Activator: The Interview

Posted by Ool on Aug 11, 2009 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Click ‘More…’ to read the interview with Manuel Tessarollo aka Activator as published in Core Magazine! Later on, I will probably post a ‘special edition’ of this interview which contains more quotes from the original Q&A, as there was no space to fit everything Acti said into the magazine. For now, writing a Qontinent report and Showtek interview has priority over that, but be on the lookout!

Activator: Authentic Italian Style

About three thousand years ago, a pre-Roman civilization first started to cultivate a seemingly meaningless region in the northeast of Italy. During the height of Athens’ democracy, they laid the foundations of a town that would later be known as Venice. During the reign of the Israeli kings David and Salomo, they ventured northwest, into the foothills of the Alps, and settled by the river Brenta.

Little did they know, they were creating the cradle of one of the greatest figures in a music style that would only evolve 3 millennia later.

Manuel Tessarollo was born and raised in that town northwest of Venice, now known as Bassano del Grappa. The boy always had a passion for music – inherited from his mother, he suspects. He became particularly fascinated by the danceable side of it. “The first time I saw myself becoming a DJ was at school. I used to make audio cassettes for my mates, and when I grew up I started to play music at my friend’s parties.” And as he grew up, things slowly started to get more serious. He became supporter DJ, sidekick to a resident, and eventually got his own residency at the J&J-Orbital club. “After that I felt the need of creating my own music, making my custom made vinyl. I bought my first sampler, my first keyboard and started creating my own music, and luckily, up till now, everything has gone well.”

In the year 2002, after releasing a number of tracks under various pseudonyms, Tessarollo sent a demo to an Italian label called Activa Records. The response was highly positive, and an artist name was quickly found. DJ Activator was born.

Now, 7 years and an already glorious career later, DJ Activator is about to release an album with 18 almost all-new tracks, a commendable feat. Yet it is way more than just a collection of tracks – Manuel has his reasons for releasing a small, shiny disc instead of a large, black one. “The idea of making an album started 2 years ago, because I think that with an album you have the opportunity to express whatever you want. I consider an album a musical journey, a path. Inside Authentic Style is all the experience I’ve gained during all these past years, and all that I always wanted to achieve. By releasing singles only, you can’t do that, because the market prefers whatever sound is popular at the time. When you do an album instead, it is more free. You can make some of the tracks more dark, some of them commercial or cheesy, some of them experimental. Basically you can express anything you want.”

Though making an album may be a journey of kinds, you still need inspiration for it. Of course, a major source of inspiration for many artists is simply other music. Activator stands by that. In fact, his new album is already being advertised as hardstyle influenced by all kinds of music you can imagine. “I like all kinds of music and don’t have any particular genre that I prefer, I listen to pretty much everything. In my album I’ve tried to combine different styles of music with hardstyle, but only when I found it possible to mix them well together. They come out very good…” On our review page, you will find that he is not bluffing.

When listening to Activator’s songs, one thing that is prevalent is melody. When he writes one, it is typically complicated, often experimental and last but not least, mostly very good. As a testament to his talent and passion for music, he hardly received any kind of education in music theory. “I didn’t go to a music school, I am a self-taught. I did 2 keyboard courses and learned how to play the instrument.”

One thing anybody with producing aspirations may wonder is how much work an album like this takes. “One day in June of 2008 I said to myself ‘That’s it, from now on every track I make during the next 6-7 months will be for the album’. So by the end of 2008, all the tracks were completed. The artwork, agreements with record label, distribution etcetera all took a long time, but I did not want to rush my project.” Quite a far stretch from the supposed three months Headhunterz & Wildstylez supposedly took for Project One, but still only half a year. “It depends, some of those tracks took me 3 weeks, others were completed in 3 days, and some took 3 to 4 months because I made them on my laptop, while waiting for my plane at the airport…”

Certainly, some of those songs must carry special meaning, like the album as a whole also has its story. “On the album there are some tracks that I feel the most because I made them at a particular moment in my life or because I originally thought of them long ago, and seeing them evolving was just amazing. Like Sinister Owl, because I collect owl figurines – I have this strange passion about that bird, I don’t know why. In this track, I wanted to create a horror atmosphere. Living it in first person, if you will, I made it at night, always and only in the dark.” Yet it is not just personal stories behind Manuel’s songs. “Another track that I particularly liked doing is Authentic Style. I didn’t care to respect any standard rule in hardstyle, I did it just like I wanted and how my style is.”

Speaking of rules in hardstyle, how does he feel about recent and future developments in the genre’s sound? “I think hardstyle has reached a limit over the past 2 years. We’ve reached the highest possible speed, you can’t go any faster than 150 BPM, it would sound too fast. I’m a big fan of melodic music, as long as it does not sound repetitive, which unfortunately happens very often. Melody is a good tool as long as it doesn’t have the same flavour, you have to be original, no doubt. I can’t tell you what direction hardstyle will take in the years to come, and I only care up till a certain point. Because in any case I will only do what I want, what I like the most.”

It is no secret that, even though he is stubborn about his music, Activator likes to collaborate with other Italians such as Zatox and Tatanka. “There are a lot of producers that I love among which Zatox, in my opinion, is the one closest to my style. I also like Tatanka, he is very precise, meticulous, strict. Hardstyle Masterz I like for the quality of his vinyls, they always sound very powerful and strong. As far as overseas producers go, I like… ehm… who the fuck do I like!?”

After declaring that he only likes Italian producers, Manuel has a final message to his English fans in particular: “Highest respect for all my fans, to everyone that has already listened to the preview of Authentic Style and to everyone who will buy it legally. A special thanks to the British fans who are always so nice and warm to me. They are probably the craziest crowd I’ve ever seen and I hope to do more shows in England because the scene is very open-minded, it gives you a chance to propose different things that you wouldn’t be able to do in another country.

That’s it, bye everyone, see you on the dance floor!”