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Interview by Luca Loschi, courtesy of Jay Culture On Future Style, nearly of the forecasts Interview by Antonio Bartoccetti, courtesy of Future Style A thought for Djing.it Thesis of dj Francesco Pagano Ladyjay and nearby; interview to Riccardo Sada by Marco Corona, courtesy of Finto Figo website Interview to Nightlife Magazine by Alessandro Rimassa Interview by Katia Malagnini for La Dolce Vita Magazine Matteo Chamey interview Riccardo Sada for Rockerilla of January 2008 The contra Hit(aly): interview to Riccardo Sada by Marco Corona, courtesy of Finto Figo website Interview made by Karin Tononi courtesy Site www.mondorosashokking.com Male djs vs. female djs - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Interview by Luca Loschi, courtesy of Jay Culture When did your passion for journalism start? "I started to be a journalist after working in a PR role, with a model agency that organized parties in clubs. From this I had a lot of contact with different kinds of journalists (tv-journalist-magazine-journalists). I was also helped by my father, a sports-journalist, for more than 20 years. I started to write for sports magazines too, but my passion was always the music-world" . How has your job changed since you started in journalism, and what direction do you see your journalism taking? "I'm very curious person, it's in my personality, so at work I'm like a “detective”. Every day I need to know every kind of news, so I'm constantly researching. It's in my spirit" . What do you think about today's music-business? What we can do? "I see day by day what's happening and work hard without a break, because we expect progress in the music-business, but I think we're going in the wrong direction. I recently wrote an article about this situation. I'm scared that situation it's just an Italy's problem" . Where do you get your inspiration from? "My teachers are my books, movies, and people from all over the world. My mother and my father are like real friends to me" . Which personality do you admire in journalism, and which not? "I admire anyone who works hard. And the kings of clubbing Daniele Spadaro and Alex Rimassa. Eugenio Tovini, our dance-accountant, Pierfrancesco Pacoda, an expert in alternative music, Clay Montana and dj's who also work as journalist. I think they are the best critics of music and of music production in general" . Which of all your interviews that you have made, are your favourite? "In Libya with Gheddafi, as a reporter. And with Berlusconi in his villa in Arcore, another nice one was with Maurizio Mosca (journalist and tv-presenter) and with popular artists and politicians from the Maurizio Costanzo tv-show . The most fun one was with the comedian, Paolo Rossi in the Smeraldo theatre in Milan. The most lively was with another Rossi: Vasco Rossi. A sincere interview was with Gino Bramieri, a cabaret artist, another important one was with the tv-presenter Mike Bongiorno in the Mediaset studios in Milan and many many more. Recently the personalities have changed a little: I had a great time interviewing the Visnadi brothers in their home. In London in the office of Simon Harris in the studio with Tim Simenon from Bomb the Bass. Lastly, an interminable telephone interview with Sharam from Deep Dish. And Sting, what a gentleman. I can't count anymore: the list is too long! " . People don't know really know what a journalist does, would you explain what you do in a typical day? "It's depends. If you work for a newspaper, you're under stress 24 hours a day. For a music or fashion magazine the journalist has attend parties, dinners and fashion-shows. They have to do public relations often during evening and at night. For other kinds of Magazine, like PC-Home Magazine, you're probably free every evening, to be with your family. The hours change from journalist to journalist" . What are your thoughts about the internet and other new forms of communication? "Internet is an important instrument of communication that complements newspaper, tv, radio and all kind of media. The internet is a little like the mobile phone, for now its a trendy. But it will not be for long. When the masses stop seeing it like that, as a trend, they'll start understand and use it like they use toaster or the wash machines". . Top - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - On Future Style, nearly of the forecasts Majors: Fantastic because rich, at least some time ago; but finally the disco music returns under the control of the independent ones, like a decade ago; however there was to expect it... all is cyclical... often I say: nothing is invented, all is remixed; and not only music and the same musical tracks, but also the ideas in a generalized manner, the fashion, the state of things, the philosophies. Independent: goody the tiny structures, few and willing persons; the history of the badge to punch belongs to the past, to the multinationals; goody the alliances and as my guru Gianfranco Bortolotti says, goody the conflicts of interest, than in truth do not exist, are alone paranoia for frustrated people wearing a tie. Radio: If you connect to one radio on-line, today you pay, just a bit but you pay, the log-on and the subscription to someone or something. Tomorrow? I do not know it. Nevertheless, if i go in frequency modulation, I don't pay. And the information does not have to be paid. Never. Death to those who will ask the own information to be paid and to become the caption, the comment of every initiative, every image, every sound. But information producers have to live and here emerge the rich people and the new rich people, new entrepreneurs (publicity and synchronizations, save us , ndr ), native of Veneto, Russians, with raised heels, Chinese, it's not important, the important is that they invest and that they believe in what they make. The capricious and the buffers also can acquire shares or tractors, can plow fields or play in stockmarket: music needs respect. Sale discs: Discs? What is? If not, we consider the phonographic support in itself, than is a little bit an object of beauty, of cult, a fetish. I am romantic: I smell a twelve inch, I cry on an acetate, I caress a booklet of a cd and brush jewel case, therefore as I admire my rich and eccentric bookcase. Make space to Buddha Bar and George V who realized a special catalogue releases and attached booklet, make space to taste (that is always subjective and never objective), make space to atoms and damn to the bit, which are a swindle, at least for now, tomorrow we will see with the virtual truth and new drugs. The discs? We try to convert the concept and we think that while I write there is a new generation who is born and who sees the musical track for what it is: just