Interview: Berni Turletti

Bernabe Turletti, better known as Berni Turletti, is an Argentinian DJ and producer hailing from Villa Maria, Cordoba. He is best known for his releases on 3rd Avenue, Balkan Connection, Sudbeat Music and The Soundgarden, typically featuring smooth melodic sounds and progressive basslines. Now embarking on a new collaborative EP with Matias Chilano for Roger Martinez's Higher States, we catch up with Berni for an exclusive chat. Enjoy!

Hi Berni, thanks for joining us. What is your current mood and what was the last piece of music you listened to?

Hi Mitch! thanks to you for sharing this interview with me! As for my current mood I’m super happy for the new music that I’ve been working this last time, also looking forward to share this new music on a dancefloor.

The last piece of music I listened to was Nils FrahM - Ambre, I love his music!

What are your plans for the coming week?

The plans for my next week will be to make music, although it is something I do daily, I have scheduled to record voices for some new tracks that I’m doing, a little more Deep House, something different from the style that I normally do.

Talk to us about growing up and living in Argentina, how has it affected your musical taste and the music you make?

Regarding the place where a musician lives , I think it’s fundamental for its development since music that surrounds him has to do with the place where someone grows up. I believe that these influences end up being part of the music that he do. In my case I was born surrounded by music: my mother plays the guitar, my grandfather and part of my family are tango singers. This aroused my interest in music, as a child I took drum lessons and more in the last decade I studied piano, all of this affected my musical tastes and the music that I currently make.

Can you name five tracks that were important in your musical development and why they are so significant for you?

There are more than 5 important ones for my development, but I think these may be some of them:

Sailor & I Turn Around (Ame remix)
Guy J Once In A Blue Moon
Ziger - Systematic
Sahar Z & Navar - Morning Thoughts 4 U
Cid Inc. - Contrite

They are important to me because they were the ones that made me fall in love with this melodic sound, also every time I listen to them I can feel things that only music generates, a mixture between happiness and fulfillment.

You have a new EP alongside Matias Chilano out this week on Roger Martinez’s Higher States, tell us a bit about the release and how it showcases your individualities.

The release is composed of two tracks, both them are melodic and have a groove that works very well on the dancefloor. When working with Matias i usually contribute with the melodic part and Matias focuses more on the groove, we feel comfortable working together in that way. Also, we usually do some shows together playing B2B so we know each other and can guess a little about our tastes.

You and Matias had worked together once previously with great results, what makes your collaborations work so well?

Good question, I’ve always admired Matia's work a lot so for me it’s always a pleasure to work with him, I think that in terms of our collaborations we managed to have a balance with the elements of the tracks, both in the melodic content and in the groove.

Was there anything that inspired these two tracks? And where does your inspiration come from generally?

At the time we did these tracks with Matias we had a lot of jobs together with our B2B, I think that was one of the main inspirations or at least for me. My inspiration usually has to do with what is happening in my life at the time of making music, I feel a big influence by the moments that surround me.

Do you work in the same studio at all or is it a matter of passing files back and forth?

Since we do not live in the same city, we work in separate studios. We send each other the files of the project and then each one contributes.

What does your set-up like? Do you favor physical gear over digital? And what studio tools featured heavily in the writing of this EP?

Currently I’ve been able to add to my studio some gear that is helping to me change the sound of my last tracks. A month ago i got a new synthesizer and an harmonic exciter to add to my processing chain. I like both the physical and the digital, I think both are very good tools. This last EP is made 100% with virtual instruments like u-he HIVE 2, Repro 5, Repro 1, also Spectrasonics Omnisphere and many Waves bundle plugins.

Was Higher States a label you had in mind for the project from the beginning? And what made it a great place to release these particular tracks?

At the time of creating this new EP I didn’t think of any label, just let it flow when creating and being able to sustain the sound that we make together with Matias. Also speaking with him we consider that Roger Martinez was doing an impeccable job with the releases so we consider Higher States to be a beautiful place for our next EP.

How have you been dealing with COVID-19? How has it affected your daily life, music production and overall inspiration to write new music?

At first I was scared by the idea of not being able to work with events since it was my main source of income, the first weeks of the quarantine in Argentina due to COVID 19 were very intense, then I found some jobs to be able to survive, I began to give classes on music production. My daily life changed a mostly in the weekend work playing at clubs and also in the club where I was resident, that had to close its doors As for the production, I still work daily as I did before, but the inspiration is not the same. Being able to try out new tracks on the dancefloor helped a lot the work in the studio.

What is the current situation with the pandemic in Argentina?

The current situation is gradually improving, and the cases have decreased, so the organizers are starting to make some events and that is good since the artists need to get back to work.

Once nightlife eventually resumes globally what kind of effect do you think this period in our history will have on the clubbing experience?

I think we will all remember this moment as a period when we could not go out to enjoy music, I feel there is a great need for the general public to attend to events and to be free sharing music shows with people you love.

Where in the world would you most like to be DJing right now?

There are not many places in the world where they are doing events at the moment, but I would love to be playing music next to a beach, I love sea.

What have been some of your favourite tracks over the quarantine period?

Some of the tracks that I liked in the quarantine were these:

• Kasper Koman - In Circles (Original Mix)
• Ezequiel Arias - Paradies
• Fur Coat - Hurricane ft. Running Pine (Tim Green Remix)
• Nacho Varela & Cruz Vittor - Words ft. Geri Terella
• Jamie Stevens, Budakid - Vigilant
• Ben Böhmer & Malou - Lost In Mind (Volen Sentir Interpretation)
• Mike Griego - Solaris

Just to name a few, but there are many tracks that I have found very good.

What is your favourite food?

My favourite food is sushi

Iphone or Android?

Android

What does 2021 hold for you? Anything you can share with us?

There is a lot of new stuff on the way, some new collaborations, a new release in HOPE Recordings and lots of unedited music.

'Identity / Sarayu' is out now via Higher States: https://bit.ly/3oFSHxh