Massimiliano Pagliara, Chris Cruse and Luigi Di Venere: three names that are indispensable in the electronic music scene. Together they form the boy band Couple Looking for Bananas. In 2022, Pagliara and Cruse founded the project under the name Couple Looking, which they also used to release their first EP, »For You«. Today, as a trio, they host international club nights – including in Stuttgart and Paris – and play all night long, b2b2b.
Chris and Massimiliano met a few years ago at one of his Spotlight parties in Los Angeles, where Massimiliano was DJing that night. »We had an instant connection,« says Chris. Shortly afterwards Massimiliano moved to Los Angeles for a few months to work on his album »Feel Live«. When Chris later moved to Berlin, this was the moment that Couple Looking was born. In Berlin, the two met regularly at Massimiliano’s studio in Friedrichshain, initially just to experiment. An interesting side note that will become important later: at the time, Massimiliano was recording music with Luigi as Banana Moon, and their first EP, »Delphinium Blue«, was released in 2021.
A Dancing Leg and a Laughing Eye
But back to the studio sessions. Chris describes the production process as very organic. He explains that the process in the studio was always similar: they would often start with samples, loops, melodies or basslines, all of which came out of spontaneous fooling around.
The idea of teaming up with Luigi to organise events under the name Couple Looking for Bananas – a combination of Couple Looking and Banana Moon – came about just as organically as making music together. It worked brilliantly from the outset, says Chris, because they all share a passion of funky and groovy beats that »a bit of of humour«. The three of them have not only planned some exciting shows for this year, but also plan to release productions as a trio.
