Italian producer and DJ Congorock has been steadily making his way through our vast scene and recently we had the chance to chat with him about his current opinion on EDM, House and his music. Rocco Rampino was kind enough to give us an hour long mix to accompany the interview, so hit play, enjoy the music and let us know your thoughts on the interview!
– How would you describe your sound overall? Do you see yourself sticking to it over the next few years or changing it over time?
I would describe it as hard tribal electro. I think that I developed my sound through the years but I always had a preference for percussion oriented tracks with an electronic twist, or vice versa, hard dance production that was influenced by tribal/exotic music. It did change and it will change in the future, but I’ll always stick around a few key elements, probably hard to mention or explain them, but I’ll always know when something is “Congorock” better than anyone else.
– You’ve just come off a hot streak of collaborations with Nom De Strip,Daddy’s Groove and Clockwork as your latest. Can you describe to us how it was working with someone else on a project?
I’ll go chronologically following the release date of these tracks. Minerals with Nom De Strip was made last summer, we were both in LA even though I knew Chris since he was in Stupid Fresh. We met in Milan a long time ago, like 2007 and I’ve always been a fan of his productions. His production skills are insane, he’s a real genius. We wanted to do something with a techno touch, listened to a lot of old records till we came up with something cool. I’ve learned a lot working with him. Synthemilk with Daddy’s Groove was made in Naples last spring. Even though we’re both Italian we only met in Miami at Winter Music Conference in 2012 and talked about getting in the studio together. They are great guys, a very good production team and I loved visiting them in Naples, such a beatiful city. Last but not least Infinite Mana, me and Henry (Clockwork) started working on it while we were on our tour together, we HAD to come up with something after sharing so much time together, we both thought that a collaboration would totally make sense because our sound is very similar and influence each other. We couldn’t get any work done on tour cause we were either travelling, or sleeping, when not playing in a club, so we eventually made it in my studio in Hollywood after our tour.
– Out of the three releases, which one is your favorite?
I don’t have a favorite, but I do like all tracks for different reasons. I like Minerals because it’s a little bit different from what I’ve done so far and I always wanted to have a techno track. I like Synthemilk because it’s just a great banger that goes straight to the point and I like Infinite Mana because it’s the perfect mix of me and Clockwork’s sound
– You’ve been producing for some time now, so you’ve seen the music evolve over the recent years. Where do you see House and Electro going in the future?
Electro and House had a lot of exposure in the last few years. I could never say there was such a big following ready to love this genre of music that always lived in the underground. Things are getting too crazy, I mean business-wise, and sometimes I think the “art” factor in music gets lost a lil bit to give space to the “put your hands up” factor, which is totally fine, but that makes some people, mostly the tastemakers and forward thinkers, go look for something else some where else, like the underground. I hope this makes sense, to put it down in a simple way, commercial electro will become very commercial, and underground electro will be even more undeground, with no zone in between. I don’t dislike this scenario!
– EDM has seen some rapid expansion recently, do you see it growing further or stagnating at some point?
The business around EDM is in great shape, and the media likes it too. From an artistic perspective yeah, it stagnates at some point but it’s a natural process of something blowing up in a unexpected way. As an artist I feel motivated to challenge myself everyday no matter where the whole “scene” is going.
– A lot of our readers are often curious as to what tools producers use to create their iconic sounds, so what do you personally use when creating some of your recent releases?
One thing I would NEVER part with is my Access Virus TI Snow. It’s a portable synthesizer that I carry around on tour when I travel, since it’s really small and it’s just the best piece of gear I ever bought. I just had a session last night with another producer and I realized how I was starting everything from scratch just tweaking sounds on it.
– Any big plans for Congorock this year that we should be on the lookout for?
Lookout for my next productions coming out after summer, can’t wait to share new sounds with y’all!
Picture Source: Just My Photo Blog
