Giuseppe Ottaviani Interview

Kategorie: Global Gathering
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geschrieben von: Global Gathering geschrieben am: 19.07.2012 um: 12:50 Uhr
Q. Where do you draw your inspiration? Who/what were your biggest influences

A. My inspiration comes almost from everywhere, what ever happens in my life can be an input for a new track, but above all travelling really inspires me. Flying all around the globe, visiting new cities, meeting new people and experiencing all the different shows and crowds always brings ideas and that's probably why most of my tracks are born on a plane.

Surely Paul van Dyk at first instance and all the others big names like Armin van Buuren or Ferry Corsten have been a huge influence to my sound but also the Italian Mauro Picotto, back in 90's, has played a big role in my dance music education, though I have a classical music education background originally.

I'm also a huge fan of U2 and you can feel a little bit of their sound in most of my tracks, see One Day (Album mix) or Toys (RockIt mix) which are probably the most obvious examples of this

Q. With visual aspects at events becoming as popular as the music, your live performances must be as popular as they've ever been. How does the feeling differ to a DJ set, and which do you prefer?

A. Well I'm not doing a Live act just because of the visual aspect of the show, also considering that playing in a big festival for example doesn't allow people to see what I'm actually doing on my keyboards because of the big stage and distance from the crowd, I'm actually playing Live just because I don't consider myself as a DJ but as a musician instead. I make music in my studio and I play my music only in my shows. Of course I do play many remixes and reworks of other artists but it's all music coming from my studio. Also playing Live allows me to better communicate with the crowd as I can change my sound accordingly with their reaction and I can do improvisations which is something you can do if you play your sounds through a keyboard and not usb sticks, even if I had to admit it's getting very hard to bring all my stuff around the globe, but at the end of the day that's the way I like it and I always have much fun with it.

Q. What set up do you use when performing live?

A. I basically use 2 laptops running Ableton Live and Reason, both laptops are synchronised and they run the main background music. Then I use 2 keyboards, one to play the main sounds like he main leads or pianos or pads and the second one controls the grooves and beats. Additionally I have few midi controllers to play around with filters and effects plus a DJ mixer which allow me to mix my tracks as a DJ so there is not break between a track and the next one but it's like a DJ mix that keeps people dancing all the time. A live 8 channels mixer is the last piece of my setup, it's where all the sounds from my sound cards are mixed together and it's where I control my monitors. I think it's more easy to watch than explain it but as I said before, it's fun.

Q. What do you do creatively other than music?

A. No much time left from the music side but I used to play quite a lot with electronic components, projecting and realizing Printed Circuit Boards for me and for friends that could have been funny gadgets or some more interesting things like automation technologies, but still at amateur level

Q. What is your favourite city to visit?

A. Probably Cape Town was one of the most interesting cities I've ever been, though I had not much time to visit it completely so I'm really looking forward to come back one day, I mean as a tourist of course.

Q. What other artists should we be keeping an eye on?

A. I really like Maarten de Jong's sound, he made a couple of remixes for me that I am still playing and supporting in every show. Also the Italians Colonial One are doing pretty well and I just started to support their music on my radio shows.

Q. How do you see visual production moving forward?

A. Visuals and lights as well are a very important part of the show and I always been a big fan of big productions as I think that music, especially Trance music, must be followed and accompanied by a great visual/light show for a complete and intense trip into the music. So I'm glad that also this part is getting bigger and it's considered as much important as music is. At the end of the day we all are entertainers and we must deliver a great show, music alone can do it just for a part.

Q. You were a part of NU NRG, one of the best trance projects of our time. Would there be any chance of reforming in the future?

A. Unfortunately no, Nu Nrg has been great indeed but it's a thing of the past by now. We decided to split up because of musical differences so there is definitely no chance you will see Nu Nrg back at any time. Also because what would be Nu Nrg now surely would have nothing to do with the past anymore, simply because music is changed a lot during the past 10 years .

Q. Music has been liberated in the last 10 years through digital technology and the evolution of the industry. How has this freedom unleashed creativity?

A. From the creativity side it certainly improved a lot since many new producers that would have no chance to join big labels in the past can join now any independent label having the chance to show to the world their skills that could maybe have remained unknown to the audience in a different situation. And there are a lot of new great producers around with absolutely great tracks. On the other hand I think we reached a point where quantity means more than quality and sometime I have to admit I'm not totally crazy with what is being released nowadays.

Q. What are your top tips for those who are just starting now?

A. Someone says "innovate don't imitate" even if I perfectly know it's not an easy point nowadays, sometimes it happens to me that I'm so much influenced from what is around that I tend to recreate that kind of sound in someway but what I always try to do is not to loose my own identity and keep my signature sound - but as I said before, I can't sound like 2002 anymore.

Music is evolving and so do I but there is an important thing to keep in mind, even if you are changing and moving around new sounds, you have to make sure that people, especially your fans, can recognize you in that sound because it keeps and brings your own signature. So to the new producers I would suggest to spend time in making your own sound, doesn't matter what you are using to produce but try not to simply use the default sounds coming with your synths but go deeper into the editors and create your own banks which will identify your own signature sound.

One last thing, if you have even a little budget to invest in your new studio, go for a good pair of monitors first of all. Sound quality is really important, at least to me, since for me it doesn't make sense to make a good song that then is unplayable because of the poor quality production. Good studio speaker will allow you to perfectly listen what you are doing and you want them to tell you the truth.

Q. You released "Go' in 2009. Any chance of seeing a new artist album in the near future?

A. Absolutely, working on it every single day, just yesterday I spent the whole day in studio with Faith and we finished a new track called Nothing Wrong. I have 5 tracks done so far, not much indeed as I'm always busy touring but I will speed up and will make sure to finish the new album as soon as possible. At least I have all demos done, just need time to turn them into a full production, so it's just a matter of time and if needed I will take a break from touring.

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