The DJ Sessions host Darran Bruce connects with legendary producer and label owner Massimo Vivona, joined by Seborn (Sebastian), in an insightful Virtual Sessions episode that bridges history, innovation, and the future of electronic music. From Sedona to Phoenix, the conversation explores how Massimo continues to champion creativity through his work on Headzone Records while developing collaborative projects that blend ambient, electronic, and jazz-inspired elements.
Massimo reflects on decades of experience in the music industry, from the golden days of vinyl to today’s rapidly evolving digital ecosystem. He discusses challenges like the high cost of vinyl distribution, the influence of major labels, and the importance of maintaining artistic integrity in an era where commercial pressures often overshadow creativity. Drawing from his extensive catalog of over 65 releases, six albums, and numerous global compilations, Massimo emphasizes the enduring value of analog processes and live mixing to create tracks that remain timeless.
Seborn brings a fresh perspective as an emerging talent, working closely with Massimo on experimental projects that merge guitar, trumpet, and electronic textures. Their collaboration highlights the importance of mentoring the next generation while pushing boundaries beyond traditional genres.
Together, they discuss the realities of modern festivals, the financial pressures on artists, and the “gatekeeping” that can limit exposure for talented newcomers. Despite these challenges, Massimo remains passionate about building platforms that honor quality, experimentation, and longevity.
This captivating discussion offers fans and industry insiders alike a rare look into the philosophies of a true pioneer, while spotlighting Seborn as a rising name to watch.
Host: Darran Bruce Guests: Massimo Vivona & Seborn Location: Virtual Studios, Seattle WA & Phoenix, AZ
Topics Covered:
- Massimo’s journey from Sedona to Phoenix and his pioneering legacy in electronic music
- Reflections on Headzone Records, six albums, and 65+ singles
- Challenges of vinyl production and international distribution costs
- Philosophies on timeless music vs. commercial, short-lived trends
- Analog vs. digital production approaches and why analog maintains a unique value
- Collaboration with Seborn: blending jazz-inspired elements with electronic music
- Mentorship and supporting emerging artists in the industry
- Festival culture, artist pay, and economic realities for performers
- Industry gatekeeping and its impact on new talent
- Technology and production tools: Cubase, Studio One, and the role of AI
- Streaming platforms, Bandcamp, and the modern landscape for music distribution
- Closing thoughts on authenticity, creativity, and innovation in electronic music
Call to Action: Explore Massimo Vivona’s catalog on major platforms and discover Seborn’s collaborative projects. massimovivona.com Find more exclusive interviews and live sessions at thedjsessions.com
About Massimo Vivona -
Massimo Vivona was born in Sicily, Italy. He was young and impressionable during the explosion of electronic influence in music and was absolutely captivated by the 'other worldly' sounds that were able to be achieved through experimentation of electronic instrumentation. Groups such as Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk, Rockets and Mike Oldfield were all a huge inspiration for Massimo to go deeper into his passion for music production. Also influenced by funk, Massimo cites tremendous inspiration was sparked by artists such as Johnny Guitar Watson and James Brown.
Massimo began Dj'ing at age 11 at events in Sicily and these events kept growing larger. Upon coming of age, Massimo moved to Germany to pursue music production further. When his first production "De Largo' was complete, he gave it to Pete Namlook of FAX RECORDS label in Frankfurt. Torsten Fenslau, the manager of club DORIAN GRAY in Frankfurt got a hold of the single and it was soon after placed at #1 on the club charts in Germany. This began Massimo's international DJ career.
Massimo has over 65 releases, including 6 albums and has been featured on over 85 s
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Hey everyone, guess what happens when you don't turn the logo off for your own show and you get ready to go live?
It stays in place!
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the DJ Sessions Presents The Virtual Sessions.
I'm your host, Darran, and right now I'm sitting in the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington, and coming in from Phoenix, Arizona, with a guest in the studio all the way from Sedona, we have Massimo Vivona and...
(00:32):
Seborn!
Seborn!
Seborn is Sebastian.
Right on, awesome!
Well, thank you two for coming on the show today, Massimo.
It's been a long time since we last chatted, but I know you've been up to a lot of stuff, got a lot of information to go through here today on this series, and thank you for being a long-time fan of the show, I really appreciate it.
Wouldn't be here without you and people and talent, and with all your hard work and dedication, we wouldn't have a show.
(00:58):
It'd just be the Darran Hour and me talking to myself, which my high school teacher in civics class said, Darran, if anyone else gets caught talking in class, they're going to get put in a room with Darran for the rest of the year, and I'm going to give you an A.
And the teacher then looked at me and said, Darran, if you get caught talking in class, I'm going to put you in a room by yourself and give you an A.
(01:19):
And I said, sign me up!
He was actually a really great teacher, but it's funny saying that, yeah, I can talk, I can talk, I can talk.
When we talk about me and my history and my high school upbringings, we want to talk about Massimo Vivona, and what have you been up to recently?
Yeah, hello.
(01:41):
First of all, I am glad to stay here with the DJ session.
It's beautiful and creativity, what I like to bring, you know, so I am very, very, very, very happy to stay here with you and do this interview.
(02:01):
And I'm missing many, many, many, many things in my life, but, you know, the time I go to America, everything has changed.
So, and, you know, everyone changes, everything changes.
So, yeah, and it's beautiful.
And tonight, or now, we have one very big, big guy here, stay with me in my room.
(02:31):
And this is Sebastian.
It's a big, big talent.
The father.
So the fact was, so I've been going to Sedona for four days, and I would like to go eat something very nice.
And I googled and I found a new restaurant.
(02:54):
The name is Vespa.
And I say, oh, that's new here in Sedona.
Before, it was not here.
So I would go, and then I meet the papa.
And you see, we have step-by-step do the argument about music and the restaurant, the pizzeria, you know, but it's not pizzeria.
(03:15):
This is a nice restaurant, lunch, very, very, very beautiful style.
And so I meet him, and we have been talking.
And from, oh, yeah, my junior, he's very talented.
He must hear the music.
And so I waited for one month before we meet together.
(03:38):
And now we do together some Basel project.
And, well, you know, normally Edson Records never working with other artists.
But it's a little complicated about music style.
I don't want to do wrong critique to the people.
(04:00):
Well, everyone like the music what he love.
And Papa Sebastian, I pay attention, and I see, wow, everything is different, very experimental, and very nice sound, you know.
So I would say, wow, that done go something good, you know.
(04:21):
Well, you know, I see that you mentioned some show notes here.
You're working with, like, electronic, ambient, and jazz style music now.
Sounds like that's kind of my favorite kind of genre.
I listen to an internet radio station out of San Francisco by Soma FM called Groove Salad.
(04:43):
And everyone knows me.
Yeah, I know Groove Salad.
They say Soma FM.
Yep, Soma FM.
Anyone that knows me that's my good friend knows that if Darran's not doing a show, if Darran's not listening to an exclusive mix, he's not driving the truck, everywhere he's at, Soma FM, Groove Salad.
I love Soma FM.
I love it.
(05:04):
And probably on my tombstone, there will be a solar panel.
Cool.
And people are going to be able to basically – I probably will put a QR code on my thing so they'll be able to go to the website and still see the archives of the Go Day sessions.
But there will also be a link there that will get people to go to SomaFM.comGrooveSalad. So if you want to know what I'm chilling in in the afternoon, it's all my old episodes.
(05:30):
I finally got time to watch them all, right, because I got 2,600 of them and 2,700 in county.
But also, if you want to chill out with me, go to Soma FM.
And you always say, hey, Darran's sitting on cloud nine listening to Soma FM.
So tell me about this electronic ambient jazz sound music that you're putting together.
Is that working with you and Sebastian putting that together?
(05:51):
Is that your own endeavor?
Yeah.
So we're doing the future couple project together.
We've seen them working while – the fact is our time is amazing.
It's not so light while he lives in Sedona.
I live in Phoenix.
So we try every month to go.
Maybe one time I go, he or he come here.
(06:14):
And the fact is I like to work with him together in the future while it's young, talent, fresh, and he have a very, very good quality in the sound.
So the good thing is that every single artist have a fast, I'm going to say, not so direct, but I'm going to say I don't see any qualification in the form for electronic music, house music, ambient music, chill out, and, and, and.
(06:53):
So we try to do in the future couple project about jazz, not so directly hard rock, but something very experimental with guitar and trumpet, and, and, and, and.
That's also – it takes much, much power in this project as well.
(07:14):
Nice.
Yeah.
You're running Headzone Records as well as an independent label.
Is that part of a new division of Headzone as well?
Yes.
Yes.
So we think that now I'm starting to do better while the full time was a little, not chaos, but from time here was not the capacity to invest of this project.
(07:41):
You know, while Headzone Records is, you know, it's unique records where many people between Instagram, Facebook, in the social media, keep their attention of what Headzone bring out or what he release.
But the last, the last release was in 2000, I think 2011, I think was the last release with Stella Chand.
(08:09):
And, and then a couple of years before was The Way and a couple of things.
But the last 10 years never ever released an album or that's also just digital.
But the people I see what's going on between Facebook, Instagram, back end, and the people love to have vinyl.
(08:36):
The point is that the people sometimes not understand how much it cost.
Example, I have one customer from Berlin.
She buy the vinyl for eight months ago.
So everything, yeah, no problem.
So I go to the post to send the packet.
The post tell me cost $300 to send one vinyl for 45 big vinyl.
(09:08):
I say, that is extreme.
So I'm not going to send a vinyl that cost, for example, $17.
She will pay first $18.
And I'm going to send $300 for post free, just from United States to Berlin.
So I do the contact in Germany.
(09:29):
And then, well, I have the vinyl in Germany, you know, in my house.
So this is a little complicated with this expedition.
Here in the United States, it's okay.
But when you go out to Europe, this is a little expensive.
So that's why we don't have released so much.
(09:50):
Well, we don't know exactly if the people would like to buy the vinyl online.
But the mass public, so the customer, are having the Europa, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Scotland, England, all around the full Europa.
(10:14):
But in America too, but they buy more so digital, you know.
So that's why I'm not having release so special, so big.
But could be that now we release one and could be out, as they suggested, for Territorium in America.
Nice.
What do you think, what is the most important thing that record labels nowadays should be doing for their artists?
(10:43):
And whatever it is, are they doing a good job of that as a whole?
As the community of record labels, as you see releases come out from other labels around the world and even your own label, what is the most important thing that they should be doing for their artists?
So I think festival, from my experience, where I began in 1993 and now in 2025, the point is that sometime in the place of Sony Music, Warner Chappell, BMG Arriola, I don't know if you know BMG Arriola, or Virgin, or Edel, and other big label names, that is quasi so that artists have a little heavy.
(11:38):
Festival, the mass is extreme.
But the extremity is to look one good or ten artists good.
It's considered quasi that the sound must be more unique.
(11:59):
That's the label condition.
Well, sometimes you make so very nice a track, everything's fine, and you go in the place, in the office, and first of all, you need an appointment.
Then you need to write.
And then maybe you need a friend.
And then you need this.
And then you need this.
