Luciano interview: The Romanian Connection

Luciano interview: The Romanian Connection

16 May, 2008 | 2.04AM

• Section: Music News Topics: Beatport Blog
• Written by: Ryan Keeling

Chilean Luciano is the king of the underground, a talented producer and DJ considered to be a house and techno master by many clubbers and DJs across the globe.

As resident DJ of Circoloco in DC10, Ibiza, and as boss of the influential label Cadenza, Luciano has built up a huge following of dedicated fans who worship his genre-defying sets of bouncy minimal, groovy house and techno classics.

Whilst Berlin and Ibiza have fallen in love with Luciano (and his sexy moustache), in Romania he’s practically a king - no other European country welcomes Luciano as much as the Romanians.

As part of Beatportal’s autopsy of Romania’s club scene we met Luciano backstage at Sunwaves festival in Romania, to find out his thoughts on Romania, its club culture, and its future.

Read on for the full interview.

Firstly, I wanted to know how you have come to have such a strong affiliation with the Romanian scene?

That’s pretty hard to answer, but I think there is a lot in common with my own culture - South America and Romania.

Music is something very, very present in their own culture and the music comes from people, and from poor people comes the truth.

It’s a bit like in Chile, there is this passion coming between sadness and happiness about living.

Romania is brilliant because of the involvement of their people, like all the brilliant DJs—Praslea, El Cezare, Pedro, Rhadoo and Raresh—and good promoters doing such pretty clubs and parties.

My side is that I play music, and my music, I live it in the way they ask me to.

So when I’m in Romania, I’m there for them. Maybe they understand this more than other places?

Do you think that the Romanian scene could in time be something that could rival Germany, England and Ibiza’s club scenes?

It’s already rivaling all those places.

My favourite place for a long time has been Romania, because it reminds me of Germany, England or Ibiza some years ago, when it was fresh and about ideals and not trends.

Places like Germany, England or Ibiza have a big network established around the scene, but in Romania it’s just developing so it’s like the beginning of a new form of life, that’s why I love it.

How people live through music here - they really interact. So it’s the early days of a musical rising.

The people of Romania seem very warm and accommodating and also like to party hard! Do you think there is a reason behind this?

It’s a culture that is on the rise, so it has opening frontiers, minds and relationships between different cultures.

The warmth of the people always makes for better parties and a better mood.

Is there anywhere you have played that is similar to Romania?

For me it’s hard to respond to this because I find the entire world attractive so there is never a better place to be for me; it’s just that some places correspond more to the personality of each individual and everywhere there is something interesting.

Sometimes Romania reminds me of South America and yes, for sure, something unique is going on here.

Your style seems to have changed a considerable amount over the last couple of years. Is that a conscious decision you made or something that happened more naturally?

Music is something that goes with my life, so if you had seen me play years ago, my mood then would have affected the kind of music I played.

It was at a time in my life when this music had to go out from my soul and today different things come out.

Now I am more and more getting back to my roots, which is house music.

Are there any up and coming Romanian DJs that you could maybe tip for wider success in the future?

El Cezere and Praslea are the forthcoming heroes, of course not forgetting to mention Raresh, Pedro and Rhadoo.

Can you tell us a bit about what’s up coming on Cadenza?

Cadenza is about to release some music from new artists like Mirko Loco, Mr Michel, Vera, and Alex Picone.

Then we have some releases planned from Digitaline, Pedro, Reboot, Thomas Melchior, Pikaya, Rhadoo, Argenis Brito and also we’re planning so many parties around the globe. 

And finally, there has been some talk of a full Luciano album this year. If this is the case have you established how you will approach it? Will it have only dancefloor tracks or will it be a variety of styles?

That’s true, an album is due to come out from me at the end of this year and it will be back to house.

There will be lots of tracks with vocals on them and there will be some funk too.

I’ve planned lots of collaborations with singers and live musicians. That’s all I want to say about it now, as I want it to be a surprise.

Video: Luciano destroying Sunwaves afterparty, Romania

Here’s a video we found on YouTube of Luciano DJing at the Sunwaves afterparty in Romania. Keep watching till 03.32 when Luciano drops the beat back in - you can just about the see the crowd going mental.

The epic breakdown he’s playing is the track M83 ‘In Church’.

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