MDC Interview#62 " Lowroller "

Straight out of Milan, Lowroller is constantly pushing his music to new heights. With releases on labels like Future Sickness, Nekrolog1k, PRSPCT, Masters Of Hardcore, A2 Records, to mention a few, his sound spaces from Hardcore up to the most dark & unexplored corners of Drum & Bass. He performed in over 13 countries & at some of the biggest festivals in northern Europe such as Dominator, Masters Of Hardcore, Decibel Outdoor, Q Base, PRSPCT XL and many others. He collaborated with top artists such as Angerfist, Cooh, Negative A, Hellsystem and many more. Aside from his stage career, he also sound-designs for several companies.
https://soundcloud.com/lowroller

https://www.facebook.com/lowrollerdnb/

Q. Where are you from? What kind of environment did you grow up in?

I live in Milan (Italy) and I spent most of my childhood here too.

Milano is the "business city" here in Italy and doesn't necessarily conform to the stereotypes that people have worldwide about Italy (like slow living, sea, pizza, mandolin, and mafia).

I think of it as a good balance between what northern Europe cities are like but with a friendlier culture. I used to hate Milano but then I've traveled in over 13 countries and lived abroad for some time and going back I feel like I can truly appreciate what I have here.

I come from a traditional Italian family and I have absorbed a lot of their values (family, trust, honesty, etc...). I was grown up to be a free thinker and to doubt about what others consider as a given and this had a great impact on how I see the world.

Q. When did you first become interested in music?

From when I was a toddler I would always gravitate towards my parents' Hi-Fi.

Around 1996 I listened to a lot of Hip Hop like Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, House of Pain, etc....And I was always very fascinated by the role of the DJ because of turntablism.

Around 1998-1999 Fatboy Slim and Moby released some masterpieces which got me into electronic music and about the same year I managed to buy my first DJ setup (2 Stanton turntables and a crappy 2 channels Gemini mixer). I needed to do all kinds of small jobs to afford that.

Q. You have been creating Hardcore Techno for many years. When did you first discover the genre?

I found out about this tracker group (a website sharing Fast Tracker modules and MP3s) which was called UCPZone. It was pretty old-school but I fell in love with the style even if it was pretty basic. From there I started buying records and Traxtorm Records started releasing CD compilations which allowed me to listen to a bunch of releases without spending a small fortune (vinyl has always been expensive and if you were not Dutch you would have to pay extra to get it online).

Q. Italy has a great Hardcore scene. What Hardcore Events/Raves, Record Shops, DJs/Producers have influenced you?

There are a lot of great Italian Hardcore producers, especially from the previous generation.

I can think of Art Of Fighters, Tommyknocker, Mad Dog & Armageddon Project to name a few.

However, as for raves, 90% of my bookings were outside Italy and record shops were already a dying business when I started to buy Hardcore vinyl records. "Deejay Choice" was my go-to store but it was never really able to compete with Dutch record stores....

Q. What are the unique aspects of Hardcore in Italy? What is the most different part from other countries?

Honestly, I am not sure, when I started deejaying, in the beginning, I went to a lot of free parties which were not really my thing, mostly because I never consumed class-A narcotics. I started deejaying after the era where Hardcore was more popular (beginning in the 90's) and thus I didn't witness those days you might be referring to. I've also always been an outsider and Hardcore Italia was not my thing either so to be honest the experience that I have at events in Italy is either smaller Drum & Bass events or free-party raves.

Q. Did your musical career begin under the name D Tox? Why did you decide to create your own music?

I started in those Trackergroup days, I developed my first website with the OG PHP/MYSQL stack and I created a website which was called Vitamin K where producers could publish their releases. Back then there were no tutorials or plugins and you needed to be very creative with what you had in your hands to come up with something remotely decent.

Q. You released the "Avalon EP" under the name D-Tox in 2008 on Head Fuck Negative. Can you tell us about the background of this record?

That record came out many years after I started producing. This is because, compared to nowadays, when I started the learning curve was really steep and on the tech side, the first plugins were not where we are now. At the time I met the current label online, I made that EP using Renoise, and funny enough I had Angerfist sending me someone saying that I could not use one of the acapella that was featured in that record because he wanted to use it himself... I released it anyway.

