Red Rack’em interview: “Yeah, it is a comeback and I’m coming back hard.”
The man behind ‘Italo Disco Banger’ on two decades of dancefloor pandemonium
Danny Berman is sat on the kitchen floor of his Sheffield home, contemplating a major milestone. 2024 marks two decades since he released his first record as Red Rack’em – a double-header of “Electric Chair, Red Astaire and pirates”-inspired r&b reworks from a moment in time when joining the dots between soul, disco, house and hip-hop was all the rage.
“It really is 20 years since I released that first record and 30 from when I first started DJing – I was thinking I should do something to mark it, like an event, but I’ve just been crazy busy this year. Then suddenly I made ‘Italo Disco Banger’. What better way to mark 20 years than make a record that everyone is loving and Luke Una is calling ‘the record of the year’? Confidence is high!”
Like all DJs and producers whose careers stretch back over decades, Berman has plenty of scars to show for his continued service to the electronic underground, but also a seriously impressive highlights reel. His first major breakthrough came – under the alternative Hot Coins alias – in 2008, where he put a deliciously wayward, dubbed-out spin on the Joubert Singers’ gospel classic ‘Stand On The Word’.
Over the years that followed, Berman built up a catalogue punctuated by genuine underground favourites – the throbbing and off-kilter ‘How I Program’, the tactile deep house bliss of ‘In Love Again’ and the heady beatdown hypnotism of ‘Beginning End’ included – before striking it big with ‘Wonky Bassline Disco Banger’, one of the best-selling underground house records of 2016 and a stone-cold dancefloor anthem. It was subsequently licensed and reissued by the Defected-aligned Classic Music Company imprint and became one of the most ubiquitous club hits of that decade.
“I think, in the end, I am capable of making successful records in quite a few different genres,” Berman says thoughtfully. “But it probably only happens at the time because the planets are aligned. You could argue that the ones that were successful were the standout tracks I’ve made, but you could also argue that it captured the zeitgeist. I think I’ve been quite lucky in the way that I’ve managed to capture those moments and it’s resonated with lots of people.”
Lucky or not, Berman does have a habit of periodically producing ‘big’ records – carefully crafted, hooky and impeccably produced workouts that transcend the underground. By accident or design, he’s done it again with ‘Italo Disco Banger’, a surging rush of synthesizer-heavy colour that combines daydreaming for Italian dance music’s storied past with his usual trademark sonic flourishes. Due for release on September 13th, it marks Berman’s return to record stores after an absence of three years – a period in which, by his own admission, he struggled creatively.
“I can’t stress enough how big a breakthrough this is for me,” Berman asserts. “When lockdown hit and I wasn’t DJing, that really had a massive impact on my motivation, as playing records to great crowds inspires me to produce music. Yes, I made plenty of tracks over the last three years, but I didn’t feel any desire to release anything. I think this is a big issue for a lot of producers nowadays, as most of the DJs being booked don’t actually make music themselves anymore. If you want to continue to hear exciting, new music then please support the people who actually create the records”.
It was, for someone with three decades of service to dance music, a challenging time. “I just didn’t feel excited by anything,” he explains. “That’s why ‘Italo Disco Banger’ is such a breakthrough. It was the first time for a long time that I thought, ‘I want to put this out’. Being in that place again… it feels great! So yeah, it is a comeback and I’m coming back hard. And you can quote that!”
Like a lot of his contemporaries – and the wider population, it should be said – Berman struggled during the lockdowns of 2020 and ’21. With a young family to support and no steady income from DJ gigs, he scrabbled around looking for ways that he could utilise his skills and knowledge while earning a living.
What he came up with, an artist mentoring programme and community called How I Program, not only changed his life, but also the lives of hundreds of mentees – a mix of enthusiastic youngsters, dedicated newcomers and experienced producers looking for ways to improve their game.
“It was inspired by fear – I’d been paying the bills through DJing for decades and suddenly that was gone,” Berman explains. “I was looking for things to do during lockdown and started doing ‘The Berman Sermon’ on Twitch, where I’d talk to camera about records, and all these people, including old heads from Bristol and elsewhere, would tune in. So I thought, ‘OK, I’m a qualified teacher – I did that before I went full time with music in 2009, and I’ve also worked in TV as a video editor, and I know a lot about dance music, so why don’t I do something where I broadcast from my studio, answer questions and give producers advice?’. So, I set up a Patreon, built this system where I could do one-on-one sessions through Zoom, and started reaching out to other producers to do monthly masterclass sessions. That’s when How I Program started off.”
Berman is naturally tight-lipped about the exact make-up of the evolving community of artists he works with, but cites numerous releases, extensive radio play and career advancements as testimonials to the success of the project. Yet arguably the biggest win of all is how it has changed his life for the better.
“It has made me feel quite paternal really – I really do care about the careers and lives of the people I work with, and the rest of the group do too,” he enthuses. “With How I Program, I tried to create something that I feel should be there and something that wasn’t. I’m trying to set an example of nurturing and supporting talent where there’s no green room or separation between people just starting out and experienced artists. The community is a really important part of it – it’s like its own universe now.”
In the spirit of sharing and learning through experience, Berman kept the group abreast of how ‘Italo Disco Banger’ was developing, not only walking them through the production process, but also the subsequent steps, from pressing and distribution to marketing and promotion. “They have literally known everything from the inception of it onwards,” he says. “I’ve shared all of it – my strategies, my goals, everything, because I really think it is important for them to understand what it takes to make it happen.”
The buzz Berman has gained from How I Program has clearly impacted positively on his creativity, but also inspired a return to regular DJing. This time, though, he’s done it on his own terms, building up a quarterly event in Bristol – a city he lived in prior to moving to Sheffield – called Absolute Body Control. By any metric, it has been a success – and one in which he is the sole resident and headliner, frequently showcasing forgotten corners of his music collection over extended, six-hour sets.
“I really want to pay credit to the Crofters Rights in Bristol and the team there for backing me,” Berman enthuses. “It’s been really successful – there’s people who come from all over the UK and even further afield like Switzerland and Ireland. It is a really young crowd, too, and it helps that there’s usually live music in the same room beforehand – when ABC starts, there’s already great energy in the room. I can play a broad selection of music and because it’s just me all night, I don’t have to just chase that peak-time bangers vibe. Through having a residency, I’ve learned what the crowd respond to – Brit Funk, disco, UKG/bass and pumping garage-house always go down well. It’s one of the most high-energy and open-minded crowds I’ve seen in Bristol and I get to play stuff I’ve never had a chance to play out much before. It’s great!”
On the back of the success of Absolute Body Control, and with ‘Italo Disco Banger’ lighting up dancefloors worldwide, Berman is hoping to take the party to other towns and cities. We’ll see in the months ahead whether that happens, but if not, Berman is still riding the crest of a wave – and more importantly, he’s got his creative voodoo back.
“I’m really, really grateful,” he enthuses. “I want to do more music, keep that rolling, and get back to the grind. I also have to be aware that it’s probably healthier for me to keep focusing on How I Program and have this safe space. But I can also feel the lure of the dancefloor pulling me in again, so why not?”
Matt Anniss
Photos courtesy of Sean Delahay (portraits) and Lauren Southam (club shot)
Red Rack’em’s ‘Italo Disco Banger’ will be released by Bergerac on September 13.
For more information on How I Program, head to Red Rack’em’s Patreon page