[TMN EXCLUSIVE] EDX Interview

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It’s not everyday that you get to sit down with a producer who’s had a long and storied career as EDX. It’s not everyday that you get to see a DJ of this magnitude at your local club. It’s not everyday that you get to talk about your favorite country with an international star.

Fortunately for this blogger, that day came a few weeks back at Beta Nightclub, with a sit down conversation from EDM journeyman, EDX. Check out what he had to say about his favorite venues, collaborators, and cured meats from Italy.

TMN: I’m sitting here with EDX at Beta Nightclub, which was recently ranked the best nightclub in America by Rolling Stone magazine. How does it feel to be back?

EDX: Actually, it’s always something very special to be back in Denver, Colorado. Beta was one of the first clubs I ever played in the US, a couple of years back, so it’s always kind of special. I’m super pumped and excited to be back again.

TMN: While Beta is a great spot to play, you’ve played all over the world. Miami, LA, Vegas, Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney….well, you get the idea. What are some of your favorite venues and festivals that you’ve played?

EDX: I’ve played nearly every festival in the US, and a lot in Europe as well, Australia some…so there’s a lot of favorites. Last year I played Freedom Festival in the Philippines, Manilla, which was very good. I played around Carinvale in Brazil, I was absolutely impressed by the amazing set up and the amazing crowd, a lot of music lovers. There’s also a lot of clubs all over the world.

I don’t want to pick out one. I think at the end of the day, everywhere where you can find people that love your music, it’s one of your favorite clubs in the world. So, there’s so many!

TMN: Aside from playing some of the best venues in the world, you’ve also had the pleasure of working with some of the biggest names in music. One of the most intriguing listed in your bio is Kool and the Gang. We can’t seem to find any information out there on it though, do you care to fill us in?

It was very well welcomed because it was very funky house which matched with Lauren Hills vocals and the happy vibe of Kool and the Gang’s music. It was a very interesting album. I’m still very proud of that. I’m still trying to find out the title though…haha. I can text the title to you.

TMN: Out of the lengthy list of people that you’ve collaborated with, who was the most interesting to work with?

EDX: Whew! There’s so many different aspects to what is interesting and what isn’t. Actually, I really like to work with vocals. I try to build some new vibe around vocals, especially when they have a special meaning. So, it’s really hard to say which one is a favorite. I was definitely really happy to work with dance vocalist Nadia Ali, who was always one of my favorite singers, and still is. But, I wouldn’t say there’s other vocal performers that I didn’t like as much.

Definitely, Sam Obernick, Tamra Keenan, Hadley…but it’s very hard to pick one out because every one was like very interesting to work with. There was always a very different process with each individual artist. I don’t want to pick any particular one.

TMN: Alright, let’s chat about your music a little bit. You’ve recently been giving away a lot of free music. With the extended vocal mix of Live My Life and Beachball remix, you’ve hooked your fans up in the month of July. Any particular reason behind that?

EDX: There’s no particular reason. There was just a couple of records, and there’s one more, that I produced for a particular reason. I did this remix for Beachball in ’08, and it was a summerish EDX classic sound…progression chords remix. I don’t know why we didn’t release it back then. So I was just like, “Ok, I can give it away. It’s just for the summer.” It’s still one of my favorite dance tracks. It was one of the biggest in Europe, but I don’t know how big it was in the US.

I’ve been running all kinds of new social media things to try and get closer to my followers. I want to get a better understanding of them and what they like. So, I’m thinking I want to give away something once a month. There will be another giveaway soon which will be my track I did for Avicii x Ralph Lauren, which was only featured on the Marquis Las Vegas compilation.

I will also try to share my own bootlegs. It might be complicated on the legal side, but I will just share it and see if someone asks us to take it down.

TMN: We like that attitude.

EDX: There’s much more coming! Make sure to follow me on twitter and all my other social media pages.

TMN: Let’s get back to hooking your fans up. Did I see this correctly earlier today…are you offering a chance to win a flight on the No Excuses private jet with yourself to Zurich for Street Parade, then to Ibiza for your gig at Ushuaia. Can you talk to us about what inspired this?

EDX: It is like an appreciation thing. I was traveling all over the world and there was always so much love from my fans. Everywhere I went, people would react in a positive manner to electronic music, to my music. It’s very interesting to see how you can reach different people all over the world with the same formula.

So, I got a lot back from all these people over the past couple of months. I’m traveling with some friends on this jet, and there’s space, so I was like, “Ok, we don’t we just offer this very exclusive opportunity to someone who would never get this kind of experience?”

What we’re doing, we’re giving away an experience for the street parade in Switzerland, which is the biggest EDM street festival. It’s the 22nd year. We have our No Excuses event going on in my hometown of Zurich with NERVO as a guest. The day after we’ll hop over to Ibiza, and I will be opening for Avicii. It’s a very exclusive experience. We’ll record and share all the insights.

TMN: That’s a really amazing experience to offer to your fans. We think that’s awesome. Alright, we know you’re quite the journeyman when it comes to the dance world, but let’s go back before that and talk about your musical upbringing. Were you classically trained as a kid?

EDX: I had classical education in school, but I never really following up. I was more into sports when I was a young kid.

TMN: Who were some of your biggest influences as you developed as a musician?

EDX: I think I had a different process. I had this DJ process in the late 80’s early 90’s, with a huge hip hop influence as it came over from the US with people like Public Enemy, Run DMC, Grand Master Flash. Early 90’s I switched the the electronic scene when the rave generation started to pick up in Europe. All of the sudden it just took me into it and I was just going day and night.

In the early 90’s, two or three of my influences were Carl Cox and DJ Hype.

TMN: Aside from hooking your fans up, you also released “Hazed” in July. The track has deep and progressive house elements, but really goes hard with an electro style drop. Talk to us about your process in making it.

EDX: It’s a very easy process. I want to sound like EDX, but I want to have a fresh sound from today’s generation. The interesting part was when you get into a break, and how you will build a drop. That I tried to be a little uplifting, and follow up with my record with Nadia Ali.

TMN: Ok, let’s get to a few personal questions. We always like our readers to get to know you as a person a little bit better. So you’re hometown is listed as Zurich, but you’re actually Italian, correct?

EDX: Yes.

TMN: Haha. That was a no brainer. Alright , we’ll end it there. Thank you for taking some time to sit down with us today!