air. That we crush it in a mp3 or in a vinyl pudding, what changes? The death of the song sale is the last dramatic step: tomorrow the music will return what it is, just one soundtrack. Phonographic support and goody to live concerts. I told to my friends Kitikonti and Mario Più: your dj set are beautiful but try to make on a band, like Faithless, Underworld, it will cost so much but it will give many satisfactions to you. Internet: the Net is not other than a media. It is like saying what I think about a videophone, about a Nokia Communicator, about a telephone booth, about a daily paper, about the tv, about marks of smoke? Goody the communication, the dialogue, the global village. The hermits have the courage of go away forever in solemn and radical way. Next trend: therefore unexpected the Mago Otelma. Amusing. Trend? Mode? I think that soon the Ninety will return, in everything, inasmuch as Seventy and Eighty have been by now plundered. I think that punk and the fluo accessories will become the maximum and will conquer the mass, but will be too cool and we will find them also at the big store. In music nothing is invented, as I said. We will come to in our ears the cheesy bassline and rap and the ragga that will replace strophes and bridges, in order to give out recorded melodic and riff overbearing. DJ will be more and more beautiful and young. They will also mixing images with new dvd player and with pitch control. The flattening of the digitalizing will give us new producers and those who will have time and patience will discover talents, while those who will not have it will discover the warm water. About the rest, like every year, in December the songs with the evergreen, in the first trimester will be spoken about bad festivals, during winter techno, trance and electronic will appeal more, and during summer everybody will get crazy for solar sonority, Latin, tribal, which make to move ass and genitals, and which drive women to the dance floor and so boys will go to the dance floor too. Cd single will replace Vinyl? No. Dvd single? I have seen some beautiful ones in Paris, the last month. Beautiful idea until the hunger dead men will not unload them from Internet. Until sending in collapse also the industry of cinema and visual. Often people do not know what they do. TV trend? Goody the digitaland, goody the communication, goody the voyeaurs that watch private channels during porno vision after midnight that now block the eyes in front of the Big Brother. Sweep away the Tv concept because it is old. With the videophone more than 40 million television cameras will circulate for the country. Beautiful. You go to the stadium and you make the television report for your daddy that is at home. And you pay. If you don't pay there will be someone who will pay for you. Not just the advertising: someone simply richer than you. Top - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Interview by Antonio Bartoccetti, courtesy of Future Style Riccardo Sada: music producer, A&R, record manager, dj, remixer, journalist, writer, painter... and what else? "Recently it's all about cooking! I'd like to open a restaurant. I graduated in hotel school in 1984, so I have a long experience in mixing, inventing and trying new recipes. I cooked for many people... And in my opinion cooking is like creating a music that can make people dance or sing together, or like writing an article that can capture the attention of the reader. A little method, not too much, and much practice. Some ideas and a lot of inspiration" . What about your latest efforts as producer, remixer, writer and painter? "Well, there're many things. I usually hide my identity behind different pseudonyms, in order to avoid the persecutors who want to kill me! Well, I'm joking ... I mean that some people play and dance my records even if they don't know I'm the producer: some people may have preconcepts about a producer they don't know personally, so they may boycott creations, and in this case it'd be a problem for me and my collaborators. I'd like to produce ambient music, but nothing to do with chill-out and lounge. Time goes by, I get older and bpm slow down! I usually have electro sound for breakfast , but no faster than 124 per minute" . It's quite hard to be updated on the activities of Riccardo Sada because today you release a record, tomorrow you're going to publish a book while the day after tomorrow probably you'll be working in the studio to produce some artist and so on... I remembered your book "Houseology (Life, death and miracles of House music") - with the contributions and comments of Claudio Coccoluto, Joe T. Vannelli and Albertino. Musical industry liked it. Are you satisfied by the results? "Yes, I'm very happy, in Italy it was quite succesfull and now it's going to be translated in English" . Your first book "The History of the House Music" were published in 1994 so, what can you say about your long writer activity; are you satisfied or are you already planning to stop writing book for other activities, in your next future career? "No I can't stop writing. I like having many different activities, it's the same like djing. I mean it's not the same thing if you have a bench mixer with or without the automation... in the first situation you can jump from a track to another and enjoy yourself. I think I'm going to write other books in the future. I'm working on two new books: the first is about the female dj while the other talks about the relationship between music and kitchen. I can imagine myself in the future like a writer, who likes writing with his laptop in a green park with my children and my wife in the swimming pool. I like both nature and technology... Well but that's too far but... I'm immortal" . In 1998 you founded a cultural association, the Sindacato del Suono, near the civic library of Ternengo, close to Biella city. I like these kind of projects that can help people for their cultural and artistical needs, can you better explain us the aims of this cultural/artistic centre? "So, you're talking about a delicate situation, that needs to be dealt carefully, beacuse now the association is 'frozen', for some reasons. Not many people like discussing about electronic music business and similar stuff today. That's the reason for, 3 years ago, I created, in association with a producer Pierfrancesco Di Stolfo, the Midance event: an appointment dedicated to music creativity. It's completely free, it's like an happening, without fixed date or location" . Let's talk about music: what do you do first when you want to release a track? Do you usually have an idea to express in your mind or maybe you look for inspiration in some other productions? "Well, I'm a cook! I usually start from bootleg and similar... but some years ago the melodies inspired me, nowdays I prefer reading newspaper and give to what I read a new arrangement, a new shape through the music" . Have you your own recording studio? "Yes and I called it Midiots: the name underline that I don't know anything about the midi! I'm not a musician and I'm not a dj, I'm just involved with it. One day a (in)famous A&R, not very tall!, cried to me, quite angry: 'What do you do, you've nothing to do with dance music!'