DJ Naughty (but nice): Berlin?s Italian/German electro star
14/12/2006

With a production CV that includes creating Gigolo Records? first ever release, (Boing Bum Tschag) plus a stint working with acclaimed electro experimentalists Terranova and scores of other remixes and tunes, DJ Naughty is one of Germany?s biggest electro based stars of the decade, though he?s yet to crack his mother country, Italy.

Born to Italian parents in a town outside Munich, the young Filippo Moscatello would holiday in Sicily every year at his parents? original village, though returning as a DJ these days, his reception, at least on Italy?s mainland, remains mixed.

?In Sicily I have a good reputation because I?ve been playing there regularly for a few years and have many friends but usually when I play elsewhere in Italy and meet local DJs it?s not like ?ah, you?re Italian, that?s cool?, instead they always see me as a German,? he explains.

?Sometimes I have the feeling they are maybe jealous and don?t really respect me that much, I don?t know. I don?t want to be taken in their arms or anything but I often experience a certain attitude.

"I?ve been making this kind of music for 10 years from a time when in Italy they were still playing crappy handbag house music, whereas now they?re all into this German minimal thing. So I don?t have that much fun in Italy, I have more fun everywhere else in the world BUT Italy,? he laughs.

Stressing that there?s an exception to the rule in Bologna (?they were really nice people and made me feel like a guest?) his focus remains on Germany, principally Berlin, his adopted home for seven years.

?I came here by accident, not for the music but rather because it was cheap. My dream was to escape my little city to go to London or New York but I didn?t have the money so I thought ?OK, I should start with Germany somewhere, OK, why not Berlin??? he laughs.

?New people are always arriving here, from all over the world, as well as Germany. And when you go out clubbing it?s like New York, no-one is really from there originally. Which is great, Berlin is a new city.?

Sharing studio space with friends and fellow DJ/ producer big names Sasse and Ewan Pearson (both new Berliners from Finland and England respectively) he?s as happy now as when he first arrived, he insists, both for work as well as life.

?I came here and had the luck that I became a regular at a club called Cookies which later became known as a legendary club in Berlin,? he recalls.

?It was open only on Tuesday and Thursdays, I went to party there all the time, then one day somebody recognised me saying ?it?s Naughty from Gigolo?. Then came the Gigolo hype and three months after I was established. I DJed at Cookies, then at Weekend and somehow it was very fast. You can take off very fast here, when you know the right people, it?s easy to get integrated. Not only for work, for friends.?


Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): Where are you at musically right now?

DJ Naughty: ?I?ve been doing so many remixes in the last two years that I haven?t had time to release my own music so I?ve recently taken the decision to start concentrating on my own productions. I?m going to make a new 12 inch with Sasse next year for release on his label Moodmusic. Over the last two years I?ve done remixes in all sorts of styles, slow, Balearic, harder but now I?m at the point where in 2007 I want to release a lot of new stuff.?

Skrufff: Your Gigolo biog talked about you making electroclash-style tracks in 2000 before the whole electroclash thing even began . . .

DJ Naughty: ?Gigolo?s first record was mine with David Caretta (?Boing Bum Tschag? but by the time that electroclash started I wasn?t a part of it. I had a passion for music from the 70s and 80s at the time and of course this electro and italo-disco was a part of it, but there was a time when Gigolo got very big with the electroclash thing, with Fischerspooner and Tiga, but I was already somehow a bit bored of it. Because I didn?t want to be fitted into that category so I got very into disco and house music because of my roots. I was into that whole Larry Levan, New York Paradise Garage thing then. Then after a while, when electroclash passed, I got back into it- that more electronic disco thing- and also back to techno. Maybe I don?t want to be associated with hype and I also get bored very easily. I like to be free to make whatever music I like.?

Skrufff: What kind of music is the next stuff you?re planning?

DJ Naughty: ?It?s not so easy as when I started to make music, now when I do one track it can take me two or three months sometimes. The one I?ve been working on for the Moodmusic release is a slower record that?s more disco. Some people might say it?s electro but as Ewan or Sasse say, it?s DJ Naughty?s sound for 2007. It?s up to date, it sounds like now as opposed to being like old italo or Chicago house.?

Skrufff: A lot of the main so called minimal producers in Germany have been distancing themselves from the tag this year, what do you make of what?s going on here in Berlin right now?

