| "My Friend Dario" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Single by Vitalic | |
| from the album OK Cowboy | |
| Released | March 29, 2005 |
| Genre | Electronica, electroclash |
| Label | Different/Pias |
| Songwriter | Pascal Arbez-Nicolas |
| Music video | |
| "Vitalic - My friend Dario" at YouTube | |
"My Friend Dario" is the first single from Vitalic's debut album, OK Cowboy. It is the first single from Vitalic to use "Brigitte", a vocal synthesis program. "No Fun", which is another track on OK Cowboy, also uses Brigitte.
The music video for "My Friend Dario" features a band mimicking instrumentation; the guitarists play air guitar and the drummer air drums. The lack of band instruments in the video reflect a statement made on Vitalic's website; that the instruments on his album OK Cowboy are entirely synthesized and that "the only thing he can't fake is the emotion that galvanizes his music."
The maxi-CD version of the single includes a live cover of Daniel Miller's "Warm Leatherette", performed on BBC Radio 1. The cover was later included in a collector's edition of OK Cowboy.
In an interview with Pascal Arbez in CMJ New Music Monthly, Arbez dialogued:
- [Interviewer:] What can your alterego "Dario" do that you haven't been able to do?
- [Interviewee:] When he finally has a crash, because he drives like a brainless kid, he dies. But it is not real because it is just a song. It has no impact. As far as I am concerned, I try to make my own excesses, which are real, not leading to a sad end.
- [Interviewer:] But you've gotten a few speeding tickets lately. So are you and Dario becoming the same person?
- [Interviewee:] Sometime we are. Dario is just the concept name of a part of myself. It is convenient to have these names to point out in an easy way how I feel or how my behavior is at a precise moment. Instead of saying, "Oh, you are acting like a stupid drunk and please don't take the car," my friends would say, "Arrête de faire ton Dario!" ["Stop acting like Dario!"]
The song appears in the EA video games FIFA 06 and Need for Speed: Carbon (plays only when driving a tuner car). It also features in Riders Republic, developed by Ubisoft Annecy.
It was also used as a catwalk soundtrack for both Versace and Chanel’s Fall/Winter 2005 show.
