WE RAVE YOU - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

WE RAVE YOU - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

 NGD PROJECT DISCUSS ORIGINS, CHINA TOUR IN LATEST INTERVIEW

November 22, 2018 - WeRaveYou Exclusive Interview


Italian Big Room duo NGD Project have been on a tear in 2018. This year saw the duo perform at some of the world’s most reputable, events and festivals, from Asia to Europe. The end of 2018 marked their intercontinental debut with an important China Tour touching down in 9 cities, allowing them to play in some of the world’s most beautiful venues Asia has to offer.
Boasting an extensive résumé, the boys have had their music signed to reputable labels such as Universal Music, Ministry Of Sound, Kontor, Mixmash Records, Bourne Recordings and Central Station, as well as having earned support from the likes of R3hab, Blasterjaxx, Laidback Luke, Timmy Trumpet, Uberjakd, Sophie Francis and many more. In light of their successful 2018 campaign, NGD Project had the chance to sit down with We Rave You to discuss their discuss origins and their successful China Tour.

How long have you been producers/DJs for? How did you two meet? Tell us about the origin of your music. What inspired you to pursue your career as an artist?

“Hi guys, it’s a big pleasure for us to be interviewed by the world’s best music blog! Really thank you! We are Michael and Alberto two young DJs and Producers from Tuscany in Italy. We’re both into DJing since 2004 and our first steps were DJ sets at private parties, graduation parties, birthdays, small clubs in our hometown… Basically, the classic beginning of every DJ… We met back in 2011 when we were both Resident DJs in a club of our province, and that’s when we started with “NGD Project” which stands for “New Generation DJs”… We consider Music as the most effective means of communication existing. Our passion comes from the desire to communicate our emotions and our moods to the world, a way to get out of everyday life and to express our energy to the maximum level. Our biggest inspiration was and still is today the desire to overcome ourselves and to grow up as people and as artists day after day.”

Who do you consider to have been your biggest influences throughout your career that have made an impact on your productions?

“Maybe there’s not a DJ or Producer in particular… many DJs have influenced us either in our previous works or in the productions we are working currently on, but if we have to talk about idols, we can certainly say that Blasterjaxx have always been our point of reference as people and artists. We listen to many “genres” that are part of the EDM musical sphere, from future bass to deep house or big room and we feel influenced by any track of any artist of any genres that can really excite us when we listen to it. The result of this is that we have produced many tracks of different genres until now. We started with electro house and big room, then we moved to melbourne bounce with “Odyssey”, the track that Blasterjaxx played at Tomorrowland mainstage in 2015. In the same period we won the Mixmash Records Remix contest for Laidback Luke first track “Break Down The House” with a deep house remix… Then we moved back to melbourne bounce with “Carousel” (a collab with Bombs Away) and the remix of “Bounce That Ass” for Reece Low, played by Sophie Francis this year at EDC. We embraced minimal house with “Camelot” (together with YROR?), that was then included in SENSATION Celebrate Life 2017 Official Compilation and we then won Bourne Recordings and Teamwrk Records remix contests for Kastra and Matt Watkins, respectively, with two hybrid Trap/Future Bass remixes. Our two last works are “Korowai” with Spyder which is Bigroom and “Mayan” which is Psytrance.”

Congratulations on latest release ‘Mayan’. How did the track come about? What is the story behind it?

“Thank you! We’re really happy with the release of Mayan! We started working on Mayan two years ago, after being at a Timmy Trumpet gig at “Atlantico Live” in Rome, where we were also lucky enough to meet him and receive his compliment for our track “Bountrump”, which he played himself some weeks before in his Freaks Radioshow. We were really impressed by his show and by all the new psytrance tracks that he played, so as soon as we came back in our small home studio we wanted to start something different from our previous Bigroom/Bounce releases. That’s why we started working on a powerful psytrance drop, and Mayan soon came to life. We finished the track this year and we’re really happy to have released it on Uberjakd’s brand new record label, Jakd Recordings, because he’s definitely one of our favourite producers!”

Speaking of your latest release, it is quite different from your previous Dubstep-oriented original and remixes; Are you hinting at taking your music in a new direction or do you just like experimenting with new sounds?