After that record, I released on Randy 909 which, funny enough, was the previous owner of Head Fuck Records and was (is?) still mad about not owning that record label anymore. The story of the label is controversial, it was first under the D-Boy umbrella and then it was sold....

Even if vinyl was already a dying business, these first releases started giving me some visibility (Instagram was not really a thing, you were supposed to be able to produce music before you got booked) and I put the "step in the door" so to speak.

Q. When did you start working as Lowroller? What is the origin of this name?

A Low roller is a person who bets low and plays his card to stay afloat.

Which is exactly how I felt back then.

A lot of my music has been very negative because this is how I felt for a long time. Now I have turned my life around and I am not the same person anymore but I am still publishing music under this alias because quite honestly I can not be bothered to start everything from scratch once again.

Q. Lowroller is known as Crossbreed's earliest producer. When did you first learn of Crossbreed?

I can't tell you exactly when I discovered Drum & Bass but it was shortly before Hardcore. Early Hardcore production features a lot of breakbeats too but not exactly in that crossbreed formula. I also liked a lot of breakcore on labels like Bloody Fist and Drum & Bass which would feature rave elements itself. This said The Outside Agency released a track with SPL that made me think "I want to be part of this". The EP contained a tune called "Separated Ways" which inspired my track "Mixbreed Soldier" even though I think I ended up with something completely different.

Not so long after, I released the first Hardcore (Crossbreed) EP ever released on PRSPCT with some collaborations with Igneon System. Up till 2011 the label released exclusively Hard Drum & Bass but there were no 4X4 Hardcore tracks on it.

Q. Nekrolog1k Recordings and you released several masterpieces of Crossbreed in the first period (2011-2013). What was your vision at the time?

I wanted to do my own thing, I wanted to push buttons and see what happened. I was not planning it to be something commercially viable, I was simply happy to release music that would make me happy in the first place. I remember a year around that period releasing about 20+ tracks...that's insane. I just locked myself in the studio and kept working on this noise.

Q. I think Crossbreed gained more popularity from the Hardcore scene than Drum & Bass. Why do you think this style did not spread in the Drum & Bass scene? What do you think is the greatest achievement that Crossbreed has given?

I talked about this with Freqax some years ago. Funny enough, I identify Crossbreed as a Hardcore subgenre while he identifies Crossbreed as a Drum & Bass subgenre...and we might be both right...or wrong...who cares lol?

In Hard Drum & Bass, Crossbreed received some level of backlash from the old-school purists of the genre but Hard Drum & Bass itself nowadays it's really a rare beast to come across nowadays.

As for Drum & Bass / Neurofunk, I was rather surprised to find out that many people in this genre are elitists and want to keep the status quo: it's very difficult to release on certain labels and there is a fair amount of politics involved. I didn't expect this from D&B, to be honest.

This said I also encountered some resentment from some Drum & Bass producers against Hardcore in general, it makes me sad and makes the scene miserable: I think that electronic is all about contamination and not boundaries. I think that the biggest achievement of Crossbreed was to open the door between 2 of the most important genres in the electronic rave culture.

Q. About the mysterious producer N3AR. You have released a collaborative EP with him, what was he like? What was your most impressive collaboration with him?

Me and N3AR are still very good friends and talk on a day-to-day basis. In the beginning, it was me giving him some tips about music production but I believe that he surpassed me pretty fast. I would love to do some more music with him but we are both in a moment where we have other things to do and we are not 100% into music production anymore...we just produce when we want or have some spare time/energy. I liked working together with him on the track "Badass", Dubstep & Hardcore was still a new combination to try out and we were both trying more dancefloor-oriented stuff at the time. Too bad it came out on MOH though: it's horrible how you have to make your own artwork, promotion, etc. with so little promotion in return...I think that the music we made there deserved a little push.

Q. You released the album Collabs And Resurrections in 2013. It is still a masterpiece and has very impressive content. What is the background behind the creation of this album? Why did you release it on CD?

At the time CDs were still a relevant media, as laptops and cars had integrated players, and pressing vinyl was and is extremely expensive not to mention the fact that you will have to wait forever to get something out. Even though this album came out on Nekrolog1k, I had to do everything myself once again. I contacted the artists and made the collabs with them, mastered the tracks, hired an artist for the cover, paid for the press...and of course did all the promotion. I think that I'm a much better producer nowadays, but with the means I had at hand at the time I managed to pull off a small miracle.

