Latest / The Smallzy Show / Interview: Sonny Fodera

Transcript

Interview: Sonny Fodera · The Smallzy Show

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: A small show, The Smallsy Show.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Are you ready?
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey?
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: What's up?
• 0:05
  Speaker 3: This is sunny with Smallsy now on kiss I.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Wanted best to last forever.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Hello, Sonny Fordera, Hello mate, how I'm very good. It's
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: a I've never had. We've never had the pleasure of
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: yeah we have of talking. Well, Hello, welcome to the
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: show and mad congratulations on just what a wild time
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: you're having.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Thanks bro, Thank you appreciate it.
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: Where do I start? Where are you right now?
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: You because you're you're an Aussie, but I believe the
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: story is correct. You are you're sort of based in
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: London and spent a lot of time growing up in London.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, so I am in London, but I
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: grew up in Australia.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: I came over when I was like twenty three, okay,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: to the UK and US like kind of on a tour,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: and then came back to Australia, lived in Melbourne for
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: a bit. I'm originally from Adelaide, okay, and yeah, now
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: I live just outside of all I'm in Essex. Oh yeah,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: I say London.
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: They had that TV show. The only way is yeah, I.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Know half the cast made Okay.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, it's a bit diabolical, it's a little it's a
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: bit of a wild part of the world.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: It's a wild one. Yeah, it is a wild one.
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: Well, great to clear that up.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Number one, number two, congrats on what a wild I
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: mean here in Australia. I don't think there hasn't been
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: a week that we haven't been playing a Sunny Fiderra
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: track in some form on the radio in the last
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: like year and a half, which is nuts for you.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: I can imagine it's been a wild change.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, like I've just I've seen the starts. I
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: think there was one where it's like number one airplay.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: I was just like wow, like yeah, no, it's unbelievable. No,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: thank you for supporting it. Thank you dude.
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: Hey a pleasure.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: We got new music we're going to get to in
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: a second and we're going to talk about but I
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: want to pick your brain.
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: While you're here.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: There's a bit of controversy bruin here in Australia. I'm
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: sure you've been asked about it, and I don't know
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: AI is infecting the music industry. There's a there's a
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: song playing on the radio at the moment here in
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Australia where there is a bit of a gray cloud
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: on if there was an AI vocalist used in it
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: or not. I'm not going to say if it was
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: or wasn't, because I don't know for a fact. Where
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: do you, as a producer music maker stand on AI.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: I don't really. I don't use it. Like, if I'm
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: going to use it for anything, it would be like
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: stem separation if I'm doing like a remix or something
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: to get the different bits out of it. But like
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: in terms of creating like a voice or you know,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: something that you know, I didn't use any of that
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: on my album, and I'm not really that into it.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: You know, let's keep it, let's keep it human.
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Well I think Spotify agrees because it didn't. I think
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: I saw Spotify like remove seventy five million what they
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: called junk songs the other day because they were they
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: worked out that they were AI made and that like
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: no human was involved whatsoever.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Well that's the thing, like people can kind of just
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: write in what they want. But like there was a
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: big track over here that had a called haven I Run.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, that was it was big here too,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: And and when that first came out, there was a
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: bit of a speculation is this an AI track?
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so basically I think the vocal was made to
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: sound like Georgia Smith. I said. I think they said
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: that they didn't try and do that, but it literally
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: sounded identical, and she was just fuming about it, I bet.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: And then they kind of took it down. They took
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: it was I think it was peaking at like top
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: ten in the UK single chart. Yeah, they took it
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: down and they took it off. I think like Danny
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Howard on Radio One, he didn't play He kind of
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: clocked it early because a lot of like DJ's on
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: radio as well over here, they'll check if they're you know,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: what the background is and an artist before they'll play it.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: And if you see like an Instagram profile where there's
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: no one on there and it's just some song.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: And out of nowhere, yeah, that's it.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: They're the little the little clues that you've got.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: I'm going to say this. I actually found the song recently.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: It was this really nice like chill house record and
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: I was like, this is sick because this and I
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: was like looking for the artist. I was like, I
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: cannot find this artist anywhere, And I was like, oh no,
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: And then I was like and I was like looking
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: on like what the record label was and everything. It
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: was like some weird numbers, and I was like, oh
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: my god, I've.
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: Been you You've been AI, You've been You've been hood.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: By Hey the song was actually the song was good.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: So you know, okay, all right, let's go with If
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: it's all right, we can maybe look at it.
