It was Luciano and his band of Vagabundos that cemented Alex Picone firmly on the EDM circuit. But the Italian born, Berlin resident started playing around with music ealy from the age of 15, with some of his first tracks quickly gaining the attention of established producers and industry heavyweights, releasing on Tenax and Mixworks before Luciano sought his talent in 2009. Since then Alex has played from Ibiza to New York City. His tracks have featured on compilations such as the respected Fabric series, from the London club of the same name considered one of the meccas of music. A dedicated DJ as well as producer, he has a keen attention for quality.
This year Picone announced his departure from Cadenza to focus on his own label MUS and other projects including 'The Kicks', a collaborative project with Maayan Nidam. He has just released an EP on MUS and the Stallion series from Busconi label have featured two of his productions in their recent releases. This Italian stallion (pun intended) is riding strong. We talk to him about his track productions, his dedication to playing vinyl and what the future holds.
Pulse: Let’s start with the biggest news – you’ve left Cadenza now almost a month ago after almost five years with them. What brought on this decision? Alex Picone: It’s been five fruitful and amazing years with Cadenza. For sure, it was something that developed the beginning of my career. But there is an end for everything in this life and honestly, it was really hard to make such a step. But in the last two years I wasn’t feeling in the right place, cause the way that we live and perceive music changed a lot. On both sides, of course.
What does is actually mean for Alex Picone, DJ and producer, since you are still scheduled to play Cadenza showcases in Ibiza and around Europe later this summer season? What are the projects and plans you are working on? Honestly for me every show deserves the same attention and professionalism, so I’m always trying to do the best in each situation. The most important project I’m working on at the moment, without any doubt, is the live set. I’m doing live sets since three years - trying to work with live performance in collaboration with other artists. Honestly now, I’ve decided to focus on my solo live performance. The set up is completely analogue. I use an MPC1000 – a sequencer. A Roland TR909 drum machine. The x0Xbox Which is like a clone of the Roland 303 for the bass lines. And then some effects like a filter from Akai, reverb, delay and flanger. Everything I mix it with a Midas Venice, which I ‘ve been liking a lot more recently for live performances.
The Kicks is the new label and project you have with Mayaan Nidam. Tell us about that, how did it come to form and what does the future hold for The Kicks? With Mayaan we started a sort of band project. Last year, since Mayaan saw what I’m doing with the live set we decided to create something like a proper band – like from the 70’s. Together with Mayaan we created this project “The Kicks”. We presented the first performance at the Sonar OFF this year. It was just back to back with vinyl, me and her. But in the future, we’ll invite different artists into the studio. We make live music and if there is something that Mayaan and I like we release it on our label The Kicks. The artists featured on The Kicks label will always be “The Kicks” and on the back of the cover we will write the credits of the single tracks. So on the cover will appear the real producer that collaborated to make the song. It’s a kind of collective of musicians releasing music under the same brand : The Kicks. The Kicks 001 is ready and will be out in September 2013.
MUS Records seems to be taking up a fair amount of your production time now. You’ve just released your 8th EP – 'Minimalism Gets Complex'. How long were you working on this particular release? Usually it takes two or three hours to make a track for me, because they are all a live jam. I’m not using laptops so it is recorded there and then. By working this way I can say I collect a tonne of tracks. I have a wide range of choice when it comes to decide what to put on the vinyl. All the tracks on this release I’ve made at different times. B2 (Abstract) I made two years ago, B1 (Fiction) was the last track I made and the A side (Surrealist) I made last year. I chose a collection that comes together for “Minimalism Gets Complex” – and I love it.
Are there any plans for an album in the future? Not sure at the moment. Like I told you, I collect a lot of music doing my live jams. Of course I’m thinking about my album. I’m not sure if I will release on my label MUS or on some other label but in 2014, my first album will be out.
