Tnt interview

Who knows if history is really a "teacher of life" as the Latins claimed. Certainly the past proposes/imposes fragments of culture, men and, why not, feelings that, overcoming the bondage of time, remain embedded in the folds of memories and events. For a hardstyle music fan perhaps only a diagnosis of psychic suffering would direct someone not to recognize in Technoboy one of the scene's prime movers and an artist capable, single after single and night after night, of carving his name in the pages of history, precisely. Promoter of a personal style capable of standing out from the crowd, Cristiano, this is his first name
first name, stands alongside other high-sounding names such as Tatanka, Zatox or Activator in exporting hardstyle made in Italy to Europe and the world. When it seems that this country is reduced to a sieve in so many of its spheres, it must be enthusiastically admitted that the green/white/red "doc" product when it comes to hard music is also being peddled with full force thanks to Technoboy.
We met him late at night at Space A4 for the opening of the Insound organization's season with the event "Back in the space." As always, the DJ set just played is the "pretext" to move dialectically far and wide on various universes. In yet another demonstration, just to quell the many Cassandras who like to fill their mouths with what they don't know, that this world of the night is not all that evil and that "pulled" and superb in hardstyle and hardcore territory are seen very few.
Let us therefore travel with Technoboy, read all about it.

I've read that at an early age you delighted in listening to sacred rock monsters such as Genesis and the Police; it's not for everyone to start with that level of excellence and, starting with "flesh and blood" instruments, then approach electronic ones.
Those who have a knack for this work show it early in life; it's really a matter of rhythmically feeling life itself, I was probably by nature inducted into the percussive part and in school for four years I studied drums. That contributed to my development in DJing; the disc jockey by definition cannot do without rhythm, and I am convinced that even in the composition of the pieces that approach was fundamental.

In your bio it says that in Bologna, on your first time in the disco as a fan, you were enchanted and wished you had been that guy dictating the movement behind the records. What do you remember about those beginnings and those enthusiasms?
I didn't want to go there at all: I was introverted, shy, insecure, and so I felt awkward in places with lots of people, I avoided them in every way. For my seventeenth birthday one of my best friends at the time forced me, since it was also his birthday, to go to Bologna on a Sunday afternoon to one of the major clubs then. Once on the steps, waiting to be admitted to the entrance, still recalcitrant to the end, hearing the music from the sub woofers from inside, the rapture began. Upon entering the venue, you know love at first sight? Here, something similar happened to me.

You've spent more than a decade producing music after a clubbing past; how do you manage to keep up with the times without running the risk of coming up with anachronistic melodies and greening up your compositional flair?
There is a video, an English article, I don't remember exactly, that says "Everything is remix": good or bad everything comes back, can be traced back to something else. To invent something totally innovative or to start from scratch, it's almost a miracle; you fall back into something already there, already heard in another form and arrangement. Everyone takes inspiration, including great musicians, and this extends to all areas rock included. One takes cues from others and then customizes according to one's taste.

I have noticed in the last 2-3 years an increase in productions under the name Technoboy and the other aliases that go with you. Is this acceleration due to an established artistic maturation or is it coincidental?
In the early days of production making hardstyle was a very simple thing; we needed to come up with nicknames, different aliases so as not to release a product under the name Technoboy every week. The studio was always that as well as the working team, and because you could make quality music in a relatively short time, you needed this setup. When you have the inspiration, the track is often developed properly in two days; there is no planning in the sense of realease, it's all dictated by carpe diem, it depends on how prolific you are at the time. Maybe for one month you don't get anything out, then the next month in two weeks you have three songs there.

Among your many songs I was very impressed by "Involved," in whose touch of synths I personally resonate the old guard's passion for certain progressive flavors and then it almost turns into hard trance. What can you tell me about this piece?
The piece was created for the project I attempted in 2012 to bring to the forefront guys who would hardly have a chance to perform in front of a large audience on their own. I needed something that would act as an anthem, anthem, reference point; as you rightly said, I am a huge lover of 90s sounds especially techno-trance and progressive. So wanted to retrace my roots, my origins starting from there by transforming them into something credible for the current times. I think something particularly workable came out of it.

