The UK legend keeping it in the family in Ibiza this summer
Interview by Grace McCracken
Let’s kick back to your childhood. You moved A LOT as a child…please tell us about your early days…
When I was younger I was brought up in Kenya. Before they met, my mum was working for Playboy and my dad was a professional football player in Italy. Playboy got shut down for corruption in London and my dad got injured at football, so for one reason or another they both ended up working in a casino in Mombasa- they met and then fell in love and had me. They couldn’t actually communicate for the first year as my mum spoke English and my dad spoke Italian. We moved back to Italy and then to South London, and eventually down to Kent where we ended up staying!
Your dad sounds a real dude. I take it there was a lot of music floating about the house when you were growing up?
Yeah there was, my dad used to have reel-to-reel players the early day tape players- the house was always full of music. Even when we were in Mombasa there was always some sort of obscure early 80s disco being played in the house. Disco was a big influence on me from my father even to the point where I was that obsessed with Earth, Wind and Fire and Sister Sledge that I put on a family day at The Social three years ago just so I could feed my own addiction and have them play. It wasn’t a financial booking it was just something I wanted to do which reminded me of my childhood.
Earliest musical memory?
I think probably the first artist as a kid that got my attention was Michael Jackson, it was the one that covered all the bases for me and my parents have still got videos of me trying to copy his moves. It was that sound which led me to discover Quincy Jones and Niall Rogers and Chic, and Earth, Wind and Fire. It was definitely funk, soul and all the groove stuff that was a big influence for me when I was younger.
How did the whole DJing career begin?
The last year before sixth form when I was 15/16 I was in a band playing drums listening to bands like Stone Roses, the Happy Mondays and The Charlatans. I was a real indie kid at the time. I knew about DJs but I didn’t really know what the music was about so the crossover bands like Underworld, Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk were the manoeuvre over for me. I was working a pretty shitty job as a pawn broker in Cash Converters and some turntables turned up and I ended up buying them. They weren’t even technics and they didn’t even have a pitch control on them, but that was the point I got into DJs like Laurent Garnier, Lee Burridge and Francois K and I’d go and see them play for five, six hours and they’d play everything from Deep house to techno, reggae and dub. That was the side that appealed to me not being pigeon holed.
Was there any other profession you were interested in?
Being a footballer! I got to a certain level and then I realised you just have to admit defeat sometimes. You’re playing with kids that weren’t even going to training and were better than me so just had to stop.
What do you think are your greatest qualities as a DJ and producer?
I think just being open minded- I’ve never been one of these people to knock something. Even if I’m listening to something, or going to something I’m not really into, I’ll always try to absorb it and try to take something positive from it.
You also loved Drum & Bass growing up?
Kent had a massive rave scene, the M25 raves were in Kent so we had a massive D&B and happy hardcore scene. There was a club called Atomics and on Saturday there was a night called Pure Science which put on all the big D&B guys from LTJ Bukem all the way through to Zinc and Goldie. I loved it and it was a sound a lot of my friends were into. There was also a night on the Friday called Club Class so I’d go to both nights, and ended up going the house and techno route it’s just what I preferred. In my early days I’d always carry D&B with me, if I was in Tokyo I’d play maybe 30 mins of it at the end of my set. Annie Mac was on the radio about 4/5 years ago and DJ Zinc did a Minimix where you have to fit as many records in 5 minutes. I text her saying I could beat this and she shouted down the radio “go on then”- so I managmed to fit 150 records in 5 minutes. It was actually a project I worked on for 6 months and I loved it, I’ve actually got the second one ready to go soon.
We love the whole La Familia vibe at Ushuaia that you and Joris Voorn created last summer. How did the whole project begin?
Me and Joris did the ANTS residency together, and everytime we played b2b we loved it but we never really had a proper platform to play on- Ushuaia was the perfect one for us. We were doing the ANTS shows and walking away every time thinking how incredible it was, so we hooked up with Yann the technical director at Ushuaia so me and Joris came up with this concept La Familia. With techno music, everyone gets a bit serious about it so we wanted to do something a big tongue in cheek where we dressed up, and brought our friends and really created a family vibe and not take ourselves to seriously. I looked at people like Luciano in the past and he did it so well with Vagabundos, and we wanted to create something fun.
The Space Closing Party was still rocking on at 11.30am as you and Carl Cox rocked on. That must have been a dream come true for you?
I literally just text Carl 10 mins ago to remind him I’ll be doing it again this year! I was on the dance floor in ‘97 or ‘98, looking at this guy playing thinking wow it would be amazing to play there one day. Imagine 15 years later and you’re standing next to him playing b2b starting at 7 in the morning and playing until 2 in the afternoon. It can’t really get much better than that. If anyone asks me who you would model yourself on, or any aspiring DJ should do, then I’d say Carl Cox.
