Hailing originally from Venezuela, Fur Coat have been heavily influenced by their exploration in Europe over the past decade, developing their sound from their Spanish base in Barcelona.
Their story is one of passion for techno and electronic music, it’s a tale of deep, dark driven beats, and rolling grooves that both encapsulate the mind, and move the feet. It was this love of music that in 2004 brought Sergio Muñoz and Israel Sunshine together and led to a musical intertwining which would drape itself over the shoulders of the music industry.
Over recent years the duo have aimed to evolve their sound but always keep their unique groove and melodic emphasis, focusing on delivering techno that mesmerises the dancefloor. In turn, the pair have racked up releases on leading labels in the field, such as Sasha’s Last Night On Earth Imprint, Berlin’s distinguished Watergate Records, Ellen Alien’s B-Pitch Control, Joseph Capriati’s Redimension, and Nicole Moudaber’s MOOD Recordings, to name a few…
To this day Fur Coat’s sound continues to push the boundaries, delivering their deep driving sound to discerning ears, at the most revered venues and festivals around the world.
Balance Selections Q+A
Name: Sergio Muñoz & Israel Salazar
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FurCoatMusic
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/furcoatmusic
Alias/Producer name: Fur Coat
Labels affiliated with: Oddity, Crosstown Rebels, LNOE, Watergate
My last 3 releases:
Fur Coat – Pandora’s Dream EP [Oddity]
Blancah – Walk in Clouds (Fur Coat Remix) [Renaissance]
Fairmont – Deceive Me (Fur Coat Remix) [Atlant]
What music did you listen too as a child?
Sergio: My dad used to be a DJ as a hobby in his teenage years. I come from a family where music was on our daily basis. I remember my dad had a hi fi listening gear on our living room, so we always played music during lunch, over the weekends and when we went out on the car. The background mainly comes from disco, R&B, funk and early dance music from the 90’s. Aside that as a growing teenager I had my own influences from what as kids we could listen at school, which was rap, hip hop, rock, etc. Also, I’m very open when listening to music, as I could enjoy new wave and music that was more synth oriented, like Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears etc. And the last part of the influence during my childhood was the music listened at the parties at that time, which was crossover from dance, salsa, rock.
Israel: I grew up in a party atmosphere since my parents were young when they had me and lived their lives to the fullest, they had parties at home on weekends, I grew up listening to a wide variety of styles from retro disco to salsa. Then at the beginning of the 80s the movement of mobile discs (We called it Minitecas), the DJ, Turntables, the disco music, and Italo disco shocked me so much that awoke in me that curiosity of music and party.
When was the first time that you realized that you liked electronic music?
Sergio: When I was 14 years old, my dad bought me a Denon 2500, and we got a mixer and a turntable from him that was at my grandmother’s home. Since then I started practicing with his disco music records and the dance music that was played at teenage parties when mobile discos where rented for parties. I decided to have my own mobile disco, and played at friends’ birthdays. From there I decide to stop, and it wasn’t until I was 17 years old that we were listening some mix CDs with some of my friends, from early Global Underground, and some Carl Cox mixes. By this time, I also started clubbing and big parties like Ministry of Sound tour, and some local parties from Venezuela like ‘Boogie Nights’, where the places we went out. So at this time I also realized that I wanted to start DJ’ing more seriously, as I really loved electronic music, the rest is history.
Israel: Right at the beginning of the 80’s, going to the ‘Minitecas’ parties. I also had a friend who had turntables at his house, since his father was a DJ, and we spent the afternoons (while his father was working) mixing records, songs like New Order – Blue Monday, Miko Mission – How Old are You, Shannon – Let the Music Play, and then a few years later, the whole Technotronic boom. They all had a great impact on me and I remember that time pleasantly, as if it were yesterday.
When was the first time you saw a DJ in a club?