(12:19):
From my experience, what I do with Sony Music, so I produce one track.
What's happening?
I go to my friend, I say, look who I hear.
Oh, yeah, I know my friend.
He's working for Sony, blah, blah, blah.
So then you receive four shoes, an account payment.
(12:41):
This moves to dividend between three people.
So I'm thinking I'll use the product.
Then it must stay the name from the master, from the guy.
And the producer, co-producer must stay there.
That is the wrong way to go with the talent and the artist.
So they must form this big, big industry label.
(13:04):
You need more, I would say, you need more qualification people and more soul to consider the artist.
If it's not good, it's not good.
Okay?
So maybe they don't like.
But you need to do more, more qualification in this option where the people work in this office.
(13:33):
Okay?
More pay attention.
Well, I know it's just Bieber or other big artists.
This is just name and show, you know?
So we're talking here for qualification for the next generation.
So if the people take care every time on the same level, just Bieber or Timberland or Puff Daddy or I don't know where.
(14:03):
So the fact is this is a block, block.
Quality, like not to risk, to go far away on the high level.
So, for example, when I talk for myself, when, for example, I have been working and nobody will consider my music in the headstone records.
(14:29):
What's happening?
I meet my ex-partner and he say, Massimo, you know what?
We do one label together.
You take care of the music.
I take care of the business.
So I say, okay.
So that's not perfect.
And later, later, everyone from this big, big label industry with Sony and then the other, they, oh, can I please have your license for your release?
(14:58):
Oh, can I have your license for this?
So we have been working, okay?
But I don't like this system.
It's, for me, I consider it's hard to hear, but this is so, this is hard mafia.
And this, yes, this is directed for me to tell this art mafia, you know somebody, you come in this process.
(15:25):
You don't know somebody, you is nobody.
So, and that is not fair considered to artists.
If I had the potential, I will take care of 10, 20 artists.
If I had the potential.
I have that conversation with people all the time.
And it's a hard truth, a hard fact.
(15:45):
There are gatekeepers and I don't BS with anyone anymore.
Knowing what I know, who I've talked to, people like yourself, other industry leaders that have been in the game for 30 plus years.
And, you know, not that I want to dissuade anyone from having a career, in the entertainment industry.
Let's take the whole bubble of the entertainment industry.
(16:07):
Not just electronic music production.
But it's, I always said this with my own television show.
And I think you'll see how the pyramid goes.
Is at any time in my local city here, there could be a million people with a television show idea.
I came up with this a long time ago.
Then out of a million people, 10% of those might say, Hey, I'm going to look into doing something to produce this television show idea.
(16:35):
And that's going to step up to 100,000 people.
Then out of those 100,000 people, some of them might, let's take 10% of those people and they say, Hey, I might go take some schooling, get a video camera, buy a computer.
Maybe go take some classes or do something to learn online.
And that puts them at a million, 100,000, 10,000.
(16:56):
10% of those people now puts them at 1,000 people.
And those 1,000 people have spent time, a little bit of money and the resources to get to that.
I mean average, they spent some money to get to that 1,000 people.
Take 10% of those people that actually might be able to go out and be in the film and television industry or in the industry.
(17:17):
That's 100 people.
Then you might get 10% of those.
And that's 10 people that actually have a working product that could be sold.
Then 10% of that, you got one person that actually does it.
Not to toot a horn, but in my local market, back before YouTube and everything existed, I was that one person.
(17:42):
Yeah, it's so important.
That combines all that.
And yeah, and I did it on a very shoestring budget, almost with very – I mean when I was going to college, I ate popcorn for two weeks.
That's what it was like to put my show on broadcast television.
YouTube came out and all that.
But the goal that I'm trying to get here is when you put it down and there's a million people here, and if you step that up, and people say, I'm going to put $1,000 into my brand.
(18:10):
They're going to buy a website.
They're going to get a logo made.
They're going to have their backend spent to get them looking like people want to listen to them around the world.
That's going to put them at a different tier.
If you have somebody that can spend $5,000, that's at a different tier.
They might be able to collaborate or hire a PR person for you to help you do some stuff.
(18:33):
If they spend $10,000, $20,000, so it goes up the ladder.
So when you're getting to this top ladder and everyone is like, oh, I see Martin Garrix or I see Armin van Buuren.
I can be just as good as them.
I'm just as good as a DJ as Armin van Buuren.
Yeah, but Armin van Buuren has an infrastructure behind him.
It goes all the way down and there's big money driving that.
(18:55):
So these artists get into their local environment and they get disenfranchised because they're doing everything like everyone else is doing, the free stuff.
The free stuff is good to have.
They can even come as a producer and they're like, oh, I make my tracks.
Oh, and I master my own tracks.
No, pay somebody else to do that.
Yes, yes.
(19:16):
You know, and have an outside ear on that.
Take some master classes if you're going to go into production.
Take an actual class that's going to get you certified in Ableton or whatever, you know what I'm saying, or Logic.
There aren't too much, but you've got to invest in yourself and, unfortunately, that's going to cost money.
(19:36):
I'll go to our next question, but I remember being a small business owner starting up and I was in a small business and I had my idea, just like everyone else in the room.
But what was their idea and how are they going to make a million dollars?
But they wanted everyone else to give them money, but they didn't have any money of their own.
And it's like, why am I going to give you money and put money into you if you're not willing to risk your own money?
(19:59):
When the barrier to entry for A, DJing, is zero now.
You have six-year-olds that are learning how to DJ.
The barrier to entry for music selection is zero now because everything is digital and not on vinyl, so you don't have limited releases.
So even for film and television, doing interviews, podcasts, barrier for entry.
(20:21):
I've got a podcast.
I'm not knocking anywhere.
We started out with – at least I had broadcast television gear when I started, but now people are going – and I suggest people to start right from their phone.
Start recording from their phone.
My point being is that, yeah, when you touched into the mafia and the quote that you said there, it's a money game.
(20:44):
Entertainment is about money.
It comes down to that.
It's just the truth.
You've had 65 releases, six albums, 85 successful electronic dance music compilations worldwide.
You know this game.
You know what you're talking about.
No, it's just when I see how much these people are burning now, and the Disconnection tried to take $300,000 for one state, as DJ said, that's extraordinary.
(21:22):
When I say Nina Graffiti, Charlotte Dewey, and all the TK, and I see the price for a DJ to play, and when I go to check just is this true or is this fake, so I go to back camp and I check which artist at this time sell the best, and I go in the profile, and they sell nothing on music.
(21:57):
Nothing.
And I understand how it's possible.
Does these people pay $300,000 for one DJ set just for the name Charlotte Dewey?
From that, I can say this is so extremely, or maybe there's propaganda, fake, or maybe we don't know exactly what's going on in there.
(22:27):
Well, if you take a festival that's a touring festival that goes nationwide, let's look at the U.S. I'm not going to call out any names of any major companies, but if they're charging, let's just say $150 a day for a ticket at a venue that holds 30,000 people, do the math.
(22:49):
They do a two-day event.
Let's just use nice round numbers, and let's say it's $200 a day.
That's 60,000 tickets sold for a two-day event times 200.
That's amazing.
Okay, that's one zero.
That's $600,000.
(23:11):
It's amazing.
That's two zeros.
That's $6 million.
Okay, now times that by two.
It's $12 million a show.
Granted, that theater setup that they use tours with them from venue to venue, so they're not building it out at every single place they go to.
They have a West Coast tour.
They have an East Coast setup.
(23:31):
I know, guys.
I've got some of the top lighting designers in the industry who are based here in Seattle.
They're friends of mine.
I know them.
I've done shows with them.
I know how they pack it up and flip it down and use Arizona as a hub point too.
So you've got shows up here in the Northwest or West Coast.
They use certain companies.
East Coast, they send the specs of the show off to the other companies.
They say, build our stage.
(23:52):
It's not the same traveling stage show everywhere.
Insider fact, people.
So that being said, you've got a concert tour and it's touring and it plays 12 different times or it's playing all these different times around the nation and they're booking these artists.
They just got to fly the artists in between all of them.
One.
Two, you're looking at $12 million a weekend.
(24:15):
That's crazy.
If you do, let's just say, 10 events, there's $120 million.
It's amazing.
Even let's say they were walking away after paying everyone from each one of those, $30, $40 million per.
How do you afford to pay these artists $100,000 or $50,000 for a show?
(24:39):
And not really, that's thousands of dollars when you're taking in millions is really not that.
And then the venues themselves, they make all their money off the concessions.
If I have the power, my lips, what I like to booking, we are Kraftwerk.
(25:05):
Kraftwerk would be amazing.
Just Kraftwerk.
No Richard, no Carl Cox, no Paul van Dyck.
No, no, just Kraftwerk.
While the massive Carl Cox, Nina Graffiti, and all the rest from these categories, they pass up and go down.
(25:26):
This go down.
This cannot go every time.
Well, you cannot eat every time tomato sauce.
You cannot.
You must sometimes change the cork.
You cannot eat every time the fish, or you cannot eat every time chocolate.
You cannot.
While the people say, oh, that's every time the same.
(25:48):
Oh, every time the same.
So the more you do event, the more you go down.
So you go, I'm more commercial.
You not go anymore.
So in the time where I started with the career, it was Allman, Frankfurt, what is this, Dorian Cray, and the Berlin Tresor, and the history.
(26:13):
So that's no more, no more.
While the people come and wake up, say, oh, let's go no more on the music.
Let's go just on money.
And then you destroy self-sustain.
While too much, too much, every week too much, too much.
(26:33):
Well, that's another thing that happens is you have these shows.
I mean, it's happening more in the concert series than I see as the electronic music festival events.
Those can still stay sort of reasonably priced.
But you go to, I went to go see a beautiful show.
I saw Lady Gaga here last week, week or two ago.
Beautiful show, awesome.
(26:54):
The seats I had, $400.
It wasn't too bad, wasn't too bad.
My friend went to the show two, three days before me.
The seats he sat in were $400.
But the day we went on on Saturday, those seats would have been $2,000.
Amazing.
So when you have people taking their money and going seeing a show for $2,000 tickets, and that's a lot of the seats, or even two people going to a show being $800 to see a two-hour show, two, two-and-a-half-hour show, they're saving their money up to go to these big shows, which now gives them no money to go to the local shows.
(27:32):
No.
Or they do go to the local shows, and they're maybe paying $20, $30, or $40 to get in, but they're not buying drinks.
Yes.
Because a friend of mine of the family actually took out an extra credit card to pay for tickets for her daughter to go see Taylor Swift.
Yeah, yeah.
Wow.
It's amazing.
(27:52):
And when I was a kid, you never had to take out a bank loan to go see a show.
I was zeeks to this.
I mean, I think Ozzy, I mean, I know that times are changing, and people want to recoup from that COVID money, but damn.
But the thing is, is people are paying it.
And as long as people keep paying it, they're going to keep the prices that high.
(28:16):
Yes.
And unfortunately, from a booking manager, a manager standpoint, and the longevity of a career, and the turn and burn of everything, you want, and as an economist, as an accountant, as trained with two business degrees, I'm going to say, let's maximize our profits.
I know.
