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Front de Cadeaux



Front de Cadeaux
Interview (2022)
 




We would like to start with your origin. Were you familiar with music as a child? Please tell us about your background, including what kind of environment you grew up in.
Maurizio I grew up listening to the music that my older brothers listened to, mostly Italian pop like Lucio Battisti or Loredana Bertè. I was born in 1971 and therefore I grew up with the music of the 80s. During my youth, I frequented clubs both in Italy and in Belgium.
So I had a double influence: when I was in Italy I listened to Italo disco which was predominant at that time, and in Belgium I was influenced by the new beat sound, a musical movement close to acid house from Chicago.
UgoMy parents were immigrants. They moved to France in 1960 from the south of Italy; in the 70s, they came back to Rome and built their house in the countryside just outside the city. So I grew up in a rural context, with animals and helping the family with farm work. We didn’t have any TV, but we had records. Both my mother and father were great dancers and singers. They had a lot of fun in Paris in the 60s going to parties on the weekends, so my early years and childhood were all around the records they got back in Paris, a lot of twist vibes and French melodic songs. I was the youngest of the family and all my cousins used to play with me and they were into glam rock and into acrobatic dancing.
What kind of culture or music did you gravitate toward when you were younger?
MaurizioDuring my youth I listened many different styles of music: new wave, psychobilly, techno, house, hip hop, dub, ambient, industrial, experimental, space rock and psychedelic music from the UK free-festival scene. I notably released a compilation recently—DJ Athome presents Spaced Out!—dedicated to this period of my youth.

DJ Athome presents Spaced Out!
 Mental Groove Records / Musique Pour La Danse
2021




UgoI asked for a double cassette and radio portable sound system for my primary school graduation, so I started listening to free radio, and recording music and sound on cassettes. At first, I was into Wham! along with Spandau Ballet, Simply Red, Madonna, Cock Robin, and deeply in love with George Michael. Then through the radio in the late 80s, I discovered hip hop and underground house music. The rhythm of house music and funk hip hop helped me a lot to be more confident with my sexual desires that were more and more focused on men.
Please tell us about the earliest memory you have in which you were moved by music?
MaurizioThe first time I felt moved by music was when I played 7” records on my first turntable that I received for my 12th birthday. I had a ritual of buying new records each week. I also felt early on a deep sensation when I started listening to the DJ mix sessions that I had recorded from the famous Italian radio station, Rai Stereo Due, on my Walkman. Discovering the art of mixing and scratching has been relevant as well for my musical taste. I was in shock when I saw the movie Beat Street discovering the culture of DJing, breakdancing, scratching and graffiti.
UgoThe phono suitcase that my parents brought from France was my first and main toy. As far back as I can remember, I used to spend hours in front of this small turntable playing records and making sounds: touching the vinyl, changing the speed of the records by playing them fast and slow and in reverse. Well, my parents were a bit disappointed but at the same time they encouraged this way of playing with music by providing me new records for my birthdays or for Christmas Eve, and my older cousins did the same. I remember very well that I got a 7” of the tale of “Hansel and Gretel” for my 6th birthday. A few years later, I got a Walkman for cassettes.
What people, works, or events have influenced the development of your own sensibilities and values as a musician?
MaurizioI frequented squats and self-managed places a lot and that frankly determined the direction in which I wanted to evolve musically. These places, more than regular clubs, offer the freedom that every musician needs to start producing.
UgoWhen I was a teenager and already attracted by hip-hop grooves and early house, I met a DJ, older than me, and we attended the same high school (that was into visual arts and communication). He totally inspired me since it was the first time I saw a DJ scratching and mixing and dancing. We spent a lot of time together after school lessons, I guess I was a pain in the ass for him— I was 14 and wanted to play with those turntables. And I finally put my hands on the mixer and danced, danced, danced. He actually was a super break-dancer! Then soon after I had an intense love relationship with a guy totally into alternative rock, post-punk, industrial, post rock and the scene of squats and independent alternative music. So a completely different vision, with more sounds to explore and more pleasure.
You both have extensive experience as DJs and party organizers. What was your career before you started working as Front de Cadeaux (F2C)?
MaurizioBefore Front de Cadeaux, in the late 90s I produced two mini albums Everybody’s Jabitudiliki, and later I started to make remixes for other artists. Around the same time, I created an independent label, Pneu Records, with some friends and we published our own productions with a “do-it-yourself” approach. In the early 2000s, along with the same group of friends who are DJs, musicians, graphic designers, we decided to organize our own free parties called Palais Chalet, inviting local and international artists. These parties took always place in squats located in Belgium, France, and Switzerland. 
From 1996 to 2018, I had a weekly radio show called Brussels Alternative Show on the local station Radio Panik. During the last years, I collaborated with other artists from Brussels who joined me on this radio show. We moved this show from the studio to a bar located in the heart of Brussels which allowed us to broadcast both on the FM network and on the internet using a mobile studio. In addition to amazing local artists from Brussels we had the chance to have international guests as well.
Also before Front de Cadeaux, I was playing as Dj Athome mostly in Brussels and later in Rome after I met Ugo in 2006.
Ugo I used to write about electronic music from the mid 90s for alternative press and fanzines. So I had the chance to meet a lot of artists and DJs touring in Rome or going to festivals around Europe—covering Sonar festival for many editions in the late 90s— to report on the “new” electronic scene. I used to work as a copywriter for advertising agencies at that time, and from 2000 I started an independent design studio with other musicians. For almost seven years, we organized parties, festivals, and produced music. One of the people from the collective—called radiodd— was Rodion; we spent a lot of time together in the studio, and he definitely taught me how to use machines and record sound. We worked together on the first Rodion productions, and together we produced a lot as Alien Alien. We are still producing music together. As a DJ I’ve always been into queer alternative scene organizing and playing music in squats; and in the independent scene taking part in the homosexual movement involved in dance culture.
Maurizio lives in Brussels, and Ugo lives in Rome. How did you perceive the trends and changes in dance music at the time in your respective cities?
MaurizioBrussels has always been a city very concerned with music due to the presence of many artists but also many very different music scenes. The perceived change is more about technological development, for example the concept of web radios streaming live. Kiosk Radio located in the Royal Park of Brussels has revolutionized the perception of the local scene by bringing together the artists who are performing monthly. For sure, music is more accessible now when compared to the past.
UgoI feel like there is more and more distance between underground music and commercial music. A lot more people are getting into DIY culture, and technology’s development has given an easy access to production. In particular, I listen to many people playing very different and unusual music, more and more.
How did you two meet and develop your relationship? Did you feel a resonance in your tastes and approach to music from the beginning?
MaurizioWe met on a gay chat for bears (gay men who are fat, hairy, and bearded), but instead of talking about sex we quickly started to talk about our first passions: music and DJing. Ugo invited me to play at his party and we understood directly that we were connected, and producing music together was the logical next step.
How did you then go on to form F2C in 2013? Did you play 45rpm records at a reduced playback speed of 33rpm before that?
MaurizioYes, I used to play records at the wrong speed before we started F2C. In Belgium, there was a tradition to play some tracks at the wrong speed during the New Beat period. We didn’t invent anything in this point of view.
UgoActually, one of the DJs who taught me how to DJ was Marco Foresta—a.k.a. Fabio Fabio from the Italian collective Ivreatronic— and he used to consider the turntable as an instrument to generate and create sounds, using it in any different way. This was also in line with my memories of the phono suitcase from my childhood. As a DJ, I started mixing hip hop and trip-hop with old Italian soundtracks, so I played a lot with speed. It was only when I met Maurizio that I went deep into this practice.