Interview with Giuseppe Ottaviani 08/12/12

DGüz

August 13th, 2012 at 10:21 am -

1. Giuseppe tell us about experiences playing live MIDI and Synth keyboards on top of your DJ sets? What effect are you looking to achieve?

Well the point is that I’ve never been really a DJ, I consider myself to be more like a musician and live performer than anything else and this is the reason why I only play my own music, productions and remixes. It’s not like making any fancy thing on stage with my setup but more like performing and showing what I’ve created in my studio before. Basically I make music, I play it and the best tracks get released. In someway a DJ life is easier as you can play all the best tracks and hits of the moment to make the crowd screaming and “loving you”. Playing my own music only is a bit different but my goal is trying to reach the same crowd reaction with my music, it’s harder but when it happens it definitely gives me a huge satisfaction. Moreover people who come to see me playing are expecting me to play my music more than anything else and playing live and improvising on stage sound more like a concert than a DJ set. I do play live since the beginning of my career in 2001 and I still prefer to keep this way and above all it’s fun

2. Your trance tracks are very synth rich and feature a well thought out harmonic progression. Do you attribute this to your classical training? How do you describe your defining sounds?

Yes definitely, my classic background really helps in this. I’m not the kind of EDM producer that randomly write notes with the mouse and try to match a melody or key changing, I play a full size keyboard and even if the final result is a relative simple melody, but to get the inspiration I start playing piano adding some pads then and trying to create the right climax to reach the emotions I want to give to a specific production. I’ve been brought into trance music, or if you prefer EDM (since there’s not much real trance on the market these days) from a track called Adagio For Strings by William Orbit. That was the perfect match between dance music and classical. Same thing when I make demos for songwriters, I only deliver some piano and pads ideas since for me this is the most emotional “groundwork” to create music. Then the final production will end up with big synths and chords changes and dirty beats and basses but you can recognize that melody-wise nothing is left to the case.

3. You have a beautiful true Trance sound and it looks like you have been staying true to it longer, while many others are becoming more progressive and mainstream. What do you see in it’s future?

I’m not really sticking to uplifting trance as it was back in the days, I’m actually moving forward to the new era bringing some key elements from the past that represent my signature sound and that will let people recognize me as a kind of “classic trance” producers, but I’m not. Music is continuously evolving and so do I, an artist career and sound is never straight but varies and changes in the years and my sound has changed quite a lot in the past 10 years. Even if my favourite productions, in the way I see and call trance music, are still from 10 years ago more than what we have now, I’m not sticking to the past, there is such a great music around now, it’s just different. I can’t stay indifferent to it and like anyone else I’m obviously influenced as well, it’s inevitable. So I don’t see anything wrong with artists changing and moving around different styles, but for me the key is to bring the elements from what I call “the sound of now” into my music without loosing my identity and trying to deliver something fresh but that still completely represents myself and what I like.

4. I saw you in Miami for WMC 2012 and I really enjoyed your show in which of course you were playing live keyboards. Where do you like to transport the crowd to? What do you look for in the scene?

First of all playing live allows me to better communicate with the crowd and for “communicate” I mean not to jump, clap my hands and do hectic things around the DJ booth, but sharing my emotions through my music. There’s something you can’t do in a DJ set and it’s improvisation, if I get an idea or I want to change a melody or something that the crowd seems like asking for, then I can. It’s more like people is telling me where they want to be driven and I just follow what my eyes see and answer them with the music.

5. What is it like to work with the great Paul van Dyk, who also plays live keyboards and incorporates more of a performance to his DJ sets? What influence has he had on your sound and career?

Paul has always been probably my biggest influence in EDM and he still is. I’m always been a huge fan of him and I couldn’t believe to my ears when he called me and asked me if I wanted to join his label, back in 2001. Guess my answer

Working with him it’s first of all a great honor and fun at the same time. We always had pretty much the same feeling for music and we used to make a lot collaborations together, I mean remixes and productions, the last one is called A Wonderful Day and it’s included on his brand new artist album Evolution which is out now.

6. Where would you like your career to be in a few years from now? Where do you see the future of Trance and it’s Evolution?

We all are looking to grow up and do big things but the reasons some time are different. In my case the goal is to share the same emotions that this music gives to me with as many people as possible, that’s why I also started my own radio show called Go On Air.

The future of trance is evolving, I don’t see many chance for the “old school trance” to be back big like it was in the late 90’s but of course it getting bigger and bigger but with its new “dress”. That’s the normal evolution of life, things will never be the same for too long, and that’s the good thing of life, it’s good and exciting as it’s various.

7. There are two vocal tracks that we are all in love with: “Toys” featuring Betsie Larkin, where we see you in the video playing the incredible Virus TI synth and “Just for you” featuring Linnea Schossow. Tell us what it’s like working with these great EDM vocalists and how you guys collaborated to create such beautiful tracks together? I’m sure the Virus Synth helped.

I’ve been lucky enough so far to work with great people that have a very professional way to work and keep things easy. In the case of Toys Betsie had an idea and she wrote the voice melody and lyrics and I worked around that and made the full production with all the different mixes. With Linnea I actually did the music first and she wrote the voice on top of it and then I just finalized the full production. In both cases I love the result.

The Virus became a standard in my setup, I fell in love with it at the “ first sight “ and I can’t make a production without even a little sound taken from it.

8. You recently played at Global Gathering. How was your experience and what did you prepare for the fans that day? We hope you come back to the US soon and specially in NYC!

Global Gathering was absolutely great, it was my first time playing there.

Like all the festivals it’s great to stay on a huge stage with such a big setup with so many people in front of you, it lets you feel more like a rock star than a DJ J I know I’ve been away from the US for a while but we are working for a “big return” pretty soon. There are many things going on around that and we are working to put things in the right place.

By the way I’m back to Space in Miami this August 31^st, in case you want to join me