Enrico Sangiuliano on working with Adam Beyer and Drumcode Halloween

ENRICO Sangiuliano is on a roll. Since releasing his debut album ‘Biomorph’ late last year he went on this summer to win producer of the year at the DJ Awards in Ibiza and has completed a busy summer of touring, spreading his infectious flavour of techno to dance floors across around the world. Last month […]

ENRICO Sangiuliano is on a roll.

Since releasing his debut album ‘Biomorph’ late last year he went on this summer to win producer of the year at the DJ Awards in Ibiza and has completed a busy summer of touring, spreading his infectious flavour of techno to dance floors across around the world.

Last month Enrico was one of the artists chosen to remix the CJ Bolland and The Advent classic ‘Camargue’ on Drumcode. One of Adam Beyer’s favourite ever tracks, Enrico delivered a powerful version lining up alongside Maceo Plex, The Advent, Keith Carnel, Layton Giordani and Adam Beyer himself.

This weekend Enrico lands in the UK to play the annual Drumcode Halloween party at Tobacco Dock in the capital alongside Adam Beyer, Alan Fitzpatrick, Ida Engberg, Bart Skils, Pig&Dan and more.

We caught up with him ahead of the party to chat all things Drumcode, find out what’s it like to work with Adam Beyer, dig into his past and find out what he has coming up in the future.

Congratulations on winning Producer Of The Year at the DJ Awards. You must be super happy right now?

Thanks yea I’m super happy. You know my life has been based on music since I was young. I started to pull out all my emotions through music and to build my path around it so to get this recognition means everything to me and it means that I’m going in the right direction and that I need to keep it going.

You were flying before you signed to Drumcode but how has being signed to the label helped you get to this point?

I started to have tracks flying really high before Drumcode this is true. I had several number ones including a main No.1 on Beatport and I think when I started to work with Drumcode it was a credible switch because it is a great label trusted by the community. I also think that the energy that I had combined with the energy that Drumcode had, created a great force together and I really feel as though Drumcode is now my platform to be able to express myself 100%, because there is a really good relationship between me and Adam Beyer. In general it’s a great platform where many people are contributing to the development of Techno.

Can you tell us a little about your relationship with the label and Adam Beyer?

My relationship with Adam Beyer started back in 2003. I was super young and he was playing his first show in Italy at Jaiss club in Florence. But at that time I could never have imagined that I would release on his label. I wasn’t even sending demos at the time, I was producing and playing in the rave scene but I wasn’t sending demos out. I was just a fan of him and of his works and his label, and then many years after in 2012 I sent him my first demo and it got released on Truesoul, Drumcode’s sister label. From then on my relationship with him increased, as did the releases on Drumcode and I can say that I’m really happy to have him next to me because he’s a guy that I love, he’s an inspiration, he’s a guy I can exchange my feelings with, I can spend my time with and someone that I can trust. So I can say that Adam Beyer is one of my closest friends also now, and I’m really happy about this. Of course, at the same time I still see him as one of the best DJs and producers that the Techno scene has ever seen.

You released your debut long player Biomorph late last year. Were you happy with how it was received?

I am really happy about how ‘Biomorph’ was received, and how it’s still being received because I feel its hasn’t ended yet. For example, ‘Hidden T’, which is one of the tracks, is still in the charts which means the album is still ongoing. Also, when I play people want me to play the tracks from the album and I think it’s been a massive way of spreading it around because it was really organic how it all happened. It had long-term impact which I think really broadened the limits and also showed my full spectrum and approach to the music, which was a bit limited before. Because when you work on a single track you just think about one track that smashes it. When you go through an album, especially a concept album as I did, which stems from something deep within and you can express yourself completely, then it has a very different result which I’m super happy about. 

Your recently released remix of CJ Bolland’s classic ‘Carmargue’ has hit number one on the Beatport techno chart. How did you approach remixing such a classic track? I understand the original is actually Adam Beyer’s favourite track? It’s all the more impressive that your remix was part of a wider remix pack including reworks by Adam, Maceo Plex and others.

