Bizzarro Universe creates music that works in all settings and transcends genres. His openness to a wide range of sound is what has both made him a widely loved favourite, but also someone who operates in his own parallel musical world. We had a chance to talk to him, so enjoy your reading and check out his latest releases.
Can you tell us a little about your experience? Where are you from / how did you get into music? Was it all internet based?
Nathalie: We are living in Hamburg, Germany. I started playing electric guitar in early stage and stuck a long time to Indie and Alternative music. At that time, I only knew how to create guitar riffs and solos. Later on, I fell in love with synthesizers and bought my first one. That was the moment where I realized: Nice, now I can produce my own electronic music and ended up with my first self-produced track.
Danny: I was always interested in music and made early my first tapes out of daddy’s record collections. I started to DJ and with the age of 20 I organized in a DJ collective my first House and Maximal Electro Parties before I felt in love with Italo Disco, Melodic Techno and Indie Dance.
Who have been your main inspirations (both musical and in «life»)? And how have they affected your sound?
Danny: Daft Punk always inspired me. Their robot helmets, their futuristic sound and the use of the vocoder caught me from the beginning on. You can hear a little bit the influence in our sound. I was really sad when they broke up last year. At the moment Biesmans is my favorite. His 80s synth work is from outta space.
Nathalie: I am always inspired by many different people from time to time. Like Perel, Curses, Torsten Fenslau… there are so many great artists out there.
How would you define your sound?
Danny: It is basically 80s synth focused but with modern punching bass lines. Sometimes it feels like you are riding a spaceship.
Nathalie: The next tracks will also have some 90s acid baselines influences. So in the end, we love to produce that what we personally like to dance to and what we are inspired at that moment.
How has your sound evolved so far?
Danny: In 2017 when we started our first Bizzarro Universe parties, we played a lot of classic Italo Disco or 80s remixes. But with the evolving Indie Dance scene our sound is now more modern related with short trips into the 90s electronic music scene.
Nathalie: It’s so funny to see that at the start of our parties my favorite song was „Touch in the night“ from Silent Circle. And now ended up in loving the Dark Italo stuff. That’s why I sometimes like to include EBM, Dark Disco and New Beat stuff in our sets. So Danny likes more the good-feel tracks, I also love to play darker sound. That’s why we fit perfectly together.
What can you tell us about your last job? What inspired you? What do you want to convey?
Danny: We recently played with our current label „Verflixt Music“ at the Pavoia Festival in Poland, our first festival after the pandemic. It was only a small festival with about 500 people, but the energy was mind blowing. You could feel that everyone had a really good time and wanted to forget the murky COVID times. Family feelings 🙂
What can you tell us about each song that makes up your latest work? What is hidden behind?
Nathalie: We produced Glaskugel while there was the COVID lockdown. So we wanted to produce a happy Italo related song which cheers the people up, but also wanted to work through our fears. So we ask in the vocals: „What will the future bring? And also give the answer: „We don’t know. Nobody knows“ So don’t worry about the future. Live the moment and dance.
Danny: With Sphärenharmonie we want to take you on a trip with a spaceship into the Bizzarro Universe. It is more dance floor focused with a rolling baseline and a quite dramatic evolving sound which comes to a nice end. Leitstrahl & Luca dell´Orso did a great job in remix the track. So we are really happy with the EP.
How are you living the current situation because of COVID? Has your work affected you a lot? Do you think there is hope? I feel like the underground scene will continue to persist.
Danny: I’m sure every musician was infected by the COVID situation. For some it meant standstill, others like us dealt with the situation. We had more time to concentrate on producing new music, taking part in digital masterclasses with our favorite DJs or watched DJ live streams. Of course, there is hope. With the vaccination, the first clubs are opening now in Germany. But like the hook line in Glaskugel says: We never know what the future brings.
What projects are you working on right now?
Nathalie: We are working currently on a new EP with 4 songs that are basically 80s dance floor focused but will also use a few 90s acid elements.
