As one half of the resident duo behind Glasgow institution Subculture, Domenic Capello knows a thing or two about what it takes to hold a dancefloor - He's been doing it for nigh on 30+ years. As well as a DJ, he's producer in his own right, with a very tasty new four track just out. It was great to spend some time talking all things music....

Paul East

We should start by talking about the new release. You've been putting out stuff for a while, but how did this one come about?

Domenic Capello

When I first started, it was just one of those things, you know, everybody did when you were DJ. I used to go to the studio with other people. When you go in with someone else, and you don't really know what you're doing, you’re constantly changing things and changing things. I was with a couple of nice guys, but I could feel the tension. And I'm fussy as it is! I would spend hours doing something and then I'd go that’s shit and just start again.

So I decided to start saving up and get what I wanted, and my own studio. Back then it was a lot cheaper to do, but I was doing audio engineering at college. I used my student loan to start buying studio gear. I bought an MPC 3000 and I bought a mixing desk and then gradually just started buying keyboards and stuff like that. I built quite a good collection over a couple of years and just started really just banging on the keyboard like a monkey! Eventually I started getting better at it. But then we moved away, and so I sold most of my studio because in Barcelona we didn’t have the space.

Then when I came back, everyone was on Ableton, but I just couldn't get my head round it because I'd been so used to hardware. The MPC just felt so natural to me, then to go on the computer and just be using the mouse, I just didn't like it. So for years I never did anything. Kept trying, kept hating it. Then eventually I was going back into other people's studios because they could use Ableton. I made a few tracks, but I was never 100% happy with them. And then I think it was probably just before lockdown, I just decided I was gonna learn Ableton myself and that was kind of it. It took me about 10 Years to get here though!

Paul East

So you’re pretty mobile then? Do you use a studio at all now?

Domenic Capello

I do everything at home and then because I have my speakers there, but they’re pretty shit, and obviously 30 years of DJing every week, my years are too! When it comes to certain frequencies, especially at higher frequencies. The problem I’d find with mixing my tunes, was it would sound great in my studio speakers. But then when you go through to the club, half the track would be missing. Then what I’ve learned since then, is about phasing and making sure certain frequencies aren’t clashing. I didn't know any of that, and I couldn't tell because my ears weren’t good enough to hear if that was 60 kHz clashing with the 80 Hertz or whatever.

What I do now is, I'll make the tunes then go to my mate’s, who's got a proper big studio. Big fancy speakers and he's got nice clean lit compressors and limiters, and he's got really good EQ's and we'll just clean the track up so that it sounds in the club the way it sounds in my studio.

Paul East

How does it come about then, do you start with an idea? Or is it more kind of improvised?

Domenic Capello

I never go in with an idea of what I want to make. It's more kind of just start messing about, find a sound I like and then if it's a pad do a call. If it's a bass line, start there. I’ve spoken to a lot of producers and how they start is with a kick drum. Then a baseline, and then you add the drums, high hats and then start adding melodies. Whereas I’ll do the opposite now. I'll do all the melodies first. I basically have a click to keep the time. I've been trying to do the track as done musically as I can. Then fit the drums, and if I can get it sounding really good, as soon as you add the drums, it just takes up a level. So I kind of do my drums last.

Paul East

So this new one came together quite easily then?

Domenic Capello

They were all different. One was actually based off an old DAT, hence ‘DAT Thing’, from about 1998! I managed to find an old DAT machine and get the tracks off it. I mean most of them were shit! Just sketches and ideas, stuff like that. But there was one and that was the start of it. ‘Galactic Praise’, that was the trickiest with so many melodies and chords and stuff. I was trying to go for that old Detroit vibe, where it's like Red Planet, but also UR with the touch organs and the sci-fi chords and the 303.

‘Neon Skyline’ was me trying to do a kind of Italo/Detroit vibe. I love Italo and Detroit Techno. So just trying to join the two. A lot of the melodies can be quite similar, arpeggio bass lines. But I wanted to give all these moments to it. There's lots of filtering and EQ in there and complex programming all the way through it. Underneath it all thought, I guess essentially it was me just wanting to make a modern disco track.

‘Niamh’s Song’ was one that just came together very well. It was just like just a simple beat, nice electro thing. I wanted loads of counter melodies and melodies all the way through, quite soft and quite melancholy. It’s written for a friend, who we lost to cancer. So it was kind of a personal thing.