Brothers in Low is another collaboration you have, together with Mass Prod. Bosconi Records released their second installment on the Stallions sage in June with your track 'Testacorta', described as having a “positive, spatial melody”. It’s very different to your usual sound, is this something you experiment with when producing under ‘Brothers in Low’? How did that collaboration come about? Yes, it’s different of course, because of the Mass Prod touch. Brother in Low is a project where we try to experiment in every track. I’ve been working on Brother in Low since a long time, sharing the studio with Mass Prod since two years and we do a lot of live jams together.
Also fresh off the press is the third Stallion series with your track ‘Dry Scream’ leading the way. Was there any particular direction with this track or just came about through experimenting like your other tracks? Yes it’s always the same process but originally the track title was ‘Saturando’. I was trying to saturate the sound on the tape set. So it started like an experiment then ended up being a cool track. Sometimes it happens – so this was the way for ‘Dry Scream’.
The most anticipated festival or event this summer since Time Warp is the Sonus Festival in Croatia this September. Villalobos, Hawtin, Vaeth, Troxler, Cassy, Magda … it’s a pretty impressive line-up. Is it something you look forward to or just another gig? I booked my flight to stay the whole weekend there, the three days. I’m looking forward to listening to Zip, Margaret Dygas and Sonja Moonear who are my favourite at the moment. And of course the beach and the landscape of Pag! The venue of the festival is something exciting for everyone. I’ve been everywhere in Croatia but not in Pag, and I know the landscape is amazing. So let’s go to the beach!
Tell us your craziest festival memory. I was running completely lost in the desert on a Segway. That is all.
Talking about the technological advances in the music industry; most clubs are now outfitted with CDJ2000’s making it easier for DJ to simply carry a USB stick. If a DJ plays with vinyl, as you do, often the turntables have to be requested a day in advance as it’s no longer standard. What do you think of these ‘advances’ – are they making life easier or marking the death of vinyl? Your question is interesting because you didn’t say anything about Traktor. I think Traktor is already dead. No one is speaking about Traktor anymore, everyone is talking about the USB. I always play with vinyl and I will continue to play with vinyl. I believe in vinyl.
Honestly, the situation with respect to the last two years is getting better. A lot of promoters are recognizing the quality of DJs who play with vinyl than ‘laptop’ DJs. Recently I have less problems than two years ago. But just in case, I always bring with me special legs to put under the turntables that takes away the vibration and a couple of new needles. So the only problem I can have when I go to play is that somebody forgot the turntables.
You live in Berlin where vinyl stores are aplenty. Musical hubs such as London are seeing more and more shops close. Do you mostly source you records from Berlin or do you have certain stores in cities you travel to? Most of the records I buy in Berlin because I live here and I have a great connection with two, three record shops here in Berlin. I always bring them my promos. When I go to London, I cannot not stop by Honest Jons and Phonica. From Honest Jons I always come back with tonnes of music, from all over the world. It’s a lot of fun to sample it. Honest Jons is my favourite record shop. It sucks that it’s not here in Berlin. Phonica is another record shop where I find a lot of techno jam that I can’t find in Berlin. Of course every record shop in the world has some great music you can’t find anywhere else. If I go to Italy, in Roma there is another cool record shop called Ultra Sonic Records, it’s the partner of my label MUS. If I go to Paris there’s Syncrophone, originally Cyber, that has been selling records for I think twenty years.
If I got to South America it’s quite difficult to find records. But if we stay in Europe I think there is no problem with buying vinyl. It’s getting better and better and better. My label is selling more records. A lot of friends who also have labels are selling more records now. I saw an article that read record sales went up 40% more than last year. I think it’s getting better, I’m happy about that.
What are the top tracks you find yourself playing more lately? I did a bootleg of ‘Django Unchained’, the last movie of Quentin Tarantino that also a lot of DJs are playing now. Dyed Soundorom is playing it a lot at Circoloco, DC10. There is also a track, a summer track, that I’ve been playing for two months now by ZPH called “Anemona De Mare” from Neostrictly 003.