Five Things with Hunter/Game

1. Growing Up

Emmanuele Nicosia: My parents, especially my father who was into jazz, are multi-instrumentalists who can play piano, guitar, bass, and even saxophone and drums. My childhood though was filled with progressive rock from acts like Pink Floyd, Genesis with Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins, and more alternative bands such as Jethro Tull and King Crimson. I would say Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd was my first approach ever to this music.

Martino Bertola: I started music school for many years when I was ten. My instrument was bass guitar. During that period I used to listen to more rock and industrial music like Nine Inch Nails, Deftones and Tool. I discovered electronic music after some years thanks to artists like Aphex Twin, Authecre and other Warp Records acts. I was really into Border Community stuff and James Holden was one of my favourites, so I decided to produce some ambient stuff with my computer.

2. Inspirations

EN: I really have many, and for sure some of those past acts paved an emotional path into my adolescence. My brother presented me my first Walkman when I was nine, so the first music cassette I ever bought was Use Your Illusion by Guns N’ Roses. I followed that up listening to more alternative rock bands such as Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins. Radiohead is another favourite and they transformed their sound from raw alternative rock to the most sophisticated electronic music. All these acts led up to me finding electronic music, but they are so far removed from where I’m at presently so I can’t really say their music is currently inspiring me. My taste has absolutely changed in a very diverse way, and I’m really looking to a lot of different stuff for inspiration around the current electronic music scene.

MB: Obviously my music preferences have changed a lot from I was a kid, but I have many inspirations. I am more into electronic music now and I try to discover new sounds from new artists every day. Currently I’m quite inspired by the Houndstooth label, and of course I am still really into Warp Records releases.

3. Your Crew

Our crew is basically made of childhood friends, and other guys we met later on who became our best and closest friends. Our label crew is something like a family business, everyone has his own set-up at home, but we also share a big studio at our friend Pisetzky’s Loft (which is also where our Just This label and party offices are). We work as a collective sharing ideas and work, with no jealousy towards each other – we all work for a common [goal], and everyone helps as much as they can. Everyone does their part, so everything works quite balanced.

4. The Music You Make And Play

We actually spent the past two years working on our album Adaptation which was released in February 2016 on Kompakt Records, one of the most rated labels on the scene. In 2015 we released two single EPs which were taken from the album, which turned out to be the most popular tracks too: ‘Hexagon’ and ‘Adaptation’. We have also made a couple of remixes for really interesting artists such Max Cooper and Weval, which was quite interesting to work on. So we pretty much focused on that, but now it is time to go back in the studio to write something new. Our live show is a mix between the album, a couple of old stuff and some unreleased tracks.

As our album is totally produced on analogue gear, it is really nice to perform live, as we can play with some funny stuff and synths. For the last year we have been working on our live audiovisual performance which we debuted at ADE in October 2015 for the Kompakt showcase. We always try to bring this experience with the live show as we can say it is a total clear view of what Hunter/Game dimension is.

During our DJ sets we can never say what we are going to play and we always try to pick up some interesting stuff from our back catalogue. Mainly the set is made up of our label’s music and also features unreleased stuff from friends, and some of our album’s tracks.

5. Music, Right Here, Right Now

We think music is in constant evolution, so we can’t really say where the music is going, but there are many subcultures around now and each one has their followers. We can say the crowd is getting more sophisticated, and searching a lot into what they feel. We can only make the music we feel, and there is no catalogue number or genres to describe feelings.

Milan is really growing a lot, with many small realities becoming true. At the moment there is a fresh vibe going around, and many talented producers who are not ready to face the strong global market, but we are sure Milan will have a lot to offer in the upcoming years.