1. Which track on your latest album GO! is rated the highest on the charts ?
Giuseppe Ottaviani: "Our Dimension" has already been at #1 top downloads at Beatport few weeks ago and for me each track is obviously rated 10/10. It's hard to make a choice but I would suggest keeping an eye on "Fallen" or "Changing Ways" for the next months.
2. Of all of the tracks on GO!, which tracks really get the dance floor moving ?
Giuseppe Ottaviani: Two tracks in particular are working great on the dance floor. First of all "Love Mission", in collaboration with Tom Colontonio, is already a killer in the floor thanks to its high energy and punching sounds coming from one of the latest synthesizer on the market called Virus TI2. Then "Third Dome" with his uplifting melody and beautiful breakdown lets the crowd flying away, taking a long trip into what I really call trance music.
3. Now that you have completed your debut solo album, what will you be working on next ?
Giuseppe Ottaviani: I'm working on a new remix, which made me really excited. It's coming up in the next few months but I can't say more for the moment, it's a surprise. Beside that I will focus my work on my live shows improving them with new material and much more music for a longer set. Also something very interesting will come up pretty soon on my Youtube channel so it's worth to take a look at it and to subscribe to the channel if you feel to.
4. Can you briefly describe your equipment set up ?
Giuseppe Ottaviani: My studio has a complete analogue setup. I'm from the MIDI era and against any super modern DAWs, I still use hardware instead of software controlling all my keyboards via midi. Some of my keyboards are Virus TI, Supernova II, JP8000, Nord Lead 3, Korg 01/Wfd... I use Cubase 5 as a main sequencer and all my dynamic processors and effects are hardware. Everything goes into the heart of my studio, which is a 32 channels Sound Craft Ghost analogue mixer. The master is then processed by some mastering tools that deliver a very hi quality sound.
5. What technology do you use when performing live at the club ?
Giuseppe Ottaviani: I mainly use 2 laptops running Ableton Live and Reason. One 61 keys keyboard plays the main sounds of a song and a smaller one (25 keys keyboard) controls all grooves. All the Ableton and Reason filters are manually controlled by two midi controllers and a sampler called SP-303, which helps me to put effects into my show. All this stuff is perfectly synchronized by a global midi clock that allows all my sound to be perfect on time even when changing the bpm during a performance. All those sounds go into a 4 channels DJ mixer plus a 6 channels live mixer.
6. I know you must have traveled a lot, of all the places you have been which countries have the best cuisine ?
Giuseppe Ottaviani: I have eaten one of the best steak I ever had in my life in Buenos Aires, Argentina, few months ago and one of the best soups in Kiev, Ukraine. But still I can't find any better place for food than Italy. From the North to the South, even if you get in the first restaurant at the corner or into a smaller one typically called "trattoria", you will be able to always find great food.
7. What are your biggest issues with always being on the road ?
Giuseppe Ottaviani: Well, sometimes you feel really tired and a bit stressed by traveling from one side of the planet to the other. Especially when touring I don't have much time to sleep between a gig and the next one the day after so it can be a very hard job sometimes. But this is what I love and that's why I don’t care how hard it is and I'm always happy even when I had no sleep at all or when I'm completely stressed by, for example, a 22 hours flight from Australia to Italy. At least I live in a very quiet place which is perfect to relax and recharge my batteries when I'm back from traveling.
8. Do you ever listen to any music outside of the Electronic Music spectrum ?
Giuseppe Ottaviani: Of course, I listen to any kind of music, from Rock to Pop to classical... and so on. I like bands like Greenday or Chemical Brothers for example but one of my favorite bands still is U2. Besides that I'm a huge fan of Ennio Morricone, one of the best movie music composers.
9. Do you have any closing comments or additional info for your fans ?
Giuseppe Ottaviani: Thanks for the support over these years, hope you will enjoy the album and see you soon on the dance floor! Yours, Giuseppe Ottaviani.
Interview made by Zaneta (Soroko) Ortiz aka Euphoria (TranceSound.net Co-Admin)
Links:
Giuseppe Ottaviani official website
Giuseppe Ottaviani @ MySpace
