Interview with Dataworx

Interview with Dataworx

3 September, 2008 | 2.04PM

• Written by: dataworx
• Filed under: Music News:

Recently we sat down with Joe Romano, best known for his Dataworx and FPS projects, to get the scoop on his latest release ‘Control’ which has landed in the No.1 spot on Beatport for the past two weeks.

Click through for the interview.

Tell us a bit about Dataworx and how it all started?

I’m based out of Toronto, Canada and have been producing for close to ten years.

It’s been a couple years now since I decided to go for broke and set-up the label and really get things going.

Some producers catch their breaks early on with a couple tracks, but for me it definitely took some serious work and dedication before my tunes were noticed.

Just the sheer volume of tracks coming out weekly, makes the whole thing a rather daunting task!

But I’m not one to give up and am very optimistic and fortunate over the turn of events in this last year.

Your latest release ‘Control’ just hit Number 1 on Beaport, what was involved in making the track?

Definitely pleased with the response so far, I wasn’t too sure about the track at first though.

I was kicking the idea around for a month or so, changing and tweaking things. I’m very critical with my productions and never completely satisfied, however at some point you just have to wrap the project up, move on and hope people will dig what you’re doing.

I definitely learned something from that one track though, most times what works best is a simple idea, clean, tight production and the rest is a lot of luck of course!

How has the current music scene shaped your productions and how would you describe your sound?

Well, the whole techno / minimal sound has definitely inspired and influenced my work in the studio.

Producers like Dubfire, Radio Slave, Mark Knight, Funkagenda, Deadmau5 are all doing amazing work that cover many genres.

I have always tried piecing together different elements from various genres, with my Dataworx and FPS stuff it’s mostly tight techy beats with the breakdown usually evolving into some sort of theme or something to break up the monotony, something for people to identify with the tracks.

That’s pretty much the kind of tunes I listen to as well - gotta be more than just a six minute loop.

It’s great hearing an element that jumps out at you, even if its repetitive, with some clever automation a simple hook can be very effective.

Software or hardware, analog vs. digital, Mac vs. PC?

Haha, bring on the flame wars!

Ask these kind of questions on a music forum and you might not come out alive!

But honestly, I’m not really interested in all that, I go with what works for me and I think many producers feel the same.

I mostly use a software based studio, running a PC with Cubase 4, Live 6 along with Native Instruments Komplete 5 and a few VST synths.

In terms of hardware it’s just my Remote SL 61 controller and Mackie HR824’s for monitoring.

It’s really important in my workflow to keep things trim, too many gadgets is distracting.

What are the future plans for you and your label Dataworx Digital? What’s next?

I have several short and long term goals for the label and my productions, each day I chip away at them and hope to keep things moving forward.

I’m also looking to expand the artist roster.

The main focus will be quality over quantity, I have learned it’s much more beneficial to have a few key releases as opposed to flooding an already oversaturated market.

With regards to my own tracks, things are going well and have several remixes and future releases appearing on other labels over the next few months.

Lastly and most important, I would really like to thank the Beatport community and all the DJs out there for supporting the tracks. Thanks!

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• Get 'Control' on Beatport