The evolution of XL Regular
Plus Massive Attack, Burial, English football fandom and more
Twice this week I’ve trudged home wearily after an afternoon of slow pints and international football, having watched England’s men’s team dissapoint to varying degrees.
That doesn’t mean I haven’t had a good time, by the way: if you don’t spend much time with football fans, you might not be aware of our impressive ability to complain, rain or shine, and every week return with fresh optimism and a renewed appetite for sporting heartbreak.
In many ways, the sphere of football fandom and the electronic music community are very similar. Part of the reason Englishmen so love a beer garden on matchday is the opportunity it provides for shared experience; in an ideal world, everyone is there to feel the emotions of the game together, to pull in the same direction.
Much like on the dancefloor, moments of euphoria are often punctuated by booze-fuelled hugs with strangers, limbs flying left and right with passionate and total unconstraint.
And like electronic music, football can be confusing and uninteresting to those who aren’t fans, so it’s probably time I moved on.
For this edition of CrateEater I spoke to Rome DJ and producer Alessandro Giacchi, better known as XL Regular. Alessandro was a pleasure to interview: his journey into the industry has been really intriguing, and he was very open and honest with his reflections on electronic music culture in Italy and beyond. Read more directly below this introduction.
If you’re looking for some listening inspiration, scroll down to the CrateEater Recommends section. There’s four projects there that I’ve had on repeat for the last week. Why not share the music you’ve been rinsing with other CrateEater readers, too? You can add to our community playlist here.
Anyway, let’s crack on.
Enjoy!
From Tuscan screamo to Belgian broken beat: the evolution of XL Regular
The Italian DJ/producer talks origins in punk, Rome’s nightlife scene, and the cratedigging obsession that could end his relationship
Budding electronic musicians don’t typically emerge from Tuscany’s hardcore punk scene. They don’t typically arrive in Paris to grace the renowned decks of Rinse France via the hard techno clubs of Rome and the shed-like booth of Brussels’ Kiosk Radio.
XL Regular isn’t one to do things typically, though. He first made beats in any form as a five-year-old, and in the time since he’s brought plus-sized grooves to various seemingly disparate corners of the European music landscape.
The Arezzo native, real name Alessandro Giacchi, spoke to CrateEater a few months after the release of his EP Store Duties, the first from any artist on Belgian label Artisjok Records. We touched on Giacchi’s musical upbringing, Rome’s frustrating nightlife industry, and the 25-year-old’s potentially breakup-inducing ambition to visit London’s record shops.
Where did you grow up, and what was it like?
I grew up in Arezzo, which is a really small city in Tuscany. It was nice. There wasn't a lot of stuff to do, but I went to music-focused schools. So I just made friends with some people who were doing events. I started playing bass in punk rock bands and screamo and stuff. And then I started organizing events with them. I was like, 14, 15. So, yeah, then we started doing screamo, hardcore punk events.
Did your parents listen to music much?
My dad used to play bass. He played bass for, like, 40 years. My music passion comes from my dad doing it. I used to drum on pots and pans, so my parents bought me this drum set when I was five or six. They always pushed me to make music. At my school, there was always a duality because everyone was studying classical music. But then you had a group of 30 or 40 people having bands. It just happened that my dad had, like, 15 basses at home and just gave me one and I started playing it. And then I started playing bass in bands. My main instrument throughout school was clarinet, actually.
How did you go from organising punk and screamo events to making dance music?
I studied music technology in high school. And we used to have this really strange, but in a good way, professor. We still speak sometimes. He’s one of those where if you can get into the same vibe with him, he's going to give you everything. Otherwise, he's going to hate you. We got kind of the same vibe. So I remember like 14, 15, I started producing electronic music in the style of, like, Flying Lotus and Shigeto and that kind of stuff. But I was doing half and half [electronic and punk music]. And then I switched when I was 18 or 19. I just didn't have a band anymore, and I was buying more gear and more gear. I was building a little studio in my place.
So were you producing first and then you learned to DJ?
There was a label, Unclear Records, in my hometown. They don’t do many releases, but they curated a party called Klang. I just started to hang out with them. They were 10 or 12 years older than me. And they were the first to make me release some music, more beatmaking-focused stuff. Through them I started going to parties when I was 16 or 17. And it was nice for me because I was always used to punk rock shows, that kind of stuff. I used to go on tour with some Italian bands as well, being the merch guy and stuff like that.