. I knew it was true. But I believe that having nothing to do with the dance music means exactly that I'm free to produce what I like without any kind of pressure. You can't judge me, you've to listen to my production... and that's a beautiful goal" . What kind of machines do you have in your studio? "Goody software. Goody the pillage of samples. I don't want virtual instrument because I don't want instrument. I can hear and understand but I can't play" . Which is your musical background? "The portable radio that my mother put into my crib when I was child first, then books, hard work, experiences" . Which artist/musician did influence you on your songs? "They're different and they usually don't appear in the Mixmag and DJ Mag reviews. Maybe in Trax France or Future Music. Then I love Madonna and Depeche Mode. I was a dj from the 88 to the '90, I liked acid house, then I understood that plying other people music was too boring for me" . What about you next future style? "I think it'll come from the past. Nothing more to invent, life is a circle and everything comes back and everything can be remixed. Now I feel myself very paninaro: wild boys" . And what about the music in the next future? "Well tomorrow will be the same of today, I guess. But during the next 50 years we probably it'll be different and music will be the soundtrack of our lives" . In January 2005, you commented The Sound Prophecy 2004 (published on Style Future) with some 'prophecies' about the music industry, major, independent labels and so on... today, can you confirm your ideas about the evolution of the classical musical support (vinyl, cd, dvd)? Do you think they still represent a business? "So and so. Fathers give their passions to their children, but in 2130 probably my nephew will ask me - very surprised - if it's true that when I was young I had to go out home to buy music" . You also support live music activities. What can you say about the live music in Italy? Do you believe that can be a kind of renaissance for music and musicians? "I said to my friend Mario Più: create a band. You are reliable. A band is the opposite of the single dj who stay in the front. Many people many ideas, it creates a different atmospheres and collaboration. You're a team. I've a punk house band with my friends! We're the journalist Stefano Nincevich, the bassist Tony Corizia, the dj Stefano Mattara and… me. Our name is Peep Show. Our claim is... you have the right to stay silent... We are thinking about an album. Our first single was released thanks to Stefano Noferini and it's Sound4Group; the label is the Deeperfect and the song title is `Champagne & Molotov'" . How many hours do you listen to music or read books everyday? "I listen music for 60% and I read for 30% a day" . Which book are you currently reading? "Something of Murakami, a present of my girlfriend" . Which dj, musician or producer do you prefer today? "I like the new Mario Più electronic style, then Abe Duque, Mylo, Linus Love. I love Steve Bug, Alexander Robotnik and all the electronic scene. I think that now Jaques Lu Cont is the king and Suart Price a master. About the musicians: Roberto Arduini and Stefano Mattara. They are the best" . If someone wants to follow your example, what would you say to him? "Bad idea! Change your mind! It can be dangerous" . Are you satisfied about the results you obtained in your career? "We usually consider the success of a person from money he earns (the objective factor) and from the gossip of the others (the subjective): so it depends, I feel quit and always looking for something new" . And where are you looking for something new now? "In the kitchen" . Your next future projects? "As I said before, two books, many records and compilation. I'd like to come back to painting and go often to gym" . What is the first thing that you think when you wake up in the morning? "We die every night and we born again every morning" . Which is the best moment of the day? "When I don't see slobs, but unfortunately I'm used to see them" . Your main defect? "Sincerity. I always say what I really think and in this century it's a great defect" . Your main virtue? "I communicate very well" . Main characteristic of your character? "I speak, I speak, I speak: dialogue, I am involved" . Spiritual interests? "Not very much, but I like Buddha. Fat people are often nice" . How does your soul feel? "It feels well, it supports everything" . Which is your personal relationship with the... “virtual reality? "I often think to Matrix. We live in a Matrix world: and that's my personal explanation for flashback and dejavù" . Your recurrent fantasies? "It's about me with my wife and my daughters" . Your recurrent dream? "Open white spaces, water, paradise, modernity" . What is music? "Something of unreal: if we live in a movie, someone had to compose the soundtrack" . Which is your favourite web site? "I don't visit many websites, just airlines websites, when i need ticket flights. I use the e-mail" . Which is your favourite computer? "My Nokia Communicator 9500: great. It's a computer?" . Which is your favourite tv channel? "La7, Gay Tv, Gambero Rosso channel and Flux" . Do you collect anything? "T-shirt" . What do you do when you want to relax yourself? "I usually have a walk, make shopping and go to the thermal hotel with my girlfriend" . Who is your favourite poet? "Baudelaire" . Who is your favourite composer? "Wagner" . Do you have a favourite album in absolute? "They're too many" . What do you like then? "Manga, I love Gundam and my cat Coda and Sophie, my girlfriend's cat" . Top - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A thought for Djing.it I see the dj's situation in recess and regress, of equal step of the direction taken from the world-wide economy: the chaos reigns. And this thing make me curious. Therefore like between the journalists also between the dj there are some eager that are granted to two Euros for a dj set in order to set aside a little slot under to the sun. Free to make it. Such attitude is not from condemning: may be is from framing better in order to avoid confusions. If the managers of the club do not comprise the difference between the… simply dj, DJ Fabio (?), of the situation that play for 50 euro (and that are behind the consolle because the dj has more probability than a