Influences: Marcos Baiano On Five Records That Shaped His Life And Sound
For Marcos Baiano, music has always carried a meaning that extends far beyond the dancefloor. With more than two decades spent navigating the underground, the producer has developed a sound that draws from house, techno, electro, blues and soul, bringing those influences together through a musical identity he describes as ‘electro-black-soul’.
Having previously operated the Berlin-based B.SOUL Limited, releasing music from artists including Jovonn, Terence :Terry: and Ivan Iacobucci, Baiano is now beginning a new chapter with 2HOT2HANDLE. The imprint is built around timeless, club-focused music with a strong sense of identity, allowing space for everything from deeper house to electro-driven and techno-influenced sounds.
Its inaugural release, ‘Back To The Future’, captures that philosophy across three original productions and a remix from longtime collaborator Terence :Terry:. Built around analogue hardware, including the Moog Sub Phatty and Subsequent 37, the EP moves between the dark, acid-tinged grooves of ‘Intruders’, the Chicago house influences of its title track and the playful, vocal-led energy of ‘Body Heat’.
For this edition of Influences, Baiano takes a deeply personal journey through five records that have shaped his relationship with music. From the blues and soul that accompanied some of his most significant life experiences to the electronic productions that transformed his creative direction, these selections reveal the emotions, memories and ideas behind his sound.
Etta James – I’d Rather Go Blind
“As a former saxophonist, my roots go deep into the blues, so this had to be my first choice. I chose a live version from 1987, when Etta James was already much older, performing with Dr. John.
This song has always been there for me, in both the good moments and the bad ones. I was adopted, and the theme of abandonment has always touched something very deep in me. In a way, I always connected with the pain Etta expresses in this song.
It became a refuge, and taught me to love music as a kind of medicine, something unique, capable of transforming pain into something beautiful and almost magical.
There is one memory I will never forget. One night, driving home after a party, I sang this song over and over for almost forty minutes. It was the night Etta James passed away. I remember feeling an overwhelming need to stay inside that song, almost as if singing it was my way of saying goodbye.
What moves me most about this performance is seeing how, so many years after the original release, she can still completely live inside those words, reshaping their flow and emotion.
Then Dr. John comes in, and the whole thing becomes almost tangible. You can feel pain being transformed into love, pure love.”
Ben Harper – Blessed To Be A Witness
“Another deeply important song in my life is Ben Harper’s ‘Blessed To Be A Witness’. I don’t want to sound repetitive, but I feel like these words somehow move inside me.
Thanks to my adoptive parents, I was given a new beginning. The song opens with Corcovado in Rio, home of Christ the Redeemer, an image I have tattooed across my back. Brazil is where I was born, and although I grew up in Italy from the age of six months, there are certain things that somehow remain in your blood.
This song makes me cry almost every time I hear it. I feel every stage Ben sings about: losing people you love, celebrating life, being present without being consumed by the future, while still growing and learning from the past.
There is also something deeply peaceful about it for me. Every time I hear it, I feel protected, almost as if I were surrounded by angels.
Years later, I chose this song to walk into my wedding hand in hand with my parents. That moment somehow brought everything together.
Today I understand its meaning differently. Beyond the faith within it, it reminds me how incredibly fortunate I have been in life. I really do feel blessed to be a witness.”
Daft Punk – Aerodynamic
“To break up the emotional mood a little, and hopefully not bore everyone, I think it’s time for Daft Punk. Who didn’t love them? Impossible.
‘Aerodynamic’ was probably my first real love affair with electronic dance music. At the time, I didn’t know what a synth was, I didn’t know what sampling meant, and above all, I had no idea that within just a few minutes a track could travel through so many different moods while still being held together by one continuous idea: evolution.
The progression of this track still amazes me. There is an almost overwhelming electronic energy to it, with something strangely melancholic underneath. Then that relentless arpeggio eventually dissolves into what, to me, feels like an oasis of peace and pleasure, a complete contrast to everything that came before it.
Looking back, maybe that duality is part of why I connected with it so deeply. I recognise something of myself in that transformation: growth, evolution, and the idea that something incredibly intense, sometimes even destructive, can eventually transform into pleasure, peace and hope.”
Dr. Dre – The Message
“Of course, the legendary D.R.E. couldn’t be missing from this list. I chose ‘The Message’, one of those rare moments where you can really feel Dre speaking from the heart, looking upward after the loss of his brother.
For me, this song represents those moments when it’s easy to fall back into pain, to question God and struggle to understand the world around us. Why does evil exist? Why do terrible things happen? Why is life treating us this way? These are questions I think almost everyone faces at some point, and they can easily pull us away from faith.
You can hear the denial, vulnerability and shock of grief throughout the record. That kind of pain can also become one of the greatest muses for an artist. It certainly has been for me, especially whenever I’ve written soul, electronic soul or downtempo music.
This track represents something fundamental about music to me: the need to always have something to say. One of my mottos has always been, ‘REAL MUSIC NEEDZ TO HAPPEN’.
Tell your own experience, tell the truth, and somehow transform pain into something that might help somebody else.
And Mary J. Blige’s voice? For me, an undisputed icon.”
Kerri Chandler (Tears Of Velva) – The Way I Feel
“I had to close with Kerri Chandler’s ‘The Way I Feel’. This track is almost a ritual for me. It rarely leaves my DJ sets. Every time I play it, I feel the same emotion as if I were hearing it for the first time, and somehow it still moves a dancefloor with that same freshness.
For me, the song is about reconciliation with yourself: recognising what you feel, accepting your own love without doubting it, and trusting it completely. The repetition turns the words into something almost like a mantra, a reminder to let go, to be sincere with yourself, and to have faith.
Musically, I adore the bassline, but even more the kick. I’ve actually sampled that kick and used it in probably sixty percent of my own productions over the years.
In a way, this record brings everything in this list together: emotion, spirituality, repetition, healing, groove and truth.
And beyond the music, Kerri is also a genuinely beautiful and pure person. Knowing that somehow makes the record mean even more to me.”
What emerges from Marcos Baiano’s selections is an understanding of music as something deeply connected to lived experience. Etta James and Ben Harper provided comfort and a sense of belonging, Daft Punk opened the door to electronic experimentation, and Dr. Dre demonstrated the importance of having something meaningful to say. Kerri Chandler, meanwhile, brought those emotional foundations together with the hypnotic repetition and physical groove of house music.
That relationship between feeling and rhythm remains central to Baiano’s work today. With 2HOT2HANDLE, he is creating a platform for music that carries its own identity, whether through raw analogue textures, soulful influences or uncompromising underground grooves. His selections offer a revealing look at the experiences that continue to shape that vision.
