Who is Marco Dassi?
Marco Dassi is a 26 year old, who has been passionate
for music from a very young age. Born in Tradate, in the province of Varese in
Italy in 1985. Like many adolescents, Marco cultivated different passions for
sports, swimming and basketball and music in all of its forms, first as an
attentive listener and then…
The concrete and productive passion that exploded
towards the end of the 90s was music. Then came 8 years of production where his
sound continued to evolve, touching up on different genres. He started with
hardstyle, passing to house and peeping in on the digital market with the
minimal-techno sound. He was fortunate enough to come out under one of the most
important, Minus Records, a famous label from the group Minus, which is made up
of Richie Hawtin, Magda and Troy Pierce. From here there were many years of
experience, researching, studying and analyzing landing with his hybrid genre.
A small town talent that produces International music, tell us how you started your journey.
The beginning? There was more than one. The first real
beginning I think started when I was 17 years old together with a friend who
knew two producers Babayaga and Dj Josh. In those years, we were a duo,
Acronym, both Baba and Josh liked us so much they had us make a vinyl. My first
vinyl. Acronym eventually dissolved and together with two great friends, best
friends, Andrea Crestani and Gian Marco Brotto, we created a digital label
supported by a third party. From there we started publishing our own tracks.
Inexperienced in that world and not much quality in our music substance, we
learned a lot from that experience and learned how to move around in the “music
world”.
In 2008, I was lucky enough to collaborate with two
guys from Varese who proposed a cd to Richie Hawtin in Ibiza, who found it very
good and recorded a track of ours in his cd in DJ Mag. This was another
beginning that definitely opened various doors not only on a producing side but
on an exhibition side as well.
Who were the producers that influenced your artistic journey?
Like I mentioned before, in my past and even now, I am
influenced by various producers, famous and not so famous, that contribute to
my metamorphosis.
Trance producers that have given me the pleasure of melodies:
Armin Van Buuren, Paul Van Dyk, Rank 1, Dash Berlin, Markus Schulz, Above
& Beyond (in which I took influences from them from the second period
of trance, which goes from 1997 to 2002, when it was really trance and not a
combination of genres like it is now.)
Techno producers: Chris Liebing, Speedy J, Hawtin,
Adam Beyer, Dj Rush and Dave Clark.
These I think are the producers that have surely
marked my artistic profile, but there have been many more, between friends and
non-friends that have also influenced my artistic route.
Between being a DJ star and staying in the shadows, which would you prefer?
If I had to chose between the two I would chose “the
producer” definitely. It is too strong that ritual of sitting, starting up the
instruments, concentrating and deciding what to add or take out. Playing the
keyboard, trying things out, valves that create sounds. Creating something that
sticks, that is yours, that is a sensation. Something that people use to make
people dance, but that you made. Well, it’s fantastic.
I don’t exclude the fact though that playing in front
of a crowd is exciting it is stimulating and to be a good producer for the
dance floor, you need to have both of these sensations
You play all over the world, in which city would you like to pass more time in?
I’ve played abroad, not regularly, but I’ve had stimulating
dates. If I had to choose a place that I would like to spend more time in it
would surely be Paris, France. I’ve never been there before, but it stimulates
me. Let’s hope a possible next date will be in the city of romance…
An album, when and in what modality would you do it in? With which label would you come out in?
An album is an important part for artists that believe in
their own production. Surely my album will be a trip, different styles and
genres that intertwine, as if I were to write my producing story putting
together 10 years of producing in 10 or 12 tracks. I have to stun, make you
emotional and make you move. It has to be something that hooks to the perfection
of who listens to it. It has to get you glued. I will try to do it and we
already have great material to add. The label that has been supporting me
greatly, Hell Yeah Recordings, who has been guiding on our, laborious but very
gratifying journey. I am honored to be part of it. The album will come out this
year the date is yet to be confirmed.
With which artist would you like to collaborate with?
There are three artists I would love to collaborate
with. They are: Rodriguez Jr, Tycho and Olafur Arnalds. They are very original and very experimental.
You recently signed a track for a video spot for Hugo Boss, what relationship do you have with fashion?
Exactly, “No Buddies no Worries” was chosen for the
backstage video of the spring 2012 collection for HugoBoss.
I have a weird relationship with fashion, I don’t
really follow the big names, I prefer to have a little bit of everything so
then I can mix a bunch of combinations. I like to visit fashion street
style blogs but I am not a huge follower of fashion even though a well-dressed
person never passes my eye unnoticed.
A good producer has the necessity to anticipate trends, what are the new scenes of sound to you for this 2012?
Good this is difficult, what I think is solely my
utopia, I don’t know how to read the future but I am sure that I twill move
towards the “slow beat” with a contamination of different genres; melodies,
dub, trip hop. On the other hand “fast beat” will continue to get faster and
more aggressive.
A genre that will reopen soon will be the progressive
dark, in the long run it’s a big wheel that spins, just that in each phase it
is contaminated differently.
What does the word VOLUME mean to Marco Dassi?
Volume
unitary expression of substance, quality and thickness.
