Davide Squillace Interview

From his many production ventures to running his own record labels, Davide Squillace definitely isn’t one lacking in creativity and talent. BBM chats with the Barcelona based Italian DJ before he hits Oz shores for Circoloco.

Hi Davide, how are you? Where in the world are you right now?

Barcelona at home.

What are some of you recent works in terms of production?

The last record I completed is with Phillip Bader, an artist from Berlin that I am a big fan of. (Davide Squillace and Phillip Bader ‘Wild Things’) It’s really fun when you work with other people. You get to see how they react with the music, with the ideas, the machines, how their way of creating is different to yours and others. In the studio it is a confined space to coexist and to work on the same track. You manage to show them tricks they show you tricks you get to see how they transform their idea of music into a piece of music. It’s very inspiring.

Mainly when I work on music with other people there is already a foundation of friendship with them. You are already ok with someone on the personal level. There is also a new track with one of my friends Guti. ‘The Other Side Of Hustler’ from Guti and myself and a remix from Carl Cox which will come out on ‘This And That Lab’ soon. So it’s really a project from an Italian, an Argentinian and a guy from the Bahamas, who lives in Australia now. It’s very interesting culturally.

You describe your own sets as a kind of musical rollercoaster, do you tend to pre plan your sets or do you like to read the crowd?

It’s a little bit of both. I mean in my computer I’d have more than 5000 tracks. If I have to go through all of them it wouldn’t work, so what I’ll do is create for this tour an Australian Tour Directory to work off, with maybe 1000 tracks. One night you would play 30 or 40 from that and there are four shows in the tour. I feel that you need to read the crowd. You have to be in touch with them and know they’re comfortable and be comfortable with what music you play to them. I’ve tried a couple of times to prepare the set and it didn’t work. It was a failure for me, it felt like “Captain, the boat is sinking abandon ship.” It’s too mechanical for me to plan it. You need to read the crowd and yourself the whole vibe of where you are. For me the tracks and selection of them need to be very organic.

Do you see the DJ as more of a conductor or an entertainer?

In a way, I guess because if you take down the volume everybody would stop. Though at the same time I think while you play you take pleasure from the people enjoying the music and you give it back to them there is this sort of energy from the crowd and giving back to each other. Back and forth that goes on. So not so much a conductor because it has to work for both of you. It has to be about the people and you.

Do you listen to electronic music when you’re trying to relax, what do you listen to?

I try not to listen to 4-4 electronic music which is stay away from the club Dance music that I would play. But I love to listen to other electronic music. Like I love other electronic music like Amon Tobin, Actress, and then other mediums; I love The Cardigans. I like a lot of different things you’ve got to create a sort of musical background and culture in order to be able to create good music I think.

What sort of music did you grow up with?

I think, mainly the Italian soft music, The Beatles, Madonna, a bit of Jazz. A little bit of everything, though I don’t really come from a music family background. Our family times were more the sitting down, drinking tea, social family. There was a lot of talking. So I think I did most of my musical upbringing on my own. I can listen to almost anything in the right place and time. Like I can’t listen to Hip Hop in a club, it drives me nuts, but I enjoy it in a car. Place and time.

You’re headlining Circoloco in Australia next week with Apollonia; Dyed Soundorom, Shonky and Dan Ghenacia, have you played with them or seen them recently?

I haven’t played with them recently. Though I have seen them play many times separately and also together last year in Ibiza, we are from the same crew. I like them playing together, they’re really fresh, they have this French House sound and they really work well together. One of them will play a record, while another will follow on with another choice that changes the texture of the music, which is important. I think Australia is really going to like them.

You played the first Circoloco that was held at The Greenwood with Jamie Jones and Robert Dietz; are you excited to see how it’s grown in two years?

It’s there. Oh fantastic. That is an amazing venue. Awesome, I’m really looking forward to everything but the travel. The travel, oh my gosh, from Miami, I go to Texas, then Brisbane and then Sydney. You guys should move this island a little bit closer to Europe. If it was closer I would definitely like to spend some time there. Sydney especially is beautiful. When I went there last I had a really good time. The city is clean. You guys look after each other, really friendly, the weather is fantastic, some of the best Japanese I’ve eaten was in Australia. So nothing to complain about once I get there. I leave on Monday and arrive Wednesday… how is that possible it takes two days to get to your island. Wow.

Absolutely, to finish up, what else are you excited about for 2013?

I’m really excited about the new office I have to tell you. The space here is quite small so really looking forward to our new space, a new studio and office where we can have everyone together. Also excited about doing Ibiza again, will have a place in July for a month to work with Martin Buttrich and Matthias Tanzmann on our project together as Better Lost Than Stupid. I love working with other people and Matthias and Martin are two of my favourite people ever especially to work with, they are my best friends and I love their music, so I am really looking forward to this. We’re going to do one night at DC10, a one night only party. Like we have done for the last two years. This is the only show we are going to do like this. We have a lot of requests but we have to turn them down as to do it the way we want to is a lot of work. We work in the studio to make our own thing, before we get on stage to do the live show. We want to only play music we have made together, as really a live show rather than to DJ others music. It is a project on a bigger scale to prepare the live show, the music, the visuals. It takes a lot of time to do right. With three people that already have full on careers it is hard in itself to balance those programs and Ibiza in July will give us that chance.

Thanks Davide!

By Frankie Salt

Don’t forget you can see Davide Squillace headline The Greenwood Hotel in Sydney for Circoloco Easter Sunday

For more info and tickets check out https://pulseradio.net/

Davide Squillace & Philip Bader – Wild Things

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