Sergio: One of the first experiences I saw a dj in a club, was actually when I was like 17 years old, and we did some fake ID’s to get in to the Ministry of Sound tour that was heading Venezuela. They had some local DJs, and as main acts, Petrae Foy, and Andy Morris, which I remember one cause of the scratching skills, and Andy Morris as he had a fresh remix of Narcotic Thrust – Safe From Harm. This was an outdoor party, I was impressed, and also we all were excited on getting in the party with our fake IDs (LOL). For the time I know the music was more towards trance, which probably where most of the events of the big international DJs that came to Venezuela at the time like Tiesto, Armin, Ferry Corsten, Mauro Picotto, to name a few.
Israel: I always had contact and saw DJs from my childhood, maybe not international names that everyone remembers, but in Venezuela the DJ movement was very big, there were very famous Clubs like Studio 54 in NY, it was a time of great growth and prosperity in the country, people and personalities from all over the world came to Caracas to just to party, Princes, Sheikhs, Artists. In the 90’s I ran a club, and began to bring DJs once a month, the culture grew more and more, in 2000 I brought Mauro Picotto, I have very good memories of that day, it was a before and after.
Which producers/artists/acts inspire you?
Sergio: From the electronic music point of view, I can say Sasha is a big inspiration. I had the opportunity of seeing him in Venezuela at the time he was integrating Ableton on his shows, and he used to travel with an iMac, so this was pretty forward thinkin,g and new as no one was doing this. I’m also a fan of his mixed CDs like ‘Fundacion’, which still sounds super fresh and combines a lot of moderns sounds like James Holden, to more rock influences he integrates in the mix. Funny fact is that years later, we’ve had the pleasure to know him personally, be part of LNOE, play with him in shows like Fabric, MMW Boat Party, Amsterdam, and more, and also remix him. I wouldn’t believe myself if i knew all this could happen.
I also get inspired by other genres. One of my favorite bands is Depeche Mode, but I’m also very wide on what I listen to. I’m very into the electronic influenced bands like Massive Attack, Boards Of Canada, and Tricky. But, on my daily listening I could hear some Mos Def, A Tribe Called Quest, Tears For Fears. I could just go on my music collection, so I think all the listening can probably translate on ideas or things that could come into my mind when getting in the music production mode.
Israel: I could name an endless number of artists that inspire me and have inspired me for years, from a Barry White, Bob Marley, Depeche Mode to a James Blake, but the inspiration as such doesn’t come to me from a specific artist but from anyone who manages to transmit a message that has a soul, can be a famous artist or a complete stranger, someone who is first experimenting to discover how to make music but who, in his/her first draft or demo , manages to take you to a place, you certainly know that still needs a lot of work but that seed also inspires. What my friends, my FC partner does, do inspires me as well. There are amazing things out there that haven’t been discovered yet…
What was the last album that you downloaded/bought?
Sergio: The last album I bought on vinyl was last year during our US tour, I wanted James Blake ‘Overgrown’ for my vinyl collection. In February this year we were also in US and couldn’t make it to a record store I wanted to go to grab Caribou ‘Suddenly’. On downloaded albums, I just downloaded Nine Inch Nails ‘Ghosts V’, and Four Tet ‘Sixteen Oceans’.
Usually I’m always on the search for new music, so I’m pretty aware on what’s happening as I follow all these names, so I saw this through their social media channels. For me to buy or download an album, I do have to have a first listen to actually buy it or have in on my library.
Israel: It is not something new but it is the last album I have bought, I’ve always been a fan of a Spanish Rock artist named Gustavo Cerati who is one of the most influential Spanish rock artists ever, I never had the opportunity to have his last album and despite I knew all the songs, I had never heard the magic he did when put all those tracks together in one album, Its majestic.
What is your current production and DJ set up like?
