• Tweet

• Tweet

Italian trance virtuosity Giuseppe Ottaviani is known as one of the most influential artists in Trance music. His distinctive sound, energetic live set and unique radio show are celebrated around the world.

For over 10 years he’s now part of Paul van Dyk‘s VANDIT Family, and after his highly successful debut album ‘GO!’ in 2009, his fans are yearning for more.This summer, Giuseppe Ottaviani presents GO ON AIR, a 20 tracks strong compilation themed after his monthly radio show. A journey through the facets of electronic music with brand new trance tracks, exclusive GO edits and first class dance floor tunes.

http://www.giuseppeottaviani.com

Rachel Rixham Interviews Giuseppe Ottaviani

Rachel Rixham: Hi Giuseppe, can you briefly introduce yourself?

Giuseppe: I’m 32 years old and I live in Rome. I’ve been involved in music most of my life. I started DJing around my area and I owned a weekly radio show for 2 years. Then thanks to technology enhancement I started making my own music and I finally got signed on Paul van Dyk’s renowned label Vandit thanks to a track called Dreamland. 10 years after I can call Vandit “home” and I’m looking forward to the next 10 years.

Rachel Rixham: Where in the world are you right now? And how has your day been so far?

Giuseppe: I’m actually on the plane (surprisingly a quite new Alitalia plane) flying to St. Petersburg and enjoying a beautiful day with an amazing clear view from the window. Day has been long already and I still don’t see the end to be honest, so thank you very much for this interview, it keeps me active and awake :)

Rachel Rixham: You’re very welcome, it’s great honour.

You started releasing tracks in 2001 for the VANDIT label, and yet your musical quest began very early on, at the tender age of 4 to be exact. Enthralled by classical music, you quickly learnt how to play the piano, and progressed your knowledge even further by studying in-depth everything there was to know about classical music. Can you tell us more about those times? which artists captured your imagination the most? and how did they make you feel upon listening to their music?

Giuseppe: I was not paying much attention to the artists at that time to be honest, as a kid I just wanted to play the piano more that study theory and that’s why I left the music school after just few years and continued my studies by private lessons where a great teacher called Ferdinando Bastianini was able to better understand what I was looking for and allowed me develop my skills much better than before. I started to appreciate all the classic artists like Mozart, Beethoven or Bach years later when I was older and when I better understood their work and their musical style. Later, when I finally discovered the early trance music I found the same feeling of classical in it and I became a huge fan of William Orbit’s Adagio for Strings.

Rachel Rixham: What lessons and valuable tips from your early classical years do you implement in your working schedule today?

Giuseppe: Well since it’s all about melodies for me (and this is why trance is the genre that suits the best for me) my background really help me in making it. When I’m in the studio I just start jamming around all my keyboards until I find what I’m looking for, quickly and easily. Also, when I work on remixes I usually don’t need the remix parts, like the midi files, since I just take a listen to the original track and easily re-play all the parts I need. I find it much faster than spending time around midi parts.

Rachel Rixham: NU NRG was seemingly the next stepping stone to a fruitful career ahead. You went on to garner many trance awards in 2004/2006, as well as being nominated ‘Best Live Act‘ in 2007. Can you tell us more about the NU NRG project, and how important you feel that stepping stone was for your career?

Giuseppe: NU NRG project was obviously the starting point as professional musician and producer and I probably wouldn’t be here without that step. Also the idea of being a live act instead than a DJ comes from the very beginning when I firstly play at the Love Parade 2002 in Berlin. I brought the NU NRG background into my new solo career at the end of 2005 and the Trance Award as best live act in 2007 was a great satisfaction indeed. My music changed and evolved during the years but you can certainly feel the NU NRG sound in it even because my studio didn’t change that much during all these years and you can still find the same synthesizers I’ve been using during the NU NRG era :)

Rachel Rixham: You swiftly nestled yourself in to a vibrant solo career, hybridizing a string of highly acclaimed tracks like ‘Linking People’, ‘Through Your Eyes‘, No More Alone, plus ‘La Dolce Vita‘ and ‘Far Away‘ both made together with Paul van Dyk and included on his album ‘In Between‘. Furthermore surfacing your debut artist album ‘GO‘, which gathered a vast amount of recognition. In high demand you found yourself attending many of the biggest festivals and events. How did it feel to be gaining such recognition so speedily, and how did you cope with the ongoing pressure to keep on delivering your very best?