Because we don't know if you're going to be booked next year.
Exactly.
We don't know if you're going to get, something could happen, and you don't want to do a show, and you took in $100,000, when you could have taken in $10 million.
(28:43):
Yes.
You know?
I mean, it's just a business decision.
Yes.
If you want to do free tours, or something like that, outside of your contract, negotiate that and say, hey, these are our big, big shows.
We're going to do extreme pop-up shows for 1,000 people.
Something that's not going to have an impact on a 65,000-person stadium, or a 30,000-person event.
(29:06):
And we're going to make it so that you can come and get tickets for these smaller shows.
Yes.
But then you've got to look at artist burnout.
How much bandwidth do they have?
And they've got to produce tracks.
All the stuff we talked about earlier, about people don't know what goes on behind the scenes.
You and I know.
Yeah.
Amazing.
We can talk about that in a whole other subject here.
(29:26):
I'd rather get back to talking to you about the music you produce, and all that fun stuff, because we're about halfway through the show right now.
Going back to the music production side of things, are you a hardware producer, or a software producer?
Or both?
Software.
Software.
So my experience, I begun with Cubase.
Cubase, okay.
(29:46):
Yeah.
And at the time, Cubase was very, very small.
And I got not so much functionality about...
Well, you know, when you go deep inside in this system with music, you like to go experimental.
So, and the fact was, I was a big, big, big mistake.
(30:11):
Logic is beautiful software, but logic, I think, from my opinion, it was too much limited.
So I changed from Cubase, we get the filter to do...
Well, the first guy who ever do this inspiration to the world and the people was Armand van Eerden.
(30:40):
You know, with...
There was this filter gate, and they begun.
I say, wow.
So then I have an RSF COBOL, that's analog machine, and they give us just 200 in this planet, and one here.
And with this, I begun, I have a change of logic.
(31:06):
And then logic not having given me this inspiration to go over, over.
So, and then I stop out with logic.
And then I say, no, I need something different.
And then I begun with Ableton.
And that's what the biggest mistake in my life.
(31:27):
So, yeah.
While the engine for Ableton, everything is fine by Ableton.
I cannot say wrong, wrong.
But the engine quality from the audio, it's not that's what now.
It's my favorite.
It's Studio One, Pro 7, and the Cubase.
(31:50):
I have a Vida back in the Cubase.
But it's a little more very complicated as before.
Okay.
Where now I have is the full-time working with Cubase, never have this problem.
But now I have a Vida back in the Cubase, and the top quality, so super quality, the audio, the working system style in the Arrangement, it's beautiful.
(32:17):
Okay.
But Ableton, it's not this.
I want to say it's good, but not when you like to go extremely in.
Then what you see, Ableton have everything too small.
The things seem too small.
(32:37):
You need big eyes, you know, but Cubase and the Studio One, it's also for me, it's my favorite Studio One and the Cubase seem the best.
The best.
Is that what you're training, Sebastian?
Are you learning Cubase?
Yeah.
He working now, he working with Logic, and this is good.
(33:00):
While Logic have integration and say extremely good audio engine.
So it's the same, important, the audio is important.
But what you're going to do, step by step, he come out of Studio One and Cubase 2.
If you like to do extremely professional, you need a Cubase or a Pro Tools.
(33:23):
But the master qualification for producer, it's for me, it's just Studio One, Cubase and Pro Tools.
That's the best.
You know, technology moves pretty fast in the electronic music arena.
If you could think of something that's not on the market today, but in your vision, it would be really awesome to have out there for music creation and or DJs, what would that be?
(33:57):
When I work in sometime, they could think where, okay, I exist in our artificial intelligence.
Okay, so now you're going to stand music, as I'm you say, oh, I like the guitar, you're going to change this.
But the good thing was, in source of the way to integration, something was the example, you're going to not play 10,000 thing in the same time.
(34:28):
That's not possible.
Why you need 10,000 people?
So the good thing is, if our microphone, so we now I talk with you, and you listen, and we talk in communication.
So that's where the coolest thing when it's on software, we produce or a Cubase, or a Studio One, have a, that's, imagine what you like to do.
(34:58):
And this, you're going to transfer this in the computer.
And that's why I wanted this example.
I want a strange, at this point, I want this.
At this point, I want this.
But in the same time, you have so extremely, so much energy.
(35:20):
That's, you go confusion.
And you forget what you like to do.
So, but in the same time, if it's the computer, you're going to talk and say, oh, I said, but you still mood, and the music leave.
And then you have one song in your mind.
(35:40):
Okay.
And that's where, that's where very extremely ideal, when it mentally go automatic in the computer.
That's, and you have amazing, amazing potential.
If you're going to introduce you, what you have in mind.
Well, when you, it's so much energy, that you're going to play, and then the sound is not the right, and this, and this, you know, so that's where the kick, that's where extremely, it's very, very good.
(36:13):
You know, do you ever make music completely out of your own genre?
That never gets released?
Yes.
Yes.
There, there was one track, we crime wave, and there were one from the free state in the 93 crime wave.
And that's why this one from the best trick release, what we have to do by its own records.
(36:39):
While my partner, oh, that's not good.
I say, I have insisted, I said, put this out, put this out.
And this thing, every go around the Europa, it was boom, boom, boom.
So, and out today, most to say, that's many.
And I, I will, I'll say, maybe I'm finale, I will say.
(37:01):
So in Beckham, this time, sell a strangely good, the old Edson release and the ground brewer release.
And crime wave was one from the best of why we fast.
Yeah.
I was fast.
ATR in my name.
Come on.
(37:22):
In the, in the, in the, yeah.
So in a, in a, a come on, you know, when you put this stuff inside and close, I don't know what this thing is.
When you open the door and push something and then close, the closer, closer, I think in the closer, yeah, closer.
and that's why ATR in this thing.
(37:44):
And then I would take this and, and then boom, it's a, it's a very, very good experience.
This, you know?
Yeah.
If you, if you could take a look at your list of productions you've done so far, and I know this is always a tough question.
People kind of ask me the same question when it comes to the DJ sessions, but which one of those stands out to you the most?
(38:06):
And, and why does it stand out to you?
The most, most memorable, the best time or the best, not your best work.
Cause you still got a lot of stuff coming, but what would be something that's really, I really love this track that I produced or the collaboration with so-and-so was great on this, or I had a really good time in the studio or it was a very special time in my life, whatever that might be.
(38:28):
What, what really stands out to you?
So for me, we're quasi, I list from zero one to, to the list of production for Edson records was fantastic.
Our ground guru records, but I see the category in my, in my thing was wrong.
(38:51):
That's why I changed the software.
What are we talking before?
With this to logic and for logic to Ableton, I've lost many things.
Well, I'm not having my studio with me.
I'm not having my mix console with me.
(39:12):
I, my machine, I'm missing my machine, everything I'm missing.
All is what I product is, all is in the, in the, in the computer.
And the master thing was when I production, the music in my studio was, I started and then I go in the mix console.
(39:32):
And then quasi, I have a, everything I do, unique single track, unique.
So every single track, but it's on records was dominant between the working with the hands and not just on computer.
While the computer started the sequence.
(39:53):
So from that, we go to the mix and then we go to example, left, right, right.
I have a change in the sound, the filter, I will go and working directly live.
And that's, I will love to do.
How if, if I have the opportunity, if we do an event live show, that's done.
(40:14):
Consider that's the master people or this laptop and mixer.
And this is, and it's normal.
Is a, is a, is a feeling from the music could be in the time while working with some records about the, the mix start.
Okay.
So that's, this make more differential of, of quality, you know?
(40:38):
So when the master people, Oh, the track is finito.
My master duck finito.
It's not that.
And then you hear from the beginning, all the, with the hand, the working, all the small thing.
That's a, that's considered too much stress, mental and the highs.
Why?
When you, you have the arrangement finito.
(41:00):
So you become the track of one time.
You started the track and then the eight or the nine minute long, you have a space to mix the volume.
There's all this life, you know, this make different quality, you know, while this is all this festival is analogic, poor on the percent.
(41:25):
And the second is you have a good quality one time.
It's gonna not go be the back with the same track.
It's a VM computer.
You have the, the option as you save the tricks.
So you have a programming.
That's okay.
But no, when you have a mix life, okay.
(41:47):
In the, in the mix console, quasi, you change the filter.
That's noise in computer.
Say that's this just one time in my, it's on release.
Oh, okay.
Hmm.
Oh, it's different.
And, and if you could pick, you know, it is, it is a lot of different, you know, I'm sure, like I said, it's a little difficult of a question to answer.
(42:12):
It's like I said, it's hard when everyone, when they are, anyone ever asks me that question.
I'm always like, well, every episode is my favorite episode.
No, it's very simple.
If you think it, you, you production, the music on computer.
Okay.
You change the equalizer, the volume, the, the regular, most of you, everything show programming on computer.
(42:35):
So in my old song release, never have you do all of this working.
It's also with the hand working all of the life.
It's nothing.
My, my computer have helped me just to do the arrangement and the snare, the, the, the, the break, but the records I have to do all this live with the change, the filter, the gate, everything I have to do live.
(43:03):
And that's the way the master people love this concern about its own records.
While in now, if you hear the music, you begin and start.
So clean synthetic.
That's this.
I was too normal.
Okay.
And the, but it's on, you put on a, on a song and release it for Edson.
(43:26):
And you hear this in the club, the speaker go down.
I believe.
Okay.
So it's normal.
This is synthetic.
She sound, you know, this, this is poor analog, you know, let's, let's make a difference.
If you could pick an, a classic electronic music track out there after years of being in the game.
(43:48):
And I know this is even more of a loaded question.
Can you pick a classic electronic music track and tell us why that track is so good?
Different.
Yes.
I, I, again, right.
That's why I, my wish to do online.
And that's where I will talk to you.
I will in the next time about every single beings.
(44:11):
As on my ID is our, while people, I see people, sometimes people don't like to send you a message or a mean message or to him as somebody, somebody do not give you these, these things.
But if you go online and, and the, and the, you give it to people, example, what you know, what the master, we reach out and other big producer, Tina, give you the exact touch.
(44:42):
Okay.
The, the say something, but no exactly what, and that's where I will love to do.
I have one school, uh, of, uh, DJ, the guys with the more element, uh, to work in, in the music between copyright, uh, every single thing to produce from the beginning to finish.
(45:06):
And that's, I think it does kind of go very cool.
I must have people and much people tell me this, why you not go line while Massimo you see Massimo never is online.
Uh, Instagram, Facebook, and there's Massimo is just a home working production.
But nobody knows what Massimo do.
(45:28):
So in the, in the future, this is a good option to tell with DJ session.
We do something cool about school and teacher people and give a new feeling in the music generation.
Absolutely.
You know, it's, it's, it's always, you know, um, this has been an evolutionary process for myself as well.
(45:52):
Starting playing with the home video camera at the age of six in 1979, 1980.
Yes, that's 1979 and 1980.
Unbelievable.
They still look young, but I celebrated my 50th.
First, but you know, and then going into high school and having the first video production class and then walking right out of high school and stepping into a public access TV, hip hop television show.
