You could say No Xcuses was my gateway drug into a life consumed by podcasts. Consistently delivering uplifting and fresh music, EDX a.k.a. Maurizio Colella’s weekly podcast remains one of my go-to’s. With 20+ years of experience in the EDM industry, EDX has witnessed the evolution of dance music firsthand and has responded to the more recent explosion of EDM insanity in the US by increasing his time stateside.
“This music development that we see right now in the US is something we already saw about 20 years back in Europe when people started to get together for big electronic music festivals. Back then we called that kind of music ‘techno,’ but it was technically a lot of genres under the name ‘techno.’ It’s finally here in the US, and the music is very fresh right now. There’s better technology and faster development, and it’s cool that people in the US have a different approach to vocals. I tour a lot in the US right now because the young generation is really liking the EDM sound. It’s good to produce your own music in one place but then travel to the US and find so many enthusiastic people. They are very dedicated to the music.” 
Just because he’s been in this scene for over two decades doesn’t mean EDX has any desire to slow down. In addition to tours planned across five continents this year, he’s also working feverishly to pump out some new tracks for his fans.
“I’m always working on new collaborations. I’m about to release a new single called ‘The Sun’ with my homie Leventina. Then, there will be a couple of EDX remixes released soon – one remix of ‘Weapon’ by Cazzette and a remix of ‘Thinking About You’ by Calvin Harris both of which will be released this summer. And a few singles will follow over the rest of the summer and many more before the end of the year.”
Just earlier today, EDX shared this free download of his Indian Summer Remix of ‘Beachball’:
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Another area of focus for EDX this year is a refresh of No Xcuses, which will include some exclusive No Xcuses parties across the world including a few stops in the US.
“I’m always trying to develop the No Excuses radio show. No Xcuses 2.0 will be launching soon – we’re still finalizing the concept. There will be No Xcuses events in different countries – in the US we’ll do LA, NYC, Miami, Vegas… I think we’re going to have more cities once we’ve relaunched the radio show the proper way.”
Before we part ways and let EDX go check out some of the other acts at EDC Chicago, we have one more question. What exactly is the Helvetic Nerds?
“The Helvetic Nerds was created back in 2006 by Chris Reece and myself. We wanted to have a Swiss music culture that could be shared all over the world, so we started it up, just a few of us. Then there were some new generation artists like Leventina and Dinka. It’s a platform that young talent can use to network and help advance their careers. We try to keep it smaller. We’re always looking for new talented people – we’re focused on finding young talents. We like to push the younger kids.”
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Helvetic Nerds, check out their blog for new music releases, news and other updates in the world of Swiss dance culture: http://helveticnerds.blogspot.com/
And be sure to keep an eye out for the refresh of No Xcuses by following EDX on Soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/edxmusic