waiter to make sex) and the superstar dj who earn 8000 Euros for dj set, this is a problem. Large like one house. The information and the culture of the clubbing and the dj therefore would have to interest close those people which attempt in the range. In Italy we have little of this culture. If we had to put in consolle a star television of Sunday afternoon we are sure that it would make more success than Todd Terry that made a travel of hours and hours and that it would have some to tell with his vinyl. I will not never forget what said the Visnadi brothers during an interview: "in Italy there isn't the culture of music because there isn't the culture of the culture". It is impossible that exists the culture of dj. We are in a Country but we are also in a society, than with passing of the time it will exalt the outer side of the dj. However, the dj is a juke-box with two hands and two feet (and also one head): in contrast to a machine he can be less technical but more unforeseeable and fascinating. I would head at these last dowries: a beautiful one dj, even one (beautiful) woman dj; she would have more charisma that a fifty-year-old that bards himself as was a hoodlum under-age. We love the beautiful ones. The world of the entertainment is of the beautiful ones. For incalculability we can give space to the extroversion, to the creativity, announcing publicly the dj that they play discs from the wireless charts. All need courage. And there is little stoic people around. If we continue to imitate the soccer players we will find ourselves soon to year zero and with an own-goal that would carry to the defeat of the profession. That, perhaps, it would not be badly for a range that needs of new air. Ciao Ricky Top - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Thesis of dj Francesco Pagano Which is your job and from how many years you work in the record industry? "My job is journalist: my love for the communication has carried me in the world of music towards roles too close to public relation. The border between journalism and press offices unfortunately is feeble. I'm a reporter for practical purposes" . Which have been the effects of the coming of Internet and of the digital format (mp3, etc…) on the music broadly and at the coalface? "The digital supports, therefore the bit that has surpassed the atom, have accelerated the times of a more and more imminent year zero of the musical industry. Music get on tiptop, indeed, the fusions given from integrations and technology have decupled the consumption of it: we can say that the entrepreneurs that have managed it until today have been little far-sighted and too much seated on the bay ones. Often gains the vision and the oblivion. In synthesis and analysis the effect has been devastating: in my job, increasing the media and taking off Internet, is tripled the demands for information with respect to the musical movement" . Internet is more means in order to improve the promotion and distribution of music or means in order to obtain free music? "Internet is means and stop: it only depends from as it comes used. The bit costs nothing compared to atoms: in fact the pages on-line to publish have no cost confronted with the paper, that its poetry has one but also a its physical limit. This in order to say that the bit who has carried the amount to stratospheric limits (who has the courage to print books, vinyl and discs today? Editor's note) and that the confusion reigns sovereign. The selection hour is on us, of who is on internet: there is who follows the instinct and instead who it is made to accompany. Everyone can be a Google..." . According to you in that way the Web helps the new artists? As an example the artists without a record house or the artists who produce music outside from the outlines of the capitalist market? "The web is just a modern window on the world, depends on that square you have the occasion to face. On the balcony we are alone or in company, in front of the crowd or behind to one hill. For me often on-line fall the values, the meaning you give to the things; other weak border today is between a blog and the officials web-site. Today a web-sit, of whichever kind, is a business card, more or less rich, with the own wants to tell and to give information. For the new artists this is an electronic insert, the propaganda: essential are modernizations and therefore newsletter and the groups of interest" . Which are your forecasts for the future of music and of your job in the Internet and digital format's era? "The future of music is roseate. It will be a turn about the future of the relative business: soft recon version. Already to last editions of Midem in Cannes, record review anniversary in France, all notice the changes of bid and asked for the market. Also my job does not change neither will change: perhaps the methodology will be supported in massive way from the technique (as an example, my new book, about the DJ women, has been written in great part with a Nokia Communicator); surely the consumerisms will sacrifice the deepening. It probably knows them the responsibility of the reporter to 360 degrees: between many new generation that propose to new and old media, the old ones of the trade as me turn out like loaded compendium that fight the cribs. I feel myself like one of last Highlander, that is beautiful because bloody romantic" . Top - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Ladyjay and nearby; interview to Riccardo Sada by Marco Corona, courtesy of Finto Figo website A pursuit through chat Messenger and Skype, sms and e-mail. Hunted, Riccardo Sada, journalist by now in love with fiction and essay about clubbing, mad about female disc jockey, have been interviewed in exclusive right for FintoFigo. A foreseen and pink coloured tit-for-tat... Riccardo, what is happening to the world of the women dj? "Apart from the beauty therapy" and the fact that cute male DJS are just a few, my idea is that the "pink quotas" must be respected in every department, in particular way in the entertainment one. Today it's a must to make a panoramic on the world of the women dj. They are princesses and they will be always more" . Something lately has changed your point of view? "Influenced and not slightly rebalanced in childhood by a feminist mother, I asked myself why there were only attentions for undressed show girl and not for the other half of the sky that struggles for many years, induces energy and give true glamour in an atmosphere that try to regenerate and to dispute itself. I foresee that the dj woman tomorrow will be (finally) something normal, in spite of today is such a trend (attends private party and not), chic (look at the ads) and on the exponential increase (it's a growing trend)" . You have therefore