Among your many songs, I was very impressed by "Involved," in whose touch of synths I personally resent the old guard's fondness for certain progressive flavors and then turning almost into hard trance. What can you tell me about this piece?
The piece was created for the project I attempted in 2012 to bring to the forefront guys who would hardly have a chance to perform in front of a large audience on their own. I needed something that would act as an anthem, anthem, reference point; as you rightly said, I am a huge lover of 90s sounds especially techno-trance and progressive. So wanted to retrace my roots, my origins starting from there by transforming them into something credible for the current times. I think something particularly workable came out of it.

Another episode of yours that really strikes me is the revisiting of "Ti sento" by Matia Bazar, which in its own way had also taken up Scooter. How did you come up with the idea?
I claim the right to say that I thought of it first to take up this song by Matia bazar, before Scooter for sure. It is one of the most beautiful songs of 1985, for me one of the building blocks of my adolescence, it made me realize that something decisive in me was growing as a DJ; Technoboy was also born seriously because of Matia bazar. Scooter had an idea based on my own idea; they are very famous but more commercial than I am and I don't like how they conceived the track, but I obviously loved my version and that of Dutch new comer Waverider in 2012. Mine is club-oriented, long and respectful of the technical and physical times to make it appreciated; the same was true for Matia Bazar. Scooter went with his usual 3-4 minutes, which hurt the message.

In an old interview dated 2009 you said you were unhappy with the Italian hardstyle scene, which was then "nonexistent." Do you think that with the commercialization of the genre experienced in recent years the situation has changed?
Actually, commercialization in our country is undergoing a phase in the opposite direction, in the sense that foreign artists offering extreme genres are being favored over Italian producers who get the track of any club in agreement. Between 2013-2014 we will see the results and whether the Italian team will prove successful in our clubs; I think the answer is yes, as we know what Italians like despite the fact that the trends point to something else. I say this without presumption but in a natural way.

Tatanka in the interview I did with him months ago told me that it is necessary, in order to revitalize the genre, for each person to put his personal sensibility into the productions. Of course, this belongs only to the great ones who emerge from the masses. Do you agree with that? And, if so, what of your own do you put into what you give birth to?
It is a subjective matter: Valerio (Tatanka) has his own way of seeing music and in his opinion an ethnic instrument can determine the particularity of the piece. He does very well to do so and it is equally true that there are many factors that determine the success of a song. To the ears of the kids who then hear the track what Valerio thinks doesn't even get through, however, it is nice the other way around: he produces it that way but people decide and still dance to it. In that sense it works! There are no stories, that's the goal of all of us: to make people dance, and no matter how you do it, you always win.

I don't know you well, but you give me the idea that you are a rather open person and far from stereotypes; how can you carve out your own place in a society, the current one, in which many end up being conformist in spite of many choices?
Proving something presupposes that you feel strong: some of the things I have done are daughters of the fact that I had been present on the scene for a long time. Confidence in you is key, leading you to experiment in an unconventional way; loved by some and abandoned by others, but it's all part of personal progression and can't happen to beginners.

You have gone, like yours truly, from the changes that massive computerization has imposed on all of us; from the warmer and more carnal communication of 15 years ago to the more aseptic and polymorphous communication of current times. How do you find yourself in it?
I find myself in it by necessity, one has to adapt regardless of one's thinking; it is a form of communication that diversifies from year to year and you have to adapt, if you don't you'd better change your profession. The artist cannot cling to something that no longer exists, need to be in step with the times, or else be excluded and die professionally. Little nostalgia then and let us always look forward.


If you were a painter or otherwise an artist, with what image or form would you represent the feeling that animates you inside when hundreds or thousands of people dance to your music?
One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen are the sunsets in Greece; the British would say they are "breath taking," something that takes your breath away. Listening to any kind of music in those settings for me has been the key turning point for making so much music in my repertoire since 2009. I am a lover of the mountains but also of the sea; listening in particular to 80s music in front of a Greek sunset is something that fills the soul. For me then the 80s is the best decade ever, there are the cornerstones of everything that was taken up later and I still listen to those flavors with great passion.

What are your biggest criticisms of hardstyle gig organizers and audiences?
Our genre requires certain standards, so you can't do it in a venue that usually plays different, softer music or has an environment where the average fan doesn't recognize themselves. You have to be good at giving that extra something to people and magnetizing them; so the criticism I feel a little bit to everyone is the sound system. You can't do hardstyle with a system where they did hip-hop or house the night before; for us you need proper technical support and someone to work according to the night. In Italy this does not always happen! Fortunately, the experience of years has taught us that the first ten minutes are probed by moving past what you want to do artistically but focusing on adapting to the sound system of the system