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Playing Footsie with Mauro Picotto

Author: Chloe Burke
Monday, February 16, 2004
At the moment Mauro Picotto has Josh Wink's 'Oakish' and Matthew Dear's 'Leave Luck to Heaven' in his box. It's pounding and its good and as far as this Italian DJ is concerned, it's all that matters.

"I wish people were more open-minded, after all there are only two types of music...good or bad!"

For years now Mauro Picotto has been unleashing his relentless and uncompromising blend of electronic music on an ever appreciating audience and he has the awards and record sales to prove it.

Sales aside, Mauro sees his air miles as the real sign of his success. In a typical year a selective Picotto will travel to Miami, New York, Montreal, Amsterdam, London, Glasgow, Dublin as well as Los Angeles, Chicago and Tokyo with the occasional detour made to Australia and South East Asia.

"I am quite choosy about where I play but even so I travel a lot and have so many air miles."

Whilst we may think that DJing is one of the most luxurious jobs around, the travel always takes its toll and Mauro insists on taking some time out each year to recuperate so that he may face the punters yet again.

"I usually take the month of January off to recover from a hectic year. I think taking the first few weeks of the New Year off sets you up well for the rest of the year, I will usually take a week or 2 after the Ibiza season closes as well."

Mauro can't pinpoint what makes him such a successful DJ and Producer, "I just love them both," but without his Mac and the internet he would deem himself useless.

"The internet plays such a big part in today's living so it is very important to represent yourself well on the biggest form of worldwide media there is and without my Mac computer I would be nothing. It is at the centre of my studio and is essential to everything I do."

At the moment, everything Mauro does revolves around his latest project 'Meganite'. Created after he left BXR, Meganite is a brand, a series of mini residencies that he sets up around the world in his favourite cities and clubs and along with fellow Meganite DJs, (Gabry Fasano, Riccardo Ferri, Massimo Cominotto, Ade Fenton, Agoria, Bill Patrick, Bryan Zentz, Chris Liebing, Christian Smith and Filterheadz) Mauro is adding some much needed variety to an at times lacklustre scene.

"We play different styles and as a DJ it is better if you can do this because it not only lets you build a set how you want it, but the crowd get more out of their night too. Still not everyone in the world insists on doing this and I can't understand why."

As I leave you to ponder that thought, Mauro is busy with the fourth release to come from the 'Alchemy' stable. Distributed through Prime, it has Picotto's driving force behind it, you know the one that just won't let you stand still.

"I produce and play a lot more techno now, music that is more tech orientated. I have always had a slightly techier sound but over the past year I have got more involved in it, but it's always melodic, funky, dark, energetic and different."

Catch Mauro Picotto @ Two Tribes
Click here for full event details

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