Artist Spotlight
“We never felt the struggle to connect in the studio. If there is a struggle, it can be good because it pushes you to get to the next point in creation. But we never really had that in terms of creativity matching or writing new material. In the studio, we have so many nice moments. We try to have fun in the studio and ignore the outside world. Sometimes we take a bit of acid and just have fun listening to what we are doing and testing things out.... Sandrino had a clear vision about sound design. For Frankey it was more of an exploration which is a reason as to why it was never forced between us. Early on our music was a little more ‘hitty’ whereas these days we go deeper and more organic.” Frankey and Sandrino put out their first track together in 2012, aptly titled, ‘Comeback.’ Since then the duo have released a prolific slate of music, with hits on iconic labels such as Innervisions and Dynamic, as well as founding their own label, Sum Over Histories. The two first met after both playing regularly at a club called Butan in Germany. By the time they connected, they each had established solid backgrounds in dance music. However, both Frankey and Sandrino had unique introductions to the world of house and techno. For Sandrino, he was attending raves since the early 90s, immediately struck by the atmosphere and scene. “I started going out in 1993 and collected rave posters. I went to Mysteryland 1994… The first time I fell in love with nightlife and DJing as an artform came in June of 1993. I went to my first rave, Cosmic Baby and Steve Mason played. I was only 13 years old and I had a lot of luck getting into the club. Half the night I was dancing, the other half of the night I was watching the DJ and seeing what he was doing, how he had the control of the full floor.” For Frankey, his discovery was a longer process. Growing up, he played multiple instruments and earned his stripes playing with jazz bands in his childhood. “I have a totally different background but the moment of watching the DJ work was key for me. Even before I understood the music, I had a background of playing in jazz bands. When I went to my first techno party, it was the most pure and real and intense way of celebrating music. It was not how I was used to with everyone staring at the stage.” Once Frankey and Sandrino discovered the world of house music, they never looked back. After years of playing with jazz bands, and scoring random DJ gigs in Romania, the two found themselves playing in the same place, Butan Club. “Frankey was a regular DJ there and Sandrino was a resident. We started to become friends and didn’t even think about working together for a while. We just tried out getting into the studio together to see the outcome and almost immediately we could tell that the chemistry was right” Almost immediately after connecting, the two began to receive critical acclaim for their productions. Two years into the project, they released their biggest song yet, ‘Acamar’ on Dixon and Ame’s Innervisions label. The track brought Frankey & Sandrino into the spotlight, and raised the ceiling for Innervisions as a label. Soon after, the duo decided to launch their own label, Sum Over Histories. “Music needs to be touching. While Frankey looks more at the technical details of a track, I [Sandrino] am focused on the vibe of a song. When we select music we don’t have any sound in mind. Whatever comes to the table that we both like, this is what we are going to release. It’s just important that we both like it and that it sounds timeless. Sandrino will pick songs that standout, and then Frankey will review on a deeper, technical level.” As Frankey and Sandrino have worked over time to build out their label, they’ve found themselves becoming more prudent with the decision to send music elsewhere. “We just try and do music in the studio and then afterwards we speak and think about where to take it. Although we love plenty of other labels, sometimes the sound and taste goes in a different direction than what we feel connected to. This is part of why we started our own label so we would always have a direct link to our vision of what electronic music should be.” This came to fruition on their recent EP, ‘&Hope.’ The standout EP was a long time coming and cemented an incredible start to 2021 for both Frankey and Sandrino, and their label. The headline track, ‘TGA’ features a rare vocalist appearance. “We had the lyrics in place then thought of how to build the track around those… We took acid in the studio, Frankey took the bass guitar and started to experiment with it. Frankey has all of these instrumental skills but we’d never used them. On acid, bass guitar, ‘Hope’ was born quickly. It was very natural creating the EP. We don’t want to repeat ourselves ever. Even though the music is in the same genre, we always try and evolve and keep the process going.”