Paul East

The sounds are pretty varied on the EP, was that deliberate?

Domenic Capello

Not really. I never really overthink it. I hate hearing EPs, and all four tracks all sound really similar. I like hearing an EP and the tracks all sound individual, instead of they all sound like the guy’s just went from one preset to another. I think if you’re gonna put it on vinyl, you have to give more options for different parts of the night. It's as simple as that. You know, there's a deeper track. There's a more pumping track. There's a warm up track. If you're buying, you know these days, which is expensive, and if you're playing records out, you want there to be a variety on there.

Paul East

So have you road tested them?

Domenic Capello

Yeah, yeah, they're all to work at different points. What I'll do is, I'll make a track and then I'll get a mix. And then before I’ve got the master, I'll take it into the club. I'll go in like half an hour before, at 10:30. Just play it on the speakers in the club, because I'm so used to hearing music in there. I know I can hear if that bass line needs to come down or that high hat needs to come up. I'll test it in the club, empty, and then I'll test it in the club with people.

When we’re listening back in the studio, it might sound great and there's a groove to it. And then when you play to a dance floor, you can feel, “I've cut that too early”, or “I've left that too long”. So I'll go straight home at night and I'll re-edit or tweak it. When I road test them in a club, it's more taking things out like “I don't need that”. Whereas in the studio you can hear it and the layers are nice, but in the club sometimes, it's like you're overdoing it. You know there's too much.

Paul East

It must be pretty nice, being able to do that, like having some kind of laboratory?

Domenic Capello

Every single thing, we tested before anyone's in the club and then in the club. And then once they're all mastered and mixed I very rarely play them again! ‘Cause I've heard them a million times, so I can't. Once I've done that, I'm, ‘right, what's next?’ You know? Just move on.

Paul East

You’re Enjoying it, then, the producing?

Domenic Capello

I'm enjoying it, yeah. It's like I've got a groove at the moment. I've got another 10 tracks sitting on the side. I actually had to stop myself from making things, ‘cause I am just building them up. I've given myself like 2-3 weeks off to go and chill. So, I'm just listening to loads of different music. I think it's quite good to do that. I'm just listening to soundtracks and stuff.

Paul East

Is that the kind of thing you listen to at home then?

Domenic Capello

It's all different. But yeah, a lot of soundtracks, movie music, because the sound quality, even in some shit movies can be amazing. All the kids, everybody's in bed sleeping. And I'm obviously a night owl. So, I'll have my headphones on, watching some B-movie, sci-fi, and the soundtrack on it's ridiculous. Then you just start Googling things and you’re down a rabbit hole at 5 AM!

Paul East

I guess we can't really not talk about Sub Club and Subculture. Do you have it in mind with the music you’re producing right now?

Domenic Capello

I try and produce tracks for myself, in the moment, and try not to think about a club environment. I buy music like that as well. I don't buy tracks and think, “could I play this at that time?”. I kind of buy the track ‘cause I like it, and then I'll try and manoeuvre it into a set so that people understand it or it gets the best reaction.

You can’t think about what other people are gonna think, because you're never gonna get it right and you're gonna end up going against your own instincts by trying to guess what other people are gonna like. I'll never do that. I just kind of go on my own. Sometimes to my detriment though, because there's a couple of tracks I've made and I'm really happy with them musically, but I'm like when the fuck am I going to play that!

Paul East

How does your typical week go? Playing every week, that must take some discipline?

Domenic Capello

It's great, I've been doing it for 30 years. With playing Saturday, Mondays/Sundays is kind of a right off, but then everything's normal by Tuesday. My wife's a teacher. My kids are all working. So while they do that, I get up, hang the washing out….Nothing exciting! I’ll have my Bluetooth headphones - the greatest creation ever, so I can hear my tunes from up in the room while i’m doing the hoovering!

I'll basically listen to and buy new music at least for a couple of hours every day. New stuff, put it away, and then on a Friday night, I'll go back. Sometimes, when you’re listening to new music, you'll get in a roll. I like this, I like that, but then you listen back and say “why did I buy that?!”. So now I give myself a kind of grace period. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I'll listen to music. Put it in the cart. And then Friday night, when everybody's away to bed, I'll just chill if I'm not working, and listen through all the tracks again and see what makes the cut. Then Saturday, when I get up, breakfast and then just pretty much in my record room during the whole day preparing for the night.

