So, tell us who you are, where you’re from etc?
Hi! Thank you so much for having me here 🙂 I’m Lui Piluso, a 29 year old Producer, mixer, sound technician and composer from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
What’s on your playlist at the moment?
Good question! I’m always listening to different things; I love music in general so I can be listening to Rihanna one minute and the next something like Led Zeppelin. Recently, I’ve been listening to a lot of Tame Impala, Troye Sivan, Air, Ca7riel, Joni Mitchell, D’Angelo, The Weeknd and of course Prince.
Has Music always been a part of your life? Was Music a big part of your childhood? What did you listen to back then?
Yes! I was born making noise (haha). I’ve always been drawn to sounds and rhythms. When I was in kindergarden, my house was under construction, so I made my first drum kit with sticks, bricks, buckets and pieces of metal. It’s pretty funny, but the band that got me inspired to become a musician was “Hanson”. I remember listening to “MmmBop” when I was 3 or 4 years old and everything changed! My mother is a huge fan of The Rolling Stones so I always had Rock in my music collection; my Grandfather from my dad’s side used to direct the philharmonic orchestra of Buenos Aires and my older sister also gave me cool things to listen to as well – so I guess I was exposed to all kinds of music.
…Emotions inspire me…
What inspires you musically?
I would say emotions inspire me. I can listen to anything that has a good melody and the music is felt. Saying that, I’m also very inspired by people who “take care” of their sound. I’m drawn to textures – I’m very sensitive in that way – and when something hits me the right way I can be inspired for a very long time.
For you, what makes a great Synth Sound?
I’m a fan of sounds that truly come alive, at the brink of destruction, I believe that that’s when the magic happens. I’m not a big fan of static sounds, I need them to move and be able to have a performance themselves. That’s why I love Modal so much: if you know what you are doing, those synths are monsters, and the combinations you can make with the algorithms are extremely inspiring.
Your Youtube channel is really growing quite fast! How did this all get started and did you think it would ever get as big as it has done?
Thank you! It’s been 4 years since I’ve started the Youtube journey. I love the awesome community of good mannered people helping each other out. When I was in university studying sound, I used Youtube to complement my studies, so I wanted to give back to this community. At the time when I started there weren’t many channels about music production in spanish. Even though I’m very grateful and enjoy the size of my channel, my primary mission is to provide tools, and teach things that are usually not found on the platform. I love sharing difficult topics explained in a simple fashion, so anybody can understand.
Do you play any other instruments?
Yes! I’ve always been a multi-instrumentalist. I play Guitar, Drums, Bass, Synths, a bit of Piano, Sing and I’ve also studied Violoncello for a couple years at the music conservatory.
Who are your biggest influences on your production?
Hmm, it’s hard to just pick a few, and I’ll probably regret it. I would say Max Martin, Mike Dean, Kevin Parker, Mark Ronson, Glynn Jones, Oscar Görres, Sylvia Massy, and many many others 🙂
How does a track start for you – what is the spark that kicks off the rest of your production?
Usually a good synth sound that sparks a good melody or chord progression. I also start tracks with drum grooves or on the guitar. It really depends, everytime is a different approach.
Do you ever suffer creative blocks? What is your coping mechanism?
I used to suffer from them when I was starting my career, it doesn’t happen that often now. I’m quite eclectic and I love to jump from one thing to another; when I get stuck, I just focus on something else in the production and move forward. I believe the worst thing one can do is to abandon something because you got stuck. I found that if one pushes through, you can get inspired quite quickly. One just can’t expect to always be creative, so I try to get my creative work done at the beginning of the day, when I’m fresh, and after that I can focus on more automatic tasks such as editing or answering emails and things like that.
How does technology impact your creative process?
In a huge way. I’m a great fan of technology and anything that can help me get the ideas from my head as quickly as possible to the computer. I have full blown music productions playing all day in my head, so I like to put them down as quickly as possible. I also like having all my instruments connected at the same time so I can flow between them and not waste time.
Life is not easy so my advice is simple: get started and give yourself the best chance to win.
What has your experience of the industry been like thus far and what advice would you give to anyone just starting out?
My experience hasn’t been easy, and I’ve had to put way more than 10,000 hours to be able to do this for a living. So my advice is to be patient, just try to get better everyday and dont do this expecting to get famous, do it because you love it. For me there is no other choice than music, and I would continue to make it even if there was nobody listening. Another piece of advice is that you have to be hungry and learn a lot of different skills besides making music: like marketing, recording, learning how to edit and film videos, a basic knowledge of Photoshop, and have a social media presence. Life is not easy so my advice is simple: get started and give yourself the best chance to win.
What is your production setup at the moment? Is it fixed or do you switch things up regularly?
It’s always evolving because I love creative instruments, so my studio is always getting bigger – or actually smaller because there is less and less room left! I have a control room, where I have my synths, my Pro Tools system, outboard gear and guitars. And I also have a live room for Drums, Piano and Brass. I also use the live room to record my new Podcast “Segundos Armónicos” hosted at my main channel “El Capitán estudio” where I interview, alongside Hernan Calvo, the biggest producers and engineers in the Spanish scene.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m mixing and producing artists from different parts of the world. I’m working with a couple of American, Puerto Rican, and very talented artists from Argentina. I’ve also been working on a beautiful documentary of an Argentinian photographer that took most of the famous band photos and Album covers from Argentina. And I’ve also been writing and producing Jingles for Big Argentinian brands.
So we hear you have a COBALT8 in the studio at the moment – what’s your impressions on this?
I’m in love with that beast! It’s so expressive, I’ve done lots of jingles and music on it already and it’s probably the synth I use the most. I love how reliable it is; I took it to a couple live gigs, and it worked great. Making my own preset pack for it was an honor, and I use them all the time. There is a preset in my collection called Epiano, that I tried to create a Fender Rhodes style piano on a synth, and the result was great, I use that sound way more than my Rhodes emulations!
From the final touch to your latest masterpiece to a spark of inspiration to jumpstart your creativity, there are two fundamentals that can’t be ignored: a next-generation synthesiser that’s ram-packed with creative possibilities, and patches that transport you to the brink of a sonic vista, showing you just how far you can push your synth-centric exploration. With our COBALT-Series synths, you’re covered with tools; Lui Piluso, with his debut preset pack Modern and Tasty, completes the puzzle. Whether it’s rich analogue chords, sub heavy basslines hell-bent on fracturing the most sturdy foundation or contemporary leads to service the next mainstage earworm, this pack delivers in spades!
Sound Demos
Modal Electronics Backstage: Venus Theory, Part Two
Modal Electronics Backstage: James Bunton, Part Two
Modal Electronics Backstage: James Bunton, Part One
Modal Electronics Backstage: Venus Theory, Part One
Modal Electronics Backstage: The Flight, Part Two
Modal Electronics Backstage: The Flight, Part One
Modal Electronics Backstage: Matt Benyayer [Dark Sky]
Modal Electronics Backstage: Throwing Snow
Modal Electronics Backstage: Miles Spilsbury – The Physics House Band
Modal Electronics Backstage: Lapalux
Modal Electronics Backstage: Nadia Struiwigh
Modal Electronics Backstage: Tim Wright, Part Two
Modal Electronics Backstage: Tim Wright, Part One
Modal Electronics Backstage: Wehbba
