In the little time NT89 has been pushing out his own set of productions, he has become one of the hottest commodities to come from Italian soil and has been dubbed by every big producer to be a promising DJ as time goes on. He recently hooked up with Fools Gold last month to release his “Voices” EP, which picked up steam and got full support from the likes of Skream, Style of Eye, Fake Blood, Annie Mac and stacks of others. At the tender age of 22, he has remixed the likes of Mumbai Science, Tiga, Keith & Supabeatz, Tommie Sunshine and John Roman while also producing. Getting set to push his EP “Voices” in Italy, he was kind enough to catch up with us at YFH and chitchat about his life, music, collaborations, gigs and most importantly food!
Thank you very much for sitting and chatting today – it is greatly appreciated. I have to ask, what was “life” before turning to music? Tell us about yourself.
Well it was a student life, I started touring the world in 2008. I was 18, I had just finished high school and was about to study philosophy in a university. I was also a promising football (soccer for you) player, I was the captain of my hometown team but I had to quit because I had a very serious knee injury when I was 16. The doctors suggested me to stop sports so I started spending more time on music, I felt very bad at that time but I guess it’s turning out to be a good thing in my life.
In Feb you released your “voices” EP via Fools Gold Records, it is most certainly one of my favorite releases of the year. What was the influence point for you? How did you come to connect with Fools Gold?
Certainly the biggest influence was Canadian producer Marc Houle, tracks like Yonkers, Meatier Shower, Techno Vocals, producing on the edge, always making something simple, fresh and extremely well produced. About Fool’s Gold, A-Trak was playing and supporting my stuff for quite a long time already and then one day Nick asked if I had something original for the label so I made Voices and they loved it.
NT89 – Voices [FOOL’S GOLD] (snippet from Annie Mac’s show on BBC Radio1) by NT89
Every big name DJ/producer is raving about your star talent, people from the likes of Congorock, Crookers, Fake Blood and countless others go on about how you have a bright future ahead of you. How does it feel to have such support from prominent individuals in your your career thus far? Do you look up to those acts?
It’s fantastic to see my tracks played by my favorite djs, it makes me feel like i’m on the right way and yes I definitely look up to them for inspiration. To learn something new, i’ll always be thankful to people like Erol Alkan, Congorock & Brodinski, they’ve helped and continue to help me a lot in my artistic and technical evolution as a producer and as a dj.
What is a typical day like for you ? Do you do anything interesting apart from producing music ?
When i’m not playing, I have a really boring and lazy life to be honest. I’m not that much of a party harder, I wake up very late in the morning like 12ish, try to reply to all the emails, then I try to listen to all the promos I get, I listen to some good music and then I try to produce good music. After all that, I play fifa on the xbox and then for dinner I go out spending some good time with my friends.
How has your sound changed since your initial efforts?
It changed an incredible lot, if I listen to my old productions i get embarrassed but I guess it’s the same for every producer. During the years I focused more on pure producing, mixing side of the work and I really love to hear the result afterwards in the clubs. Dance Music is for clubs so it must sound great in a club soundsystem, for me it’s the most important thing.
Style Of Eye – The Antidote (NT89 remix) [HOREHAUS] by NT89
Are you an advocate of collaborations? Who would you collaborate with if you could? (top 3)
We’ll I already have plans with two huge artists which I can’t reveal yet and I work a lot with my friend RipTide in his studio. If I have to pick 3 then they would be Erol Alkan, Marc Houle and Mathew Jonson
Are you good cook? What type of food can you make? Do you have a speciality?
Yes! I’m a very good cook, my father had restaurants in Italy so I grew up watching chefs cooking. Learnt mostly about Italian food but I can cook anything, my speciality would definitely be pasta with homemade ragu sauce.
NT89 – The Tunnel (TWR72 cover) FREE DOWNLOAD by NT89
Favorite cuisines? Drink of choice?
I of course love Italian and French cuisines but I also had the chance to taste authentic Chinese food in Taiwan and I have to say it’s pretty fantastic. My drink is a well made Mojito with fresh mint leaves.
What’s next for you in 2012? (Releases, Remixes, Gigs)
I’m starting my voices italian tour this week in Bologna which will keep me busy till the end of April, then I will play in a lot of festivals around Europe in the summer as for releases and gigs i’m not sure what I can reveal yet but there is a lot planned to come out very soon. I remixed a guy who you have already interviewed for instance 😀 and I’m working on my next EP for Fool’s Gold.
Thank you so much for the cool chat! Any final message to your fans? Anybody you want to give a shout out too?
Thank you very much, I love Canadians, I feel a very big connection with us Europeans and I hope to come there very soon.
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