Then Sundays again, back to watching Disney channel, eating ice cream.

Paul East

Can we go back to when it all started, were there any clubs or people or places that you were inspired by or you thought, this is how to do it?

Domenic Capello

I loved playing at the Food Club in Leuven, in Belgium. That was my favourite place to play abroad. It's like one of the few places you could fly directly from Glasgow, so it wasn’t like 10 hours to get there. And it's just a cool club. Geoffroy, who does stuff as Mugwump, used to run it. I’d probably play twice a year. It was a big club, although they moved a couple of times, but it was such a good club - every time as soon as you got the booking, you were looking forward to it.

I used to love Basics (Back 2 Basics), playing with Ralph, because we were mates and it was just bouncing. You could play deep house all night. The whole place was going nuts.

Things like Panorama Bar…that would be good. But I think in Russia, Moscow, a club called Propaganda. I used to play a Thursday night, that was like a four hour warm up. I just played Prescription records all night and they were going nuts to it. That was mad. Loads of places….Probably some places I’ve forgotten as well. Alcohol(!)

Paul East

What about going out then, before you're even playing yourself? Or have you always just been the DJ?

Domenic Capello

Well, I started DJing when I was 17. Playing Blues and stuff in a bar, so I couldn't drink because I was underage. But when I was going to clubs, it was Sub Club. There were others, not as many as there are now. Sub Club was the one I kind of gravitated towards. I was a regular before I even started DJing there. I met my wife there, half of my mates there, so it was our regular place. We used to go every Saturday when it was Harri and Slam that were on, it was Atlantis then. Then, just by chance really, I was DJing more and more, then when Slam left, I got the night with Harri.

Paul East

You must have seen some changes in Glasgow over the years?

Domenic Capello

The difference now is, there's more options musically. It used to be, dance music was about people who were into acid house and the like, techno and Detroit stuff and music coming out of New York and all that. There was a small minority of us who were into that and then the other clubs were like chart music.

There were only a couple of places playing kind of underground, house, techno music. But now everybody's into some form of dance music. All the other clubs play ‘dance music’. But, it's a completely different world from ours. But it's all dance music now. So, I think that's changed, the fact that everybody's into dance music in some form or another. Whether it’s Calvin Harris type stuff or whether it's like your Drecxiya. Everybody's into it now, so it makes your scene look smaller because these things are all busy, like the bigger ones are. And they're getting guys on with X thousands of Instagram followers. Then you get guys coming to play for us and there's like 300 people in! It's sort of expanded around you almost, but you're not really a part of it. It’s their version of dance music, and we're playing ours. I think people's perception is what's changed.

I think young people don't go out as much because, well, it's just money. I think after lockdown that changed. Back in the day, if you were at a house party, you put a tape on. Now people have got SoundCloud, so can listen to like 12 hours of music non-stop. They get drugs dropped off by WhatsApp. Don't need to pay in, pay taxis, and so a lot more are staying in and partying that way.

When we were young, if you wanted to hear any kind of good music, you had to go out. You'd find a way, scrimp or save. Even if you had to train it in or walk home. Whatever, you would find ways to get to the club. Whereas now it's easier for them to stay in and still have a good night.

Paul East

I wonder if it will come back round, these things tend to go in cycles….

Domenic Capello

I think financially, things are going to have to change. Everybody's struggling. Prices are up in clubs because rents are up, booze is costly. I think everything's gonna need to come down or everybody's wages need to come up. We were looking at old flyers the other day for Sub Club in 1991, and it was like a pound to get in, a pound for a Red Stripe.

There's nothing better than going to a club, meeting your mates and having that kind of sense of community. It's great having your night in with your friends at your house, you can kind of relax, don't need to dress up. But you won't get that thing, when you walk into a club. You can hear the booming kick drum from upstairs and you can feel it. You get that energy and anticipation when you walk in the club. I think people will miss that.

Paul East

I was reading an article (recent No Tags Substack post) the other day, and their theory was a good night was always a balance between the control side of things, like the sound, security etc. then with the craziness, kind of hedonistic stuff. And it’s the push and pull between these two sorts of extremes that makes it great, would you agree with that?