made your examination? "Yes. Not only: my customary search. My constant investigation. I have chased, listened, often understood, waited and agreed with them at times, with their fears, their dreams, their atypical techniques. Their oneness created that a book out of it: Ladyjay. It will be published by Mediane, who I am working on other projects. The indicative date of publication is May 2006" . What has impressed you the most about them? "The caress of a feminine hand on a vinyl disc is the more feline, romantic and sweet thing that I have seen in the more and more volgar-popular clubbing. So I interviewed them. I have photographed them. I have written a history, respecting faithfully their creed and their objective kinsman: to communicate. They play, the women dj, in order to reflect themselves. For them, the sound is a flow. Very rarely they accept exploitations…. the large ones, the historical ones, the enthusiastic, the unstoppable ones" . There will be several details in the book? "In agreement with the editor, it has been chosen to insert the text translate also in English language, thinking also about the interested ones of beyond border. The introduction is cured by Manuela Doriani, historical dj today on the Play Radio's team; the preface is of Ellen Alien, Berliner, intellectual, careful to the colleagues excursus" . Just to name a few? "There will be images and thoughts of Miss Kittin, Sonique, Sister Bliss, Babayaga, Jo Mills, Lisa Loud, Smokin' Jo, Lisa Lashes, Princess Superstar, Screamin Rachael, Annie, Marusha, Lisa Pin-Up, Lisa Lashes, Tania Volcano, Chloè, Miss Djax and many others. In the volume i'll talk about category associations, federations and leagues. Then, i'll also talk about the world-wide events, the public performance. Finally oddities will be told, even not rumors and gossip" . But what is exactly Ladyjay? "Ladyjay, in collaboration with the Aid, will be also the official clearance for the first Italian Female Disc Jockey Association. We have already spoken with the amazing Gianni Naso who has first shown interest and curiosity about the project. There is ferment around the brand. We are preparing also a radio show: there' s so much meat on fire. And very little smoke" . Ladyjay will be a sort of trademark? "The attempt is not that one to make a Dop or a Doc like one stuck on cheeses or wine. The respect towards the woman and of their professional part secondly is top. However we will try to associate the brand to every initiative that is online with our acts and our philosophy. We are for the discipline, the application, the evolution. We will consider very much the music and the discography. Also because the brand will guarantee the new productions by dj producer closet to us, even if discovered from the record company Melodica, in the person of its C.e.o. Diego Abaribi" . Which one is Abaribi's role in Ladyjay? "Diego is my partner in this exploration. Ladyjay with Miss DJ, which is the brand of the great events organizer, Lello Carvelli from Noblesse Oblige, will make a tour: dates around Italy in order to discover what is actually the best Italian DJ. This initiative reminds of Dmc: a quick turnover at the consolle, scratch, mixed expresses and much style. Shortly we will make out the name of a famous record artist who's making the difference in the entire operation and that is currently working behind the scenes in an amazing way. We are a beautiful team, well sorted" . Top - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Interview to Nightlife Magazine by Alessandro Rimassa How you can make a compilation for a club? “Undoubtedly it's necessary much patience, if nothing else to explane to the club's managers or pr which are classics record industry's way. Obviously there are several step. The first one, doubtless, is the creativity, therefore we can start from a base idea that can be suggested from the record company with its standards or be supplied from the club's staff. Sure it's essential that listening to cd we can breath the same lived atmosphere inside the club; therefore, better than to technical level there are advices from the record company (that is in contact with distributor, designate to diffuse it in its net) and artistic tips from the club's property in collaboration with its own pr and disc jockey. This last one is the witness of the project, like what happens for an artist when make an album. The selection of the tracks, taken care of, of course is a vital point and often the dj, thinking about to take an advantage of the situation, include too many tracks by friends, workfellow and acquaintance. This behaviour help to lessen the project's value : its necessary therefore a compromise between what you want diffuse, what is better on the dancefloor and what the purchaser would want to find on the cd. This rules are legitimate whether the cd should be sells or presents. The following step is the tracks mix and the realization of a audio master, in coincidence with search of songs authorizations from the record company that participate to the project; at the same time we work to the artwork, to the entire cover (booklet, front and back cover) where we will total credits, that is the relative dates contain in the tracks; we choose the packaging (carton sleeve that it is the enveloped card or the jewelbox that is the classic in plastic or still the digipack that is that one already fashionable, entire composed of pressed card). After which we start the press, packaging, the shipment to the distributor who will be inform about the connected several promotions, as marketing project or coupling's forms (I know that that editorial form is always strongly, that is cd plus review to a political price)”. How many copies are printed? “It depends to the budgets. The minimum can be around the 500 copies, but nobody make compilation of a million copies, neither with celebrate and trend magazine. To the maximum we keep around 10mila copies, when it goes well. The dj Coccoluto last year sold 100mila copies with a new brand and it cause a sensation. But the historical names are always the same ones: Hitmania, Hot Party, Mp3 Compilation and M2o, but also these brands are in escape period, although they live much better than others. Multinationals or independent, is a issue of the brand's diffusion: the tv adv does't make the difference. However, there are no more margins. I think is better to work without many risks and in this range Cdyourself is leader because it produces cd for brand like energy drink and resort, like gym and hotels, often passing also for traditional circuits: Often the choice is for lounge and chill-out that are fashionable and characteristic kinds for relax, therefore optimal for aperitif, worldly and refined evenings soundtrack” . Which costs must be supported? “Depends on the record company. We say that the breakeven, that is the attainment of the balancing, is on the 500 copies if we realize a standard cd in jewelbox, without many frills and without tracks that need advance royalties payment, that is costs that are deduced ahead of time from the percentages of sale. On thousand copies we pay under the 4 euro and on this cost it there are already the graphical costs, the mastering costs and the selection costs". How happens the songs choice (artistic, but also with problems regarding rights, etc.)