Birdee Reveals The Inspiration Behind His Song “Party Life” + More

Birdee has been creating awesome tunes for over ten years now, and his latest release, “Party Life,” is no exception. In this interview, the Los Angeles-based artist spills the beans on what inspired this Disco jam and shares some other juicy details that will get you in the mood to boogie down!

1 – How did you come to collaborate with Mark Picchiotti and Javi Star on your new song “Party Life”?

So I’ve been a fan of Mark’s music for a long time and I was surprised and very flattered when he hit me up and said he was playing some of my tracks too. He already made some songs with Javi and sent me a rough idea of something they had been working on together.

I did some work on it and we did some back and forth until we were all happy with the final result, it took a while because we weren’t all in the same room but we are all pretty happy with it.

2 – What was the inspiration behind this fantastic tune?

The song was written at the end of the COVID lockdown as a response to the need to let go of the built-up tensions that had accumulated during that time. Honestly, the core of the song came from Mark and Javi, I think my ideas for the track definitely helped spark more ideas on Mark’s end though, and the end result reflects that.

3 – You’ve described your music as a classic Disco with a modern edge. How do you balance those two elements in your productions?

It really is a fine line sometimes and a challenge, trying to make something that’s playable on today’s dance floors while retaining that classic Disco feel. I use quite a bit of live instrumentation on my tracks – playing some of the guitar and keys myself or getting other musicians involved – while most of the drums are programmed.

The modern edge comes from the drums and from the way the structure of the song is laid out, plus of course, modern audio technology helps make it sound “big” so to speak.

One thing I very seldom do is take huge chunks of samples or do re-edits, almost everything I do is 90% played and written from scratch.

4 – How has your Italian background influenced your sound?

Not a lot really, although I think some of it certainly has subconsciously. I grew up during the golden era of Italo Disco but was a little too young to realize there were so many interesting productions in that genre at the time… only the tip of the iceberg made it to the radio though, and most of it was genuinely rubbish lol.

Plus, I was very much into guitar music at the time, and a lot of the “Italo” sound was very electronic/synth-based. I would say during that time, one of my biggest influences was Prince, who really bridged the gap between Funk, Rock, and synth-based music, but clearly he wasn’t Italian.

Anyway, it’s funny, I’ve been back in LA for a few months now and almost every time I go out to a club I hear Raf’s “Self Control” (US audiences may be more familiar with the Laura Branigan version) – one of the better produced, bona fide Italo hits of the era – so clearly Italy was doing something right!

5 – Who are some of your biggest musical influences, both past and present?

Prince, early Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chic, Change, Giorgio Moroder, Cerrone, and Roy Ayers are some of the names that have at one point or another influenced my musical path.

Present times, I’m a big fan of MCDE, Dave Lee, and Art Of Tones (who previously had a huge hit under the Llorca moniker), and I am happy to be able to call Michael Gray and Dr Packer friends – I love everything those guys do. Mark Lower is a very solid producer. Micky More and Andy Tee and their Groove Culture label are doing great things at the moment.

Seamus Haji is an amazing DJ and producer too, and again I am very happy to be able to work with him. JKriv is always a big inspiration.

Lastly, I need to mention my friend Rocoe and his Body Heat Bang Gang who put on an amazing live show – something we need more of in the scene.

6 – You’ve won different awards and gained recognition from major players in the industry. What do you think has been the key to your success?

Honestly, hard work and staying true to myself have been the two key things. I went through a phase at the very beginning of the Birdee project when I was trying to sound like what was popular at the moment and it really didn’t work… I was trying to make a track with a different style every week. Bad idea.

Following my heart and really finding what I am good at doing – and focusing on that – has definitely been the key to my success.

7 – What do you enjoy most about performing for live audiences?

Bringing people together. There are really two ways that you can look at performing live: one is the “look at me, look how good I am, look at what I’m doing” scenario.

The other one is: – I’m not really that important but I am just there as a catalyst and feed off the energy of the crowd and give it right back to them. In essence, I see my job as making that person in the audience forget about their troubles for a few hours and hopefully making them feel something in the process. If I can do that, I’m happy!

8 – Are you already working on your next release?

I am, it’s called “Jupiter + Mars” and it will be out on Big Love on June 2. I also have two tracks with Mark Lower ready to be released soon, and some other exciting collaborations which I can’t say too much about yet! But all will be revealed soon.

9 – Finally, what advice would you give to aspiring producers and DJs?

Believe in yourself, keep honing your craft, if you have some friends who are already doing music production, try and get as much advice and help as possible, go to their studio, and watch them work. Youtube is an invaluable source of course; I didn’t have that when I was learning how to produce.

DJ-wise, go out to your local nights and try and make friends with the resident DJs and the promoter and let them know you are there; they will appreciate you turning up and supporting their night. At the end of the day, this is a business that’s based on relationships, and the more people you know, the better.

Finally, don’t get too precious about music – these days with sample packs it’s not that hard to put a basic idea together, but actually FINISHING a track is the hard part – so even if it doesn’t sound perfect, finish it and move on to the next one. I think it was Giorgio Moroder who said that in order to make a good track, you need to make 9 terrible ones, and man he was totally right about that.

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Birdee is represented by the international artist booking agency MN2S.