Hi Artento, first off: thanks for joining Hammarica.com with this interview!
Thanks for this interview, always a fun thing to do.
You just released your new banger Elevation on Marco V’s In Charge label. It has quite a gritty bassline combined with a catchy melody. How did this production come to life?
Yes that is true. The production happened through a Skype conversation when I was waiting for my flight at the airport of Warsaw, Poland. Damian sent me a track with this melody, which I instantly loved. I was not too keen on the beats and build up, so we met on Skype and agreed on making new beats and a renewed drop and presto, Elevation was born.
If you could give one production tip insight to new producers out there, what would that be?
Just make the kind of music that you like yourself and that your heart is inspired by. I’ve spent ages in my studio thinking: “What would other DJs think of this? Will they support it? Will they like it?” And soon enough you will find yourself going crazy about this everlasting theme. At a certain point I had driven myself so far, that I decided to stop thinking and immediately I started working on a new version of the first Divini & Warning production: 4LB. Back then we didn’t know anything about EQ-ing, compression, build up and so on. But we just created something that we liked and it became a huge hit. So this decision made me go back to basic and that was all I needed by the beginning of 2012. At this moment I’ve got seven new tracks ready to hit the download portals, that is almost one track a month which is a fairly high average for myself as a producer. It also doesn’t really matter what program you use nowadays, just be creative and driven and it will result in something good.
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We know you are from Holland, one of the most important countries for EDM world wide. However, is there another country that stands in high regard to you for your type of music?
I would have to say the US, but that’s just because there are so many Dutch DJs touring the States at the moment. I would also like to play in Asia. Both continents haven’t been Divini-ed yet, so it’s about time that happened haha!
Could you tell us more about your artist name Artento Divini? Where does that come from?
That’s quite a long story, I’ll stick to the short version. Artento Divini is an Italian sounding name. Atento means ‘pay attention’ and my real first name is Art, so it isn’t hard to see the connection. Divini was actually just made up out of nothing as a bit of a joke. This all is being topped off by the fact that my mom has some Italian blood running through her veins.
Producing dance music stands synonymous to spending countless of hours behind the computer screen sculpting your beats. What do you do in your free time to stay fit?
06. Haha that’s a good one. I’m a natural born energetic person, which resulted in a career in sports until the age of 20. After that I found my true passion in music so I’m quite the late bloomer. I run two or three times a week to stay fit. After running or working out at the gym, I’m a bit more relaxed and more at ease which makes me control other things in life a bit easier.
Who has been your biggest influence when it comes to your career as an artist and why?
At the moment I would have to say Tiesto and Dada Life. They create one rocking dance floor cracker after another. I also admire Marco V in his long way to the top and the way he manages to stay there.
If you could change one thing that bothers you from the EDM scene, what would that be and how would you go around it?
I wish we could go back to the vinyl age. This would eliminate the big bunch of mediocre and bad tracks that are being released by a gazillion labels. This way we would just go back to the days of digging for new and exciting tunes on Thursday nights and meeting colleagues at the record shop. I really miss that.
Tell us more about the best experience you ever had in the DJ booth?
I would have to say the first time I played at Trance Energy. I got to close down a stage in front of 8,000 people going wild, an amazing experience. The energy that you get from the crowd is perpetuous and stimulating; add that up to my original level of energy and you will probably be able to figure out my state of being at such a night 😉
Have you ever experimented with mixing audio and video at the same time? If not, would that be something you’d like to try out?
No I haven’t done that yet and I don’t know if it would suit me. Because I just love a good interaction with the crowd, I sometimes forget to mix in a new tune so adding live video material myself right at the spot…. nah, that would go SO wrong haha! Too many impulses would make me go insane aaaaaaaaa! (just kidding)
Do you have any aliases other than Artento Divini under which you release music?
Well I just restarted our old Divini & Warning project together with Melvin Warning. We are going to go continue the quest that we started with 4LB and we are going to finish it the way it was meant to, because back then we didn’t know anything about the scene also. We dropped a great project and so we are going to make it successful again. The first three tracks have been signed by Armada and number four and five are in the pipeline. The chemistry me and Melvin have on stage and in the studio is amazing, even after a break of over five years. Spend thirty minutes in a room with us and you will jump out of the window haha! Check out www.facebook.com/diviniwarning
Is there any genre of EDM you would never play?
That would be hardcore. I can handle music up to the genre of hardstyle, but everything harder than that is just too much for me, mainly because of the higher tempo.
Name us your favorite female DJ?
That would be Jess & Miss, a relatively unknown female DJ duo. They’re like the female version of Divini & Warning, except the fact that they’re way hotter than we are of course. They also produce and play their own tracks, which is very cool I think.
Is there a final thing you would like to say to our readers?
I hope to see you anytime soon and to rock a club or festival together.
