Interview: Prosper & Stabfinger

European duo Prosper & Stabfinger have the track record of veterans, but keep the party vibrant. The unlikely pair comprisde of French DJ Prosper and Italian producer Stabfinger bring expertise from both the musicianship angle as well as the mechanics of rocking a party.

Their latest three-track party function Body In Flexion rolls through with diverse beats pumped full of electro flavor. They start the year off with a selection of party bops alongside UK label Bombstrikes Records to make sure we keep it moving into the new year.

Their Stereofox mix includes many originals, remixes, unreleased material and more, so give it a listen while you read our interview with the duo themselves below.

Tracklist

• Prosper & Stabfinger - Get Out of My Life (Feat. Lions Pride & Ashley Slater) (Original Mix) (Bombstrikes Records)
• Prosper & Stabfinger - Big Bamboo (The Cupcake Project Remix) (Royal Soul Records)
• Prosper & Stabfinger - Body In Flexion (Bombstrikes Records)
• Prosper & Stabfinger - Funk Sauce (Feat. Awoke & Death Town) (Bombstrikes Records)
• Prosper & Stabfinger - Sexy Girl (Feat. Imagine This) (Unreleased)
• Prosper & Stabfinger - 20/20 Insight (Feat. Everyman) (Bombstrikes Records)
• Prosper & Stabfinger - Bounce With Me (Bombstrikes Records)
• Prosper & Stabfinger - Dopeness (Beatvandals Remix) (Bombstrikes Records)
• Prosper & Stabfinger - Boogie Bugi (Fedorovski Remix) (Bombstrikes Records)
• Nasa Funk - Gonna Work It (Prosper & Stabfinger Remix) (Breakbeat Paradise Records)
• Timewarp Inc - Yuii Disco Boom (Prosper & Stabfinger Remix) (Timewarp Music)
• Prosper & Stabfinger - Boogie To The Disco (Feat. Everyman) (Bombstrikes Records)
• Prosper & Stabfinger - Flymenco (Kensaye Remix) (Galletas Calientes)
• Prosper & Stabfinger - Flymenco (Sunka Remix) (Galletas Calientes)
• Stabfinger - Funkastick (Breakbeat Paradise)
• Stabfinger & K.D.S - Insert Coin (Unreleased)
• Dub Pistols - Bank Rubber (Prosper & Stabfinger Remix) (Sunday Best Recordings)

Hey guys, great to have you. First, how are you doing?

Bonjour it’s good to be here I guess it’s the beginning of fame lol !

We are good (despite the situation we all know), as artists it’s our job to bring joy to our audience, so we guess this function is essential now and more than ever! But health is good, friends and family are safe, inspiration is here and we’re just really really looking forward to going back on stage again! All hopes are directed to next spring.

We hope it will a liberation for everyone! We need to celebrate again!

You guys just released a jam-packed party smasher EP Body In Flexion on Bombstrikes Records. Tell me more about this release.

We wanted a really positive E.P (more than usual) and this is the first one we didn’t make next to each other (because of the lockdown obviously). So it was a challenge to keep our touch alive, I guess according to feedback we get : the job is well done (lol)

As we are very musically open minded we wanted to put on the same dancefloor an electro fan, a disco dancer and a breakdancer !

This EP is diverse with style and sounds. I am curious: what does your creative process look like?

(Prosper) good question wich I could not answer to keep our secret safe (haha). More seriously, I think we don’t have a locked creative process. For this E.p for example tracks were originally rough drafts from me and Stabfinger transcended them !

In the past we had sometimes ideas from Stab or both together… We have a very eclectic musical background from Big Beat to Techno from Rock to Hip Hop, Jazz, World Music….etc .

My heroes for exemple are The Chemical Brothers : they are very hard to classified

They got their own style and we can feel a very large field of musical influences. That’s what I like generally with english music, there are no borders, only crossbreeding.

(Stabfinger) It depends on both the type of music and how the idea of the song is organised. I come from live music so in that process, for example, I usually create the session, record it and keep the best parts which I then put into shape to build the song.

Sometimes I start from a melody played on the piano, sometimes I look for inspiration starting from a sample that I then break down and distort, the beauty of music is that the possibilities are endless.... I think the important thing is to have a quick idea of the whole so as not to get lost, but I always like to start from 0 to try my best to make original and not repetitive things. I've always been fond of modular synths and generative music, so I tend to create modular systems and patches for the composition and rhythmic parts, which I then break down and adapt to the song.

