Deborah De Luca’s record label Solamente recently dropped a new peak time techno EP from rising star Clif Jack.
Clif Jack is an Italian artist from the city of Padova where he is a regular DJ at many of the region’s top festivals and club events.
Building on a successful DJ career, Clif Jack has been growing his international fanbase with top-selling releases on labels including Solamente and Simina Grigoriu’s Kuukou Records.
Clif Jack’s ‘Impervium’ EP recently charted No.3 in Beatport’s sales chart, and we wanted to learn more about this talented techno artist…
T.H.E – Hi Clif, thanks for taking the time to talk for this interview. Could you tell our readers what part of the world you are currently from, and what the local club scene is like?
Clif Jack – Thank you for this opportunity. I live in Padua, a beautiful city in north-eastern Italy.
The club scene in my area is obviously coming out of two very difficult years, but I must say that we have had a very energetic restart and in part, this period has been very helpful in giving the new generations the desire to get back to dancing all together.
The organisers have had to change their artistic choices a bit, focusing on guests with lower fees and resident DJs.
This choice has made them realise that even without big names our clubs can offer quality and fun, and this is also allowing them to make new investments in structures with new-generation lights and sound systems, precisely to enrich the entertainment offer that in past years was based exclusively on big guests.
I think that every great difficulty brings immense opportunities, so I am also very confident about this restart.
T.H.E – I hear that you run some events yourself, could you tell us about those plus any others where you are a resident DJ?
Clif Jack – I am one of the organisers and resident DJ of SPIRIT, an event born in 2017 in one of the iconic clubs in Padua called the Extra Extra, a combination of electronic music, esoteric world and technology.
Thanks to a strong promoter in our scene Tito Pinton, the event has developed in further clubs in Italy and I am very happy that soon it will be presented in a brand new club that opened in May 2022 the MUSICA Club in New York, where SPIRIT will be present every week starting this summer and where I will start a new adventure made in USA that I can’t wait to begin.
T.H.E – How long have you been a professional DJ, and when did you first discover electronic music?
Clif Jack – I am smiling…because just in the last few days I have realised where and how my passion for electronic music originated and how curiously it is associated with the colour RED.
Last week, I found my old red cassette player in my parents’ garage, and I remembered that when I was about 11 years old, I was always sleepy in the mornings at school because I kept listening to the cassettes that I recorded the radio programmes broadcasting electronic music until half past midnight.
I think that red radio was my big bang, after which at the age of 14, I started working as a PR in a disco near my home and certainly my first trip to Ibiza in 2005 oriented me towards this world, and those two, red Circoloco CDs I bought mixed by Clive Henry & Loco Dice I think I wore them out so much that I had to buy them again. About 12 years ago my best friend made a console at home and gave me the opportunity to learn with him, then step by step I started to organise my own events (of course Spirit is RED) and specialise in DJing and production.
Now I’m continuing in this crazy magical world of music and clubbing, which is giving me so much and I hope to evolve further in a world full of surprises. Recently I also had the pleasure of meeting a great DJ, Nicole Moudaber, a wonderful person with a unique energy, and I had the opportunity to meet her both as a DJ and on a human level, which gave me a positive and motivating boost for my work.
T.H.E – You also produce music, and your next release is coming out via Deborah De Luca’s Solamente. Could you tell us more about that release and its concept?
Clif Jack – I am very happy to have made this release of two tracks on Solamente, firstly because it motivated me, and the energy we have inside is fundamental for us as artists. The track “Think Believe Dream Rave” is a hymn to restart, in fact it is made with my voice and has a special meaning for me. I developed it during the lockdown and these words have become my tagline, and the quote is a retelling of Walt Disney’s phrase “Think Believe Dream Dare”.
Walt Disney was a dreamer and a person who wanted to open an amusement park at a time of great economic crisis in America. These are words that fuel a dream and where I strongly recognise myself. It is a record of rebirth, restart, love and passion in the techno world.
As far as “Impervium” is concerned, when I look for representative names, my 11-year-old son Alberto, a great Star Wars fan, is often a great help and for a hard-sounding track he recommended this name, which was a tremendously resistant alloy frequently used for the armour of capital spaceships, one of the strongest impenetrable metals.
T.H.E – What’s in your studio, are you someone who prefers to work with hardware or software equipment?
Clif Jack – I prefer software because the convenience of being able to make music anywhere in the world and at any time, comfortably.
Lately to find new ideas I’ve become fond of the Pioneer SP-16 Toraiz where I have several of my own sound packages and I also use it when I play in my DJ sets.
As ANA plugins, Native Instruments’ Reaktor and Arturia’s Pigments allow you to experiment without having limits, it’s useful for me to refine my sound, but I know well the impact that hardware has and the importance of analogue, a feeling of solidity and warmth that you can hardly give up.
In my studio I get on well with Roland’s Aira line, both the TR-8 and the TB-3 with which I did the bassline in Solamente’s EP.
T.H.E – Can you tell us how you first made contact with Deborah De Luca, and what other labels have you worked with?
Clif Jack – When the clubbing world came to a standstill, I focused in the studio and started to engage with different artists to learn and have an open dialogue even between different musical genres, it was and is a good way to keep my creativity active, have new influences, support and stimulate each other.
Along this path there have been several DJs/producers with whom I have developed relationships of collaboration and over time also friendships such as Weero who comes from EDM, Matteo Bruscagin from progessive/melodic, Paolo Visnadi from house and Alex Mine from techno.
Alex knew Deborah De Luca and one day he heard a couple of my tracks and we introduced them to her. I had the pleasure of meeting Deborah De Luca and her tour manger Francesca Lesto at an event where she was playing in Mantua, a fun and pleasant meeting, they are a strong couple.
I’m super happy with the latest releases I did “Ladheli” on VKT and “Go On Home” for Kuukou, because they are two recognisable tracks and have a great feel for the dance floor, plus the label owners are people who love their job and put their whole heart into it. I’m talking about Vikthor of VKT, a guy from Naples who has many tracks supported by Carl Cox and with whom we are working together on a new EP. Also, I have huge respect for Kuukou Records of Simina Grigoriu because besides her being a wonderful person and good DJ, she puts a huge effort in her label, so to both of them I send my biggest support.
T.H.E – Are you excited for the summer festival season are there any events you will be attending either as a DJ or clubber?
Clif Jack – Yeah, I’m really excited about this summer, I’m looking forward to it. I’ll definitely be clubbing at events in Ibiza, I’m looking forward to going to Circoloco and I’d like to experience the Love Parade in Zurich. I don’t like to plan too much, so I’d rather wake up in the morning and buy a flight if I’m going to have fun.
As a DJ I have confirmed dates in New York and Riccione at the Musica Club, but first of all my focus is on music production at the moment.
T.H.E – Thanks for taking the time to chat with us, is there anything else you want to mention before we finish?
Clif Jack – Thanks for inviting me to do this interview. I’m grateful to everyone who has supported me over the years, and hope you are all enjoying my new ‘Impervium’ EP on Deborah De Luca’s record label Solamente.