I approached the track with fear in the beginning because I felt a huge amount of responsibility knowing that it was one of Adam’s all-time favourite tracks. It was a one of the fundamental tracks for him growing up so in that respect there was double the amount of responsibility. What I tried to do was to think about the track through my eyes and reinterpretate the track with my own vision, just that, completely spontaneously. So yea, that’s what I tried to do and I have to say it actually worked pretty well in the end, I’m very satisfied and the result is completely different. I mean the original track has its own mood and my remix has another mood; it’s a peak-time driving track which you could play in a different situation. I think a young guy/girl growing up in the techno scene could appreciate it because the track could allow him to explore through the roots of techno music. He could go through the remix to the original and then discover the whole album ‘The 4^th Sign’ which is a milestone and then dive into our culture and history.

I understand you have an extensive unreleased back catalogue of music from your years playing illegal raves in Italy. Will any of this music ever see the light of day and be made available for your fans?

Yea I have some unreleased tracks from back in the day because my philosophy was, if you want to listen to my tracks you come to the party. I don’t think I’m going to release those tracks or share them anywhere just because I want to respect that philosophy that I had, which is precious I think. I want to respect that moment, that era when I was part of those parties and the illegal rave scene which was something really magical, so I kind of want to protect it you know? But sometimes I’m reminded of those tracks and I would like to go back to my mum’s house and get out my old DJ bag from the garage and listen back to what I did. Your early music was very different to your sound of now. How long did it take before you found your recognisable style of today?

My early music was different, but the only sure thing is that everything changes and everything evolves, so of course it was different back then and it always will be. I can’t say how long it took to find my sound signature because it just came spontaneously from years and years and years of producing.  At one point I realised that every track I was making, was being recognised by friends when I was playing it out, they were like ‘hey Enrico this is yours’. But yea that process just comes completely organically so I can’t tell you exactly when I started to be recognisable. 

How has your summer touring been? What have been the highlights and what are you looking forward to as the season draws to a close?

My summer touring has been crazy good, also intense but really good. I can’t tell you all of the highlights because it was an amazing schedule, all were quality shows. The best season I’ve ever had in my life actually, and for sure I can tell you that Awakenings was one of the highlights as always but also my B2B with Adam Beyer at OFFSonar I think was something really special. For sure also some club shows, for example my SOLO concept event that I did in Milan that was another big highlight. I do also have to mention Kappa Futur Festival in Turin which was the moment where I received the biggest amount of love ever from an Italian crowd. I started from scratch at 16:00 in the afternoon under a burning sun with 20 people in front of me, I ended my set with 12,000 or 13,000 people going crazy and showing so much love. That performance is a moment I will never forget in my whole life. Because as you know I am Italian and somehow you never feel that recognised when you go back to your country but you always feel recognised when you leave your country and play abroad, so during Kappa Futur I really felt the love and connection with my Italian followers and it was crazy good. 

You launched your SOLO show series this year, what was the main reason for wanting to start your own all-night-long party?

I started my all-night-long parties after playing a couple of really cool all-night-long sessions at MMA in Munich, in Milan at Tempio and then I decided to do them again because it was a new experience that I had never done before. The energy that I found and the connection that I established with the crowd was something unique so I said, let’s do it again. And then I started to do the SOLO event series and for now it’s something that I am super proud and happy about. We had the last one a couple of weeks ago at Kompass in Ghent, Belgium. It was one of the best parties of my whole life. You bring the people on a journey and you are also part of that journey yourself of course, I enjoy the party as much as the people and I feel free to express myself and to have no boundaries in terms of genre or tempo. So we start from silence and finish with silence; from silence to silence, this is what SOLO is. And parties are going pretty well, the next one will be in Yalta club in Sofia on November 29^th. 

Where can we see you perform next in the UK?

You can see me perform in the UK tomorrow actually (Saturday), we have our annual Drumcode Halloween party at Tobacco Dock which is always one of the best parties of the year if you ask me. Plus there will be a lot of the Drumcode crew there so it’s going to be super fun for every one of us. I’m also playing the afterparty at E1 so hope to see you all there!

Catch Enrico Sangiuliano at Drumcode Halloween party alongside Adam Beyer, Illario Alicante, La Fluer, Alan Fitzpatrick, Ida Engberg and more at Tobacco Dock, London on Saturday 26th October. For more information here HERE.