Claudio PRC is a favourite amongst the entire team at FOLD. As the first DJ playing at the Semantica Records night Claudio set the perfect tone for our early dancers and the following sets from his label mates. From listening to this set you can clearly hear the passion Claudio instills into his track selection and blending. We relish the opportunity to allow DJ’s like Claudio to comfortably perform exactly the way they want.
Accompanying this mix, our in-house journalist, Smoki, posed some questions to Claudio on his approach to warming up a dance-floor.
Live recording:
Interview:
Thanks for agreeing to this interview Claudio. Your recent warm up set at FOLD was a masterclass in how to get a deep techno party started. First, I’d love to ask what you thought of FOLD?
When I played for the first time at FOLD I was amazed by the structure. A warehouse which totally represents the true underground spirit in London. Finally, something that the city absolutely needed…for my past experiences! How it was made and managed is very pure, a community completely devoted to our culture. The sound system and its DJ booth is perfectly made and curated, along with the LED wall and lighting system. I always feel comfortable playing there.
How do you prepare your warm up set? Do you mix in a different way when playing at this time?
When I prepare a warm up set I want to start from a primordial sound. Like concrete sounds. In general, field recordings related to a specific experience or a specific place – which in that time – are inspiring me most. Then slowly I like to add synthetic sounds, beat-less, mainly drones with dilated elements, long pads and wrapping atmospheres aimed to create an imaginary life to the room. A frame, an imaginary soundscape. Always slowly, I start to add percussive elements and rhythms, some melodies, trying to reach a point where the groove can come in. The method of mixing is very deep and dilated in space, aimed at creating the right climax.
In your opinion, what makes a great warm up set?
The warm up set is the most important part of the party. It’s the beginning of the story of the night, so it leads the night in a specific way. From my point of view the opening set must give to the people the proper welcome in the club. I like warm welcomes, so as a dancer I would love to be hugged by the music with warm and pleasant sounds, to let my ears adapt to the sound system and to be comfortable with the space and with the other dancers. Another very important thing is to be respectful to the artist who is playing after, to leave to him/her a proper key to start his/her performance as best as possible. It’s important to really know who is playing after and to listen to a lot of his/her music!
Tell me about playing to audiences in London, Claudio.
For a couple of years I’ve been playing regularly in London and during this time I was able to build a passionate crowd who constantly come to my gigs because they want to listen to a certain type of music and to have a deeper experience. It’s beautiful to see in the last years how deep music has created a common sense of party all over the world! London is undoubtedly part of this scene, it’s a community which is linked to each other and I am very happy for this.
Lastly, I’d like to find out which producers or DJ’s are really exciting you right now?
Thank you so much for giving me the possibility to tell you my point of view on this topic which I love so much. I’ve been impressed in the last couple of years by my dear friend Luigi Tozzi. He is a young talent but he already has great maturity on all these things we discussed here. Both his productions and his DJ sets are an example of how something should be done properly. If you don’t know, I totally recommend!
Thanks for the taking time to answer these questions Claudio!
