Manuel De La Mare is a DJ, producer and owner of recording imprints 303Lovers and Hotfingers. Emerging as one of the Italy’s forward thinking music creative’s Manuel formulated his own sound by fusing together elements of varying genres which have long been the aural identity of his native country. This uniqueness and quality led to him having label credits with some of the scenes finest imprints such as Universal, Toolroom, Ministry of Sound, Tiger Records, Spinnin, Definitive and Stealth. The Clubber got a chance to have Manuel for a conversation before his gig at Belgrade’s club The Tube which you can read further.
We are at the very beginning of 2016, can you make a short review of how 2015 was for you?
2015 was a year filled with inspiration and putting higher goals for myself as an artist and our label 303lovers. Took the decision of taking a new musical direction, changed entirely my studio set up and the programs I use for making music and meanwhile travelling for gigs around the globe, had to build my new studio from scratch, which was a really hard work, now I know that being a carpenter is not as easy 🙂 Last year we started our label residency at Space club in Egypt, played at Tomorrowland in Belgium, Europe, South Africa, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Panama, Brazil and middle east and ended the year in two fantastic clubs I feel like home Plazma, Plovdiv and Pacha Munich.
You are coming from Barga in beautiful Tuscany, so how difficult was the start of your career and what is the most deserving thing for the position on the scene you have today?
Tuscany is very beautiful and it can make you pretty lazy, you just want to chill and enjoy the view and the good food. I was playing in a rock band with Alex Kenji and at some point we knew what we wanted to do with your lives and started playing like residents in one of the biggest summer clubs in the region, later on inevitably we started producing and opened our two labels Hotfingers and 303lovers, which gained success right in the first years so we were pretty happy that others were sharing our taste. Can’t say it was easy or hard, it’s all about passion and persistence, having a precise goal, knowing where you are going and who are the people around you and following all that.
How is the scene in Italy different compared to the rest of the world?
There are so many special and different places in the world, that I can’t even compare them. The difference in Italy probably is the country it self, rather than the parties.
Your new release on 303lovers, ‘’Catwalk’’ is coming on January 11th. Can you tell us something more about the release?
In all my new tracks I am trying to put together elements of groovy techno and tech house, together with some more musical elements. An idea that can make the track more interesting, not only effects and rhythm. This is inspired by my dj set, as I often find myself playing a couple of tracks that are only groove, followed by more melodic ones, so I decided to unite this two elements in my own productions.
You recently released ’’Back2Back 2015’’ on 303Lovers with Luigi Rocca which includes your new track ’’Origins’’. Tell us something about this album?
I think this is the best mixed album we ever released on 303lovers. We started this Back2Back project last year, when we decided to do a mixed set with our best releases of 2014. This year it was impossible to keep it in one mixed set only, we had so much good music that we were not able to go less then 32 tracks for 2015. The sound represents us perfectly, from more groovy tech sounds to strong big room techno with a hint of trippy progressive melodies. Included there is also „Origins“, for the true techno lovers.
In the sea of labels that are present on the scene today what are in your opinion the positions of your labels 303Lovers and Hotfingers? How hard it is to run two imprints?
The difficult part was to separate the sound and create two different music lines for both of the labels, so they have their own identity in stead of being twins with different names. I am now focusing only on 303lovers together with Luigi Rocca and Hotfingers is Alex Kenji’s child now.
Are you preparing some new project for 303Lovers? Would you name some upcoming releases that we shouldn’t miss?
We have prepared a lot of great music for this year with many big and new names. The two upcoming ones are by the German Duo Piemont, that I’ve been a fan for years and will also remix and an EP from Habischman, who already worked with Hot Since 82, Dubfire, Noir and Get Physical. Watch out for these two!
You played in Serbia before, in Novi Sad and Niš. What are your memories of these parties and what can we expect to hear from you this Saturday at The Tube, Belgrade?
My memories are very good, places were fantastic and the energy of the people, I was not able to see the end of the crowd in Niš. I know The Tube is a more intimate venue, which I personally adore, because of the close contact with the people. Every time I play in such a club, I find myself improvising a lot with the music, as you can see the immediate reaction of almost each person, so expect a lot of techno, tech house and surprises.
Your plans for 2016?
Music. Travelling. Making people dance!
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