My first experience of DJing was at this antique fair. In my hometown, the first weekend of the month, there's always this huge fair throughout the whole city where people sell antiques. And there was this little cart pushed by people which had like two turntables, a mixer and two speakers. They were just going around the city, stopping and playing vinyls. And one of them just told me, like, ‘if you fancy playing some vinyls, just do it’. And I started playing. Of course, I couldn't mix, but I liked playing music to others. And then I just started going to more and more events that those guys were doing, the Klang party and stuff. And I just started DJing a bit.
When you eventually arrived in Rome, what was the scene like there and how did you start playing out?
I arrived in September 2018 to study electronic music and I didn't know anyone. I used to be in class with six people, and four lived outside Rome. So I didn't have any friends. I wasn't going to events and then COVID started. So basically, I just stayed home.
And then I met my current flatmate, who’s also a sick DJ and producer. We started hanging out, we became friends. He plays a lot in Rome. He found me some gigs and I played with him and stuff. He goes by Prest.
What kind of music do DJs play in Rome and what are people listening to?
It was a bit strange at the start because there's not a huge club culture here. And like the clubs, there's this heritage, they’re super, super hard in Rome about techno. In Rome, they used to have a lot of techno DJs and producers who made a bit of a history of techno in Italy. So, yeah, now things are changing a bit because there's a lot of collectives or organizations who are pushing, I don't know, like UK stuff. Reveries is a collective where I'm starting to get in because of Luca [Prest]. They're one of the collectives who pushes UK-based music. So now things are changing a bit.
There's a huge problem about going to events in Rome, which is that if you don't have a car, you're fucked. The public tranport is bad. It's not very active at night. Something you do in 20 minutes with a car takes one and a half hours with the public transport. So it isn't practical. I started going to events a lot when I met Luca, who actually has a car. So it changed my perspective. There has always been cool stuff, but it wasn't that easy to reach.
You’ve worked quite a bit with AliA, who runs Artisjok Records. How did that relationship start?
Basically, I started collaborating with Sofatalk, who's a Rome-based producer. Our relationship started when he remixed a track from my first EP that I released back when I was in Arezzo. And we just kept working together. He always pushed me a lot. We released an EP together [2022’s Afro Quarters EP, released on Outplay].
He was on AliA's radar. She's a nice digger. So basically, we started chatting a bit on Instagram with her. And then she booked me in Brussels to play at a festival. I think it was 2021. And then basically a nice friendship started because we just started speaking about something that was not only music. She told me last year she wanted to start a record label and she wanted to put out a release from me.
How is it different playing in Brussels to playing in Italy?
For me, it's 10 times better. I know I shouldn't say this, but I think people there are way more open to different sounds. I know I have to switch a bit when I play in Rome because there's not a huge soulful attraction here in Rome. You always have to be a bit more dark or, like, clubby, while in Brussels they're way more open. So I feel like I'm a bit more free when I'm in Brussels in terms of what can I play.
There's this shitty conception in Italy, not only in Rome, that if you play house music or if you play broken beat or if you play something that is not banging all the time it's like ‘aperitivo music’. It's like lounge music. I think that's the main difference.
It's not a negative thing about Rome because it teaches me how to do stuff that is well received by people here while maintaining my style and actually going a lot to heavier events. I started with broken beat and house and stuff. I didn't know much about UK bass, techno, everything that was a bit harder. So it was nice to have Prest as a friend, he always liked UK bass, UK techno and stuff.
In terms of finding music and stuff, are you much of a digger? How do you go about getting tracks?
Yeah, I like to dig. Sometimes I go to record shops and stuff, or I just like to check stuff on Discogs. Sometimes I go to a label’s website, checking the catalog and all kinds of stuff. But yeah, I like to dig like this.
In terms of your own music, obviously it takes in jazz, and soul is a massive influence. How did you get into that stuff and which artists influenced you?
When I started I was listening a lot to Shigeto. He was the most influential for me because he was the one that made me transition from punk to actually producing music. I was like 17 or 18, it was freaking me out, this new world. I was childish enough to get two tattoos referencing his music as well. And he was mainly doing, like, LA beat. It was always transitioning as well to jazz, to house music. So I stayed with that stuff a bit.
And then like the spark that got me into club-ier stuff was, I watched like a Co-op Boiler Room set. Everyone was playing: Afronaut, IG Culture, K15 and stuff. I was really amazed. I used to hate house music when I started because I was finding it too repetitive and too on the grid. But then I discovered broken beat. I started with drums, so groove is the thing that I care about the most. And broken beat offered the freedom of breaking the grid.
When you're making a track, what is your creative process like?
