Electronic music maestro and prolific composer Louis Giannamore is set to release his new album ‘World Tour!’: an album written and produced using found sounds and field recordings from around the globe whilst on tour as a session musician during 2022. The sounds used on the album, the majority of which are iPhone recordings, were captured all within the same year. We were lucky enough to grab Louis for a 1 on 1 chat.
1. Who is Louis Giannamore in Three Words only?
Weird but bearable.
2. What top 5 tracks would we find on your Spotify or iTunes playlist?
The first two, I’m gonna say ‘Seat 5F’ and ‘Buskers’, my two most recent singles from my debut album, set to come out this December. The other three are from that album, ‘Jetlag’, ‘Casinos’ and ‘Church Bells’. You’ll hear them soon enough but as for tracks that are currently available, I’d say ‘Chrome’, Kick A Hornets Nest’ and ‘Death As A Drummer’.
3. We love your track ‘Buskers’ tell us a bit about that track?
It’s the ‘tone-setter’ for my debut album ‘World Tour!’ The whole record is made from iPhone memos and this song samples the most. It is meant to personify the excitement you feel from being in a foreign place and surrounding yourself with wondrous new things you’ve never seen before and yes, it does also sample buskers and street performing from various continents. I hope it makes people feel like they are ‘in-transit’.
4. Who are your musical inspirations?
Ryuichi Sakamoto was the reason I wanted to pursue film composition at 19-years-old, with his score for ’The Revenant’. I was dabbling with making ambient music before that. Discovering him gave me confidence to pursue composing when hearing that score, proving I didn’t need to be John Williams with an orchestra at my disposal to accomplish such. A lot of film composers and film scores inspire me, like Goblin with ‘Susperia’ and Harry Manfredini with ‘Friday the 13th’.
As a drummer, I’m very inspired by Mikey Sorbello.
5. What embarrassing songs might we find on your Spotify?
I have 12,000 liked songs on my Spotify. I’d say about 100% of that is embarrassing. There’s some unlistenable experimental music, corny pop tunes, anxiety-inducing death metal and the leftover 1% of that is actually decent.
6. Your sound we feel is very electro specific, is there a genre of music that you would collectively stay away from?
I really had to think about this one. I don’t like the idea of distancing myself from different genres. ’Trend music’ – not a genre but any music and art for the sake of being trendy, popular, profitable or marketable. For me, if something artistic begins trending, I immediately question its legitimacy. Trends aren’t a living, breathing thing yet they still fester and latch. I hope my creations never become subject to a temporary popularity or god forbid I alter my creations for the sake of appealing to others.
7. Who would be your dream collaboration?
I have so many. There is honestly so much different art I love, I can’t pinpoint ‘one’ dream collaboration. Colin Stetson, Daniel Avery, Avenged Sevenfold, Slope, Max Cooper and Ryuichi Sakamoto and Mike Shinoda – to name a few.
8. What hidden talent(s) do you have?
I can balance a glass with liquid on my forehead and have it rest on the ground, without spilling any liquid, without touching it with my hands.
9. Describe your style to us?
I genuinely feel like I’m still figuring that out. I’m a drummer after all so outsiders would probably say ‘percussive’ or ‘rhythmic’. My love for scores and film music definitely leaks into what I create so outsiders would also say ‘cinematic’. I say ‘outsiders’ because I don’t think you create your style – it’s just ‘you’ and it’s others who describe and decide what it is. I really feel, with every project I do, I just follow my nose and take everything as it comes. Of course, I’m not totally naive – with this debut album of mine, even I would pigeonhole it into a genre but even so, I do that when I have my ‘outsider’ lens on. It was the concept and brief which drove me to create that album and the style was secondary. My style is TBC.
10. Finally – what festivals have you got lined up for 2024?
Yikes, I have nothing yet! I’ll be sure to let you know when I do.