? “It happens, like saying over, with the collaboration between record company and customer, in this case the owner of the club. The idea makes the difference”. Is better to sell it in the club or to distribute it in the stores? “Both cases: better a synergic and effective job that a radical chosen. We have to say that in the club there is always the impression to carry home a night's piece. And don't forget that when you go in a cd store you are confuse by the immense offered: too many titles. Often you go in a cd store with a precise idea to buying a title. In the club, instead, there isn't competition neither of titles neither of competitive prices: that one is the club cd, you like it or not”. Which are possible profits? “Poor, on the low pulling. More we print and more the cost is lowered: but need an important budgets. I think that the cd is a gadget, but this is a personal opinion associated with the society for which job, that is Cdyourself”. What need to make a compilation? It's an image position? “It's pure marketing, is a piece of event not made of words or bit. But of atoms: that allows one true collection, passion, mania. I think that at Christmas no father promise to his son an mp3 file: to the maximum a cd single, if the families pocket cry”. How to choose the dj that mix and buzzed it? 2Often the dj chosen is the resident, club's favourite about compilation made for one disco or discobar or for a specific happening. Otherwise, tip up with dj of high profile, clubs's kings or ether's champion”. Which club's compilation, in Italy, scores? “Those of the vip club, top: that one of Pineta, that one of Villa of the Roses, Cafè Solaire, ours of the French liberation's festivity of the 14 July, 'Supernatural', mixed by Miki Garzilli, then a theme's party, house party like Supalova. Because it's not more the disco that make cd but the onenight, therefore push ahead with Folies de Pigalle, Matrix, Papete or Fiat Playa”. Which entered in chart? “No more in that one of sale. I say again: they make buzz, that create interest”. How works the club compilation's market in the foreign country? Where is born? “It born from the requirement and at the same time in all the world's territories: United Kingdom is doubtless leader but also the USA, marketing lovers, are being animated. Now the phenomenon is expanded”. Your experience: how is born the idea? How you realized? Which investments? Which profit? “Cdyourself idea is spread brands in alternative way, therefore we let make to the others the classic compilation, canonical target or the traditional format. We make incentive marketing by means of music, even if ours scouting is continuous, inexorable. We target to the road's sounds, lately, even if from some customers are always demand chill-out and lunge. The profits are variable's sons but we don't hide that often the blows of 200mila copies get a blow in with casualness and these thanks to trades them that is located to close to Cremona with its call center. In Milan, we make ours help with searches and creativity”. Is possible made a compilation being involved a sponsor? “Yes but in this case we speak of synchronization and then will be specified in the contract with suppliers and partners”. Several and eventual: all that you want to tell about your experience or that you want to emphasize... “The cd, like the vinyl, like the tapes, it will be more and more an object to show, to exhibit, to love and to collect, beyond its content. As it happens with the zen philosophy the container will make the content's value. The shape will be able however to go optimally in hand with the substance. The look is basically”. Top - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Interview by Katia Malagnini for La Dolce Vita Magazine Katia Malagnini from La Dolce Vita Magazine. You are from six years in the division and you see various trend, could you tell us which is your concept of trend? “Trend is action, therefore communication. There are more groups, like small party and big party of Italian politics, to popular this macrocosmos: there are locomotives, that open the way to the trend, creating it (nearly) from zero, directing it, and the carriages, that follow, migrate, move the flow. Without the first hard hoof the second would not exist. And contrariwise. And nothing is invent : all exists already but cyclical all is advance, from pants to a perfume, passing from gastronomic recipe until musical produce. Challenging every oxymoron, the art to manage challenge and spouse the one of remix. From years I support that nothing is invented, all is remixed”. Which are in Italy the discotheques of greater success? Because? “I think are the clubs that have more history, more affection; often dims from historians marks, because the new club is the onenight: the brand takes windward. All it is marketing. the stars pay the consequences of inexperience. Useless make names of success discotheques, are those in the hearts of the tricolour people. The Italians are romantic”. What's happen to dance clubs? “Happened that we are in the decreasing phase. In the wheel of life, the one of cyclicity, the clubs that have success escape to the marketing iron rules. To make a little club is easy, therefore crowd it, and in fact who suffers more is the big club. The contradiction releases from the moment in which someone travels from the north to the south of the Boot. We are culturally various. We would analyze all subdividing in geographic areas: Italy is complicated like the residents”. Night Movement ten years ago and today: which the differences? “I support from years that dj are the decline of juke-box, therefore if someone by force must occupy the direction of a discotheque, lights or audio, with a beautiful presence. I want women in politics. I want women in consolle. I want more men on the cubes, above all metrosexual. New or renewal does not mean breach but choices, very rarely radical, that can spread beauty in our eyes. After all the world is full of male dj. And they are all ugly. I prefer a female that commits a technical error (wrong mixing) rather than the certainty of a accredited, discounted and patinated dj set”. Which is the cocktail