Andrea Frisina

Italian DJ/Producer Andrea Frisina has already showcased his production talents in the studio for a number of years. Now with a new release on his own imprint Gate Null, we sat down to talk to him to find out what his plans are personally, and for the label for the future…

Interview by Ian Fleming

 

Andrea welcome to DMCWORLD, how is 2016 treating you?
It has been a great year, got a lot of support from all the sides. Bad? nothing in particular, maybe just it’s not the best period for our industry.

Why do you love techno so much – what makes it great, what draws you to it?

Yeah, it’s just about the feeling, I don’t know exactly it gives me a lot of inspiration, so everything comes along.

Tell us about your latest EP for Gate Null – what inspired it?

As you can listen, the two tracks have a very different feeling, although the patterns are similar and it’s pretty clear my way to arrange. I arranged first “Proxima Centauri”, I think it’s a deep techno anthem, I wanted to arrange something to make you fly, an unusual musicality in our genre. With “Alpha Centauri” I wanted to really smash the floors, so I concentrate the arrangement on an impactful groove and bassline.

Do you care about who plays your tracks? Is that DJ support important?

Yes guys, I really love to see my tracks played by most of the industry: DJs and radios. To list the names would be too long. Yes most of the great Artists, and not only famous in our genre, have my stuff in playlist 🙂
Yes it’s great because it helps so much to get new followers, sales, exposure, etc…

How hard is it to have your own sound, to make fresh new tunes each time but stay true to your own identity?

It’s really important in my opinion to have a proper sound, it means to be quickly identified when somebody plays your track, and you became really recognisable for the people. Yes it’s hard, I worked a lot to get my proper sound, but I’m open to influences by other genres mainly, in order to import some way to arrange in my world.

Do you write with certiain labels in mind? Do you fit the sounds to their sound, as it were?

Probably yes, I know which labels can open the doors to my sound, I receive also a lot of requests, but actually, for branding purposes, I’ve opted to release exclusively on Gate Null.

What is the sound of Gate Null – what are you looking for in something before you put it out there?

I look for a precise sound, I love dark and deep feelings, eclecticism, but melodic techno (with these features), if well arranged, is very welcome.

What are the hardest things about running a label in 2016? How has the game changed?

Probably to invest in quality making budgeting… Industry is in a big decline, piracy and I think also streaming are really killing the profits, so it’s hard to continue to invest in quality (I don’t accept compromises) and get positive balances just with sales, but we must do quality, it’s really important in my opinion.

What are you proudest of on the label in all the years it has been going?

Maybe the BBC support, Deadmau5 spinning in all the world a track of Lluis Ribalta (unknown till that moment), the first place for my “Save The Nature”… Carl Cox, Chirs Liebing, Paul Van Dyk, Umek introducing our stuff… Pan-Pot, Adam Beyer, Karotte, Gabriel Ananda, Sharam, Eddie Halliwell, Tocadisco playing our tracks… Joey Beltram on board remixing me… The Awards Nominations, all the top10 and top100…

What else you got coming up/are you looking forward to?

Actually we’re scheduling the catalog till the end of the year… really looking forward to announce all the forthcoming stuff ! But now, enjoy the “Centaurus EP” hehehehe…

Andrea’s ‘Centaurus’ is out on Gate Null on 23rd May