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: Even ship will just throw it in the bin.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know you Like a lot of people
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: are using it, aren't they, And.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Like, well, I was gonna I was gonna throw depending
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: on what your answer was, and you know, I was
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: going to throw a curve I'm still on the well no,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: I was, I was going to throw a curveball at
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: you and say, have you having dance music or like
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: producers been using AI since the dawn of time because
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: the moment you create a synth keyboard, that's AI because
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: you haven't actually played the instrument, You've created it from
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: a computer sound number one, number two, all of the stems.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: If you get a beat that's not really a drum
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: and it's a it's a that's an AI sound creation.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: It's just we're moving so fast into vocal AI creations
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: now that where that's where people are starting to go
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: hang on. But I have accepted that, like the production
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: sound can be AI, auto tune is AI right, Like again,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: this is all different versions of the same thing. And
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: so I was just curious and not that I'm dying
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: on any hill, just so you know, I'm not.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Dying on it. What do you feeling about it?
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: You know, look, as I said, the more you think
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: about it, the moment you put anything through a computer,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: even if you like equing it, compressing it, it's you're
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: you're altering the sound of it. And it's a slippery slope.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: And if you stand by live, authentic music and you
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: want to die on that hill, then you should stand
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: by the fact that don't don't change anything. But if
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: you think you want to change something, where is the
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: you know, like I mean, bloody hell, I'm just thinking
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: about you know, justin Tim Justin Bieber with that what
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: was the song where he sounded like the Dolphin, which
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: was just his vocal reversed. That's an AI trick, Miss Elliot,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: reversing her vocal was an AI trick back in the
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: nineties or early two thousands. I don't know, maybe people
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: just need to be upfront about it.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then I think when people are going to
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: be trying to like emulate someone else's voice, right, that's bad.
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: That's bad.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: That's where I'm like, that's where I drona line. And
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: like obviously, yeah, like with that track that I was
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: talking about earlier, Iran, I'm not sure it sounded a
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: lot like her. I'm not sure if he did that,
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: but you know, it's it is wrong, like you know, and.
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: Also to this is also what I'm going to do.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: This is also like you can find session singers, as
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: you would know, or scratch vocalists who sound who the
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: person is that you're pitching that record too. They're not
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the same person, but they sound like the person. And
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: sometimes it wouldn't be the first time. Oh, we didn't
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: get Rihanna for a vocal but we got someone who
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: sounds sort of like Rihanna, and we maybe credit.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: The vistly I've never I've never tried to do that,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: all right, I need to find a singer that sounds
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: like Mary J. Blige, you know, like I've never tried
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: to do that, but like I don't know, there's something
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: unique and like that's what makes a singer and an
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: artist and artist it's like you know, you're going to
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: go and see like Lewis Capaldi or Ed Sheeran or
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: as you said, Rihanna for their sound and there you
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: know them as an artist. And that's the thing about AI.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: They're never going to have like some what you know,
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: just say this song does blok like you just said
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: said worldwide hit right, and you're like, okay, I want
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: to go and see that singer. Where are they? Well,
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: they're just gonna have like a computer on the stage
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: like spinning around with some like yeah.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: But you want to know what's wild? Do you want
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: to know what's wild? I agree with you. I agree
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: with you, And we're going to get off this topic
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: because really, at the end of the day, we're gonna we're.
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: Gonna plug your music.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Bro bro abba abba build a fucking venue in London
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: where AI avatars of them perform every night and people
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: spend hundreds of pounds and that thing is sold out
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: for years in advance. Now surely yes that started they
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: were real, but you're not watching real performance. That's AIS
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: and people gobby, they gobble it up. They eat it anyway.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's my I've seen it on the train. My
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: it's like where I live. Go sit into London, Yep,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: I can see it. So it's near the west Ham Stadium.
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: That's it.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: They purpose built that venue to put the holograms of Abba.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: That's crazy, isn't it nuts? Yeah?
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's talk about you AI nowhere near Sonny Ferdera's music.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Let me be in your arms the new track. Tell
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: me about the track. What's the story?
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, so I it was actually Ray She
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: wrote the original vocal with Bill and Ted in London
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: and just sent me this a cappella. I sent it
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: to my management and I was like, what a Ray vocal?
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: Because obviously I'm a massive fan of Rationed. We love them. Yeah,
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: She's unreal. And then they were like, look, she's got
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: his vocal, but she can't do it. She's got her
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: album coming out. Do you want to use it. I'm like, yeah,
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: we'll have to find someone to recut it. And you know,
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: we hey, we weren't trying to find anyone that sounds
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: like Ray. Hey, I just say it just saying, didn't
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: use AI. We didn't use the AI. We found this
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: amazing singer called Libyanka. Yeah who yeah she she just
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: absolutely nailed her. And you know I kind of went
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: for like a summer vibe on the on the keys
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: and yeah, a bit more down to like my roots.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: I guess what I used to kind of do with Defected,
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: you know about ten years ago, like kind of deep
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: house love it.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, are you doing? Are you doing a residency in
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: like Ibetha or something? Did I see that?