(46:19):
And then eight years after that, getting into broadcast television, you know, in 2000, 2001, and executing shows to Fox and NBC affiliates.
And then YouTube comes out and then podcast and video podcasting comes out right about the same time with the video iPod.
And then set the clock to 2007, the iPhone comes out and we can download Shazam and do a bunch of stuff and make shows on our phone with a video camera and upload it directly to YouTube.
(46:48):
And then 2009 really hits the streaming revolution.
When I got into live streaming, there was live streaming beforehand, but it wasn't used as a medium for, there were DJs doing it, but it was not heralded as a thing.
And then set the clock 10 years later,
11 years later,
we have Pandy come into effect and every DJ in the world,
(47:09):
every DJ,
and even people who weren't ever thinking about DJing DJing and,
and producers actually setting up cameras in their studios,
just the evolution of just,
just recording and videoing the image,
let alone all the software advances and computer advances that have gone up in
the back end to make this almost,
like I said,
a zero barrier entry game earlier in the interview,
(47:31):
but you know,
just,
you know,
it's just been awesome to see how technology goes and how some works still
remain classic.
I was listening to some FM today and attracted.
I really love like Kruder Dorfmeister comes on WebEye that they used in the matrix animatrix soundtrack, but I was listening to that back in 2001, 2002, somewhere like that.
(47:55):
Yeah.
And it's timeless.
You would not be able to know if that track was produced today.
Yeah.
It was produced 24 years ago.
This is this, this is this, you know, and I think a lot of timeless tracks have that you go back to the craft works.
Bravo.
That's he said.
It's on records.
Yeah.
You go back to the craft works and you go back to these early pioneers and they were mastering tracks and setting tracks out there.
(48:18):
You're like, Whoa, I mean, it's, it's, they were doing it and that was considered rookie and brand new in the game with the technology that we're using at that time.
Yeah.
As opposed to what you have now at your disposal with Sebastian has at his disposal coming into this game and making tracks, you know, it's very, very awesome.
Yeah.
For, for, for, for when this, for two week ago, I was with my friend and my music work.
(48:46):
He said, wow, the track is so nice.
I said, this track is shown from 93.
I said, what?
No, I don't believe this.
I say, yes, this is for 93.
And that's, is this fascination on the, on the, the satisfaction we must say on the, on this, it's on records, you know, but you hear the sound, what now it's actual, you know?
(49:14):
So that's, is what the David Gilmour told me, you know, while, when I was a sex love emotion in London and, and the life shape and, and he told me, Massimo, your music is too far, far away.
Yeah.
And that's, it's a reality truth, you know, for me, it's more better as when you, it's in the top charts one week, and then you go down, you see ourself from David Quetta and order.
(49:46):
Okay.
So this in the one week, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
And the music is done.
It's finito, you know?
So it's, it's, it's, yeah, I know, I know one, I, you know, I respect the artist and I'm not having any, but the fact is fact talking, you know, and that says for me, better I stay in the big, big, big, big, big, big, one week or maybe two week and then you're done, you know?
(50:18):
So when you do number one charts, you needed to think what I do in the next.
So it's this much pressure.
I don't want it.
It's a pressure, you know?
So that's the other, that's the other side of the game is, is you produce something great.
Now you got to worry about following up with it.
Yeah.
(50:39):
It's a, no, everyone needs to go to play.
I was telling you, you know, you last year when I was at rave the planet with Riverside studios and we took number one in the world on Twitch streaming live from the back of their, their float, their double decker bus.
Yeah.
And I came back to the States and it was my 50th birthday.
And it's kind of like, what do I do after this?
(50:59):
I was just at a place with 350,000 people in Berlin.
First time ever been Berlin on the back of this boat with one of the top studios in the world, some of the top artists and people know this name and know this company.
And I'm like, what do I do after that?
I literally burnt out, but what do I do?
Yeah.
There's another interview going to do anything.
I mean, it was those backend production questions.
(51:21):
Like how do I step that up?
How do I top that?
Do I have anything on my, my roster coming up?
And I didn't nothing that big.
I could go back and it kind of was a culture shock also going there, but coming back and going, I even got the inkling of wanting to move there.
And I know we talked pre-show about something I'm working on, but we can't talk about that yet because it's in the pre, pre, pre, pre, pre, pre, pre, pre development, but I'm pretty sure it's going to happen, but definitely opened my eyes, especially going to Amsterdam and 80 open my eyes twice and meeting people.
(51:55):
They're seen being another culture where 250,000 people are descended upon a city all for electronic music for a week.
And it's like, Whoa.
And the vibe in Europe is so much different than that in the United States.
They both have different cultures and the music and the music, but in Europe and what I found out wrong is that was a London is the number one in the centrum for Europe about music, more than the other.
(52:28):
So the, the fact is that I give you so many good artists in Germany.
Okay.
But not everyone, you understand that's where the master, the master people from Germany, uh, as a, as a producer to go out of Europe, why to try to go and make more event here in, in America, example.
(52:51):
Okay.
So, or Australia.
So the fact is that's a Germany look every time.
What's fake, what sell best and an exit.
So to give it the, the, the, the charts, the look first six months, what go in the chart in London.
And then he put the music in Germany in the charts.
(53:15):
So that's his total wrong.
Okay.
So if he, you is, if you know, you understand about material from music, go out of this system, check all the job, go handyman or I don't know, work in other, other system, but no work in the music industry.
You know, that's where the master producer in, in, in, in Germany, they go out and try to go in a London or an Australia or an America and then, then.
(53:45):
So, and this I see, and I see many times.
So the fact is that's Belgium, London, Scotland, Scotland, and the, the France, they seem very, very good with music.
They working more international.
(54:06):
Okay.
But in Germany, it's a little complicated.
While, if it's a good artist, maybe you see in one yard, you see one or two artists, and they try to push, you know, and this is every time under this, under control from gross, gross, gross machine labor.
(54:27):
Okay.
So we war now and then, then.
Okay.
So that's the way I never like to work in, in this system.
Okay.
Well, I say, no, that's not my world.
I, I am artist.
I like to make music.
So, and that's in the many good artists that we like Massimo, but nobody knows.
While the media, the TV, and, and, and the most to say, no, this guy must not, this guy must not, this thing.
(54:56):
So they take, you know, the artist, you know, that's why I found this quasi not nice.
And, and that's the way he lost, he lost the many quality.
And when the artists, the Germany artists to go far, far away from Germany, while everyone not receiving money, I hear from people in Berlin, you work with big board, never receiving money.
(55:25):
Okay.
So, so this is what's going on, you know, and then I'll be here now the next day.
My friend, He had over 4 million, 4 million here of Spotify, and the Spotify not pay him money, okay?
But the Spotify invest money to do fight between Ukraine and Russians and stuff.
(55:52):
Come on, you make music while you go in this system.
No, that's, that's crazy.
That's crazy for me, you know.
The whole Spotify thing, I was doing some research into that recently, and how the breakdown goes and how much money they make.
Yeah, it's a very interesting model out there, but it's how people are getting out there.
(56:16):
Something I wanted to bring up is something that we just added to our site, which is really awesome.
After years of compiling data and putting it down, we should be able to update this every year, is we just added the top, well, we added a DJ ranking page to our site, and it's the top 20,000 DJs in the world.
(56:37):
Yeah.
The list is 20,000 DJs produced, DJs, it's supposed to be DJs, but it's DJs slash producers in the world.
And two of the graphs that we have in there now are, one is the top, well, the top 100 DJs country of origin.
We'll expand that probably to the top 1,000 here shortly.
But we also added the top 100 DJs music genres in the world.
(57:05):
So that's kind of really nice to see what's currently happening.
And we use third-party sources to do this.
Nobody pays us to be in this list.
Nobody gives us any money.
We use all different types of sources to come in and sort this out.
We're going to be adding more to that section in the future, which is really awesome because it kind of gives a state of like, this is what's happening in the world.
(57:26):
And this is who is big in the world.
And it's not us saying who's big in the world.
Nobody's paid us to put their name in there, which is really nice.
But we're also going to add some other additional columns that include, do they have an exclusive mix on the DJ sessions?
Or do they have an interview on the DJ sessions?
And people can sort that list.
And as they sort it, it'll show where they're positioned as in chronological order.
(57:50):
It'll be really fun to add that in and then get more information.
And also talking about the new music section on our site as well.
You got tracks.
We want to get you in that new music section.
And also you do regular live streams as well?
Yeah.
Now in the future, I have, yes.
Now in the future, we do this.
(58:12):
Okay.
Awesome.
Because we're looking at syndicating some shows as well.
We have a lot of good stuff going on there.
I'm glad that we were able to reconnect Massimo and talk a ton more questions.
We're going to stay in contact.
I know we're going to be in contact.
And also there's coming now a new release album in Colorado with the label Cartesono.
We released with Christian Schaik and Massimo Rivona, the new release album.
(58:37):
That's the other guy who I'm working together with Christian.
Well, we born in the same label records.
All right.
So I born with the Fox Records.
Man say, never spook of the, what is it?
Plateau where you eat.
Christian is one from the good friend.
(59:00):
And we do now three releases for Massimo Rivona and two releases for Christian Schaik.
And people in the Summer FM, they love the release.
And while they were out of contact with the Summer FM.
So and from Colorado.
And he told me, so he loved the album.
(59:22):
And then now the next to come with Busty here with the Busty come the new album.
And then we released this out of its own records.
So awesome.
I'd love to definitely get an interview.
I'm going to interview with you too, Sebastian, here in the future.
I'd love to talk to you.
Always hear about one of the main mission statements is not just working with the big guys like Massimo.
(59:46):
It's working with new and up and coming artists as well.
So I'd love to get you on the show in the future.
Is there any final things you want to say to our DJ sessions fans before we let you go?
Yeah, I guess I'll like kind of introduce myself.
Maybe for next time when we interview next time.
I'd love to do that.
Yeah.
Like we said, I live in Sedona.
(01:00:07):
And honestly, like my whole thing, I just love music in general.
Like just everything about it.
There's no words, to be honest.
So I'm really looking forward to this interview.
I'll definitely make a schedule for that.
Looking forward to that and working with him.
Nice.
Yeah, I have some music up on Spotify right now and Bandcamp.
(01:00:30):
So Bandcamp, I'm under his label right now.
So yeah, I'm looking forward to the next interview for sure.
Sounds great.
Where can people find out more information about you two?
Oh, yeah.
So yeah, I will say just the last couple of words about, I want to thank you for also Russian, England, Belgium, France, Scotland, Scotland, and Sweden.
(01:01:04):
And all the Central Europe, I want to say thank you for support Massimo on Bandcamp.
And I am very proud of the people.
And I will try to stay every time and Massimo, we want in the sound, you know.
So it's on records, you know.
So I'm growing the group records, of course, you know.
(01:01:27):
So that's just thank you for the people who support me.
Best place people can go to find out more information about you?
Yeah.
So www.MassimoVivona.com.
There you go, that website.
And in the future, everything about news, TV, about DJ session, or the DJ session, and it's on everything, you can find news of MassimoVivona.com.