more demanded, the trend cocktail (meant like explosive mix of trend component)? “Eighty, Ninety: from a precise time lapse we captured all, the dresses, drug, sound, color, style, slang”. Could you tell us four essential components that generate a trend? “I say one: the action. That reverberate in the communication. If we want necessarily four branch, then I say seenn (to the look), tact (style), taste (gloss changing and every kiss has the flavour of a calendar), heard (kick 4/4 and go)”. Someone say that young people don't be able to have a good time: why? “It is not true. They do all and soon: some experiences, affective, sexual, existential. They are more practical than we can think. They are uncatchable, elusive, unclassifiable”. Being able to supervise incisively the situation to raise the night movement and all his entourage, what you would make? “I hold one's nose like Montanelli. Not for a vow but for a political choice more extreme. I would like to stand as a candidate. I think I'll made it , in few years. No night party. The night is for sleep. But a new force for the young people, because I'm was young, I know what they feel. No lies. They don't need a leadership, don't need life masters. They needs people without business interested and sincere living's lover. Therefore, if I'll be soon rich, I'll stand as a candidate, I'll understand alone like a small fish as me will splashing between fat and dapper sharks”. The club concept is in continuous movement… Which means today, in 2007, with the term discotheque? “A place. A location. One series of services. The architect is dj or pr, goes to friends, tips winks, comes used or revive a style, is hard to understand if is more important the content (customers) or the container (the club). Who makes trend? The term discotheque is today united to something that don't exist : neither to the disc (neither vinyl neither cd, because many dj work with digital mp3) neither to the Disc written in capital (there are no shadows neither in the actually house music neither in the interior design because there are no strobo). The discotheque is dead. This is the reason because the life's clubbing is quite good : it is just in a phase of stall that precedes a great change. Like ours loved planet Earth”. Top - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Matteo Chamey interview Riccardo Sada for Rockerilla of January 2008 What do you think about Milan City? “Milan is the most European city in Italy and the less European in Europe. In many sights, perhaps on an international scale, it is too provincial, always grabbed to old school, ancient cliché, to boring aperitifs and nervous rhythm. Well, a good place to born but a bad place for investing. The small and medium middle class is not at home in the shadow of Duomo's Madonnina. The real rich, better if not enriched, live well in Milan. So, better than in other places”. The music is part of you since 1988, when you began a collaboration with the syndicated Radio Italia Network International. You were twenty years old when you realized that Music would stay with you for all life, don't you? “I think the more time goes by and the more music will be on air, like liquid music, and not in atoms. Concerning recording music, dealt just for business, I only see advertising, commercial spot on the horizon to save it. The cd, usb pens and retrò vinyls are just gadgets. Today the container can do the content”. The clubs' setting, the Young that grow with you, you follow them as contemporary then see them as an adult, what does mean being a teenager nowadays? “We should ask it to the teenagers: I see just the Nation in disarray with new generations adrift. Many parents have done a bad job. The twelve years old and fourteen years old are largely zombie today; by the way also the most aged aren't well. The boot is drugged and drunk, is not standing is at the mercy of a politic without content, ideals, philosophy”. When you were just 26 years old you released a book “The History of House Music”, the boy become man, become man thanks to journalism and activities related to music as composer and PR, as well as deejay. Did you want to express yourself differently? “Undoubtedly yes. I live to experiment, to know, to discover, to test. I always wanted to see things jumping the barricades: journalist vs. pr, critic vs. producer, good eater vs. chef. The expression of creativity is my way of life: I would do well the bank clerk or the accountant, maybe I do better something creative”. In 1996 the great leap to Media Records as head of dance communication manager and to a more difficult task, teach the art of music to young people in schools. Did you feel the need to be altruistic… “I felt the necessity to be a dad, in some way, too early. The inheritance is not a game: it is knowledge, culture, the purpose of communication and information. Our children are what we wouldn't be able to be: the evolution. Generazione Media (translated in Media Generation), a guide for school children in a company that deals with music, it was the transparency of a multimedia facility that levered on its music bizz calibre” . At the end of last century, you fund the cultural circle Sindacato del Suono (translated Sindacation of Sound), which would study the music of the third millennium, electronics and its frontiers. In this place you also show your oil painting during special exhibitions. An eclectic artist in attendance on others people? “I can linked on two questions ago: to produce, to sweep, to review, to challenge. To do. Painting is just a personal test, a challenge concerning the technique. Elbow grease is a downhill road than flax oil painting. I'll dream to attend Brera and the Belle Arti and I am a autodidact” . Midance was happened some days ago, the meeting for dance music adepts, you are the promoter, tell us about this project… “Everything was born in 2002, a drink among friends of discographical world, pr's, dj's, talent scouts, in the pub. Someone who felt excluded claimed a call for times higher. With acquaintances and other professionals, in primis the friend and promoter Pier Di Stolfo, took a decision to look for a name, merging Milan to dance and imitating the Midem in Cannes, exhibition really better known. We had ups and downs but the satisfactions are prevailed” . This year you started a sport project, where Riccardo Sada wants to go? “Nowhere. Only live a peaceful life. I am not a social climber, I don't care about big home and big car. I want to do all well, carefully, meticulous, method and organizing my work” . What cities do you think reflect for better or for worse the evolution of Western society? “All of them . Years ago I lived with my feet in Milan and with my head in London, I was in love with everything