Although they say you can’t be a DJ in the modern climate without first being a producer, Brit Tony Lionni seems to be an exception to that rule. After the storming success of his joyous house anthem, ‘Found a Place’ his name hasn’t quite popped up with the frequency you’d expect of the man behind such a big hit. What that does mean, though, is that between scattered gigs at places like Fabric and Berghain, Lionni has had time to finish his debut full length, As One, for UK house label Freerange. It’s a very cheery, piano lead and chord heavy affair which surges from start to finish on a wave of pure house energy.

Dazed Digital: Manchester, London, Liverpool, Spain, Berlin – where’s your head at? How much is the music you make determined by where you are? 

Tony Lionni: I can write music anywhere I am and have found my environment doesn´t make that much difference as I normally like to distance myself from what’s happening around me for privacy reasons and so as not to get too washed up in what everyone else is doing as I find it too suffocating.

DD: So, the new album… did you know what you wanted it to sound like or did it grow organically as you progressed with it?

Tony Lionni: I didn´t have any original plan just tons of tracks I needed to find a home for, the only requirement from Freerange records was that one of the tracks would be a track working with a vocalist.  When I start a track I never know on what direction I want to take it, it´s just something that evolves, pretty much like life you take one step then you’re faced with various pathways and decisions.

DD: It’s very joyous; very ‘up’ with the big piano chords… is that a reflection of you? Are you a happy kind of guy generally?

Tony Lionni: Yes, of course though my musical taste is wide open and I write a wide spectrum of types of house music, I do like generally my music to be uplifting, joyous, these things are a reflection of my soul and my spirit and like to extend this energy through my music and send a positive force into the universe.

DD: How much influence does the music you are listening to have on your stuff?

Tony Lionni: The music I am listening to has absolutely no influence at all with regards to the music I write as I mainly listen to anything other than house music which I generally find totally boring and without any soul or swing or contemplation. Most house records today are made by people who only know how to put together a bunch of sounds and literally throw them together without any real melodic, conscious or spiritual values, at home I mainly listen to contemporary jazz, rare jazz and soul, hip hop, contemporary classical music, flamenco, dub reggae…

DD: You seemed pretty disillusioned with the scene a couple years ago in an interview – saying it was all very closed off – how you feel about it now?
Tony Lionni: Exactly the same - promoters seem to favour people from certain regions/countries or certain cliques.  You can have a massive record out like ‘Found a Place’ and find yourself without a gig for two to three months while you’re watching your record being played on YouTube by everyone in all the big clubs  all over the world? Fuck, if I was a promoter surely I´d want to book the guy who wrote the Mutha F. Like I say it’s the same old mediocre producers being booked to play the festivals and clubs regularly, a real tough one to crack.

DD: Tell us about your relationship with Berghain – how did you hook up to release on their in house label and what do you make of the club’s recent prominence in the press?
Tony Lionni: I was approached by a friend of mine, Len Faki who I had released music on his label for who wanted to include a track of mine on the Berghain 3 compilation. The record was wrote subconsciously after a short period of being without a home just after the economic crisis hit while I was living in Barcelona with the help of a small advance from a label in Detroit I was about to also release a record for ‘Found a Place’.

I was pretty surprised when he wanted to include ‘Found a Place’ knowing that Berghain is a techno room.  I have no other connection or relationship with the club other than that.  Berghain reminded me of the first time I entered the offices of a place I used to work at the beginning of the 90s in Manchester - The Hacienda - a place which, for me, other than Club Yellow which I was fortunate enough to play before it closed down, has yet to be bettered.

Text by Kristan J Caryl