Domenic Capello

Yeah, I would. I think to be honest, and I see it with my son, who is a DJ and is 21 now. His crowd, and speaking to them. For example, he's going to be DJing in a forest party in a few months. It's like one of those things like we used to get, the location’s unknown. There's a bus picking you up over here. We're not telling you who's playing. The mystery we used to all get, when you were going to rave. You had to go to a phone box and find the number. So, all that anticipation, the unknown, the danger thing. But they all moaned about it! “I want to know when I’m getting picked up!”, “I want to know when it starts”. And Liam, my son is like, “you’re missing the point, the whole part of this is it's exciting. Get the bus. You don’t know where you’re going. there's going to be amazing DJs, sound system… It's in a forest! Just fucking go with it”. But they were, “I need this. I need that. I need all this info…”

People maybe want that, because they're so used to being, you know, mollycoddled, they're so used to having everything at hand. We need too much info, whereas we used to just go, number on a piece of paper, phone it, get the spot and drive. You hear the beats, then follow the light….

Paul East

Even saying that, do you still have some rules that you kind of follow for the night, are certain things that you have to do? A ritual even?

Domenic Capello

Usually yeah, if it’s going to be a big night, I’ll meet with a couple of mates first. There's a cracking old pub around 5 minutes walk from the club. It's called the Scotia. We'll go in there and get a nice pint. We'll just have one pint. And to be honest, before a big night my chat’s non-existent. Mates come and sit and talk, but I'm already thinking about the night. I'm kind of there, but I'm not. I'll sit with my pint. But I'll just get a buzz off of them kind of all getting excited for the night.

Then I'll go in like, half an hour early. Just like analysing new tunes I’ve made that week, or even just a couple of new tunes I've bought, and then we'll get ready for the night. But my rule has always been, up the road before they get up. I don't want to be staggering in and they're up when I'm half cut. That’s always the rule. So, in the summer, I hate coming back when it’s light!

I'll sit behind at the end of the night, especially in winter. But, I always seem to have this internal thing. 6:00 AM. I'm going. I'll do the Irish goodbye. Everybody's all sitting talking. I'll just go get my bag and go, that's it.

Paul East

I think I probably know the answer to this, but what's kept you going for so long?

Domenic Capello

It's just music. It's the music, man. It's like if you listen to tunes all week and you’re buying tunes and you get new, fresh stuff coming in all the time. It's like an addiction. If people stopped making good records, I would stop playing, but that doesn't seem to be happening. In fact, the opposite is true.

So many good young producers are coming through all the time. That means there’s interesting stuff to play. As long as that keeps happening, I'm going to hear it and I'm going to play it.

It's not a physically difficult job, like work in a building site. I mean, one day, my back's gonna go! It's like I'm playing records, getting cold beer and making people dance. Emotionally, if there’s always good music, it just gives you an energy.

For example, on Monday, I heard a couple of really nice tracks. I know I can think about playing them Saturday night, you know? It's like you can't wait for the weekend again. Like you were when you were a kid! I'm the same now. But it's for different reasons. I want to hear this too, and I want to play. I want to see people's reaction to it, things like that. So that gives you the energy and keeps pushing it forward.

Paul East

So you said to your son plays. Does he ever ask you for any advice?

Domenic Capello

No, he's completely independent. We’ve done back-to-back mixes in the record room and I'll show him a couple of things, but he's just he's naturally picked it up really quickly, he's really good, really talented. He's his own man, which is good, but he does borrow my old tunes! A lot more techno tracks. I'll be in my room, or in the studio, and he's banging away next door and then I'll hear something and be like ‘what the fuck is that?!’ and he’s found some old Belgian rave thing and it sounds brilliant. So he's finding all my old tunes that I've forgotten about - then I'm stealing them back!

Paul East

20+ years is a long time. Can you ever see it ending?

Domenic Capello

It will come. I think obviously it'll come to an end at some point. I mean, Harri, the other DJ at the club, is 67. So I’ve got a wee bit to go before I get to that! He uses his bus pass to get to the club(!) But again, he still loves it as well. I think eventually after all my years of playing, there comes a point where people will stop relating to you musically. Once I can feel that, we'll take a step back, but at the moment, if anything, it's going better than ever. You know, it's good, and making music gives me a fresh injection too.

The scene is smaller, and I know it's harder, harder for venues but I'm not really worried about that. I don't need a lot of money, you know? I've never needed a lot to survive. I’m lucky I don't really feel the need to kind of put myself out there for shit bookings. I've got the club and I've got enough other gigs that come in. I'm happy with that - so life's good.

Galactic Praise is out now on Cyphon records via Bandcamp