Nic Fanciulli is a DJ, producer and label owner who has remained one of the UK’s finest exports in electronic music throughout the last decade. A Grammy nominated producer, Nic has worked with artists as diverse as Underworld, Kylie Minogue, U.N.K.L.E, Loco Dice, Josh Wink and Tracey Thorn in addition to producing a plethora of solo club focused tracks that have achieved both critical and commercial acclaim.
Now that his latest endeavour in the shape of Balance 021 has arrived, Defected Ben Lovett looks back at the past and forward to the future of Fanciulli's impressive career...
He lives with his family in the regional suburbia of English county town Maidstone. He’s there now, in his back garden, following a day out with his little boy. It’s a warm spring day and the birds are chirping merrily away in the background - the soundtrack to domestic heaven. It just so happens, however, that Nic Fanciulli has embraced another soundtrack too.
It’s why we’re on the phone now. Fanciulli is it is fair to say world famous. His prowess as a DJ and producer over the past decade or so has been nothing short of staggering and, remarkably, he’s still only 32. Fanciulli’s propulsive musical career has blasted him all over the world to play to some of the biggest clubs, as well as landing his own records on the playlists of some of clubland’s biggest jocks, but there’s no sign of plateauing. Fanciulli’s reputation continues to grow, and, yes, he still lives in Maidstone....
“I actually live in a village just outside Maidstone” he gently clarifies. “Maidstone was the town that gave me my break so I’ve always had a strong connection to it and, of course, a lot of my friends and family are here. It’s not somewhere that you immediately think of when talking about electronic music but there’s always been a pedigree here. It’s actually quite a wild place today; I mean some of the young promoters here were putting on Maya Jane Coles two years before she broke. And my own Saved nights [at Maidstone’s Source Bar] are bringing in the likes of Loco Dice, Luciano and Carl Cox, which is mad if you think about it.”
Fanciulli began his love affair with music aged 16. He worked in a local record shop – “all I remember is the Amato [former dance distributor] delivery on Friday afternoon and poring over hundreds of records before the weekend; that was fantastic” – before progressing to DJ work at local bars and then, at 19, a main room residency at Maidstone’s key night Club Class. At the same time, he set up label Portent Records (signing Mojolators’ crossover monster Drifting) and, through Club Class, started earning plaudits from Steve Lawler, Pete Tong and Erick Morillo.
When Fanciulli signed to Club Class’ booking agency in 2003, his profile accelerated massively. Regular gigs materialised via Cream, Turnmills Space (Ibiza and Miami) and Shindig, a Radio 1 residency, and remixes for key house labels of the time Deep Vision, Yoshitoshi and Credence. The momentum prompted another new Fanciulli label, his current one Saved, and with it a steady stream of quality house and tech releases by a smart group of signings including Santos, Mark Broom and James Talk.
In recent times, Saved’s output has evolved to include material by talented newcomers Robert Dietz and Subb-an, not to mention Fanciulli himself (his latest release was March’s The Lost Mixes EP). Fanciulli is DJing globally, at the highest profile events, and his discography has enveloped further remixes for everyone from Kylie Minogue and Underworld to Loco Dice and Tiefschwarz (his take on the Tracey Thorn-fronted Damage earned him a Grammy nomination), and original tracks on Souvenir and Rejected.
“I know a lot of artists in the spotlight say this but it has been an amazing journey. I love that I’m able to work with music for a living” he reflects. “When I was young I probably tried too hard with things and it’s actually now that I’m older, and have a family and greater perspective on things that I’ve learnt how to relax. I worry far less about the implications of what I’m doing these days; I’m having more fun than I ever did before.”
So would Fanciulli have liked to re-write those early years given the chance? It seems a crazy prospect considering his success. “I definitely would go back and change things,” is the assured reply. “When I was starting out you only had the record shop as your information hub. Most of them are gone now and the young producers coming through can research and check anything they wish online; they have the best possible tools to help inform them what it is they want from their music and career. They have direction and, in turn, reach and easy access to their potential audience. None of that was there for me; it would have made my formative years much easier. I can remember doing the front cover of Mixmag at 22 and feeling all this fucking pressure; I didn’t really know what I wanted.”