I start with drums always. Drums are the most important part for me. When I have a nice foundation, I start on keys as well. I studied piano for four years in high school, so I know how to put my hands a bit.. And then sampling, I love sampling records. And my process is like when I have a nice foundation, I have quite a bit of gear. So I just like jamming and going around different pieces of gear.
I hate laptops. I have a module here, which is a Roland JV1080. To program it, you basically have this interface here, which is just four arrows and a big wheel. I prefer doing half an hour on that to staying half an hour drawing automations and stuff. I really hate it. I’d rather stare at the small screen than at the laptop. I like playing, because I come from that kind of background where you got to play a real instrument.
Have you ever thought about coming to the UK?
Of course. I've never been to the UK. Never travelled a lot actually. Belgium 2021 was my first trip alone outside of Italy. My girlfriend’s brother lives in London. She's always asking me, ‘let's go together’. But I told her: ‘first time I can't come with you because first time I come to London, I just want to see radios and record shops and club nights. I don't want to break up with you only because I'm staying six hours in a record shop.’ I’m just waiting for a nice opportunity. There's no rush for me actually.
I saw you played at Rinse in Paris as well. What was that like?
It was super nice. I got plugged in there by a girl called Eylia. She came to visit Rome, and I met her through Luca. I was playing at a radio event and she loved my music. We got connected and I just told her, ‘I'm coming to Paris for three days. Do you have any radios or gigs?’ and she plugged me in with Rinse. It was a nice experience. They have a cool studio and I’ve never been in Paris before.
What have you got coming up over the summer?
We're going to have something on Artisjok. We're going to release a VIP mix on Artisjok, from a song off the Store Duties EP. I have some more stuff, tracks I'm working on. I have a ton of new music I’m working on.
What about the long term? What’s a big goal for you?
I don't have, like, a dream or a final destination. I would like to be able to make a living with music. I don't want to be rich or famous, or, like, to be in a different festival every weekend, playing in huge stages. I'm not built for that. But I'd like to have just an easy life, just, like, that level between being underground, but making it, paying the bills and stuff, without having to worry about having another job, which is what I'm doing now.
CrateEater Recommends: 21/6/24
A handful of projects I’m into right now. Always some new music, always some classics- let’s dig in.
Richie Culver - Hostile Environments
I discovered this album through music writer Stephan Kunze’s newsletter Zensounds. Kunze outlines Richie Culver’s incredible journey from homeless addict to renowned multi-disciplinary artist and Drake collaborator, including quotes from the Hull native’s interview with Artnet. Both of those pieces are well worth a read. Hostile Environments, self-released and just 18 minutes long, is a grim ambient mood piece narrated by Culver’s bleak spoken word. It is a fantastic listen, but not a particularly bright one.
Burial & Kode9 - Phoneglow / Eyes Go Blank
Just under a year after their last joint release on Fabric Originals, Burial and Kode9 unveiled their latest split, this time for the latter’s Hyperdub label. It’s more of the same from the elusive Untrue producer, lurching between R&B samples over a bed of treble-heavy ambience on ‘Phoneglow’. ‘Eyes Go Blank’ makes for a more substantial listen, junglist breakbeats punctuated dramatically by menacing electronic cello sounds. Fans will hope for more of these collaborations: so far they’ve proven very fruitful.
T.Williams has had quite the year. His album Raves of Future Past, released in February on Purple City, was a triumph of a debut full-length, followed up by last week’s Emotions, a soul and afrohouse-tinted EP boasting guest appearances from Tendai and Sio. As the weather finally perks up in the UK, this EP feels distinctly summer-ready, full to the brim with sunny vibes and danceable grooves.
After Massive Attack’s much-talked-about withdrawal from a performance in Georgia last week, I felt it was finally time to properly dig into the band’s work. (To be fair, my parents were in their mid-teens when the group’s first album came out, and I was seven at the release of their most recent.) For the uninitiated, Blue Lines is a seminal trip-hop album released on Virgin Records in 1991, lauded by critics in Britain and beyond. It’s stuffed full of paranoia and romance, a sometimes relaxing, often chilling LP which draws inspiration from rock, reggae and hip-hop amongst other genres.
If you want to share the music you’ve been listening to with the CrateEater community, we’d love to hear it. Add a couple of tunes to our playlist here.
That’s all for this edition - thanks as always for reading.
Just a heads up: there won’t be a newsletter next Friday. I’m jetting off to the south of France for a few days, and I’ve no plans to take my laptop.
If you haven’t subscribed yet, now’s the perfect time! See you in a couple of weeks?
Luke