Manfredi Romano, AKA DJ Tennis, is acing clubland right now. At the age of 44 he is yet, in his own words, a relative newcomer where producing for the club and the electronically-minded reveller is concerned. Years of running a major booking agency, Daze, in homeland Italy, as well as juggling music production for the worlds of theatre, film and TV finally gave way to more personal, artistic motivations in 2010, as Defected Ben Lovett found out.
A few years back, Manfredi Romano – better known as DJ Tennis – had something of a Eureka moment. “I was suddenly tired of my work as a booking agent” he confesses. “And fed up with all of this new music around me; I had no motivation for it. I’d met Thugfucker’s Greg Oreck in 2008 through the course of things and we just started hanging out. I didn’t actual realise he was a DJ or anything; I just thought he was an amazing person and wanted to stay in touch with him. Eventually our shared love of music came through and we decided to set up a label together, Life And Death. Initially, it was for other people’s music; the kind of stuff we felt had the quality and the passion”
The label was also there to nurture young Italian talent. “A few Italians were breaking through, like Tiger & Woods, Davide Squillace and Marco Carola” he explains. “But not many.... We felt we needed to give a younger generation a voice; we had the idea of starting a scene. In turn, I started producing our own records for Life And Death, because I felt so inspired. The label changed my life, it motivated me to work again with music and express myself...be happy and confident.”
And now as DJ Tennis – the moniker served up in his youth, because of the parties he was throwing (and playing) at the local tennis club where he was a semi-pro – Romano is releasing his first album, Local. It’s actually a mini-album, a double EP of seven tracks negotiating profound indie-rock paean (You Closed My Eyes, featuring Romano on vocals) next to dark future-techno (Floating Boy (Self Portrait)); coupling moody synth ‘n’ sing interplay (Love Child, featuring The Rapture’s Luke Jenner) with buoyant house groove (Ah! Isobel). The stylistic manoeuvring is impressive considering Local’s size; the coherence and accessibility even more so.
“I believe in the magic of the moment...that the gut not the brain should hold the greatest influence in the studio” Romano remarks. “With Local I purposefully wanted to release something not aimed at the dancefloor. I really followed my inspiration, using guitars, organs and other instruments not usually associated with electronic music or easily created by computer. I started last autumn, not really knowing where I was going. But by January I had a clear sense of everything and was happy about finalising the project.”
Local, as the title suggests, can be viewed (loosely) as a diary of Romano’s recent travel around the world – different cities, different people, different moods, music and feelings. “I tend to record during the week and tour on weekends” he says. “All of it involves travel and over the last few months I’ve been soaking up a lot of inspiration according to where I am. Local is specifically about the sounds and sensations going on around me; I’ve been living in those specific moments and attempting to communicate them in the studio. Remember, most electronic music starts from one sound or element, and then you build the tracks up. It might have been one thing I experienced in a certain place, and that was enough to create authentically from.”
In the past few weeks, Romano has relocated from Berlin to Miami. Bearing in mind the keen relationship Local portrays between artist and environment, just how influenced has its author been by moving home? “Berlin had a powerful effect on me, and helped me develop” he reflects. “It’s easy to meet other music-makers there and hang out [Romano shared a Berlin studio with Tale Of Us] which would never happen in Italy. But recently I’ve been thinking about the need for another change. Miami is off the circuit for most of the year and has given me an opportunity to be more introspective with my music which I really wanted. It’s a young, sunny, and positive place which gives me important balance when I’m working on moodier tracks and whilst people always see Miami as fancy restaurants, high-class hotels and fake babes it’s actually a really creative, artistic place. Miami offers a nice fusion of art, design, film and music...the kind of fertile ground I can thrive off.”
Approaching middle-age, it’s no wonder perhaps that Romano has such a considerate and disciplined view of his role as DJ and producer. Careful alternation of stage and studio has helped him avoid burnout whilst constructively building global profile. Most days he’s up at 9am – “that’s ridiculously early for a DJ isn’t it?” – and ready to work on new material until late in the afternoon; after which he likes to cook for his girlfriend and then stock up on sleep. It all sounds terribly civilised. “I’m busy but I don’t party so much; I take care of myself” he says. “Being tired isn’t good for me longer-term so I look for balance, which is important. I’m still touring, running the label and producing but doing it in a way that’s comfortable for me.”