(01:01:57):
So that's my actual page.
And yeah, we try to do in the future live show set and many, many things together with Basti, Sebastian.
The pseudonym is Seborn.
And Basti is the real name, Sebastian.
(01:02:18):
And yeah.
And we say everything what's coming news, come over the DJ session, all at MassimoVivona.com.
Yeah, yeah.
Awesome.
And back camp.
Yeah, back camp.
All right.
Well, thank you two for coming on the show today.
It was a pleasure having you.
We're definitely going to stay in contact with you and find out what you're going up to.
(01:02:38):
You know how we like to stay in contact with everyone when I'm not taking a break, which I don't plan to do for a very long time now.
Thank you both for coming on the show today.
Thank you, you.
Thank you, you for the opportunity.
Absolutely.
Stay in contact.
I will send you my number, the new number.
Well, I have a new number.
So I will send you and then we can talk a little what is something perspective in the future.
(01:03:05):
Absolutely.
Looking forward to that.
So I'll see you soon there.
All right.
See you soon.
Thank you.
On that note, don't forget to go to our website, thedjsessions.com.
Go ahead, pull out your phone, check that QR code, go to the website.
We have 700 news stories a month.
We have over 2,700 past episodes.
The new music section, our VR nightclub, our mobile app, our site-wide player, and more.
(01:03:30):
All of that is at thedjsessions.com.
I don't know how you just scanned that QR code.
It gave me a notice that said somebody scanned the QR code.
That's really cool.
I've never seen anyone do that before.
Awesome.
But all of that and more at thedjsessions.com.
I'm your host, Darran.
That's Massimo Zamona and Sebastian coming in from Phoenix, Arizona for The DJ Sessions.
(01:03:55):
And remember, on The DJ Sessions, the music never stops.
Yes, yes, yes.
Hey everyone, guess what happens when you don't turn the logo off for your own show and you get ready to go live?
It stays in place!
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the DJ Sessions Presents The Virtual Sessions.
I'm your host, Darran, and right now I'm sitting in the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington, and coming in from Phoenix, Arizona, with a guest in the studio all the way from Sedona, we have Massimo Vivona and...
(00:32):
Seborn!
Seborn!
Seborn is Sebastian.
Right on, awesome!
Well, thank you two for coming on the show today, Massimo.
It's been a long time since we last chatted, but I know you've been up to a lot of stuff, got a lot of information to go through here today on this series, and thank you for being a long-time fan of the show, I really appreciate it.
Wouldn't be here without you and people and talent, and with all your hard work and dedication, we wouldn't have a show.
(00:58):
It'd just be the Darran Hour and me talking to myself, which my high school teacher in civics class said, Darran, if anyone else gets caught talking in class, they're going to get put in a room with Darran for the rest of the year, and I'm going to give you an A.
And the teacher then looked at me and said, Darran, if you get caught talking in class, I'm going to put you in a room by yourself and give you an A.
(01:19):
And I said, sign me up!
He was actually a really great teacher, but it's funny saying that, yeah, I can talk, I can talk, I can talk.
When we talk about me and my history and my high school upbringings, we want to talk about Massimo Vivona, and what have you been up to recently?
Yeah, hello.
(01:41):
First of all, I am glad to stay here with the DJ session.
It's beautiful and creativity, what I like to bring, you know, so I am very, very, very, very happy to stay here with you and do this interview.
(02:01):
And I'm missing many, many, many, many things in my life, but, you know, the time I go to America, everything has changed.
So, and, you know, everyone changes, everything changes.
So, yeah, and it's beautiful.
And tonight, or now, we have one very big, big guy here, stay with me in my room.
(02:31):
And this is Sebastian.
It's a big, big talent.
The father.
So the fact was, so I've been going to Sedona for four days, and I would like to go eat something very nice.
And I googled and I found a new restaurant.
(02:54):
The name is Vespa.
And I say, oh, that's new here in Sedona.
Before, it was not here.
So I would go, and then I meet the papa.
And you see, we have step-by-step do the argument about music and the restaurant, the pizzeria, you know, but it's not pizzeria.
(03:15):
This is a nice restaurant, lunch, very, very, very beautiful style.
And so I meet him, and we have been talking.
And from, oh, yeah, my junior, he's very talented.
He must hear the music.
And so I waited for one month before we meet together.
(03:38):
And now we do together some Basel project.
And, well, you know, normally Edson Records never working with other artists.
But it's a little complicated about music style.
I don't want to do wrong critique to the people.
(04:00):
Well, everyone like the music what he love.
And Papa Sebastian, I pay attention, and I see, wow, everything is different, very experimental, and very nice sound, you know.
So I would say, wow, that done go something good, you know.
(04:21):
Well, you know, I see that you mentioned some show notes here.
You're working with, like, electronic, ambient, and jazz style music now.
Sounds like that's kind of my favorite kind of genre.
I listen to an internet radio station out of San Francisco by Soma FM called Groove Salad.
(04:43):
And everyone knows me.
Yeah, I know Groove Salad.
They say Soma FM.
Yep, Soma FM.
Anyone that knows me that's my good friend knows that if Darran's not doing a show, if Darran's not listening to an exclusive mix, he's not driving the truck, everywhere he's at, Soma FM, Groove Salad.
I love Soma FM.
I love it.
(05:04):
And probably on my tombstone, there will be a solar panel.
Cool.
And people are going to be able to basically – I probably will put a QR code on my thing so they'll be able to go to the website and still see the archives of the Go Day sessions.
But there will also be a link there that will get people to go to SomaFM.comGrooveSalad. So if you want to know what I'm chilling in in the afternoon, it's all my old episodes.
(05:30):
I finally got time to watch them all, right, because I got 2,600 of them and 2,700 in county.
But also, if you want to chill out with me, go to Soma FM.
And you always say, hey, Darran's sitting on cloud nine listening to Soma FM.
So tell me about this electronic ambient jazz sound music that you're putting together.
Is that working with you and Sebastian putting that together?
(05:51):
Is that your own endeavor?
Yeah.
So we're doing the future couple project together.
We've seen them working while – the fact is our time is amazing.
It's not so light while he lives in Sedona.
I live in Phoenix.
So we try every month to go.
Maybe one time I go, he or he come here.
(06:14):
And the fact is I like to work with him together in the future while it's young, talent, fresh, and he have a very, very good quality in the sound.
So the good thing is that every single artist have a fast, I'm going to say, not so direct, but I'm going to say I don't see any qualification in the form for electronic music, house music, ambient music, chill out, and, and, and.
(06:53):
So we try to do in the future couple project about jazz, not so directly hard rock, but something very experimental with guitar and trumpet, and, and, and, and.
That's also – it takes much, much power in this project as well.
(07:14):
Nice.
Yeah.
You're running Headzone Records as well as an independent label.
Is that part of a new division of Headzone as well?
Yes.
Yes.
So we think that now I'm starting to do better while the full time was a little, not chaos, but from time here was not the capacity to invest of this project.
(07:41):
You know, while Headzone Records is, you know, it's unique records where many people between Instagram, Facebook, in the social media, keep their attention of what Headzone bring out or what he release.
But the last, the last release was in 2000, I think 2011, I think was the last release with Stella Chand.
(08:09):
And, and then a couple of years before was The Way and a couple of things.
But the last 10 years never ever released an album or that's also just digital.
But the people I see what's going on between Facebook, Instagram, back end, and the people love to have vinyl.
(08:36):
The point is that the people sometimes not understand how much it cost.
Example, I have one customer from Berlin.
She buy the vinyl for eight months ago.
So everything, yeah, no problem.
So I go to the post to send the packet.
The post tell me cost $300 to send one vinyl for 45 big vinyl.
(09:08):
I say, that is extreme.
So I'm not going to send a vinyl that cost, for example, $17.
She will pay first $18.
And I'm going to send $300 for post free, just from United States to Berlin.
So I do the contact in Germany.
(09:29):
And then, well, I have the vinyl in Germany, you know, in my house.
So this is a little complicated with this expedition.
Here in the United States, it's okay.
But when you go out to Europe, this is a little expensive.
So that's why we don't have released so much.
(09:50):
Well, we don't know exactly if the people would like to buy the vinyl online.
But the mass public, so the customer, are having the Europa, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Scotland, England, all around the full Europa.
(10:14):
But in America too, but they buy more so digital, you know.
So that's why I'm not having release so special, so big.
But could be that now we release one and could be out, as they suggested, for Territorium in America.
Nice.
What do you think, what is the most important thing that record labels nowadays should be doing for their artists?
(10:43):
And whatever it is, are they doing a good job of that as a whole?
As the community of record labels, as you see releases come out from other labels around the world and even your own label, what is the most important thing that they should be doing for their artists?
So I think festival, from my experience, where I began in 1993 and now in 2025, the point is that sometime in the place of Sony Music, Warner Chappell, BMG Arriola, I don't know if you know BMG Arriola, or Virgin, or Edel, and other big label names, that is quasi so that artists have a little heavy.
(11:38):
Festival, the mass is extreme.
But the extremity is to look one good or ten artists good.
It's considered quasi that the sound must be more unique.
(11:59):
That's the label condition.
Well, sometimes you make so very nice a track, everything's fine, and you go in the place, in the office, and first of all, you need an appointment.
Then you need to write.
And then maybe you need a friend.
And then you need this.
And then you need this.
(12:19):
From my experience, what I do with Sony Music, so I produce one track.
What's happening?
I go to my friend, I say, look who I hear.
Oh, yeah, I know my friend.
He's working for Sony, blah, blah, blah.
So then you receive four shoes, an account payment.
(12:41):
This moves to dividend between three people.
So I'm thinking I'll use the product.
Then it must stay the name from the master, from the guy.
And the producer, co-producer must stay there.
That is the wrong way to go with the talent and the artist.
So they must form this big, big industry label.
(13:04):
You need more, I would say, you need more qualification people and more soul to consider the artist.
If it's not good, it's not good.
Okay?
So maybe they don't like.
But you need to do more, more qualification in this option where the people work in this office.
(13:33):
Okay?
More pay attention.
Well, I know it's just Bieber or other big artists.
This is just name and show, you know?
So we're talking here for qualification for the next generation.
So if the people take care every time on the same level, just Bieber or Timberland or Puff Daddy or I don't know where.
(14:03):
So the fact is this is a block, block.
Quality, like not to risk, to go far away on the high level.
So, for example, when I talk for myself, when, for example, I have been working and nobody will consider my music in the headstone records.
(14:29):
What's happening?
I meet my ex-partner and he say, Massimo, you know what?
We do one label together.
You take care of the music.
I take care of the business.
So I say, okay.
So that's not perfect.
And later, later, everyone from this big, big label industry with Sony and then the other, they, oh, can I please have your license for your release?
(14:58):
Oh, can I have your license for this?
So we have been working, okay?
But I don't like this system.
It's, for me, I consider it's hard to hear, but this is so, this is hard mafia.
And this, yes, this is directed for me to tell this art mafia, you know somebody, you come in this process.
(15:25):
You don't know somebody, you is nobody.
So, and that is not fair considered to artists.
