Juno Daily In The Mix & interview – David Agrella
Two hours of Agrella at his best
With Italian roots and a South London base, David Agrella is steadily garnering a reputation for quality techno with the emotion of house and the compulsive hypnotism of minimal.
His Agrellomatica Records (AGR) label recently issued its fifth release, with Agrella revisiting his own ‘Modulo’ track for a remix, alongside reworkings from the acid house legend Baby Ford, GNMR and NDR. To help him celebrate its birth, we invited Agrella to take to the decks and roll out a bumper two hours of label highlights and other favourites, as well as answer a few questions from the always nosey – erm, inquisitive – Juno Daily editorial team.
First of all, can you tell us where you are right now, and what kind of day you’re having… Been anywhere already or going anywhere interesting later?
Right now, I’m headed back to my studio, ready to work on some tracks and feeling inspired after a great time at a cosy café in Camberwell, chatting with a friend over coffee and cake about exciting projects and ideas. Kicked off the week by touching base with my label’s PR and the awesome producers I’m collaborating with. Future releases and remixes are in the works! This Summer, you’ll find me globetrotting between London, Italy, and Ibiza, juggling multiple projects and in the DJ booth as always. Can’t wait to return to Pikes in Ibiza and LPS in London in the coming weeks.
Explain what were you aiming for with your mix please
The aim behind this mix, and most of my ideal DJ set is to englobe as much as I can my diverse musical influences, where’s possible, in a way that would bridge them and still be fluid for the dance floor. Not always possible, you need a very curious crowd and low expectations, ingredients for my favorite type of dancefloor. This mix is definitely more focused on my downtempo to techno side as I did not play any disco or house here.
Its starts at about 100 bpm of cosmic/slow techno, going up through neuro-funk, electro (Detroit/German crossover), new-beat/ebm, rave, new kraut, tribal 90’s tech house, Balearic/trance, and some of my own productions. I find this approach free but also quite challenging both in the musical research and when it comes to mixing those diversities together.
I also very much enjoy playing a more stripped-down set to my core genres Deep/Techno.
Tell us a bit about your early years – where you grew up and what your first memories of music are. What persuaded you to cross the lines from being a music fan into making music?
I grow up in a very small town of Campania (South Italy) called Benevento. I started to play records at 15, then became a resident in some clubs in my hometown and after a few years I was introduced to music production by a very good friend of mine, Matteo, who was already djing and producing from a couple of years before!
My first memories of music go back to when I was barely walking as my elder sister used to study and play classical piano.
At the age of 5 or 6 years old, I have memories of Italian songwriters my parents used to listen from Mina to Matia Bazar, Mango to name a few, the incredible Neapolitan songwriter Pino Daniele to the R’n’B of Lisa Stansfield from my brother’s collection and all the pop, electronic and 90’s house tunes at the time.
I fell in love with the artist that was Michael Jackson at 6 years old and I think that was very influential to develop my love for black music, that Quincy Jones touch that only some years later was fundamental to embracing and understanding House Music when I approached Djing.
After a few years, I finished high school aka ‘Esame di Maturita’’’ I had a constant question in mind and that was ‘What is the sound? Where it comes from? How the music I play is generated?’. A question with no way back.
I was also working as a hairdresser at the time at my father’s salon/ family business before moving to Rome and studying sound design at Saint Louise Music College. That is when I seriously dedicated myself to producing music. I fell in love with Synthesizers.
Tell us about your history of releases to date….
My first release is called ‘Modulo’. An ambient/techno-minimal track I did in 2006, right when I was finishing my sound design studies in Rome. It was then released a year later in 2007 by Meadow Lark, a sub-label of the infamous Elettronica Romana, from the Record Shop Remix, at the time run by Sandro Nasonte & Freddy K. Modulo has been recently reissued (last month) with a re-work from myself and 3 beautiful remixes. Some copies of the Vinyl may still be still available on Juno’s shelves, and you can check it out!
After a couple of years, I made a Disco/House Remix for a very good friend of mine, the mighty Paolo from ‘Tutto Matto’ aka Super Paolo (Disco Milk Records).
I remember I was very confused about what direction to take as there was a huge gap between Modulo, which is a very introspective minimal Techno trip, and the disco remix I did for Paolo, called Saturday Night, and then to follow up another, this time a deeper/tech-infused remix called ‘What Can I Do’.
A few years ago I asked Paolo to remove ‘Saturday Night’ from the distributor!!! (Mega Lol).