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: You made twenty two shows this year every Monday?
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: Okay, six months.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Of the year.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Crazy, the euro summer has just extended to like half
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: the year.
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: What is it? What is it an ibeth the residency?
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: Like is it?
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Is it as fun as it sounds? Or is it
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: actually a bit of a toll on your body?
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: So I do a pastor Abetha, which I think is
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: the best club on the island, like Rufus doing a
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Tuesday there.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Now, by the way, just pause for a second. Who
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: goes out on a Tuesday unless you're in Ibetha Because
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: everywhere I do every Monday, every Monday Monday in their
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: school nights.
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: Okay, we're staying at home.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: Not for me, not for me, not for me? Is it?
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: Is it?
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: As much.
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: Is it fun? Is it wild?
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's wild. It's getting more, it's getting better
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: and better, to be honest, but yeah, no, it's it
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: is a slog, it's a you know, it's a lot
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: of flights. I actually stay out there for a few
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: weeks sometimes. But yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: But you know, look, I'm used to it. I've been
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: doing mondays and I've betha forever ten years now, so
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: been building up something quite special, I think. And yeah,
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: but you know, I think everyone asked me that. They're like,
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: how do you do it? Like, because I played three
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: till six in the morning, They're like, how do you
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: do that?
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: How do you? Sorry?
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Sorry, I don't remember the last time I was up
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: at three am.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: It's all about the disco naps. That's what you need
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: to do. You have to have like a you know,
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: have like early dinner, then like have a little going
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: up a couple of hours. Sure, get up, link up
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: with your mates. Yeah, and yeah a lot of people
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: have started doing it in my team as well. It's
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: quite funny. We used to like kind of go for
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: like late dinner and then they're like na, na, da none.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Do we drink or do we not drink? Because I
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: have give me, give me fifty fifty.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: Sometimes I'll have like a nice sober night. Sometimes I
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: have a bit of a wild one, depending on.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Because sometimes give me two drinks at like ten pm.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: I'm ready for bed. Oh she's ready for sleeping. I
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: need to go home and I need to give you
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: and then once once once I hit that rem sleep buddy,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: I am not getting out of bed at three am.
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: Anyway.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: My follow up question was going to be I have
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: interviewed a bunch of DJs and producers and stuff like
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: that over the years. I always ask them a funny
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: question about what's the craziest thing that they've been thrown
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: at them? While they're behind the DJ decks. I will
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: ask you the same question while you're thinking about it.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: The Chainsmokers once told me someone threw a ham sandwich
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: at them at a Vegas residency. Their Their question was
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: not okay, why did they do that? The question was
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: how did you get the ham sandwich? In Z told
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: me someone through a dildo at him at Coachella one year.
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, what has been thrown at you, sir?
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Oh?
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: God, like a lot of underwear okay and bras, but
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: like not like nothing really that crazy, like like some
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: nice things that people have made for me, you know,
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: like that's nice. Some girl made this this this look
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: like cowboy hat with my name like Sunny Feder around it,
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: and like it was all like lit up like with
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: these kind of creative She's like put it on and
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: put it on. I was like, like maybe I might,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: but I put it on. I put it on. It
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: didn't fit me at all. I think there are a
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: few videos of me wearing it. But yeah, that was
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: pretty nuts. Like it was like she spent a lot
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: of time on this hat.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Well, God bless her, God bless her, and God bless
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: your wholesome story.
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: That's what that is. That is what I'll say.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: When are you coming home? You're coming home in October, right,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: you're going to be playing shows.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: I'm coming home. It's coming home.
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: Well technically it's not. Sorry England, no back in.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: I'm back in October. Yeah, I'm doing our Perth Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Announcing a few other little things and two other little things.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: But I'm not talking about him yet. Don't try and get
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: them out of me.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: But they happen I think tickets are on sale right
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: now sunnyfidera dot com for that. The new track is
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: let Me Be in Your Arms. The new album is
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: called Can We Do It All Again? Hey, why don't
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: you come in when you're back in town? Come in?
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: I would love to meet you.
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: Brot to Why do you come to the show.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: We'll try and get you out past three hours?
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: We'll hang on. Are the Australian Show starting at three am?
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Or the ibetha Ones because I'll.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Go in they started eleven, but then we can go after.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, okay. Don't let me drink.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Just don't let me drink because I'm gonna want to
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: sleep as soon as I have one to drink.
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: Drink, no drink, Sonny.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Great to meet you, man, Great to meet you finally, dude,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: congrats on everything.
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 14:32
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• 14:34
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