Giuseppe: The funny thing is that I’m never 100% satisfied of what I do or what I make, don’t get me wrong, I’m totally happy, proud and honored to have had the chance to do what I do and I feel so lucky for this but when I say “I’m not satisfied” it’s meant in a positive way that keeps pushing me forward to reach better results and to deliver better music. At the end of the day everything happens in a very natural way, I just keep doing what I love and think that the best is yet to come.

Rachel Rixham: With so many producers out there hoping to break into the scene, what essential tips can you offer them? What do you believe are the key ingredients that are needed to stand out from the rest?

Giuseppe: I think that having a good idea and making a good track is the most important think but sometime is not enough, at least for me. What I’ve noticed these days is that young producers don’t pay much attention to the quality of their sound. There are few great tracks that are unplayable just because of the very bad sound quality.

So I would suggest to focus a little more on the sound and, accordingly with the their possibilities, invest a little more on some quality studio gear.

Rachel Rixham: Moving along, let’s talk about your studio, what can we find there? and how has your studio set-up evolved over the years?

Giuseppe: I’m an old school guy, I come from the midi/analogue era and despite the new digitalization that affected almost every studio I still keep using a completely analogue setup. I’m not really into making sounds by mouse clicks using software, don’t ask me why, I don’t know, I just don’t feel right and feeling is a very important thing when making music. I use hardware more than software, I have real keyboards like Novation Supernova II, Roland JP800, Nord Lead 3, Dave Smith Poly Evolver, Korg Triton, Virus TI and so on. Also all the audio processor such as effects, compressors, stereo enhancers are hardware and everything is connected to a 32 channel analogue mixer Soundcraft Ghost. I use B&W 805 Nautilus series as reference speakers and I run Cubase 6 as a main sequencer on a Mac Pro 8 core.

My studio has been updated during the years with new synth, some piece of hardware and lately some mastering tools but more or less it’s the same setup I used during the NU NRG era and few keyboards like the Supernova, the JP, the Triton or the Korg M1 are still there being used in any single production.

Aaah forgot to say something really important: you don’t need all this stuff to make good music, just be creative with what you have, that’s the most important thing!

GO ON AIR’,  – The new compilation by Giuseppe Ottaviani
Full information Here | Grab your Copy!

Rachel Rixham: July 22nd 2011 saw the release of your recent compilation ‘Go On Air‘, via the Vandit label, which for those who don’t know also reflects your monthly radio show ‘Go On Air‘; first aired February 2011. Before we talk about the new compilation, can you tell us about your radio show and where one can listen to it?

Giuseppe: The radio show goes “on air” every third Friday of the month on www.afterhours.fm at 11pm CET / 10pm GMT. You can listen to it from your laptop or you can even download a dedicated app for your smart phone, easy :)

Rachel Rixham: Regarding ‘Go On Air‘, the new compilation, what do you hope to achieve from this release? In addition, can you select five tracks you feel most represent the overall sound?

Giuseppe: The reason why I started this radio show was not just because “seems like every one has a radio show now” but mainly because I wanted to give and to share my own vision of music with all my fans and a radio show it’s a good tool. There is so much great music around and I simply wanted to pick up the tracks that I liked the most and to pack them all together into 1 hour show, once at a month. Consequently with the compilation I wanted to better reach my listeners offering a very special mix with lost of really exclusive tracks, that’s why I worked so hard to make remixes reworks and new tracks for this compilation. Hope that people will appreciate it and if I will be able to make them happy while listening to the CD, then I will reach my goal.

Five tracks?

Definitely the intro track “State of Soul”. That’s the perfect intro I always wanted to have for my compilation and the violin melody is just great.

‘Spring Break‘ is another piece of music that really represent my “Go On Air” style. Great groove with a breath-taking melody in the break down.

I loved the original mix of ‘Omni‘ so much but it didn’t really suit my style, that’s why I wanted to make a GO remix of it giving justice to that great melody.

The title track ‘Go On Air‘ of course, this is 100% Giuseppe Ottaviani sound ;)

And finally the last track of the compilation ‘Memories‘. Kind of classic trance and even a bit dated sound but I totally love it. Like the first track, this one is the perfect ending, or let me call it “landing” of this flight.