Q. You have released on Masters Of Hardcore and performed at large Hardcore festivals. What was it like for you in those relatively commercial venues? How has your awareness changed as a result of being in those places?

I was really excited about playing at those festivals, especially the first times, and looking back, that was the only way to reach a larger crowd.

However, working with Most Wanted was a disappointing experience.

ID&T owns most of the festivals and agencies: this opens the door to a conflict of interests that should not be allowed in the first place. Your agency should separated from being the promoter and the label and as an artist, you are the only one who is going to pay the consequences.

Q. What is your current music production method? What is the most enjoyable part of music production?

I just finished an album by starting the tracks in FL Studio and finishing them off in Bitwig. I use Serum to synthesize 90% of my sounds and I use almost exclusively its internal FX especially when it comes to Kicks. In my studio, I have Adam A7X speakers, an RME Fireface UC soundcard, Beyerdynamic DT-990 headphones, and some synthesizers (Nord Lead 4, Access Virus TI 2, JP-8080) and a few FX processors like the Sherman Filterbank 2. However, most of what I do can be generated entirely with plugins nowadays.

To me music it's therapy: I don't do this for money, I just have this itch I need to scratch, and releasing these ideas makes me feel like getting things out of my system. It feels good, I seriously have no other motivation, I do it for myself and if you like what I do is great but it's purely a side-effect.

Q. When you are in a slump in your music production, how do you get out of it?

It happened before starting my previous album, this is why I learned FL Studio.

The DAW doesn't allow me to do anything I wouldn't be able to do in Bitwig, but having to re-learn a pattern forced me to let go of those automated mechanisms that could've forced me to repeat myself.

Q. I find your music cynical and rebellious. They make your music original. Are these factors deliberate?

My life changed a lot and the music I make nowadays is not the same thing I used to make.

While I totally recognize what you say in my previous works, the new stuff is going to be different because I'm a different man and I have evolved beyond my old self.

I don't really believe in crafting music to be something on purpose. I mean music should be the expression of who you are and how you feel in that particular moment in life.

I think originality should come from the fact that each one of us has a unique view, history, and influences that make us who we are.

Q. Which of your own songs do you like best?

At the time of the release of this interview, this answer will not make much sense, but my favorite track is "To Be Loved" (it's currently unreleased and will be my album opener).

It showcases the complexity I'm capable of in terms of sound design, harmony, arrangement, and narrative. It spaces between moods and genres and it took forever to produce it but I'm really proud.

Q. What was the best club night/festival you have ever experienced?

I would say Thunderdome in 2012, it was supposed to be the last edition and everyone was literally out of their mind LOL. I also like some earlier MOH editions when the industrial area was still a thing

Q. What do you think of the current Hardcore industry/community?

I think Hardcore has reached rock bottom. It's extremely rare to come across something I like and Uptempo has spread like a terminal cancer. This is why many Hardcore deejays are migrating towards Techno and in this latest album, I am partially doing that too in a certain way.

As I mentioned before, on the business side there is a monopoly by ID&T which has substantially robbed listeners of the opportunity to choose festivals in a healthy market where there's fair competition between major players and artists to make professional choices that will not heavily backfire on them if they don't go along with a consolidated elite who decides everything.

Q. I hear you have plans to release a new album. What will it be?

My new album will be a collection of 9 tracks that are on the slower side of Industrial while also spacing through different genres like Glitch, Trance, and Hardcore. "To be loved & to let go" is the story of what I've been through in the last 2 years where I experienced an incredibly wide spectrum of emotions and things which inspired me to put these tracks together.

It will be available for free on my www.lowroller.wtf website as well as on all streaming platforms.

Q. Please give a final message to our readers.

I am extremely close to the music production community because I think there are so many talented artists who have not been discovered yet and who will be able to shape the future of music as we know it. I would like to take this occasion to let you know that I have left the Fragment Audio / We Tweak project because my vision is no longer compatible with one of its board members. I still believe that music producers are my crowd and I will find a different way to contribute to this community in a way that doesn't turn out to be some wanna-be corporate monstrosity.