DJ Naughty: >?I see the scene here in a positive way at the moment, minimal of course is still being hyped though I don?t understand some records that people play as sometimes they?re really boring, but when I listen to guys like Steve Bug or Richie Hawtin it?s amazing what the guys do. It?s not that I?d make minimal but of course I?m interested by the new sounds and new arrangements. It changed a lot. Tracks tend to have a certain structure that stays the same, they build up to a peak, then there?s a breakdown and it?s the bassline that rules but that?s a very old formula. Whereas the minimal producers have created something new.

I think it?s also connected to lots of it being made as laptop music, It seems that nowadays everybody is producing music to a really high standard. It?s a new level that?s harder to compete with. I remember when I started making tracks it was really punk somehow because I just started using the machines and whatever came out became the finished track. If it was a great take, ?wow, great?, that?s how it was. Nowadays, with Logic and arrangements it?s totally different.?

Skrufff: How easy is it nowadays for someone to start from zero, by going out buying the software and taking an engineering course?

DJ Naughty: ?If you have a talent and you have an interest in making music then it?s definitely easy because when you start you?re completely free to do whatever you like, You don?t have any pressure or expectations from anyone. You can sometimes create more special things by accident than somebody who?s extremely experienced and know how to work every bit of Logic. Of course, the mixture of both is the best thing. I think if somebody has the right equipment, takes some time and has fun then anybody can create great music. Right now we have a lot of new young producers coming up who were small kids when dance music started and they don?t know all this original Chicago/ Detroit music.?

Skrufff: For writing music, Logic?s renowned for being much trickier to learn with Ableton easy but relatively limited, what do you think?

DJ Naughty: ?Somebody said to me once years ago when the choice was between Q Base and Logic, it?s like a religion, what is better? You start with one or the other and you end up usually following that one. It?s also like choosing between PC and Mac, the Mac users prefers Mac, the PC users prefer PCs.

I work with Logic nowadays. When Logic came out I sold all my analogue equipment and started to work only with software and for a while it was good. But that day when I sold all my equipment, something happened and it was negative. I lost a little freedom. I prefer now to say to people to learn Logic but not all Logic- I still don?t know all of it. You should learn the main things but you should also have some outboard equipment, a good synthesizer, drum machine, effects and mixing desk, to start., You can buy lots of plug-ins which you can?t do anything with.?

Skrufff: Are you now buying back all your old equipment?

DJ Naughty: ?Yes, and now I really know what I want. I took all my money and bought everything back on credit. In the past though when I first bought all the synthesizers they were really cheap but the problem for me them was that I never played piano so I wasn?t able to use lots of them. I used to have a big synthesizer, a Jupiter 8, but I couldn?t play chords so of course, I ended up getting bored by it. Now I wish I had it again because the sound of the machine is something else, you can?t replicate it from a plug in. I really believe that.?

Skrufff: England looks to Berlin a lot at the moment for club music and trends, how much does Berlin look to London in the same way, for example are Berlin clubbers being inspired by London?s Nu Rave scene?

DJ Naughty: ?You mean Boys Noise type stuff? I don?t think that much, I think Berlin is very arrogant for that. There was a time when people here used to look to Detroit and Chicago but I don?t believe people look anywhere outside now. I personally like all the Soulwax stuff and what Erol Alkan is doing, though there?s also some crappy stuff out there, though not from these people. I think they don?t have that much standing here. Here it?s still more on that groovy, minimal house thing, even if you go to Panorama Bar it?s more in that groove. Though if course, if you have a night when Erol Alkan or Two Many DJs play here then it?s packed. People still look to New York too because it has such a history of dance music. Maybe London sleeps a bit right now though there?s still lots of great producers coming from there.?

Skrufff: Now that you?re a father has it changed your outlook on life?

DJ Naughty: ?The only thing I can say is it?s never boring anymore. I?m still the same but as a father I think twice now when I go out, about whether I?m going to destroy myself for two days. I?m focusing very much on work now whereas before I might say ?arrgghh, I don?t feel like it? and just switch off my computer and go out. Now I go out, then return home and work.?

Skrufff: Are you no longer in Terranova?

DJ Naughty: ?I was with them when I first came to Berlin, I met Fetisch, he asked me to do a remix for him and somehow I started doing more remixes and produced for Cosmonauts and did some things for the second Terranova album. But I feel I work best by myself rather than in a team. Right now, being here with Ewan and Sasse is great, we can exchange ideas but everyone does their own thing. I?m not a band person.?

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