Rachel Rixham: Introducing a very respectable cast of producers the new compilation showcases: Armin van Buuren, M.I.K.E., Aly & Fila, Tom Colontonio, Paul Webster, Who.Is, and Eddie Bitar, to name just a few. Not to mention a selection of stupendously great remixes and productions from yourself. How long did it take you to complete the tracklist from start to finish?

Giuseppe: It took me quite a while and it wasn’t an easy choice since I’ve got many great tracks and I wanted to include all of them. I also worked on so many tracks as you can see and tried to keep the compilation as fresh as possible. I had to work very hard due to a deadline to respect and not much time left but at the end of the day I’m completely satisfied of the result.

Rachel Rixham: When developing the ‘Go On Air‘ theme, or storyline if you will, did you have a firm plan of action of how it should sound, or was the compilation created from sheer imagination and lots of mused moments?

Giuseppe: The main idea behind this compilation was to make a wide range of music starting from a more slow bpm progressive style to a really uplifting trance and I wanted to included both , instrumental and vocal tracks. Since I didn’t want to limit myself to just mixing tunes together I worked hard to make this compilation as much exclusive as possible. That’s why I made all the remixes and reworks that you know plus the two new tracks exclusively made for the compilation. Everything needed to be mixed with very smooth transitions in order to give a nice and comfortable trip from the start to the end.

Rachel Rixham: In addition to the above question, upon releasing a new album, it seems almost inevitable for artists to hit a few hurdles along the way. Can you remember any challenging moments and if so, how did you combat them?

Giuseppe: The biggest barrier I had during the making of ‘Go On Air‘ was the time. I wanted to include the newest and latest tracks available from the labels but at the same time I wanted to remix a lot of them and the time was not helping at all. I had to work even with just few hours sleep because at the end the time is never enough. So, coffee, Redbull sometime and lots of passion.

Rachel Rixham: One of your tracks from the compilation, ‘Just For You‘ , is a highly uplifting melody that very beautifully introduces the captivating vocals of Linnea Schössow, can you tell us how that collaboration came about, and what the lyrics of the track mean to you?

Giuseppe: ‘Just For You” was a very quick and last minute collaboration with Linnea. We were in touch to work on a track for my next artist album and we get a nice idea for a new track. I worked on the melody and she worked out with the lyrics, we put everything together and ‘Just For You‘‘ was born. Lyrics are about someone you lost but at some point he/she decides to come back to you.

Rachel Rixham: In addition, your track ‘Go On Air‘, delivers a progressive flavour to the compilation which I feel represents your signature sound perfectly. Tell us about the production process for that track, how did you start, middle and end, and where did the inspiration come from for that track in particular?

Giuseppe: This track was born as a demo for my live shows and I used to play it quite a lot and people really enjoyed it. One day I decided to record it down in the studio and turn it into a full track and to release it exclusively on the compilation. Now this track is also going to be release in full length as part of the compilation EP coming up very soon on Vandit. The EP includes ‘Go On Air‘, ‘Just For You’ and my remix of Eddi Bitar – Beirut.

Rachel Rixham: Moving away from the compilation, and upon completion, did you manage to take a well-earned break and recharge those batteries? If so where did you go, and what did you do?

Giuseppe: I only had a couple of days free but not a real holiday yet and honestly I don’t know if I will ever have one since I’m totally busy touring right now. Hope to have some free days in September which is still good and we still have a very nice weather in Italy :)

Rachel Rixham: What are your plans for the rest of 2011 and in to 2012, what can we expect next from Giuseppe Ottaviani, do you have any new productions in the pipeline? any gigs coming up that we should know about?

Giuseppe: I have a new collaboration coming up soon, it’s called ‘Toys’ and I made it together with Betsie Larkin. The track will be released soon as part of Betsie’s artist album and we will have a single release later on the year or beginning of 2012. I will also start to work on my next artist album right after my holidays and I hope to deliver it soon. Regarding the show there are many coming up and one of the biggest ones is Creamfields in UK. By the way you can check my tour dates and more on my website.

www.giuseppeottaviani.com or my Facebook page www.facebook.com/giuseppeottaviani

Posted in: Featured, Interviews | Posted on August 22, 2011 by Rachel