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Tony Lionni: The Chase
RA catches up with the talented newcomer as he chases the dream of being able to make a living from the thing he loves the most: music.
Oh Manchester, so much to answer for. Perhaps The Smiths were unduly miserable when they penned that line more than two decades ago as the city has given the world much to thank it for, not least of which is its generous contribution to music and popular culture. Now one of its former sons is adding his name to the city's roll of honour by stamping his own mark on the house and techno map.
Tony Lionni, Liverpool born but Manchester bred, enjoyed a prolific and near-faultless debut year as a producer in 2008 thanks to his uplifting take on house/tech house, Detroit techno and all things deep. With a raft of releases on labels such as Aesthetic Audio, Figure, Mule, Versatile and Wave, Lionni couldn't have scripted it better himself.
"I totally surprised myself actually," explains the producer, who cites Ron Trent, Theo Parrish and Kerri Chandler in that order not only as influences but as the three most important current beatmakers too. "After working solidly writing music, all at once I was offered record deals. Firstly by Versatile Records' Gilb'R, a couple of weeks later Wave Records without any connection between the two people and then the excellent Mule Musiq from Japan. I was overwhelmed. I honestly couldn't believe it."
While Lionni's production career has taken off at full speed in the past year, it hasn't been quite the overnight success it may seem. Lionni's has been experimenting with electronic instruments for nearly 20 years. And it's been full of setbacks along the way. A prodigious producer and self-promoter, Lionni's not a man to wait idly by for life to come to him, so three years ago he sent some music to a well-known producer for advice.
"I was writing music with a computer that cost me a hundred Euros. No sound card and a cheap keyboard. I wrote a techno track that I considered good, reasonably good. Of course the sound recording was a bit ropey and I sent it to one of the main players, one of the main producers who has a big control over the European music scene. I won't mention his name.
"I sent [it] through MySpace and, to capture his attention, in the title I wrote 'Unique sounding techno track.' And the guy totally destroyed [it] saying 'Has it got original-sounding beats? Nope. Has it got original-sounding keyboards? Nope. Has it got this? Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.' And I thought, you don't destroy somebody's hopes like that, not somebody in his position. Personally if somebody sent me a track and I wasn't feeling it, I would say nothing. I would let my silence say everything or try to give them a little bit of encouragement. You can be critical but in a positive way, which this person wasn't. It was in a completely arrogant way."
"Now I'm happy. I can die a happy person."
But instead of retreating into self-doubt and despair, the experience galvanized the Englishman: "It made me totally confident that I would be up there one day with that person and the people he's connected with." With his peers proclaiming him one of techno's most exciting new producers and an enviable and expanding production CV, does he feel he's proved a point? (And does it matter anyway?) Hell, yes. "It matters," Lionni states defiantly. "I think I have proved a point to that person and to myself. I always see the truth in every situation and I saw and felt the truth in my music. I was never really that bothered if I released a record. Now I'm happy. I can die a happy person, a satisfied and content person."
Production-wise, life couldn't get much better right now for Lionni—a name given to him by a pal based on his Mediterranean appearance. Apart from current releases on Mule and Freerange, there's a second EP for Aesthetic Audio in the pipeline, a third release for Wave Music tentatively called Games People Play ready to go and an exclusive track called "Found a Place" included on the new Berghain compilation mixed by his pal Len Faki. And be sure not to forget the EP for Faki's own Len Series label, a techno track that "will blow people's heads" for an Aesthetic Audio compilation, an EP called Golden for Toronto-based Basic Soul Unit's Left of the Dial imprint and a release under a different moniker for a new Freerange sub-label.
Manchester memories
Tony Lionni
When house music arrived on the shores of Britain, I used to go to the black music clubs [in Manchester] That was where it was played before it arrived at clubs like the Haçienda, before acid house and warehouse raves. I used to go to clubs where everything was mixed together, where all the freshest black music was played, where there were no divisions; hip-hop, soul, a little bit of house music, funk and rare groove.
For me the best thing about the Haçienda was a jazz-fusion dance crew called Footpatrol from Manchester and they were one of the best jazz-dance crews in the UK apart from IDJ [I Dance Jazz] from London and the Backstreet Kids who were, I think, from Leeds or Bradford. I used to follow them around religiously from club to club because I loved the way they danced and I loved the clothes that they wore. For me they were the coolest motherfuckers around.
They danced to house music the way that people back in the day, when house music was created, used to dance to house music. It was a fusion of jazz and breakdance. Other jazz dancers from other parts of the UK would come to the Haçienda and try and take the dance floor. It was in a way like the football casuals scene in the '80s where different football crews would come to your local pub in Old Trafford, Manchester, and take it. It was a similar competitive thing. These were some of the best days, just seeing some of the jazz dance battles on the dance floor. Amazing.
His crew could've landed a recording deal after they won a national competition in the UK, but they weren't interested in the commercial route the record company was eager to put them on. (East 17 got the gig instead.)
