Saved by the bell: Nic Fanciulli

Saved by the bell: Nic Fanciulli

15 December, 2011 | 6.44AM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News: interview, nic fanciulli, saved

By any measure, Nic Fanciulli has had a banner year in 2011. His label Saved kept up a monthly release schedule without ever losing focus on dancefloor tracks that mattered, releasing heavy-hitting singles from Gary Beck, &ME, Leon, and others; on top of that, artist albums from Steve Mac and Spencer Parker proved that the label isn’t limited to thinking one track at a time.

Fanciulli fattened up his own catalog with collaborations with Subb-an, Gary Beck, Stacey Pullen, and his brother Mark Fanciulli, among others, including Joris Voorn, with whom he made the runaway hit ”Together."

Add in his Worldwide Sounds podcast, relentless touring and the Saved Weekenders in his hometown of Maidstone, and you’ve got the very picture of an artist hitting his stride and showing no signs of slowing down.

This week saw the release of Fanciulli’s latest record, ”The Test”—a collaboration with none other than UR’s Rolando. We reached out to the Saved boss to find out more. Read on for the full interview.

Nic Fanciulli & Rolando – The Test [Saved]

You recently worked with UR’s Rolando on ”The Test,” a new single for Saved. How did you come to work together? Where did you make the track, and what was your working relationship in the studio like?

It’s really hard with the day-to-day touring schedule to make time to actually get in the studio together, so this whole record was made over the net. Rolando and I would both bounce ideas back and forth between each other, adding our own little touches each time.
This is a really good way of approaching it, as it let us both work around our schedules. I’ve known Rolando for a good few years – he had his first release on Saved back in 2009. He’s a good friend of mine and I’ve always been a big fan so it was great to work on something together.

You have quite a few collaborations under your belt—with Joris Voorn, Steve Mac, Stacey Pullen… What do you like about working with other producers? Do you ever actually work side-by-side in the studio, or are you usually exchanging files, like you did with Rolando?

I love collaborating with other guys – one of the most exciting things about music is that everyone’s different. Everyone has different styles and tastes and it’s really interesting when you hear these styles working together in the studio.

With the internet, it’s now also so easy to work together as you can constantly send across ideas, work on them and then send them back. Obviously you miss the vibe you get when you work together, but that’s a sacrifice you have to make for the convenience of it.
I think the last collaboration I did actually in the studio was with my brother Mark when we worked on the remix for Ovum of “Taped & Gorgeous” and that was a lot of fun.

Nic Fanciulli – Neve & Me [Saved]

You recently released a track called ”Neve & Me”; I assume that’s a tribute to your mixing desk? Tell us a little about it.

It’s always hard to come up with constructive titles in tracks, but this was a nod to Neve and was the first track I did using the Neve 8816 mixer.

That’s a recent purchase, right? Why’d you choose the Neve, and what are its benefits? Does it affect the creative process in any way?

There’s a lot of great mixers out there, but I decided to go with the pack as I have always heard people telling me how good the Neve sound is compared to other manufacturers they’ve used. I did quite a lot of reading up on forums on the 8816/8804 and decided that it would be perfect for my studio. It delivers a great analogue warmth that gives my productions that little bit extra on mixdown. I don’t think it has as much impact on my creative process, more to give my work that extra 5%.

For those of us who have never been to one of the Saved parties or the Saved Weekender in Maidstone, tell us a little about them.

The whole premise of the parties in Maidstone is to give something back. I started out DJing in small clubs and bars around the town centre and everyone has always been really supportive throughout my career, so it’s great to be in a position where we can give them amazing DJs like Carl Cox, Loco Dice, Marco Carola, Joris Voorn, etc. And the crowd are so appreciative – the vibe is always amazing and everyone that comes down to play has had a great time. Maidstone’s my hometown, and it’s where my studio is as well, so for me it’s great to be able to do these parties 10 minutes from my house with all my family and friends.

You had a really strong year with Saved, both quality- and quantity-wise. How do you feel like things are going with the label? What are some of the biggest challenges for running a label, and staying on top of your game, in 2011?

One of the most important and hardest things to do with the label is to always stay relevant. It’s really hard to release music over a number of years and remain a staple name in DJs’ bags. There’s so much music around now and so many labels that you have to remember that the quality of the music really speaks for itself.

With Saved, I think our ethos is to make sure we’re always releasing music that excites us and is playable on the dancefloor. That’s one of the most important thing for us, the playability. Every record we put out really has an emphasis on being a crowd-pleaser and working on the floor. We’re really lucky to have had so many great names on the label, and I think we’re just beginning to really push the brand into the next level – so expect some big things in 2012!

One thing that makes Saved stand out is your commitment to releasing artist albums. Why are artist albums so important to you?

I think an artist album is an important medium for expression. It gives the artist some room to breathe. This doesn’t always mean they’re very relevant – especially in today’s world where most people just buy singles. But it’s great for the artists to have the freedom to create something that they’re proud of.

For us to release an album it has to be something that we’re really excited about, so we tend to only do about one or two a year. But we’ve had some great albums come out from some amazing producers. Steve Mac released Roots with us earlier in the year and Spencer Parker’s A Gun For Hire came later on. We loved these albums because there were no illusions with them. They didn’t try and follow any sort of trend – just presented really quality house music – that’s what was exciting about those records.

The club scene saw a number of shifts in the past year—the increasing visibility of mainstream pop/dance crossover artists, and then a shift in the underground towards a deeper, housier sound. How do you feel about the state of house/techno culture at the moment?

I think that the exposure of dance music in certain areas has made things open up for the underground. America is an example of this. I’ve been traveling to the states for ten years, and it was always a constant battle with certain audiences to get my sound across. Now with the popularity of electronic music it means that it translates from the top all the way down to different sub cultures such as house and techno.

You’ve got a podcast, Nic Fanciulli Presents Worldwide Sounds. How long have you been doing that? How do you select the music for it, and what’s the idea behind it?

The idea behind Worldwide Sounds is to constantly deliver quality music. This is part of the reason we switched the show from weekly to monthly and from two hours to an hour about six months ago. I found it was becoming increasingly hard to keep the level of quality up in a weekly show, and it also became difficult to record with my touring schedule. Monthly makes so much more sense as we get to pick the best upcoming records and be really selective with our guest mixers – we’ve had everyone from Rolando and Derrick Carter to Joris Voorn and Dennis Ferrer on there and it’s just been going from strength to strength.

The main thing is that we keep our listeners interested and up-to-date with music that is relevant but also of a very high standard and I think we really succeed in this. We also launched the WWS podcast about 6 months ago, as previously it was only available online on SoundCloud and that’s going extremely well so we’re very happy with the show.

You’re closing out the year with gigs in Goa and then, just a few days later, Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. That’s a lot of hours in the air. Have you got some vacation lined up after that?

Unfortunately not. These are two places I would love to spend some more time at, but unfortunately I won’t be able to on this trip.

Finally, what’s up for you and Saved in 2012?

2012 is going to be a really exciting year for us. One of the biggest projects is something I’m working on with Balance. It’ll be my take on a Balance mix CD in collaboration with Saved. So there will be lots of exclusive records from some of our favorite DJs around the world – some who have been on Saved in the past and some who are new to the label. Touring-wise, I’m looking forward to our Saved party on the Tuesday at Winter Music Conference in March and obviously we’re all waiting for summer! For the label, we’re just going to continue to put out music that we love with really talented artists and producers.

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