so open and infinite! And that’s all. That’s all I expect. Good feelings!
– Pier Bucci (Costa Rica, October 12, 2022)
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