The Mix
Talk us through the track selection of the mix.
"Actually I imagined myself starting to play when the sun is still up on the beach until the night is taking over and it's getting dark. So the mix is building from sunny deep house and disco to more slamming house tools and later to deep, bangin' and hard techno music."
Where and how was the mix recorded?
"The mix was recorded in my studio mainly with vinyl plus some CDs."
What are the musical influences that have allowed you to arrive at this podcast?
"Oh thats a tough one... I was a hiphop producer since the age of 13 years. Because of that, I was always on the hunt for samples and through this hunt I discovered a lot of music that I fell in love with later after listening to it for finding little parts to sample."
"This way I got in touch with krautrock and early experimental electronic music; disco, funk & soul obviously, rock, reggae, African and South American music, classical music... this list could go on forever! I have a lot of music and most of it is non-electronic."
The Plug
Borrowed Identity is the latest alias, and most successful, to date. Why have you had a few different aliases and what is the idea behind this latest one?
"That's because I dont like to limit myself and I'm getting bored really fast of things sometimes. Always when I try to limit myself to one sound I lose my inspiration, thats why I had a lot of projects before. Before Borrowed Identity I worked very puristically and conceptually - every track was worked on for weeks and months and it all needed to fit to the concept. At some point I became really depressed of it and felt like there is no air to breath anymore, I lost my passion, inspiration and faith in music..."
At that point I started Borrowed Identity with a friend just for fun, we said to ourselves 'we want to do something more like in our hiphop days' - spontaneously and rough and in the best case it needs to be finished in one or two hours and let's not think about it too much, it needs to happen in the moment it's created... not thought about for weeks. Also we started to use samples again which I banned completely before in my other electronic projects."
"This way it started and basically the first four tracks that I made as BI with one of my best friends landed on Foul & Sunk a label from my home town. I also had contact before the debut with DVS1 and out of this first debut and the contact with Zak everything started for me basically."
Where are we likely to find you playing in the coming Ibiza season?
"I'm not sure if I play in Ibiza this year... my agency told me there are some plans but nothing concrete at the moment!"
You have a new EP just released - Bang Bang Boogie - tell us about that.
"Yes, it's coming on Fina Records a label by Ralph Lawson, Simon Morell and Matt Long. The EP contains a lot of tracks I had already produced some years ago and varies from piano-house to deep-jacking-house and disco house in the end. I always wanted to do a track with the 'toot toot beep beep' vocal which is one of my favourites and I'm happy I finally did it."
It's probably one of my cheesiest records up to date, but I love cheesy house as much as I love fast bangin techno and slow deep and raw house music! I feel very blessed that the people following me are slowly starting more and more to understand why most of the time every new release from me is sounding different and why I play so much different stuff at my gigs."
"Still, nobody wanted to kill me for all the experiments so I will move on with it..!"
Are there more releases in the pipeline?
"There is another record coming out on Home Taping Is Killing Music in May, which will feature more of my hiphop and Detroit house roots. Deep, raw, but funky four tracks will be on this one. There is a big surprise coming in July too on one of my favourite labels in the world, I can't talk about it now... but you will all be very suprised im sure about it! I'm also working on follow up releases for Mistress, Quintessentials and Pets Recordings, so keep an eye on my music in record shops worldwide."
You’re our first podcaster since the sad passing away of Frankie Knuckles. Was he a role model for you?
"Of course he was, his records in the 80s and early 90s are still on my turntables at a lot of my gigs. His music and what he did for our scene will never be forgotten, he is and will always be the godfather of house music. Rest in peace Frankie, we love you! If i play in Ibiza this year i will definitely not leave the club without playing this track - Frankie Knuckles 'The Whistle Song'"
At such a young age, you have still worked with many labels respected labels such as Guy gerber’s Supplement Facts. How did you get involved with them?
"Big thanks for this to Bill Patrick - he played and charted my debut release and out of this I got in contact with supplement facts!"
In this relatively early stage of your career, where do you see yourself in the future? Are you just happy to cruise this crest of success for the moment, or are there bigger plans for the coming years?
"I'm not making too much plans, what happens happens. I'm not after money and big success, I just want to do the music I feel like producing without a compromise and I hope to get my debut album together for the end of the year. I'm not a cool guy, not a player, not a nerd, not underground, not commercial! I want to ban all these things from my head and do what I feel without thinking about what others could think about me."
"In the end I do it for myself, my love for music! Everyone who can't understand that - go ahead fuck yourself! :)"
Finally, you have some time off on Ibiza. What do you do? Where do you go?
"Unfortunately, I have never been to Ibiza...! I see myself in the first position as a dancer and raver after that the producing and DJ'ing is coming, so I would probably fuck up myself completely and lose myself into nightlife and having drinks on the beach!"
Unacceptable. Bottle of Hierbas on us when you're on island for the first time - sort it out.
Biography
At the time of the revolution in Romania, Borrowed Identity’s parents had to leave the country. So the 21 year-old producer was born as a political refugee in 1990 in the deep south of Germany.
Growing up with multi-ethnic friends and a big interest in the many different music genres of the world, he built his knowledge about music through listening to every record he could get his hands on – from friends, libraries, record stores or the internet. This variety in his musical taste is the rea- son why for years he has been working anonymously under different aliases, producing a big variety of sounds ranging from classical symphonies, ambient, house, techno to experimental music and everything between.
The project Borrowed Identity was founded as a new alias of the german/romanian producer in the summer of 2011. The idea behind it was to create something contemporary through the fusion of classic electronic music from detroit & chicago with his own influences.
The 22-years-old youngster already released his debut vinyl on Foul&Sunk in June 2012 with a Mark E Remix on board. The Debut was followed by well received releases on Guy Gerber’s Supplement Facts (London), Traveller Records (Finland) and Legendary Sound Research (Netherlands) in the winter of 2012.
facebook.com/Borrowed.Identity
