Do you know what the future sounds like? Antonio Giacca does. The Rome native is a world renown DJ and producer whose music has been labeled as Future House for its use of futuristic, outer space-esque sounds and effects. But for him, it's a return to his roots and what made him fall in love with Dance music many years ago. Just as science teaches us, time is relative. What isn't relative is the popularity of his releases and residencies across the country, coupled with his award winning radio show, The Edge. Follow his story from the clubs to regional DMC battles to world tours.
You could say that Antonio Giacca was born in the club. From around the age of 10, he would frequent the clubs with his dad to work since his dad couldn't afford a babysitter. His dad would also play a ton of House music at home, influencing Antonio's music tastes early on. At 12, his father got him his first set of turntables. Antonio would study the DJs who performed at the clubs and then practice what he gathered, six to eight hours a day and entered the regional DMC's. The club culture guided him to a love of turntablism but then around 16, his creativity craved something more and producing the music he loved so much took over his life. He received a more formal training in the studio from older and more experienced producers. His first show, a New Year's Eve party nonetheless, went over well especially since he left with a pretty girl in tow. As for the first song he produced: "Ok… well that wasn’t as good as my first gig! But it was still a great feeling to actually finish something and it was something that I made myself, which is much more meaningful than spinning 2 records together or make a mashup."
When Antonio flexes his production muscles, they generally fall under the Future House genre as many critics like to point out. This is a result of combining his penchant for House music and refusal to use samples as is, out of the box.
"I was exposed to a lot of that in my young days and [I've] just generally always been attracted to more musical/sexy/groovy stuff."
Having a unique sound means a lot to Antonio and consequently he tweaks samples and effects that he finds so that he can distinguish himself from the rest of the playing field as well as find that particular groove that he's looking for. The skeletons for his songs, whether it's an original or a remix, have the basic foundation of a House track but the skin and blood he covers the skeleton with--the samples and effects--are drawn from all over the creative space inside his head. That includes other genres so you may find sounds associated with Electro or Techno functioning seamlessly within the Future House framework. Working alongside his close friend and peer, EDX, has also contributed to his growth. While they don't have any friendly competition between them, he does admit the importance of the relationship: "Meeting/working with EDX has been the most important part of my career. We are great friends and enjoy spending time with each other and I just learned so much from him and I think he learned a few things from me too [laughs]."
Occasionally you'll also catch Antonio with JJ Flores as Giacca & Flores. They create more upbeat tracks that could be considered Nu-Disco. They've already had four tracks in the Top 10 Beatport charts at the same time, including the #1 and #2 spots. His experience with more than one kind of Dance music has helped lead him to this conclusion on the future of House music:
"I have been saying this for a while. I think funky/filtered/disco House music is going to make a comeback as more and more people are embracing House and it needs a high energy spin off for people who like to 'jump' rather than dance."
When Antonio DJs live, you'll notice a few things about his set. Due to his well received radio show, The Edge, he's exposed to many more demos and will therefore have more unique sets. He will also keep tracks with vocals to a minimum since he believes that sometimes it can take away from a person's full pleasure in listening to the music. If you do see a smile come across his face while paying one of his tracks, it's more than likely that he's remembering the work he put into it and now he gets to reap the benefits. Production takes a slight lead over DJing in his books. As of now, his eyes are set on, "keep producing quality [music] for the top labels I’m currently signed for and doing a bus tour all around USA with my friends EDX and Croatia Squad!" Look out for that stacked lineup in a city near you.
Last Call
1. What is your favorite movie of all time?So many to choose from. American Beauty is the first one that comes to my mind. Very inspiring and the soundtrack by Dust is just beautiful.
2. As a young DJ, who was the one DJ you looked up to?Gotta say Sasha and Digweed--real legends.
3. As a DJ, what's your biggest pet peeve? I really don’t like when I hear sets that don’t have a musical flow, when DJs switch from one style to another constantly and/or play the usual cliche tracks and acapellas… get creative, it’s not that hard!
4. What is your current set up at home?I have a setup in my backyard under the cabana which we used to do pool parties with friends when I’m home on Sundays that you guys might have seen on some videos I posted on Instagram and it consists of 2x XDJ 1000 (the new CDJs by Pioneers that have no CD slot) and a Pioneer DJM 800 mixer. At home I don’t really have a studio setup. Our recording studio is a few minutes from my house so there’s really no need.
5. What's your favorite record of all time?This is a question I get asked a lot and that I think it cannot really be answered. Music is so different. We cannot compare an Aretha Franklin track with a Dance track. One that comes to my mind is Groove Armada - "Superstylin" which I still play to this date and still works on a dancefloor as much as the day it was made decades ago.
Keep up with Antonio Giacca on his website, Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram.
Bryan Hahn will probably die in the club. He's on Twitter: @notupstate.