What gear are you guys using in your studios?

(Prosper) That’s more a question for Nicolas (Stabfinger) I can say that we are on Abelton and work as often as possible with musicians who are also our friends (guitar player, bass player, sax player etc) but Nicolas is the geek so he will tell you more (lol)

(Stabfinger) Mainly software (Ableton Live for composition) and logic to finalize the projects .. a little hardware (Virus B, Electribe MX and SX) and for some specific sounds I often go to arrange the songs in the studio of friends to record sythn, effects or analog drum machines (such as Juno 60, TB.303, Space echo RE 501).

For composition and arrangement I play piano and percussion.

One of the strong points of this project in my opinion was being able to collaborate with musicians and singers as if it were an orchestra, trying as much as possible to create new and original things. When you make a remix or find the inspiration for a famous song, you often remain dependent on the original sounds. Having the opportunity to work with musicians has allowed us to arrange our productions in the freest way possible, expanding our creative possibilities.

You guys started making tunes together in 2014… what’s great about collaborating together and what are some challenges?

(Prosper) We are very different as individuals so sometimes we don’t have the same point of view and it could be problematic but mostly we are friends so we feet together. Most of the time this difference is a strength as we are also very complementary. Nico is younger and messy, impatient but very creative and I’m an old guy obsessed with rigor and discipline (lol)

(Stabfinger) I find the DJ Producer collaboration very rewarding, Romain (Prosper) as well as other DJs I have collaborated with have allowed me to have a more dj-like vision and structure of the tracks which is very important in Dancefloor music. Each musical genre has his own codes, we could say, and there is a big difference between a song and a track created to be mixed. Not to mention the different musical influences which are also a strong point. I consider collaboration an important part of artistic growth because it allows you to confront other people and get out of your comfort zones.

I heard that “Prosper’s got the Funk and Stabfinger’s got the Soul”. Tell me a bit about your musical influences and what moves you to make music.

(Prosper) we are totally complementary as I’m a DJ so I know how to manage a dancefloor and Stabfinger is more a musician so i knows how to make our music more clever than I am (lol)

I was born in 1975 so rock from 80’s was my first love (Talking Heads, Police, Roxy Music, The Clash) after came the Beastie Boys so I was more into hip hop (De La Soul, Cypress Hill, Run DMC)

Then in the 90's all “The Big Beat” scene (Propellerheads, Wiseguys, Fatboy Slim, Monkey Mafia, Freddy Fresh, Bassbin Twins, Mindfield General) blew my mind. They are the reason why I became a DJ.

(Stabfinger) So my influences are very eclectic, my family raised me on jazz, soul and blues and classical music. Growing up in Venice, in those years (80/90) it was not easy to find new foreign music because the internet was still in its infancy, but towards the beginning of high school I began to be very fond of the English experimental scene and particularly of the Warp label (Autechre, Aphex Twin Square Pusher Richard Devine Prefuse 73) are certainly artists that have influenced me a lot, or Ninja Tune and the Trip- pop scene 90 (Cujo / Amon Tobin - Dj Food - DJ Shadow, Portishead).

After that bands like (Beastie boys, public enemy, cypress hill, de la soul ,Run dmc) were the bands I was passionate about for a very long time and I was strongly inspired by them as well as the 80s/90s English, French and American hiphop scene. 

Apart from a few attempts to form a group during high school, I began to play a little more seriously in early 2000 in the underground techno scene in France and Italy was the time of the liveset and jam drum machines and synthesizers and all this was extremely stimulating, from there the breakbeat scene, jungle dnb and bigbeat was one of the most beautiful goals for me because it was a time when everything was mixed, influences and styles and certainly was one of the various reasons that led me to want to launch into that world. Not to mention the fact that new genres of music come out regularly and always have something interesting to bring to personal creation, so there is no lack of stimuli. 

Any last words of wisdom, shout-outs, or anything at all? Throw it in here.

Let's say that we are crossing very hard times, but this will end at some point, so please it’s important to stay positive and spread hope ! and most of all: caring love! Music is the best dealer of Joy!

So you can count on us to accompany you to better days.

Stream Body In Flexion by Prosper & Stabinger on all platforms here.