Touch Sensitive is back with his first album in eight years. The project of Michael Di Francesco, Touch Sensitive has teamed up with artists including Connie Mitchell, Larry Dunn, Tim Ayre, Bret Hunt and more to create In Paradise. The result is a melting pot of summer-ready Italo disco, soulful piano house, and distinctly Australian good vibrations. We spoke with Touch Sensitive about the new album and what’s next.

‍It’s been eight years since your last album. What do you think you’ve learnt about yourself in that time that is infused in these tracks?

8 years, yeah that is scary, terrifying actually. I think I’ve learnt but not mastered the art of letting go because no matter how hard I try or prepare I always feel like I can or could have done better. The art of letting go was realised in this album through the practice of collaboration and accepting mistakes as variations not wrong doings. Today lots of emphasis from a production standpoint has been put on making things more human because it's all so computer, so in this instance I worked with humans as opposed to the computer and then back engineered it to sound more human if that makes sense. This isn’t anything new but I just felt like this time around that was the road I wanted to travel.

We love that this was born from a desire to go back to your original music-making roots. How did you cultivate that feeling again? Did you use old gear/go back to old ideas etc?

That’s nice to hear, yeah I’m proud to say that there is lots of old gear on there, almost exclusively actually. Half the sessions were done to tape which definitely added to the spirit of things. Another import factor was working with people that understood the vision, so what gear to use or how something should have been done was never really a point of contention. For example there’s no modern Ableton trickery in there, what’s on there is what went down and there was lots of laughter so I think that also definitely helped. As for the ideas not really, maybe a couple of progressions that had been floating around for a while but yeah mostly fresh ideas in the room with whoever was around at the time. There were definitely other friends I wanted on there but ran out of time. Next time.

How important was your environment to creating the album?

I was splitting my time between LA and Sydney and feel like for the majority of the process I was jet-lagged haha. The original sessions were split between two studios, Sentir and 301 for tracking, then later at Wave 34 with Tony Buchen. We spent just as much time drinking coffee and talking about music as we did working on it, so in that respect it was extremely important. After it was finished I felt like to a certain extent I had no purpose anymore because I was living and breathing it, it made me realise how much I loved and missed being in the studio after spending lots of time on the road. But the grass is always greener, maybe sometimes just a different shade when you get down to it, but nice to spend some time on another lawn.

There are some incredible collaborations on this record. You are part of such a talented community. Do you have any anecdotes from any of these collabs that you can share?

Pretty much any scenario involving Rosario Ferraro is hilarious, not because he’s a comedian, but because when stuff is funky or feels good, or is even a little bit ridiculous, for example -'Robot Love Song', it makes you laugh. And when I think about it we were just laughing the whole time, and the same goes for Tony. He would put an absurd amount of chorus on something and just start laughing, and then that would be it, that’s the sound.

Is there a song you’re particularly proud of on the album?

Yes, 'Love To The Limit' - it was a bit of a dark horse and I didn’t really kind of know what to do with it. I didn’t really have a vision for where it would go but as an instrumental it was cool. Then one day, I came into the studio in the morning and Tony was like “hey man, I sang some bv’s on slow jam” which was its working title. Then Connie came in and sang an awesome vocal basically in one take. Finally in the 11th hour, Larry Dunn did some mini Moog over dubs and a solo… and it went from being something I wasn’t sure about to being my favourite on the album. Followed by 'On The Ice' which in my mind is a bit of a 'if Joe Zawinul made an Italo record'. This was a jam that I made with new school Australian jazz great Freyja Garbett.

Was there something you did differently production wise on this album that you haven’t done before that unlocked something new for you?

Yes the first thing is using pretty much all live musicians in a jam type scenario and then cutting that up into something that made sense. The problem was I got that far and got stuck, some had realised positive potential whilst others were kind just 10 minute jams, which leads me to the next switch up which was collaborating with another producer - Tony Buchen. I had previously spent days agonising over fine details, so this time around using live musicians and embracing the little intricacies and nuances that would otherwise take time to finesse would just happen naturally. That part of it was really liberating and it opened things up in the way I had hoped it would. Another thing was in the past I had a tendency to just keep layering and throwing things into the mix, but this time the arrangements don’t go beyond what is humanly possible, as in, there’s not 10 different synth parts at the same time. It was important for me to be able to perform the record live free from the constraints of a backing track, not that that’s a bad thing I just wanted to bust out for a bit, I might come back but gotta admit it feels fresh. Like anybody now can make something decent sounding with sample libraries and AI so in a way this is anti that, but it’s nothing new, that’s just music.

Tell us about the visuals and your style? How important is the image to you? What was on the mood board?

Visually I have a decent collection of old “directors guide to photography” books from the late 70s through to the 90s and they definitely played a big part. There’s so much amazing stuff in there from a time when budgets weren't so much of a constraint. That and obviously every record cover that has ever come before. I worked with Isabella Sanasi who has done the last few releases and she’s great. I guess it’s just an extension of all the things I love and hold dear. One of my uncles was a tailor to the stars and also possibly the best dressed man in Sydney, maybe Australia… In Italy he’d just be like everyone else, but in Australia it’s special, he’s definitely an inspiration and I was lucky enough out of the nephews to be the same size as him so I got lots of nice things from him over the years.

Who is exciting you in music at the moment?

At the moment the 80s Jo Chiarello stuff, always any Larry Dunn production, also I’m getting back into all the Crydamoure, but almost everyday something new pops up or something I haven’t heard in ages. Actually omg I almost forgot… I was on the plane watching this movie “Freaky Tales” I fell asleep and then at some point woke up to Metallica “For Whom The Bell Tolls”, it was so well placed and for whatever reason the guitar tone woke me up - it’s so good. Then watching the credits it's Raphael Saadiq that did the music supervision, very cool, so yeah I’m into early Metallica now.

Something you’re passionate about aside from music?

Coffee I guess. Sometimes I’ll walk past a cafe and before I know it I’ll have one in my hands, even if I’ve just had one, it’s strange I can’t explain it, it’s like auto pilot kicks in or something takes control. Then if I’m at my parents I stand around the coffee machine with my dad and drink them. So I’d say probably coffee or maybe vintage sheet music and gear brochures but I know it’s still music, sorry can’t help it.

What’s next?

Hopefully some live shows with everyone that played on the record and maybe another record... if I recover from this one haha.

Listen to In Paradise HERE.

@touchsensitive