Our next event is quickly approaching, and as always we made some time to talk with our headliner, all the way from Milan Italy Lele Sacchi. Over the past few years, Lele (under the studio moniker Boogie Drama) has released some seriously amazing tech house, late night bombs that have gotten play by all the major names in Europe.
Lele, it’s great to have you coming back to Sullivan Room! It’s been a while since we have had a chance to catch up, so tell me…
What things have you been up to since I’ve last seen you? Recent releases, tours, etc?
“A lot of things have happened, as usual. Production with the Boogie Drama project has been steady and as singles or remixes, we’ve been published by important labels like Systematic, Get Physical, Mood Music, Liebe*Detail and others just in 2009. The djing side as well has been full of traveling around, plus my usual core of nights I keep doing here in Milan. On top of that, recent news (in 2008) I began teaching a course as part of the sound design degree at the European Institute of Design (IED) here.”
I bet it’s kept you quite busy! Do you find time for any other interests? Any hobbies?
“Luckily I try to keep my free time to follow all my other passions: books, movies, politics, football…. I don’t have a particular hobby, but I like to leave space to follow all kind of arts and culture. I believe that above the personal enjoyment, keeping your eyes opened and the brains working on what’s happening around the world in the creative scene always adds something to the music career. Then I keep my teenage passions: as you remember I took you to the stadium to see my favourite team, Inter Milan, and that gave me a lot of satisfaction in recent years”
I definitely did’t forget seeing a great game with you and your home team! For those who may not know… what is Boogie Drama, and how did it get it’s start?
Boogie Drama is the name of the music production team consisting of me and studio partner, Sandiego. I was working as a label manager for independent music distributor, White&Black, and Diego (Sandiego) was a salesman there but also a hip hop beat producer. He was coming to the parties I was playing, and at some point we decided to start producing music together. So he stopped the hip hop thing and we dedicated ourselves to the Boogie Drama project. We’ve produced music together for around 6 years, and although we’re both really busy on djing and promoting, we had the opportunity of releasing records on some of the most respected record labels of the electronic scene in the world. I’m very happy about it and we’re great friends and music partners.”
Do you ever produce with anyone else?
“Actually I’d like to have even more time to produce with Boogie Drama so I’m not concentrating on else at the moment. But obviously you meet so many good artists, you’d always want to start new projects, especially something on a different sound….we’ll see.”
A few years ago, I had the pleasure of playing alongside of you at what some call the best club in Italy. Tell us about Magazzini Generali… What makes it so special?
“Magazzini Generali has been going on for 15 years, it’s a kind of institution for the electronic/house/techno scene in Europe. Not many venues have resisted so long with such an impressive line-up of guest artists. We have had the luck of going through different generations of clubbers and different trends in music without losing the profile. Magazzini is also one of the most important live venues for indie/rock bands, so I believe that adds a lot of what is so special about it and what gives such a perception on the public.”
How long have you been resident there?
“I started playing there 10 years ago. Quite a long time to think about it! So many dj’s, musical fads have changed. I’ve tried to keep my attitude and my vision and I believe it has paid off.”
Are you still playing mainly vinyl?
“Unfortunately less than I’d love. If it was up to me, I’d keep it as it was with good solid booths and PA’s dedicated to the vinyl sound. It gave a special feeling to the sound, a great image to follow for the youngest kids (you didn’t look like you were checking your emails or playing just one cd!). Plus most important, you needed to be very dedicated to music (researching, record shopping…) that made as well a natural selection between wannabees and proper artists (let’s also think about the practicing you had to do with the pitching on the decks instead of having automatic beatmixing!). Nowadays all the promos are being sent as digital files, most of the booths are designed for digital sounds and the airline controls have been more complicated for a vinyl dj to keep it like it was. So I’m playing quite a lot of cd’s as well.”
What do you have coming up for 2010?
“At the moment I’m working hard on the production of the new edition of Elita festival, www.elitamilano.org , which is coming to its fifth edition and it’s becoming always more interesting. Productions being released are in the pipeline as well. Touring as usual (SE Asia at the end of the month and then coming back for the WMC the nearest foreign trips). Magazzini Generali and Tunnel parties here in Milan as regular.”
RECENT LIVE MIX:
Lele sacchi live @ tunnel 211109 by lelesacchi
MORE INFO:
http://www.myspace.com/lelesacchi
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Boogie+Drama
We think you’ll really like this one…