How do you stay relevant and interesting with your DJ performance?
I haven’t really followed the trend. I think when you follow trends you pigeon hole yourself. Sounds come in and out of fashion, we had the minimal thing, we had the acid house thing, we had lots of different fashionable genres and people blow up and go to the top of their game- then when the genre changes they don’t know how to adapt. I think not following the fashion. I’ve been doing this for 15 years and I’ve had moments where it’s gone up and down- this year it’s definitely gone back on. It’s not that I’ve tried to stay relevant but I just haven’t copied what’s going on around me.
You have just completed an incredible Nic Fanciulli Around The World Tour : “25,000 miles, 8 cities, 8 different countries, 10 days, 1 tour. “ A highlight from each of the cities please :
Toronto – One of my favourite cities to play in and the promoters one of my oldest friends Ralph which is why I chose the city. Over the past ten years it’s probably been the strongest city to play in North America in, so it was a no brainer starting the tour there.
San Francisco – For me Chicago, New York and San Fran are the three meccas of house music in America, and San Francisco is close to my heart as it’s the first place I played in the US when I was breaking through. I got invited in 2001, and was a huge fan of West Coast House. Also the promoter Alessandro is from the same place my dad’s from in Italy and we have a lot in common, support the same football team. A lot of the gigs were down to friendship with the promoters, I love playing for that guy.
Manila – Manila’s the one place on the tour I’ve never been to, we had to pick one place on the map which connected San Fran to Tokyo, we had to put a show in the middle. Bear in mind Manila is not known for electronic music, it was unbelievable. I remember standing there thinking this a Monday night, we’ve got 350 ravers here and people were so appreciative and enthusiastic that we’d taken the time to come to Manila. This student clothes designer came up to me and had made me a jacket, and it just felt like there was so much enthusiasm there. Now it’s the fastest growing place in Asia- I’ve had more messages from that and the Mumbai show than any of the others.
Tokyo – My favourite place in the world hands down. I’ve been playing for Yuki the promoter he’s also my son’s godfather for the last ten years, so there’s a real special story there. First time I did Tokyo was in 2007 and I played 13 hours on NYE and I did it again the year after, if you ask any DJ who’s lucky enough to play there- the crowd are so patient and stay with you the whole journey and you can play what you want to play.
Mumbai – I had a horrible experience the first time I played in India, not because of the people just because six years ago I don’t really think they got the music I was playing, but I wanted to go back. It was sold out on a Wednesday night and it was absolutely incredible. I also wanted to see what they were doing on the line-ups the week after me Joseph Capriati was playing so they’re going in the right direction. I couldn’t have asked for a better gig and we’re talking about going back really soon. The culture and the people, the food, everything about it I loved.
Dubai – Dubai’s always been good to me, I’ve been going there twice a year on holiday with my family, and it’s a place I really enjoy going and spending time. The club that I played at Provocateur is a VIP club but a lot of underground DJs play there like Seth Troxler, The Martinez Brothers and Richie Hawtin so it’s something I wanted to do. It was rockin’. Thursday is their Friday night as the weekends are set differently, so it was basically like playing a Friday night in Europe.
Madrid – Probably my favourite place to play in Spain after Ibiza. It’s very similar to Italy in the sense the culture’s very techno so they like you to bang it. You’ve got to really go for it and not just play soft. I also love Spanish food!
Manchester– It was pretty much the home of rave in the UK in the club sense, it had The Hacienda and there’s so much history up there. I love playing up north and I love playing in Manchester- and I couldn’t have had a better show to finish the tour off. The UK is rocking at the moment with electronic music but I find the further north you go, the better it gets.
You had the idea a year ago…what drove you to do this?
I remember Carl Cox did this NYE thing at The Millenium and he played Australia and Hawaii and did two NYE’s on the same night as he went over the time zone. This tour was never about making money, it was more of a challenge. We thought what can we do that’s interesting? Originally we wanted to do it in 7 days, but it had to get extended you can’t technically do it in 7 or hit as many cities as we wanted. It was just an amazing experience to take the camera crew along as some of my best mates, and everyone had a great time. We’re already looking at phase 2.
And no sooner are you back you are back in the studio! What is coming out next from yourself and the label…?
For me it’s working on my artist album, I’ve been trying to get an artist album done for 7 years and it’s nearly at the point when it’s going in the right direction. In terms of the label we’ve got a lot of artists like &Me, my brother Mark Fanciulli on the label and a lot of up and coming artists like Matthias Tanzmann, Hot Since 82, Matthias Mayer, Harvard Bass, Butch, Julien Sandre, Sergio Fernandez.
And finally, a tip for a possible summer anthem…
Track of the summer: Guy Gerber & Miss Kitten – Rumors On The Dancefloor
