WWD018 welcomes two of Italy’s finest! Supernova have been rocking dance-floors across the world since 2003. Emiliano and Giacomo have graced renowned record labels like Noir Music and Defected Records, while building their own burgeoning imprint Lapsus Music. The label has provided a home to standout house and tech talents like Raffa FL, The Glitz, Newbie Nerdz, and Kaily, as well as also acting as a platform to share their own killer productions. The pair, now well into their second decade as a duo, can truly be described as artists in their prime. We caught up with them this week to find out all about their recent trials, their intricate live-set up, a new album and that which is to come on Lapsus. They’ve also provided an energetic, groove-filled hour from the recent set at Tenax. It’s all below, enjoy!
WWD : What a pleasure it is for us to finally get the chance to chat with you guys! It’s been an amazing 12 months for Supernova with some phenomenal productions alongside the likes of acid legend DJ Pierre and Natalie Conway on Defected as well as a remix for the sadly departed Romanthony. Tell us, did you achieve all your goals for 2014? It seemed like a big step forward!
Supernova : We are really happy with 2014 of course, but we are already focused on what 2015 could be for us. We have just finished to set up our new studio in Florence and we can’t wait to get in and start doing a lot of new music. What we did since now is good, but we feel we can do better!
WWD : Can you explain to us a little about your live set up and why you started to play live shows?
Supernova : We started to play this kind of live since the first gig we did together as Supernova. We felt this would have been the better way to play 4 hands enjoying our self and making something different from a back 2 back. At the beginning it was a 100% live set, with only live sections of our productions. We where sitting in the studio hours building live tracks for the shows and most of them never went released. After a while we decided to get into a live / dj set set up (the one we have now) to make things more easy while traveling and more useful for clubs sets. So at the moment we play 4 hands with 2 laptops. One runs Tracktor and one Ableton. Both playing together manually synch. This way we can play tracks and at same time play on them with keyboards, drumpads, acappellas and loops to make something different any time keeping always an eye to the dancefloor.
WWD : Is a live element essential in this day and age to be distinctive and stand out from the crowd? Does it feel like a step down when you do a more simple dj set?
Supernova : We don’t feel the difference is made by the way you do the set today, but how you can be connected to the crowd playing your favorite music and make you and them happy at the end. We’ve choose this kind of set ’cause is the best way to express ourself live at the moment, but you can find amazing set made with vinyls as well for example.
WWD : It seems like Italy always has a steady stream of dj talent making its way up the ranks, is your homeland an encouraging place for electronic artists to live and work? As a nation is Italy interested in electronic music?
Supernova : Italy is full of already discovered talents and many still undiscovered. It’s a good place to live and work around club music even is not like living in London, Berlin or maybe Barcelona…but yes, Italy is def a nation interested in electronic music.
WWD : Have you introduced much homegrown talent through your own label Lapsus Music?
Supernova : We receive a lot of very good demos for Lapsus by Italian producers and some of them will be out now on the next Talents Vol. 9 compilation we’ve personally selected. We love to support homegrown talents!
WWD : Lapsus really stepped it up this year with some standout artists joining the label, was that a big effort on your part to lift things to a new level? Where are we going to see Lapsus in 2015?
Supernova : Running a label in the right way is for sure a big effort and we are dedicating a lot of time and energy to Lapsus. We are two of us, so we can split between us some of the things to do, but it’s not enough as we have our Supernova project to think about too..At the moment we have 3 more persons helping us in the promotion, event and upload process. 2015 it’s another important year for the label and we have many good releases in the pipeline with original and remixes from the likes of Tiger Stripes, Luna City Express, Gene Farris, Hector Romero, Nice7, Christian Nielsen, Markus Homm, Soul Avengerz, Elias Tzikas, Audio Junkies, Kaily, 2 Sides Of Soul, Alvaro Smart and many more. The goal for us is to keep growing with the quality and always giving space to established artists as well as new talents.
WWD : The new EP Suite 58 is probably one of our favourite releases ever on Lapsus Music, production wise, all three originals are incredibly well put together and beautifully finished, what was the goal with this new release?
Supernova : It’s like a new beginning for us. We want to focus more on the underground and row side of our music and we are happy with what is coming out for this EP.
More to come on this side in the future.
WWD : Two great remixers as well, whats your process for choosing a remix artist for the label?
Supernova : Yes we had the chance to get Tiger Stripes and Luna City Express remixing 2 tracks of the EP and both them all did a very good job.
We always look first at the musical / production wise of an artist, then if we like what he do, we think if his sound can be appropriate for the track and last but not least it’s really important the human side of the person for us too. If we don’t feel well on that side it’s hard to get working together on music…
WWD : A new artist album is on the horizon! We hear vocalists Ann Saunderson and Irishman Stee Downes (a When We Dip favourite) are already lined up, what more can you tell us?
Supernova : Yes we have already some very rough demos with these singers and more are still coming with many other interesting vocalist and artists…hard to anticipate more now as we need to sit in the studio and work hard to get things rolling as we want to do.
WWD : When you arrive at your third studio album how do you continuously keep things fresh? Where do you guys look for inspiration?
Supernova : We always look at what we’ve done in the past, good things and mistakes in the same time and we try to make much better. Our inspiration is the passion and love for the music and our job that is still burning inside us like the very beginning!
WWD : Finally as we move into the new year, give us one piece of advice for potential djs and producers out there, whats the Supernova recipe for success?
Be yourself and Never give up!
Peace.