NiCe7 Interview

Italian Tech House duo, NiCe7, are no strangers to Australia. Making their return to our shores in just a few days, we thought it was about time we found out what made this formidable pair tick. Here, Nicola Daniele and Cesare Marocco spill the beans on working together, future releases and how they’ll be spending their time Down Under.

You were both established DJs in the local club scene by 1994, why the move to start working together under NiCe7?
Both of us started with music at the age of 13, and up until 2005 we worked in music separately. Cesare worked as a sound engineer and arranger for different studios producing club music. Nicola had many experiences in clubs and events all over Italy where he met lots of international DJs and producers. After these different experiences all over Italy, we decided to join forces – in DJing, clubbing and production – and that’s how the NiCe7 project was born. Our idea was to put our experiences together and do a project that could work in a good way. We’ve been friends forever, and it was not too difficult to find the right balance, both in the studio and during our live performances.

Who were some of your early influences that started to get you interested in electronic music?
The first way we got to know music was listening to the radio. From there, curiosity and the desire to discover new things led us to local music stores where we learned about different kinds of music, including the types that lead us to discover club culture. In the beginning, though, we can definitely say we were inspired by ‘70s artists like Stevie Wonder, First Choice, Larry Levan, and even labels from that period like Salsoul and Motown Records. That’s not to say we aren’t inspired by more modern sounds as we can definitely name check artists like Daft Punk, Cassius, Royksopp, Depeche Mode, Lindstrom and Chicken Lips, as big sources of inspiration for us. Our local Italian clubbing scene in the ’90s had a big role to play in our development too; DJ sets from local DJs like Claudio Coccoluto and DJ Ralf inspired us a lot at that time. We both like Jazz too: Chick Corea, Michel Camilo and Herbie Hancock are artists that we respect very much. So yeah… it’s a mixture of many things really!

Obviously releasing music as a duo has its pros and cons, what has been the easiest and hardest part about working together?
The good thing is to split the job so that each one can focus more on his natural aptitude. The bad thing is that sometimes we have disagreements trying to achieve a decision. But this is really not a negative; it’s just something that needs to happen to keep the collaborative experience alive.

Going on from that, what is NiCe7’s process for making a new track?
We don’t have rules when we start a new track. Sometimes I find myself singing a bass line, melody or ‘rhythm sequence’ with the iPhone’s voice recorder, and then in the studio we try and translate that into a track. Other times we just play around with instruments in the studio for fun which always translates into something, be it a melody, bass line or drum patterns. If we get something cool, we record it into Cubase and start working on it. Sometimes a track can also start from a vocal sample, groove sample, instrument sample… whatever inspires us really!

You are no strangers to Australia. What are your favorite things to do in Australia? Any recommendations that you can give our readers?
Maybe it’s because we have lot of friends now, or maybe because Australians are so nice and friendly, but every year we come we feel like we’re at home. Our favorite thing to do is enjoy its uncontaminated nature. The amazing things and places you can see in Australia is definitely worth the time you spend to reach it from Europe.

With all your travels to Australia so far what has been your favourite city to visit? Any other cities that you still would like to visit?
We were very impressed with Melbourne and Sydney. They are both beautiful even if they’re quite different. Maybe we prefer Melbourne more… but maybe that could be because in some of Melbourne’s coffee shops you can drink espresso that is better than in Italy! Perth also looks really nice, but we don’t know the city so well. We are always there just to play one gig so we haven’t really had enough time to explore the city. It would be cool to visit the northeast of Australia… absolutely something we are hoping to plan for the next tour.

If you could pick any artist living or dead to collaborate with, who would it be?
We recently had the pleasure to work on a vocal by Romanthony, ‘Too Long’, released on Daft Punk’s album ‘Discovery’. It was a very big pleasure for us and it really was a dream come true.

NiCe7’s last two EP’s were released on Noir Music , are their plans for another release on this label in the future? Speaking of the future, is there anything upcoming that you boys are excited about and would like to share?
We’re releasing a new EP on Noir Music with remixes by Steve Bug, Paul C and Paolo Martini and Riva Star, and we also just did a new remix for Noir Music. We also remixed that classic tune from Romanthony on Glasgow Underground, and we’re working on a remix for Monika Kruse on her label too. Everything will come out in a few months!

NiCe7 2015 Australian Tour Dates

Saturday 6th June – Matisse Beach Club, Perth
Sunday 7th June – Daniel San’s, Manly (evening show)
Sunday 7th June – Spice at Barrio Cellar, Sydney (night show)
Saturday 13th June – Uno, Geelong
Sunday 14th June – Revolver, Melbourne

And for those heading to Ibiza NiCe7 play the Opening Fiesta of Hard Times Ibiza on 20th June alongside Todd Terry & Mark Fanciulli – More Info
By Isabella Olivieri