that was British, because I thought that it was the centre of the world. Then, I put the nose a couple of times in Tokyo to find out ways and rhythms, and zen and tech. Now the epicenter of the moral, spiritual and economic earthquake moves for me on Berlino-Tel Aviv, the only two cities where I would go immediately. Who knows...” . What direction Music is taking in your opinion ? We are at a point of no return? We discovered everything or you hear people saying that music is a continuous cycle that will never stop and that somewhere a "minstrel" is inventing something new? “Everything has been invented. Today is beautiful to tune, to reconstruct, to recycle. Stop with roast, now is the time of meatballs. This is the time of get by, of remixing all, adapting to the taste of the person, to the times, to places, to need. And because I have to go to the shops, even to the market” . Top - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The contra Hit(aly): interview to Riccardo Sada by Marco Corona, courtesy of Finto Figo website Last 8th August (08.08.08...) Hitaly Muzik a truly unique record label was born (www.myspace.com/hitalymuzik), a strange label. That looks for products, producers and DJs, to make it clear; “The important thing is that the tracks are strange, unique”, explains one of the partners, Luca Minoli, from his studio in Oleggio, near Novara. “Our intent is to discover the universe of sound and all its shades”. The brand looks for ideas and local sounds, just like in the gastronomic market. “We are both chefs and we love exporting the taste of the territory”, to summarize Luca Minoli has retired to his recording studio, busy producing, while his professional other half, Riccardo Sada, from Milan, travels here and there with the goal of producing the initiative. Therefore, it's Luca Minoli explaining the reason for the brand's foundation. “Hitaly Muzik is an identity, a personality. A project obviously born in Italy that deals with a global subject like music. Ricky and I look for really strange tracks, we want the other already existing labels to deal with tested genres. Making the difference with the ideas. If something sounds weird, we're going to stop and analyse it. We don't have time or money pressure so we'll take care of everything that, for us, is surprising, seeing that the label is ours”. If a new style is born, Hitaly Muzik will be there, ready to grab it. “Country Electro exists? No? Do it. Turn Neil Young into a robot. Add 'Maranza' voices and ideas to an experimental base. Turn the mixer (that's inside of you) and it will become your own personal confident mixer”. How will the structure work? “Following precise steps. The motto is search, select and distribute. Adding a little bit of heart and a little bit of brain. In the studio we're pedigree animals, outside it will a fight for the latest promo. So give way to the instinct. We basically produce for the pleasure of doing it, giving space to creativity and experimentation. We're always looking for new sounds and new techniques. It all happens under both supervisors, there's no track that isn't tested in all its characteristics by me and Ricky”. You are always together. Nowadays, historical couples form labels. It's Sada speaking, now. “Two heads is… worse than one. You have to fit energy, fancy, and discipline. It's not easy at all. But we love difficult situations, Luca and I. Weird couple, the two of us. However, the greatest dance artists have often worked on a tandem basis: Ugolini-Raimondi, Bortolotti-Leoni, Gatto-Ridolfi, Farina-Crivellente, Baldoni-Rosellini, and Accatino-Rimonti”. Why has Ricky chosen you, Luca? And why have you, Luca, chosen Ricky? Here they talk contemporarily. “We noted straight away on both sides that there is a serious devotion towards this job, lovely and gratifying but terribly hard. We have ideas and musical tastes in common and we work balancing every project. Basically, we get along. Like a well equalised drum and bass ”. But why Hitaly Muzik? How did you choose the name? “Sounds good. It's somehow patriotic. The connection with hit is also due to Hitland, that is our distributor, which takes care of the foreign market, deals with all the very boring bureaucracy for us; that's the reason why we thank Matteo Lombardoni”. Who do you collaborate with? Luca explains: “Who loves us. Specifically, we'll have the help of different artists, like the guitarist Samuele Calcaterra from The Blue Vine Hill, Minivip Nik percussion, voices like Karin T. There are too many DJs, there's no point in listing them all and then, Ricky is insane about female DJs. You'll find our friends in Myspace top friends. Amongst the labels we collaborate with are Alberto Margheriti's Smilax, Mario Più's Fahrenheit and we'd love (yes, we're butt lickers) to collaborate with Krone by a certain guy called Marco Corona”. Who is your musical editor? “We get help from Warner Chappell”. What are your main goals? “Having fun ourselves, amusing other people, happy dance, happy people” . Why set up a label in such times of crisis? Ricky takes the word: “Hitaly Muzik is more than a label, it's a way of seeing music between raw punk and posh music, it's the average, the electronic onanism, we don't set limits on a financial level, so we have no limits. Everybody wonders what's going to be our debut album? We've got some weird things on hard disk. It will be a surprise. Paper is slower than the net, the atom is a slow snail and the bit flies, news is overtaken by facts but we'll put everything on line, always”. What is the question that you are always expecting?
“'Hey guys, are you also printing on vinyl?' We also make 12'' on platinum if necessary; as long as the production is worth it. Otherwise, all the rest will be flowing in Internet's limbo. Today the support itself is a luxury. We're broke but rich in soul. At the restaurant it's usually the richest one who pays, not the nicest, so why not the same in the record industry? We'll make deals with multinational companies, maybe, who knows? Selling yourself sometimes hurts your morals but fills your stomach”. “Abroad, there is little distinction of moral and cultural dj women or men. You hear about djane or djette, depends on the country, only a simple distinction, however, makes little difference. It's like standing at the doors of the toilet. Where to enter? But the decor of the interior is identical. Hygiene not: then there is something that differentiates us. Gender equality must be a moral equal. But we accept the physical diversity. Colette may not attend the underground clubs, where the lights are far from the console, where you can cheat with a ready-mixed. You are there and the public other side: in the middle, just your music. That makes a difference”. |