If I had the potential, I will take care of 10, 20 artists.
If I had the potential.
I have that conversation with people all the time.
And it's a hard truth, a hard fact.
(15:45):
There are gatekeepers and I don't BS with anyone anymore.
Knowing what I know, who I've talked to, people like yourself, other industry leaders that have been in the game for 30 plus years.
And, you know, not that I want to dissuade anyone from having a career, in the entertainment industry.
Let's take the whole bubble of the entertainment industry.
(16:07):
Not just electronic music production.
But it's, I always said this with my own television show.
And I think you'll see how the pyramid goes.
Is at any time in my local city here, there could be a million people with a television show idea.
I came up with this a long time ago.
Then out of a million people, 10% of those might say, Hey, I'm going to look into doing something to produce this television show idea.
(16:35):
And that's going to step up to 100,000 people.
Then out of those 100,000 people, some of them might, let's take 10% of those people and they say, Hey, I might go take some schooling, get a video camera, buy a computer.
Maybe go take some classes or do something to learn online.
And that puts them at a million, 100,000, 10,000.
(16:56):
10% of those people now puts them at 1,000 people.
And those 1,000 people have spent time, a little bit of money and the resources to get to that.
I mean average, they spent some money to get to that 1,000 people.
Take 10% of those people that actually might be able to go out and be in the film and television industry or in the industry.
(17:17):
That's 100 people.
Then you might get 10% of those.
And that's 10 people that actually have a working product that could be sold.
Then 10% of that, you got one person that actually does it.
Not to toot a horn, but in my local market, back before YouTube and everything existed, I was that one person.
(17:42):
Yeah, it's so important.
That combines all that.
And yeah, and I did it on a very shoestring budget, almost with very – I mean when I was going to college, I ate popcorn for two weeks.
That's what it was like to put my show on broadcast television.
YouTube came out and all that.
But the goal that I'm trying to get here is when you put it down and there's a million people here, and if you step that up, and people say, I'm going to put $1,000 into my brand.
(18:10):
They're going to buy a website.
They're going to get a logo made.
They're going to have their backend spent to get them looking like people want to listen to them around the world.
That's going to put them at a different tier.
If you have somebody that can spend $5,000, that's at a different tier.
They might be able to collaborate or hire a PR person for you to help you do some stuff.
(18:33):
If they spend $10,000, $20,000, so it goes up the ladder.
So when you're getting to this top ladder and everyone is like, oh, I see Martin Garrix or I see Armin van Buuren.
I can be just as good as them.
I'm just as good as a DJ as Armin van Buuren.
Yeah, but Armin van Buuren has an infrastructure behind him.
It goes all the way down and there's big money driving that.
(18:55):
So these artists get into their local environment and they get disenfranchised because they're doing everything like everyone else is doing, the free stuff.
The free stuff is good to have.
They can even come as a producer and they're like, oh, I make my tracks.
Oh, and I master my own tracks.
No, pay somebody else to do that.
Yes, yes.
(19:16):
You know, and have an outside ear on that.
Take some master classes if you're going to go into production.
Take an actual class that's going to get you certified in Ableton or whatever, you know what I'm saying, or Logic.
There aren't too much, but you've got to invest in yourself and, unfortunately, that's going to cost money.
(19:36):
I'll go to our next question, but I remember being a small business owner starting up and I was in a small business and I had my idea, just like everyone else in the room.
But what was their idea and how are they going to make a million dollars?
But they wanted everyone else to give them money, but they didn't have any money of their own.
And it's like, why am I going to give you money and put money into you if you're not willing to risk your own money?
(19:59):
When the barrier to entry for A, DJing, is zero now.
You have six-year-olds that are learning how to DJ.
The barrier to entry for music selection is zero now because everything is digital and not on vinyl, so you don't have limited releases.
So even for film and television, doing interviews, podcasts, barrier for entry.
(20:21):
I've got a podcast.
I'm not knocking anywhere.
We started out with – at least I had broadcast television gear when I started, but now people are going – and I suggest people to start right from their phone.
Start recording from their phone.
My point being is that, yeah, when you touched into the mafia and the quote that you said there, it's a money game.
(20:44):
Entertainment is about money.
It comes down to that.
It's just the truth.
You've had 65 releases, six albums, 85 successful electronic dance music compilations worldwide.
You know this game.
You know what you're talking about.
No, it's just when I see how much these people are burning now, and the Disconnection tried to take $300,000 for one state, as DJ said, that's extraordinary.
(21:22):
When I say Nina Graffiti, Charlotte Dewey, and all the TK, and I see the price for a DJ to play, and when I go to check just is this true or is this fake, so I go to back camp and I check which artist at this time sell the best, and I go in the profile, and they sell nothing on music.
(21:57):
Nothing.
And I understand how it's possible.
Does these people pay $300,000 for one DJ set just for the name Charlotte Dewey?
From that, I can say this is so extremely, or maybe there's propaganda, fake, or maybe we don't know exactly what's going on in there.
(22:27):
Well, if you take a festival that's a touring festival that goes nationwide, let's look at the U.S. I'm not going to call out any names of any major companies, but if they're charging, let's just say $150 a day for a ticket at a venue that holds 30,000 people, do the math.
(22:49):
They do a two-day event.
Let's just use nice round numbers, and let's say it's $200 a day.
That's 60,000 tickets sold for a two-day event times 200.
That's amazing.
Okay, that's one zero.
That's $600,000.
(23:11):
It's amazing.
That's two zeros.
That's $6 million.
Okay, now times that by two.
It's $12 million a show.
Granted, that theater setup that they use tours with them from venue to venue, so they're not building it out at every single place they go to.
They have a West Coast tour.
They have an East Coast setup.
(23:31):
I know, guys.
I've got some of the top lighting designers in the industry who are based here in Seattle.
They're friends of mine.
I know them.
I've done shows with them.
I know how they pack it up and flip it down and use Arizona as a hub point too.
So you've got shows up here in the Northwest or West Coast.
They use certain companies.
East Coast, they send the specs of the show off to the other companies.
They say, build our stage.
(23:52):
It's not the same traveling stage show everywhere.
Insider fact, people.
So that being said, you've got a concert tour and it's touring and it plays 12 different times or it's playing all these different times around the nation and they're booking these artists.
They just got to fly the artists in between all of them.
One.
Two, you're looking at $12 million a weekend.
(24:15):
That's crazy.
If you do, let's just say, 10 events, there's $120 million.
It's amazing.
Even let's say they were walking away after paying everyone from each one of those, $30, $40 million per.
How do you afford to pay these artists $100,000 or $50,000 for a show?
(24:39):
And not really, that's thousands of dollars when you're taking in millions is really not that.
And then the venues themselves, they make all their money off the concessions.
If I have the power, my lips, what I like to booking, we are Kraftwerk.
(25:05):
Kraftwerk would be amazing.
Just Kraftwerk.
No Richard, no Carl Cox, no Paul van Dyck.
No, no, just Kraftwerk.
While the massive Carl Cox, Nina Graffiti, and all the rest from these categories, they pass up and go down.
(25:26):
This go down.
This cannot go every time.
Well, you cannot eat every time tomato sauce.
You cannot.
You must sometimes change the cork.
You cannot eat every time the fish, or you cannot eat every time chocolate.
You cannot.
While the people say, oh, that's every time the same.
(25:48):
Oh, every time the same.
So the more you do event, the more you go down.
So you go, I'm more commercial.
You not go anymore.
So in the time where I started with the career, it was Allman, Frankfurt, what is this, Dorian Cray, and the Berlin Tresor, and the history.
(26:13):
So that's no more, no more.
While the people come and wake up, say, oh, let's go no more on the music.
Let's go just on money.
And then you destroy self-sustain.
While too much, too much, every week too much, too much.
(26:33):
Well, that's another thing that happens is you have these shows.
I mean, it's happening more in the concert series than I see as the electronic music festival events.
Those can still stay sort of reasonably priced.
But you go to, I went to go see a beautiful show.
I saw Lady Gaga here last week, week or two ago.
Beautiful show, awesome.
(26:54):
The seats I had, $400.
It wasn't too bad, wasn't too bad.
My friend went to the show two, three days before me.
The seats he sat in were $400.
But the day we went on on Saturday, those seats would have been $2,000.
Amazing.
So when you have people taking their money and going seeing a show for $2,000 tickets, and that's a lot of the seats, or even two people going to a show being $800 to see a two-hour show, two, two-and-a-half-hour show, they're saving their money up to go to these big shows, which now gives them no money to go to the local shows.
(27:32):
No.
Or they do go to the local shows, and they're maybe paying $20, $30, or $40 to get in, but they're not buying drinks.
Yes.
Because a friend of mine of the family actually took out an extra credit card to pay for tickets for her daughter to go see Taylor Swift.
Yeah, yeah.
Wow.
It's amazing.
(27:52):
And when I was a kid, you never had to take out a bank loan to go see a show.
I was zeeks to this.
I mean, I think Ozzy, I mean, I know that times are changing, and people want to recoup from that COVID money, but damn.
But the thing is, is people are paying it.
And as long as people keep paying it, they're going to keep the prices that high.
(28:16):
Yes.
And unfortunately, from a booking manager, a manager standpoint, and the longevity of a career, and the turn and burn of everything, you want, and as an economist, as an accountant, as trained with two business degrees, I'm going to say, let's maximize our profits.
I know.
Because we don't know if you're going to be booked next year.
Exactly.
We don't know if you're going to get, something could happen, and you don't want to do a show, and you took in $100,000, when you could have taken in $10 million.
(28:43):
Yes.
You know?
I mean, it's just a business decision.
Yes.
If you want to do free tours, or something like that, outside of your contract, negotiate that and say, hey, these are our big, big shows.
We're going to do extreme pop-up shows for 1,000 people.
Something that's not going to have an impact on a 65,000-person stadium, or a 30,000-person event.
(29:06):
And we're going to make it so that you can come and get tickets for these smaller shows.
Yes.
But then you've got to look at artist burnout.
How much bandwidth do they have?
And they've got to produce tracks.
All the stuff we talked about earlier, about people don't know what goes on behind the scenes.
You and I know.
Yeah.
Amazing.
We can talk about that in a whole other subject here.
(29:26):
I'd rather get back to talking to you about the music you produce, and all that fun stuff, because we're about halfway through the show right now.
Going back to the music production side of things, are you a hardware producer, or a software producer?
Or both?
Software.
Software.
So my experience, I begun with Cubase.
Cubase, okay.
(29:46):
Yeah.
And at the time, Cubase was very, very small.
And I got not so much functionality about...
Well, you know, when you go deep inside in this system with music, you like to go experimental.
So, and the fact was, I was a big, big, big mistake.
(30:11):
Logic is beautiful software, but logic, I think, from my opinion, it was too much limited.
So I changed from Cubase, we get the filter to do...
Well, the first guy who ever do this inspiration to the world and the people was Armand van Eerden.
(30:40):
You know, with...
There was this filter gate, and they begun.
I say, wow.
So then I have an RSF COBOL, that's analog machine, and they give us just 200 in this planet, and one here.