The foundation of Saved bears this out. The label launched in late 2004 with an EP assigned to Fanciulli moniker Skylark (Chancer) but soon after Fanciulli was booked onto a major international tour with James Zabiela and Saved fell by the wayside. “The label was originally an outlet for my music” he says, “but I was getting so many demos in that I saw the case for Saved having a wider remit. Of course, when I toured with James I had to let the label go a bit and when I got back home and found no-one cared about what had happened to it, I was gutted. I’d gone into the label without a fully realised plan.”
The experience prompted Fanciulli to hook up with his brother Mark, fresh back from university with a music degree, and re-organise Saved. “We sorted the operation from top to bottom” he explains. “We saw that it could be a really effective business card for our sound, and also for the kind of artists that we admired, be they established like Loco Dice or newcomers such as Clio. We were soon back in the groove, managing things properly, and then it all really took off. It’s become this massive thing.”
A really massive thing.... Fanciulli already has the next six months of releases and label activity fully programmed. “It’s just easier to run things if you’ve always got a half-year buffer, particularly when I’m away. It’s great fun at the moment. I’m getting a real buzz supporting some of the younger artists. I’d actually go as far as to say that I think the label is more important that my own music and career. It’s fantastic to be nurturing new talent.”
Fanciulli does, however, remain keenly focused on his own noise. He has just released the latest instalment of Balance Music’s illustrious, eponymous mix compilation series, which follows scene-shaking contributions by Deetron, Henry Saiz, Joris Voorn and Lee Burridge. Balance 021 is a fluid, musical, immaculately arranged mix of 4-4 on one disc – featuring Maya Jane Coles, Franck Roger and Mario Basanov – and versatile Saved showcase on the other – think jack, dirty bass, deep house, minimal and melodic. It’s the first time that Balance has highlighted one label so particularly, of which Fanciulli is especially proud.
“The Balance series has such a great reputation, so being part of it is an honour. But to have an opportunity in the same space to highlight Saved is a double honour” he confirms. “The Balance guys are well known for their flexibility and it wasn’t any different for me. They let me get on with things; I didn’t need to convey a particular style or sound for the sake of the brand which ultimately, I think, can confuse listeners. I wanted the first mix to sound timeless... like something you could play 10 years from now. The Saved disc has quite a few exclusives on it; it makes my compilation different. I mean I couldn’t have recreated Joris’ mixes, or Deetron’s.”
Unsurprisingly perhaps, Balance 021 involved a serious number of man hours. “I must have spent something like seven months on it” Fanciulli confides. “I started with 500 records last August, dropped 100 per month and then got to a point where I could start recording.”
But that was only the beginning: “As always with these things the licensing was a pain, and I was also obsessively keen to edit and mix each track perfectly. Everything has been carefully edited to create an organic, musical flow and a real experience. £10 is a lot for someone to pay for a compilation and there are so many out there today, so I wanted mine to really standout and be worth every penny. I haven’t done a mix for years now because I had lost faith in them. The time of digital was upon us and everything seemed to be moving towards podcasts so I left it. But then Balance came up; it was a unique opportunity to make an impact.”
How does Fanciulli feel in terms of an artist album? For all his industry and innovation over the past 16 years, he has never recorded one. Does he have the bug to do something? “Oh, I’m not all that confident about doing one” he laughs. “Some people will probably think that mad being how long I’ve been in music for but a first artist album is a big statement and I don’t yet feel ready to record one. Nor do I have the time; I do keep looking to sit down and roll a few ideas around but I just don’t stop!”
There is plenty else to keep Fanciulli and his global audience amused. He has a vast number of DJ bookings to negotiate before the end of the year, including a stint in Ibiza for Cadenza and Vagabundos. There are also studio projects in the pipeline with Rejected (Joris Voorn and Edwin van Oosterwal’s label) and Josh Wink (Fanciulli having re-edited Winx’s classic mid-Nineties burner Don’t Laugh with, uniquely, its author’s blessing).
The tranquillity of a Kent back garden must therefore be coming quickly to an end. “It’s difficult sometimes, this job” Fanciulli ponders. “When you miss your son’s first words... that’s hard, but I like to think I’ve got things in the right order. I love Maidstone; it’s where home has always been and where my career has developed. I’ll always keep it close. And as I say, I’m older and hopefully wiser now. I don’t let myself get so stressed about work; I just remind myself that I’m already in a fantastic place with my work and my life.”
Words: Ben Lovett
Balance 021: Mixed by Nic Fanciulli is out now on Balance Music (Aus).