It’s a routine – if that’s even the right word – that’s working brilliantly. Over the past 18 months, Romano’s DJ bookings have gone through the roof. He has always had loyal support in both South America and the US but now Europe is cottoning on, big time. Gigs this month in New York, Vancouver and Bogota, Colombia will soon make way for those in Frankfurt (Robert-Johnson), Ibiza (Space) and Berlin (Watergate): “You need to be a good performer as a DJ and that unique flow plug back into the studio.”
In terms of the studio, Local will be followed by remixes of Trentemoller, Roisin Murphy – “cool Italian-disco” – and Get Physical regular Tomas Barfod. Beyond these, Romano has another hook-up with Guy Gerber due (following the pair’s remix of Layo & Bushwacka!’s Dancing In The Dark) and releases on new Life And Death sub-label Parachute; he’s also plotting another solo EP with harder edges than much of his back catalogue.
“I have plenty of ambitions for the future” he expresses. “I want to expand Life And Death to its very limits and I think Parachute is a good example of that. Where the main label has that warm mix of techno and pop sensibilities, Parachute is about a stronger, underground techno sound. That variety is really interesting for me and important. The next EP I release will also be more rhythmic. There are melodies, but the overall sound is much harder than usual. Ultimately, my view of the future is that I never want to regret anything I do. I want to keep playing the right gigs and keep making the right records. When I produce anything today, I’m thinking about whether or not it will sound relevant in a few years’ time. I want to make great, great music...not too experimental and not too popular. I want to push hard somewhere in the middle and I’m confident I can.”
How does he view the current electronic scene, particularly being so late to it as a fully-fledged ‘artist’? “If I imagine myself floating above it and looking down then I think it’s enjoying a healthy moment, there’s lots of variety” he states. “There is an issue where the media pushes everything into genres but I know that audiences need those labels. And the good music is usually still discovered anyway.”
He continues: “Today, it’s more about how the music is communicated rather than the music itself. Artists are realising that they need new ways to reach people because so many others are making records. Life And Death is a good example. We’ve just posted video-clips of my new single [You Closed My Eyes] for its release. There are also the social networks and, very important, the graphic design concepts we bring to all of our work. DJ-producers were never iconic in the world of TV but today they are iconic in the world of social networks. It’s not simply hearing music anymore but seeing it, sensing it, truly experiencing it.”
Romano, then, seems well-equipped to handle the rigours of a brave new musical world. “Being able to constantly innovate is the most important thing” he urges. “That and produce quality sounds. It’s so easy to make tracks but most of them are of limited quality; a lot of new producers miss this. With Life And Death, we’ve tried to look at things differently; for example, blurring the lines between electronic music and indie-rock. We’ve also put a lot of energy into releasing quality records and communicating them effectively so I’m not too worried about the competition. We’re focused on doing the right things for ourselves.”
Would Romano say he’s a perfectionist? “Yes” he answers. “But I still believe in spontaneity. I don’t like things sounding too smooth or clean. I think then you start to lose those important emotions. I’m interested in mixing feelings and sounds. It takes time to make sense of them but that doesn’t mean losing an edge.”
That the Italian’s rise comes in stark relief to a family background (covering Parma, Sicily and New Jersey) with little or no connection to music is striking - no instruments, no vinyl collections, no talented relatives. But then Romano has leveraged every stage of his life to maximum musical effect; everything seemingly leading to this specific moment in time. “I was always playing the guitar as a kid” he muses. “The commercial work I was doing early on in my career gave me an opportunity to learn music software which still I use today. And running Daze has helped me get to grips with running Life And Death. When Greg and I started it, we had no real knowledge of record labels but there were some basic things we could do.”
Several remixes, EPs and a mini-album later – not just on his own successful imprint but revered labels like Kompakt and Ellum Audio – and Romano is totally grand slamming it as Tennis. “I’m no longer tired or bored. But that’s where the name Life And Death comes from...bringing things back to life. It’s like smelling a perfume you know and those buried memories and emotions coming flooding back. I’ve rediscovered my passion and it feels awesome.” Things, in fact, have never smelt sweeter....
Words: Ben Lovett
DJ Tennis’ new mini-album Local is out now on Life And Death.