Fur Coat:
So the main studio is in my house (Sergio). I’m really the one into hardware, software and the geek side of music production. I just bought a new iMac that I had to upgrade, and basically the setup is a Universal Audio Apollo 8 with a UAD Satellite, which I use for all their plug ins during the production setting. I have some Dynaudio 5MKII which I want to upgrade for some Focal and my second monitoring system are the Audeze LCD-X. On the synth side I have a lot of VST’s from Arturia, Native Instruments, UAD and Omnisphere. At the same time, I’m a hardware fan so I have a Maschine Mikro MkII, and a Roland TR-8 which I use for external drums. My other synths are Analog Four MKII, JP-08, Moog Mother 32, and a Sub Phatty. Other than upgrading my monitors I want to get the new Dave Smith Sequential Pro 3. For DAW, we use Ableton.
Our DJing setup are two laptops that run Traktor and are connected to two Audio 8, to play through the CDJs with timecode. Each one has their X1 fx unit synced to the tractor, and we use either an Allen & Heath Xone 92 or 96.
We have played vinyl only, CD’s, Traktor and Serato with vinyl, USB, etc. Still our workflow is more comfortable for the look-up settings, looping and FX like this. We do prefer to have our two laptops with the X1 with Traktor timecode to the CDJs cause we still have the DJ feeling with the beat-matching and have the FX and loops, and the benefits of working on playlist and the search mode that we are very familiar cause all of the years working like this.
What releases do you have on the horizon?
Fur Coat: Regarding remixes we have one for Michael Forzza – Kahana coming on Systematic. Also, a remix for Zoo Brazil – ‘Loader’ on Balance. We also have an album coming out on Renaissance, and the first single will be out on June. This project is planned to be fully released later this year where we can reveal more info about it.
Where can we hear you perform?
Fur Coat: Due to the Covid-19 situation that we are all experiencing it’s unfortunate that all our gigs have stopped until this gets back to normal. For the moment you can enjoy our latest podcast for Balance.
Tell us more about the podcast you made for Balance?
Fur Coat: This podcast was recorded in my living room (Sergio) where my mixing setup is located. Worked with our set up we use to play live with Traktor, and Allen & Heath Xone 92. We included a lot of upcoming music from artists we’ve signed to our label Oddity. We also included ‘Lonely Nights’ which is from our latest EP on our label, and it’s a very special track as part of our 10th release of our label, which coincides with our 10-year anniversary of Fur Coat. It took us one day to organise some of the music we wanted to have in, and then test what made more sense to make a nice trip to listen. After that, the hour and 38 min it took to record it.
My Recommendations
Our top track in my DJ wallet currently is:
Hunter_Game – Dark Aster
If we could recommend only one of my tracks for you to listen to it would be:
Fur Coat – Ethereal [Systematic]
If we could recommend only one track for you to listen to it would be:
Phil Collins – In the Air Tonight
The last movie we watched that we really liked:
Parasite
Our favourite TV show:
Mindhunter
Balance Selections 124: Fur Coat
Tracklisting:
1. Adamant – Leviathan / Oddity
2. Alex Preda – Be Free / Oddity
3. Hunter_Game – Dark Aster / Afterlife
4. Fur Coat – Lonely Nights / Oddity
5. Amberoon – Convoi / TAU
6. Isaac – Clavel / Last Night on Earth
7. Remcord – Empty Supply / REBA
8. Oliver Winters – Catharsis / Oddity
9. Drown feat. Anna Caraganano- Sea on the Moon (The Drifter Remix) / Just This
10. Losless – Modern Aura / Oddity
11. Zoo Brazil- Loader (Fur Coat Remix) / Balance
12. Gardens of God – Mura / Oddity
13. Dubspeeka – Torn392 / Last Night on Earth
14. Yubik – Paranoid Me / Atlant
15. Coeus – Avalonia / Multinotes
16. Michael Mayer – Belle De Lune / Kompakt
17. Tibi Dabo – Disbelieve / Crosstown Rebels
18. Kolsch & Beacon – Time / Kompakt
19. ID – ID (Extended Mix) / Ninja Tune