“We always loved listening and being influenced by all kinds of electronic music and we always loved to experiment with new sounds. With humility we consider ourselves artists who are just emerging, who still have to take their direction with their music and who are not yet recognized with their own genre. So far, we have fun trying to produce tracks of different genres but at the same time we try to always push us beyond what we have already done to grow up and improve day after day, also to understand what genres we like the most. Honestly we can safely say that things are changed in the last few months in the studio, we really started thinking about what we would like to become in the future as NGD Project, this partly thanks to our China Tour. In the last few months, we are focused on producing Bigroom and Psytrance, which are the two genres that we are interested in and play the most in our set. We already have several tracks ready and we have clear in mind what our objectives are and which labels we want to reach with our productions from now on. So yes, we are definitely taking our music in a new specific direction.”
Earlier in 2018 you’ve released a few interesting records and remixes, including the ‘Feel Alright’ remix on Will Sparks’ Bourne Recordings, ‘Korowai’ with Spyder (who collaborated with Nicky earlier this year as well) to name a few.

In summary, how has the journey been over the past year? How has it been different to previous years?

“Yes, 2018 has been a busy year full of satisfaction and it’s not finished yet! We’re happy with 2018 because we achieved all the goals we have set in 2017. We reached 4 new labels; Bourne Recordings by one of our biggest inspirations and top 100 DJs…Will Sparks, Uberjakd’ Jakd Recordings, Lucky Ent’ Teamwrk Records under Universal Music and Tommie Sunshine’s Brooklyn Fire. We are really proud about “Mayan” and we’re really glad and honored to have been able to do a collaboration with a big artist such as Spyder for “Korowai”. we’re happy to have won two remix contest with two dubstep/future bass remixes, “Feel Alright” for Kastra (Bourne recordings) and “Type Of Way” for Matt Watkins (Teamwrk Records). We’re also proud of our official remix for Kronic’s new track “Have a drink on me” and we are thankful for being present inside Bombs Away’s new album “Fragments” with our remix of “Drunk Arcade”. 2018 has been a different year from the others since we had a different approach in the studio and we focused on what we really wanted to achieve.”

You just came back from your first China tour. How was it? What did you learn from it and what inspiration did you take from that tour to the studio?

“There are no words to describe the experience that has been! It’s been really incredible! The Chinese nightlife is definitely next level! We were touring China with one of the best Chinese artist agencies for 20 days, playing 7 gigs in front of more than 15000 people, traveling around 10,000 km, taking 9 flights and 4 high speed trains touching the cities of Chengdu, Chongqing, Guiyang, Zhuhai, Qingdao, Wuhan, Kunming, Dongguan and Hong Kong… unbelievable! We played in some insane clubs such as Play House in Chengdu, Chongqing and Guiyang, Super Music Space in Kunming and BB Club in Dongguan just to name a few. It’s been our first intercontinental tour and the best thing to know is that we have achieved this only thanks to our music and our hard work during the last years… We can safely say that it’s been an experience that changed us, that made us grow as much as NGD Project and that motivated us for the future like never before. We now know what it means to be able to perform in some of the world’s best clubs, 12,000 km away from home, only thanks to our music and our determination, and we understood like never before that nothing is impossible if you really want it and you work hard for it. We take so much inspiration from our China tour to the studio and as we said before we definitely decided in what direction we want to go in the future with our next productions.”

What does 2019 hold in store? Any hints or clues that we could get about future productions? Any upcoming collaborations or gigs in the pipeline?

“2019 already holds several big projects in store. Originals and collaborations, some of which have already been tested in our China Tour. We would like to limit ourselves to anticipate one of the collaborations we have in store at the moment. It’s a big track ready for festivals that we can’t really wait to be released with the name of one of the most promising producers in the world and an incredibly humble guy. He can already boast big goals as a collaboration with Deorro, official remixes for Hardwell, Harrison and releases in the biggest labels such as Revealed, Dim Mak and Maxximize, is Argentinian and you will certainly know his name, D3FAI! We’re really proud, honored and excited to have been able to conclude an original with him and have it ready to explode between our new unreleased tracks. We can’t say anything yet. We still think about our China Tour as a dream and we definitely hope to do a new one in 2019. Anyway, at the moment we are working hard to organize new gigs in other parts of the world, it’s a dream come true to be able to visit new places and new countries thanks to the power of our music. Music connecting people…!!!”

James Torodoski - DJ, Producer & Journalist. House, Disco & Tropical House enthusiast

NGD PROJECT DISCUSS ORIGINS, CHINA TOUR IN LATE…