#MusicInTheAir Podcast hosts this week :
DAVIDE DEL VECCHIO

Villahangar in autumn 2021 continues its path and welcomes more and more new artists into its musical orbit.
For this week the guest of the #MusicInTheAir Podcast is the producer Davide Del Vecchio

Born in Naples in 1985, he then moved to Formia, a small town between Rome and Naples, with his family after primary school, and in 2010 he moved to Milan to study at the SAE Institute and obtain the certificate of electronic music producer. He is currently resident in London, where he chose to live, but with Italy always in his heart. 

He tells of the beginning of his journey: “I imagine that my musical journey began during school hours by returning home and listening to radio mixes after lunch. I remember recording cassettes but always skipping songs I didn’t like, so I wanted to create my own mixtape but at that point I didn’t have the “instruments”. So I took my father’s turntable and on the other channel of the mixer I had a portable compact disc… so I started.”

His real musical activity began in the early 2000s, when he began to share the console with some of the most important DJs and international legends such as Marshall Jefferson, Todd Terry, Kerry Chandler, Glenn Underground, Kevin Saunderson, fathers of old school American house music, passing through people like Raresh, Tini, Nina Kraviz, Paco Osuna, Martin Buttrich, Ryan Elliott, Delano Smith, Claudio Coccoluto, Luca Agnelli, Martinez Brothers, Davide Squillace, Gaiser, Matador, Ambivalent… Marcel Dettmann, Adam Beyer Karotte. 

Davide Del Vecchio is an artist without schemes, who does not like to be cataloged in a specific musical genre. His style and career are based on careful and accurate musical research but do not follow any particular pattern or genre, because, as he himself says “You do not judge the skills of a DJ basing on the genre he proposes, but only on the basis of the atmosphere he manages to create on the dance floor. I don’t like to be cataloged in a specific genre: even in the studio I like to experiment with different sounds but if I had to designate one I would say “Dance Music with a great influence of American House Music”. His is in fact a background of American house music. Among his influences also, the clubs and parties in Naples, such as the Angels of Love parties at disco Metropolis in the early 2000s.

He is the promoter, creator and one of the founders of “Rehab”, his most important project: a group that since 2009 has been carrying out many events, now using the Ribbon Club of Terracina in Italy as the main base for its parties. 

He says: “REHAB is my baby, a project started in Italy in 2009 that hosted the best djs in the world in the House and Techno scene. But for me it was not enough, so when I moved to London I started REHAB_LDN: the idea was to create a connection with Europe so I brought the party to Germany, France, Sweden etc then the pandemic stopped me….ma I will come back … soon “. 

Before the pandemic, in fact, he was asked to bring his concept REHAB_LDN once a month to Egg, a project that continues and is about to start again as soon as possible. Davide in London, immediately imposing his unique DJ sets, has in fact become resident DJ in one of the most important clubs in the British capital, the famous Egg where he is often asked to play “All night long” which is the one he loves the most that he can express himself better, during the many hours, taking the crowd on a journey full of sounds and rhythms. Regarding the past, after moving to London he also created a project called “See You In A Beat”, more an after party, which took place in very underground basements around the East Side of London, which he then exchanged and transformed, creating REHAB_LDN.

Davide is currently in the studio to refine his sound in musical productions, where he loves to involve and collaborate with real musicians who record live instruments, under his direction. 

His tours in Europe with REHAB touch France, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, Scotland, Canary Islands, Malta. Italy and of course the United Kingdom have already been “conquered”.

There are many new features on the horizon: more concerts are ready to be announced and more music is ready to be released.

What do you think about the London music scene? What do you think are the differences with Europe?

The music scene in London is unbelievable, you can really find whatever you are looking for, but we have sometimes problems with the license and parties are finishing quite early….but you will always find an after party at someone’s places or in the forest or in the boat or wherever.

What evolution do you think house music is experiencing on the international scene?

I’m coming from the real shit the good stuff, nowadays just few people are still doing it and only few very brave labels are still going on the same vibe, but mainly also big names moved on playing digital teck-house sets with sometimes horrible remixes of the classics, very disappointing.

How do you live now and have you experienced in the recent past this particular moment for humanity of epidemic? How did you make up for the lack of being able to travel for your inspirations?

Unfortunately it was a very bad time for everybody but luckily I was able to spend more time on my music in the studio but I’m not traveling since very long time.

How were the months of July and August for you? Have you had any DJ sets? Restrictions permitting, do you have dj sets planned at the moment for the future?

Thanks God I’ve been able to cut my little slice of cake just playing my selection of music rather than just following charts, even when I’m going to the record’s shop I’m looking at the wall of the last releases but is in the abandoned section where I’m finding most of the gems…. I like the dirty shit so since we open back again in May I’ve been lucky enough to go back behind the decks for 3/5 times a week.

Given the difficulties of the pandemic of the past year, how do you deal with the issue and in what direction do you think the music world should move to overcome the impossibility of live events?

Here everything is back to normal , we’re just waiting for the tourists to come to London that of course with the Brexit situation going on isn’t that easy as it used to be. But mostly again everything is back to normal and I’m so happy to see people sweat in the club.

You are dj resident of Hovarda, in London. Could you tell us how you started and how your collaboration is going?

Well Hovarda is an amazing venue in central London divided on two floors the part downstairs is a restaurant serving amazing fusion between Greek and Turkish food and upstairs we got the lounge with the bar, nice sofas and of course the dj booth powered with a very powerful function – one sound system to get the proper party vibes.

It’s now 3 years that I’m there every Wednesday doing all night long sets and I’m so glad to be part of the team cause I feel at home.
The man in charge of the bookings is Dimitris who is daily doing an amazing job bringing a lot of talented and amazing artists, Argy for example is regular guest at Hovarda and he is just one of them.

Let me tell you something if I’m in London, free of gigs…. you know where to find me.