In those years I was experimenting with finding my voice and I was too curious to explore the beautiful facets that our electronic music is made of. It took me about 15 years to bridge that gap (lol). I understood that the full spectrum of House, Techno, and Disco is part of my musical influences and I wanted to bridge them together as much as possible.
After that, I had many ups and downs and stop for a while caused by mental health problems already undergoing for some years plus challenging work life.
Jumped back to doing some more cosmic/indie disco stuff and continued exploring my musical spectrum, releasing on other labels, regularly djing in London, managing some venue’s music programming, and doing engineering/production work.
In 2021, I started Agrellomatica Records (AGR), a platform for expressing electronic dance music.
What was the attraction of starting your label? What are the best and worst bits of running things totally DiY?
Freedom. I wanted to start a label to be free of producing my own sound. Since I am the main artist of the label, the admin/publishing is not so boring and elaborate. The promoting side of it is challenging.
Tell us about the remixers you’ve managed to get on board, a pretty impressive list
I believe that managing a label while being the artist/producer is incredibly beneficial because it allows you to speak the same language when approaching another artist for a remix, fostering a genuine collaboration. It’s all about mutual respect and a shared passion for something greater than ourselves among the artists involved. So far, I’ve had the opportunity to exchange ideas and collaborate with some remarkable talents like Beroshima, Mr. Barcode, NDR, GNMR, the London-based N-Gynn and Ben Hauke, and the legendary Baby Ford.
What inspires you to write? Specific producers, bands, scenes etc…
I take inspiration from my surrounding, from my musical background, from the artists that came before and have paved the way, from a chat with a good friend, from a wicked night out listening to a very inspiring DJ set, from the sound of the nature, from the serendipity, from my imagination. All convey into channeling my vision to create something that represents me and that most of the time I envision in a specific club, space, or scenario.
I think living a creative life is what leads to being more fluid in making music or in every form of art. I am very careful of the surroundings, curious and non-judgemental but constructively challenging, I’m inspired by my peers, the supportive friends.
What else influences you – non-musical things like films, architecture, food…anything
A solo trip, a day in a not-too-busy gallery, a walk in the wood, watching the sea.
I like Robots. I like to read books. Some of my favorite reading includes Art & Fear, The Gift of Imperfection, A tu per Tu con la Paura, The Now Habit, Inner Glimpse, The Power Of Now, Emotional Intelligence, The War of Art, Mondo Techno, Last Night A Dj Saved My Life, Outliers. Currently, readings are Driven To Distraction and Atomic Habits.
I don’t watch many movies but at the top of my head what I really like, is Mulholland Drive, Scarface, almost All the Woody Allen and Sorrentino, the Italian funny comedies from 80/90’s, Do The Right Thing, Queen & Slim.
Food! The list can be infinite here, I love food, in particular spaghetti alle vongole, pizza, mozzarella di bufala, lasagna, ragu, Spanish tapas, Turkish food, a great steak, obviously the Iberico ham, red wine and all the nice things the world of cuisine can offer.
I’m fascinated by architecture when a great work of art meets its functionality. I love Ghery and Gaudi, both for their shapes and colors.
Any other future plans we should know about?
I’m very excited about the new releases and collaborations coming out both on AGR and on other cool labels between 2023/2024, and the start of a new sub-label!
- Tzusing – Introduction
- Tzusing – Take Advantage
- Die Jungle – Luz y Dos (Original Mix)
- Die Jungle – Pandora EP (MR TC’s Combinado Mix)
- Salvatore Stallone – Brian Off (Re-Edit)
- Drexciya – Habitat O Negative (Original Mix)
- Master Program Hallo (KWK Mix)
- Caldera x Yushh – Suss Choc – Two
- SUKI – Phonosynthesis
- The New Composers – Sputnik Of Life (Mix 2 Extended)
- L&M A Rhythm To Make You (Cuicca Mix)
- N-Gynn – Revolution
- Joe Milli – Darling
- Adam Pits – Spreadable
- Centuras – Ideal Planet
- SANDOZ – Orgasmatron 127
- Maara & Priori – C’mon
- Xes Noiz – B3
- Intooitive Plane – Plane I
- Massimo Vivona – Minifunk Part 2
- Fred und Luna – AventÅre 1
- Bouffant Bouffant – Espace Imaginaire
- Vanitas by Contessa Pinina Garavaglia – Audace Ci Piace (Rare Mix)
- PQM – You Are Sleeping (PQM’s Deephead Pass)
- Unknown Artist – TCR002
- D.A. (TBA)
- David Agrella – Transition (Floor Mix)
- Syzygy – Can I Dream
- SANDOZ – Biosynthetic (Afpc Mix)
Ben Willmott