And with this, I begun, I have a change of logic.
(31:06):
And then logic not having given me this inspiration to go over, over.
So, and then I stop out with logic.
And then I say, no, I need something different.
And then I begun with Ableton.
And that's what the biggest mistake in my life.
(31:27):
So, yeah.
While the engine for Ableton, everything is fine by Ableton.
I cannot say wrong, wrong.
But the engine quality from the audio, it's not that's what now.
It's my favorite.
It's Studio One, Pro 7, and the Cubase.
(31:50):
I have a Vida back in the Cubase.
But it's a little more very complicated as before.
Okay.
Where now I have is the full-time working with Cubase, never have this problem.
But now I have a Vida back in the Cubase, and the top quality, so super quality, the audio, the working system style in the Arrangement, it's beautiful.
(32:17):
Okay.
But Ableton, it's not this.
I want to say it's good, but not when you like to go extremely in.
Then what you see, Ableton have everything too small.
The things seem too small.
(32:37):
You need big eyes, you know, but Cubase and the Studio One, it's also for me, it's my favorite Studio One and the Cubase seem the best.
The best.
Is that what you're training, Sebastian?
Are you learning Cubase?
Yeah.
He working now, he working with Logic, and this is good.
(33:00):
While Logic have integration and say extremely good audio engine.
So it's the same, important, the audio is important.
But what you're going to do, step by step, he come out of Studio One and Cubase 2.
If you like to do extremely professional, you need a Cubase or a Pro Tools.
(33:23):
But the master qualification for producer, it's for me, it's just Studio One, Cubase and Pro Tools.
That's the best.
You know, technology moves pretty fast in the electronic music arena.
If you could think of something that's not on the market today, but in your vision, it would be really awesome to have out there for music creation and or DJs, what would that be?
(33:57):
When I work in sometime, they could think where, okay, I exist in our artificial intelligence.
Okay, so now you're going to stand music, as I'm you say, oh, I like the guitar, you're going to change this.
But the good thing was, in source of the way to integration, something was the example, you're going to not play 10,000 thing in the same time.
(34:28):
That's not possible.
Why you need 10,000 people?
So the good thing is, if our microphone, so we now I talk with you, and you listen, and we talk in communication.
So that's where the coolest thing when it's on software, we produce or a Cubase, or a Studio One, have a, that's, imagine what you like to do.
(34:58):
And this, you're going to transfer this in the computer.
And that's why I wanted this example.
I want a strange, at this point, I want this.
At this point, I want this.
But in the same time, you have so extremely, so much energy.
(35:20):
That's, you go confusion.
And you forget what you like to do.
So, but in the same time, if it's the computer, you're going to talk and say, oh, I said, but you still mood, and the music leave.
And then you have one song in your mind.
(35:40):
Okay.
And that's where, that's where very extremely ideal, when it mentally go automatic in the computer.
That's, and you have amazing, amazing potential.
If you're going to introduce you, what you have in mind.
Well, when you, it's so much energy, that you're going to play, and then the sound is not the right, and this, and this, you know, so that's where the kick, that's where extremely, it's very, very good.
(36:13):
You know, do you ever make music completely out of your own genre?
That never gets released?
Yes.
Yes.
There, there was one track, we crime wave, and there were one from the free state in the 93 crime wave.
And that's why this one from the best trick release, what we have to do by its own records.
(36:39):
While my partner, oh, that's not good.
I say, I have insisted, I said, put this out, put this out.
And this thing, every go around the Europa, it was boom, boom, boom.
So, and out today, most to say, that's many.
And I, I will, I'll say, maybe I'm finale, I will say.
(37:01):
So in Beckham, this time, sell a strangely good, the old Edson release and the ground brewer release.
And crime wave was one from the best of why we fast.
Yeah.
I was fast.
ATR in my name.
Come on.
(37:22):
In the, in the, in the, yeah.
So in a, in a, a come on, you know, when you put this stuff inside and close, I don't know what this thing is.
When you open the door and push something and then close, the closer, closer, I think in the closer, yeah, closer.
and that's why ATR in this thing.
(37:44):
And then I would take this and, and then boom, it's a, it's a very, very good experience.
This, you know?
Yeah.
If you, if you could take a look at your list of productions you've done so far, and I know this is always a tough question.
People kind of ask me the same question when it comes to the DJ sessions, but which one of those stands out to you the most?
(38:06):
And, and why does it stand out to you?
The most, most memorable, the best time or the best, not your best work.
Cause you still got a lot of stuff coming, but what would be something that's really, I really love this track that I produced or the collaboration with so-and-so was great on this, or I had a really good time in the studio or it was a very special time in my life, whatever that might be.
(38:28):
What, what really stands out to you?
So for me, we're quasi, I list from zero one to, to the list of production for Edson records was fantastic.
Our ground guru records, but I see the category in my, in my thing was wrong.
(38:51):
That's why I changed the software.
What are we talking before?
With this to logic and for logic to Ableton, I've lost many things.
Well, I'm not having my studio with me.
I'm not having my mix console with me.
(39:12):
I, my machine, I'm missing my machine, everything I'm missing.
All is what I product is, all is in the, in the, in the computer.
And the master thing was when I production, the music in my studio was, I started and then I go in the mix console.
(39:32):
And then quasi, I have a, everything I do, unique single track, unique.
So every single track, but it's on records was dominant between the working with the hands and not just on computer.
While the computer started the sequence.
(39:53):
So from that, we go to the mix and then we go to example, left, right, right.
I have a change in the sound, the filter, I will go and working directly live.
And that's, I will love to do.
How if, if I have the opportunity, if we do an event live show, that's done.
(40:14):
Consider that's the master people or this laptop and mixer.
And this is, and it's normal.
Is a, is a, is a feeling from the music could be in the time while working with some records about the, the mix start.
Okay.
So that's, this make more differential of, of quality, you know?
(40:38):
So when the master people, Oh, the track is finito.
My master duck finito.
It's not that.
And then you hear from the beginning, all the, with the hand, the working, all the small thing.
That's a, that's considered too much stress, mental and the highs.
Why?
When you, you have the arrangement finito.
(41:00):
So you become the track of one time.
You started the track and then the eight or the nine minute long, you have a space to mix the volume.
There's all this life, you know, this make different quality, you know, while this is all this festival is analogic, poor on the percent.
(41:25):
And the second is you have a good quality one time.
It's gonna not go be the back with the same track.
It's a VM computer.
You have the, the option as you save the tricks.
So you have a programming.
That's okay.
But no, when you have a mix life, okay.
(41:47):
In the, in the mix console, quasi, you change the filter.
That's noise in computer.
Say that's this just one time in my, it's on release.
Oh, okay.
Hmm.
Oh, it's different.
And, and if you could pick, you know, it is, it is a lot of different, you know, I'm sure, like I said, it's a little difficult of a question to answer.
(42:12):
It's like I said, it's hard when everyone, when they are, anyone ever asks me that question.
I'm always like, well, every episode is my favorite episode.
No, it's very simple.
If you think it, you, you production, the music on computer.
Okay.
You change the equalizer, the volume, the, the regular, most of you, everything show programming on computer.
(42:35):
So in my old song release, never have you do all of this working.
It's also with the hand working all of the life.
It's nothing.
My, my computer have helped me just to do the arrangement and the snare, the, the, the, the break, but the records I have to do all this live with the change, the filter, the gate, everything I have to do live.
(43:03):
And that's the way the master people love this concern about its own records.
While in now, if you hear the music, you begin and start.
So clean synthetic.
That's this.
I was too normal.
Okay.
And the, but it's on, you put on a, on a song and release it for Edson.
(43:26):
And you hear this in the club, the speaker go down.
I believe.
Okay.
So it's normal.
This is synthetic.
She sound, you know, this, this is poor analog, you know, let's, let's make a difference.
If you could pick an, a classic electronic music track out there after years of being in the game.
(43:48):
And I know this is even more of a loaded question.
Can you pick a classic electronic music track and tell us why that track is so good?
Different.
Yes.
I, I, again, right.
That's why I, my wish to do online.
And that's where I will talk to you.
I will in the next time about every single beings.
(44:11):
As on my ID is our, while people, I see people, sometimes people don't like to send you a message or a mean message or to him as somebody, somebody do not give you these, these things.
But if you go online and, and the, and the, you give it to people, example, what you know, what the master, we reach out and other big producer, Tina, give you the exact touch.
(44:42):
Okay.
The, the say something, but no exactly what, and that's where I will love to do.
I have one school, uh, of, uh, DJ, the guys with the more element, uh, to work in, in the music between copyright, uh, every single thing to produce from the beginning to finish.
(45:06):
And that's, I think it does kind of go very cool.
I must have people and much people tell me this, why you not go line while Massimo you see Massimo never is online.
Uh, Instagram, Facebook, and there's Massimo is just a home working production.
But nobody knows what Massimo do.
(45:28):
So in the, in the future, this is a good option to tell with DJ session.
We do something cool about school and teacher people and give a new feeling in the music generation.
Absolutely.
You know, it's, it's, it's always, you know, um, this has been an evolutionary process for myself as well.
(45:52):
Starting playing with the home video camera at the age of six in 1979, 1980.
Yes, that's 1979 and 1980.
Unbelievable.
They still look young, but I celebrated my 50th.
First, but you know, and then going into high school and having the first video production class and then walking right out of high school and stepping into a public access TV, hip hop television show.
(46:19):
And then eight years after that, getting into broadcast television, you know, in 2000, 2001, and executing shows to Fox and NBC affiliates.
And then YouTube comes out and then podcast and video podcasting comes out right about the same time with the video iPod.
And then set the clock to 2007, the iPhone comes out and we can download Shazam and do a bunch of stuff and make shows on our phone with a video camera and upload it directly to YouTube.
(46:48):
And then 2009 really hits the streaming revolution.
When I got into live streaming, there was live streaming beforehand, but it wasn't used as a medium for, there were DJs doing it, but it was not heralded as a thing.
And then set the clock 10 years later,
11 years later,
we have Pandy come into effect and every DJ in the world,
(47:09):
every DJ,
and even people who weren't ever thinking about DJing DJing and,
and producers actually setting up cameras in their studios,
just the evolution of just,
just recording and videoing the image,
let alone all the software advances and computer advances that have gone up in
the back end to make this almost,
like I said,
a zero barrier entry game earlier in the interview,
(47:31):
but you know,
just,
you know,
it's just been awesome to see how technology goes and how some works still
remain classic.
I was listening to some FM today and attracted.
I really love like Kruder Dorfmeister comes on WebEye that they used in the matrix animatrix soundtrack, but I was listening to that back in 2001, 2002, somewhere like that.
(47:55):
Yeah.
And it's timeless.
You would not be able to know if that track was produced today.
Yeah.
It was produced 24 years ago.
This is this, this is this, you know, and I think a lot of timeless tracks have that you go back to the craft works.
Bravo.
That's he said.
It's on records.
Yeah.
You go back to the craft works and you go back to these early pioneers and they were mastering tracks and setting tracks out there.
(48:18):
You're like, Whoa, I mean, it's, it's, they were doing it and that was considered rookie and brand new in the game with the technology that we're using at that time.