Though still a B-boy at heart, both hip-hop and house have clearly had an equally significant impact on Lionni and his experiences in the former are now shaping his production of the latter: "I focus and concentrate on house music now because, for me, it's the most creative form of music where you can experiment with sound, like back in the day with hip-hop. It [hip-hop] was more experimental but now it's turned very stale...
"For me, when I write house music I think of it from a hip-hop perspective. I think everybody should have their own sound and be identified by their own sound. When people hear a record of mine I hope...they have a good idea who it is, purely in terms of the energy of a record. For me, the house scene now is a little bit stale and should be more competitive like the hip-hop scene was with people dissing each other in the past, you know. It should be more like that. When I write house music I consider it a type of sport, from a competitive angle, where I have to train...and try to improve my fitness everyday. I treat it as a competitive thing where everybody is my opponent."
Who are his opponents? Right now, with all the attitude and snarl of a former B-boy, Lionni is gunning for promoters and the so-called superstar DJs. Despite production success and a long career in the underground scene, as a DJ Lionni is still something of an unknown quantity on the competitive house circuit. As such, music is still not a full-time career.
"You're talking about a very closed network within the European scene. It's the same people who were given a hand-up by the same friends, totally. And that's how it's always been. It's a Catch-22 situation really," he reflects. "You need to be out there DJing to get your face about, to get more and more people buying your records. You can only have a big hit if you sell records. And the record label will only have faith in you the more publicity you get...
"[The] difficulty I'm having at the moment is that everybody wants me to record on their labels, but I'm just not having...offers to play live, so for me that's the next thing to try and crack...Most of the best booking agencies are just inundated by good artists and haven't got space for any more. Other people, it seems, just won't push you or promote you enough. Another theory is that a lot of these club promoters have got their heads up their arses and are just not aware of what's actually happening in the music scene and what the freshest sounds are....
"I have a little bit of lack of faith in the market and the music industry. You have three obstacles to overcome; one is to convince the record labels, the second is to convince a promoter and then to convince the media. I'm releasing and writing records and I see Joe Bloggs, Mr. Joe Nobody DJing my records and getting paid a thousand pounds a set and he's got, say, six bookings a month and is flying all over the world making himself look good and getting rich off my records and I'm fucking broke and I'm sat at home because nobody's taking me seriously. I'm pissed and I'll just stop releasing fucking records and I'll just give it away for free."
Lionni may talk about premature retirement and working a nine-to-five—and it's a brave man that doubts his sincerity—but he's nonetheless focused for now on the next stage of both life and career. Not only is he playing at the launch party for the Berghain 3 compilation alongside Faki, Radio Slave, Cassy and Konrad Black on April 18 in Berlin, but taking the motto "have keyboard, will travel" as his mantra, he's moving to the city as well after six years in Spain.
"I basically move wherever there's good music. I have to be where it's happening. If it were still happening in Manchester musically I'd still be there. In the early '90s I worked for the Haçienda and when it closed, for me, Manchester became quite a boring place and it's then I lost interest in the city and started looking for the next destination really. For me, the Continent has a healthier music scene than the UK in terms of electronic music and that's why I'm based here."
Lionni, who describes his own sets as "a real positive force…explosive, spiritual, a thoughtful sound," also reveals that plans have been mooted for a live tour alongside two of Detroit's current finest, Patrice Scott and Keith Worthy. He's just waiting for "people to pull their fingers out and make it happen." Further down the line he admits that eventually he'd like to start his own label focusing on "fresh and upcoming talent."
"Mr. Joe Nobody is flying all over the world making himself look good and getting rich off my records."
"I'm constantly trying to help people who contact me with demos, who I think have something special and try to point them in the right direction," Lionni explains. "But there's only so much I can do. I can't convince record labels to sign a particular track. Nobody did it for me, nobody helped me and that's what a lot of people don't understand. Maybe I should start dissing these guys who send me good demos to give them a kick up the arse, to keep them fighting."
He does, however, offer a word of warning to anyone who thinks the industry is a fast track to wealth: "Do it for the love of music because if you're going to do it for the money nowadays, forget about it. Impossible. Even if you are writing for...labels like I do, there's no way you can survive purely from releasing records."
If all else fails and Lionni does eventually decide to turn his back on music, or perhaps more precisely music effectively turns its back on him, then what next? "Who knows, something creative," he suggests. "Maybe fall back into the fashion world, start designing clothes. I was studying fashion design but decided to give it up because I realised at the start of the Iraq War that there are more important things than looking beautiful and creating clothes for people with too much money and very little taste. For me, I thought the best thing I can do for humanity to benefit from is to write music. Music is the answer. Music is the healing force."
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Published / Thursday, 16 April 2009
 26 Comments
Photo credits /
Sidebar - Manchester's Broken Glass dance crew
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