Yeah.
As opposed to what you have now at your disposal with Sebastian has at his disposal coming into this game and making tracks, you know, it's very, very awesome.
Yeah.
For, for, for, for when this, for two week ago, I was with my friend and my music work.
(48:46):
He said, wow, the track is so nice.
I said, this track is shown from 93.
I said, what?
No, I don't believe this.
I say, yes, this is for 93.
And that's, is this fascination on the, on the, the satisfaction we must say on the, on this, it's on records, you know, but you hear the sound, what now it's actual, you know?
(49:14):
So that's, is what the David Gilmour told me, you know, while, when I was a sex love emotion in London and, and the life shape and, and he told me, Massimo, your music is too far, far away.
Yeah.
And that's, it's a reality truth, you know, for me, it's more better as when you, it's in the top charts one week, and then you go down, you see ourself from David Quetta and order.
(49:46):
Okay.
So this in the one week, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
And the music is done.
It's finito, you know?
So it's, it's, it's, yeah, I know, I know one, I, you know, I respect the artist and I'm not having any, but the fact is fact talking, you know, and that says for me, better I stay in the big, big, big, big, big, big, one week or maybe two week and then you're done, you know?
(50:18):
So when you do number one charts, you needed to think what I do in the next.
So it's this much pressure.
I don't want it.
It's a pressure, you know?
So that's the other, that's the other side of the game is, is you produce something great.
Now you got to worry about following up with it.
Yeah.
(50:39):
It's a, no, everyone needs to go to play.
I was telling you, you know, you last year when I was at rave the planet with Riverside studios and we took number one in the world on Twitch streaming live from the back of their, their float, their double decker bus.
Yeah.
And I came back to the States and it was my 50th birthday.
And it's kind of like, what do I do after this?
(50:59):
I was just at a place with 350,000 people in Berlin.
First time ever been Berlin on the back of this boat with one of the top studios in the world, some of the top artists and people know this name and know this company.
And I'm like, what do I do after that?
I literally burnt out, but what do I do?
Yeah.
There's another interview going to do anything.
I mean, it was those backend production questions.
(51:21):
Like how do I step that up?
How do I top that?
Do I have anything on my, my roster coming up?
And I didn't nothing that big.
I could go back and it kind of was a culture shock also going there, but coming back and going, I even got the inkling of wanting to move there.
And I know we talked pre-show about something I'm working on, but we can't talk about that yet because it's in the pre, pre, pre, pre, pre, pre, pre, pre development, but I'm pretty sure it's going to happen, but definitely opened my eyes, especially going to Amsterdam and 80 open my eyes twice and meeting people.
(51:55):
They're seen being another culture where 250,000 people are descended upon a city all for electronic music for a week.
And it's like, Whoa.
And the vibe in Europe is so much different than that in the United States.
They both have different cultures and the music and the music, but in Europe and what I found out wrong is that was a London is the number one in the centrum for Europe about music, more than the other.
(52:28):
So the, the fact is that I give you so many good artists in Germany.
Okay.
But not everyone, you understand that's where the master, the master people from Germany, uh, as a, as a producer to go out of Europe, why to try to go and make more event here in, in America, example.
(52:51):
Okay.
So, or Australia.
So the fact is that's a Germany look every time.
What's fake, what sell best and an exit.
So to give it the, the, the, the charts, the look first six months, what go in the chart in London.
And then he put the music in Germany in the charts.
(53:15):
So that's his total wrong.
Okay.
So if he, you is, if you know, you understand about material from music, go out of this system, check all the job, go handyman or I don't know, work in other, other system, but no work in the music industry.
You know, that's where the master producer in, in, in, in Germany, they go out and try to go in a London or an Australia or an America and then, then.
(53:45):
So, and this I see, and I see many times.
So the fact is that's Belgium, London, Scotland, Scotland, and the, the France, they seem very, very good with music.
They working more international.
(54:06):
Okay.
But in Germany, it's a little complicated.
While, if it's a good artist, maybe you see in one yard, you see one or two artists, and they try to push, you know, and this is every time under this, under control from gross, gross, gross machine labor.
(54:27):
Okay.
So we war now and then, then.
Okay.
So that's the way I never like to work in, in this system.
Okay.
Well, I say, no, that's not my world.
I, I am artist.
I like to make music.
So, and that's in the many good artists that we like Massimo, but nobody knows.
While the media, the TV, and, and, and the most to say, no, this guy must not, this guy must not, this thing.
(54:56):
So they take, you know, the artist, you know, that's why I found this quasi not nice.
And, and that's the way he lost, he lost the many quality.
And when the artists, the Germany artists to go far, far away from Germany, while everyone not receiving money, I hear from people in Berlin, you work with big board, never receiving money.
(55:25):
Okay.
So, so this is what's going on, you know, and then I'll be here now the next day.
My friend, He had over 4 million, 4 million here of Spotify, and the Spotify not pay him money, okay?
But the Spotify invest money to do fight between Ukraine and Russians and stuff.
(55:52):
Come on, you make music while you go in this system.
No, that's, that's crazy.
That's crazy for me, you know.
The whole Spotify thing, I was doing some research into that recently, and how the breakdown goes and how much money they make.
Yeah, it's a very interesting model out there, but it's how people are getting out there.
(56:16):
Something I wanted to bring up is something that we just added to our site, which is really awesome.
After years of compiling data and putting it down, we should be able to update this every year, is we just added the top, well, we added a DJ ranking page to our site, and it's the top 20,000 DJs in the world.
(56:37):
Yeah.
The list is 20,000 DJs produced, DJs, it's supposed to be DJs, but it's DJs slash producers in the world.
And two of the graphs that we have in there now are, one is the top, well, the top 100 DJs country of origin.
We'll expand that probably to the top 1,000 here shortly.
But we also added the top 100 DJs music genres in the world.
(57:05):
So that's kind of really nice to see what's currently happening.
And we use third-party sources to do this.
Nobody pays us to be in this list.
Nobody gives us any money.
We use all different types of sources to come in and sort this out.
We're going to be adding more to that section in the future, which is really awesome because it kind of gives a state of like, this is what's happening in the world.
(57:26):
And this is who is big in the world.
And it's not us saying who's big in the world.
Nobody's paid us to put their name in there, which is really nice.
But we're also going to add some other additional columns that include, do they have an exclusive mix on the DJ sessions?
Or do they have an interview on the DJ sessions?
And people can sort that list.
And as they sort it, it'll show where they're positioned as in chronological order.
(57:50):
It'll be really fun to add that in and then get more information.
And also talking about the new music section on our site as well.
You got tracks.
We want to get you in that new music section.
And also you do regular live streams as well?
Yeah.
Now in the future, I have, yes.
Now in the future, we do this.
(58:12):
Okay.
Awesome.
Because we're looking at syndicating some shows as well.
We have a lot of good stuff going on there.
I'm glad that we were able to reconnect Massimo and talk a ton more questions.
We're going to stay in contact.
I know we're going to be in contact.
And also there's coming now a new release album in Colorado with the label Cartesono.
We released with Christian Schaik and Massimo Rivona, the new release album.
(58:37):
That's the other guy who I'm working together with Christian.
Well, we born in the same label records.
All right.
So I born with the Fox Records.
Man say, never spook of the, what is it?
Plateau where you eat.
Christian is one from the good friend.
(59:00):
And we do now three releases for Massimo Rivona and two releases for Christian Schaik.
And people in the Summer FM, they love the release.
And while they were out of contact with the Summer FM.
So and from Colorado.
And he told me, so he loved the album.
(59:22):
And then now the next to come with Busty here with the Busty come the new album.
And then we released this out of its own records.
So awesome.
I'd love to definitely get an interview.
I'm going to interview with you too, Sebastian, here in the future.
I'd love to talk to you.
Always hear about one of the main mission statements is not just working with the big guys like Massimo.
(59:46):
It's working with new and up and coming artists as well.
So I'd love to get you on the show in the future.
Is there any final things you want to say to our DJ sessions fans before we let you go?
Yeah, I guess I'll like kind of introduce myself.
Maybe for next time when we interview next time.
I'd love to do that.
Yeah.
Like we said, I live in Sedona.
(01:00:07):
And honestly, like my whole thing, I just love music in general.
Like just everything about it.
There's no words, to be honest.
So I'm really looking forward to this interview.
I'll definitely make a schedule for that.
Looking forward to that and working with him.
Nice.
Yeah, I have some music up on Spotify right now and Bandcamp.
(01:00:30):
So Bandcamp, I'm under his label right now.
So yeah, I'm looking forward to the next interview for sure.
Sounds great.
Where can people find out more information about you two?
Oh, yeah.
So yeah, I will say just the last couple of words about, I want to thank you for also Russian, England, Belgium, France, Scotland, Scotland, and Sweden.
(01:01:04):
And all the Central Europe, I want to say thank you for support Massimo on Bandcamp.
And I am very proud of the people.
And I will try to stay every time and Massimo, we want in the sound, you know.
So it's on records, you know.
So I'm growing the group records, of course, you know.
(01:01:27):
So that's just thank you for the people who support me.
Best place people can go to find out more information about you?
Yeah.
So www.MassimoVivona.com.
There you go, that website.
And in the future, everything about news, TV, about DJ session, or the DJ session, and it's on everything, you can find news of MassimoVivona.com.
(01:01:57):
So that's my actual page.
And yeah, we try to do in the future live show set and many, many things together with Basti, Sebastian.
The pseudonym is Seborn.
And Basti is the real name, Sebastian.
(01:02:18):
And yeah.
And we say everything what's coming news, come over the DJ session, all at MassimoVivona.com.
Yeah, yeah.
Awesome.
And back camp.
Yeah, back camp.
All right.
Well, thank you two for coming on the show today.
It was a pleasure having you.
We're definitely going to stay in contact with you and find out what you're going up to.
(01:02:38):
You know how we like to stay in contact with everyone when I'm not taking a break, which I don't plan to do for a very long time now.
Thank you both for coming on the show today.
Thank you, you.
Thank you, you for the opportunity.
Absolutely.
Stay in contact.
I will send you my number, the new number.
Well, I have a new number.
So I will send you and then we can talk a little what is something perspective in the future.
(01:03:05):
Absolutely.
Looking forward to that.
So I'll see you soon there.
All right.
See you soon.
Thank you.
On that note, don't forget to go to our website, thedjsessions.com.
Go ahead, pull out your phone, check that QR code, go to the website.
We have 700 news stories a month.
We have over 2,700 past episodes.
The new music section, our VR nightclub, our mobile app, our site-wide player, and more.
(01:03:30):
All of that is at thedjsessions.com.
I don't know how you just scanned that QR code.
It gave me a notice that said somebody scanned the QR code.
That's really cool.
I've never seen anyone do that before.
Awesome.
But all of that and more at thedjsessions.com.
I'm your host, Darran.
That's Massimo Zamona and Sebastian coming in from Phoenix, Arizona for The DJ Sessions.
(01:03:55):
And remember, on The DJ Sessions, the music never stops.
Yes, yes, yes.
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