Q&A with Italian producer Andrea Carax

 

Calabria is not one of the most developed Italian regions. This of course doesn’t mean we live in poverty lol, but i have to say that it’s still one of the italian’s regions where people are close-minded. I was born and raised in San Giovanni in Fiore, a small provincial town that throughout the years has suffered a sharp demographic decline.In my region, it usually happens, as it happened to me too,  since there aren’t work opportunities enough,  after graduating from University we mostly emigrate to northern italy, especially in Milan which is the centre of italian economy and it represents the city with the opportunity when actually it’s a very difficult city to live in. This reflected in my music career, because in the south of Italy we’re kinda told that we can have ambitions but we can’t dream big, especially because telling people you want to make it in the music industry it’s like being played for a fool, since it’s not consider as a job, but just a hobby. I’m a very ambitious person, I don’t accept no as an answer and I don’t think in life anything is impossible as long as there are people able to make it, that’s why when i started to make music i immediately wanted to work internationally exploiting the way to work online even before smartwork was such a thing, because if you have dreams you need to have big dreams.

 

Basically I studied music at school too . But outside of that at such a young age I had the desire to study other instruments. Clarinet happened because I wanted to learn to play trumpets or saxophone, but I was too young to hold a saxophone and I wasn’t strong enough to blow the trumpets, I was 7 years old. So the teacher of this music school told me clarinet was a good compromise. I honestly wasn’t enjoying the clarinet that much, so years later when i was10 years old I decided that piano had to be my instrument, even because I was fascinated by  Alicia Keys and then John Legend  playing piano live and this was a source of inspiration for me. The teacher who taught me to play piano is an amazing classical music composer who graduated in piano from the same country where I was born and raised. He taught me a lot not just about the piano but even about solfège which gave me the bass about the rhythm in music. Unfortunately I stopped the piano lessons years later, I never could become a pro, because of school committments. But my approach to music production definitely happened because my piano teacher carried out his lessons at his recording studio, but also because i was doing my piano exercises on a keyboard that later i found out had the 808 drum kit that was close to the drum used to some of my favourite records, then online i found out FL Studio and it’s the longest love/hate relationship i have ever had 

 

I worked with Grammy Award winning songwriters and some artists signed to major record labels. But I had several standout moments, definitely seeing a project where i was credited as producer charting, even if there are small charts, but the Billboard charts, especially the R&B album chart, producing a record featuring Elephant Man that who is not familiar with is the dancehall king, he was featured on the remix version of Pon De Replay and other hits. I had the chance to submit music to the music mogul behind the career of Rihanna, Katy Perry and more. When i had the chance to have a skype video call with one of my idol Tricky Stewart and his team and laters on a call with another big producer that inspired me a lot RedOne for which i still have to thank Kee Ingrosso the amazing songwriter who co-wrote On The Floor of Jlo that made it happen. Also even recently working with my friend Jackie’s Boy a Grammy Award winning songwriter behind several hits for Flo Rida, Justin Bieber and Madonna and lately had the chance on work on a project with the legendary Grammy Award winning songwriter Makeba RIddick who wrote and vocal produced several hits for Rihanna, Beyoncé, David Guetta, Jennifer Lopez and the list is so long… 

 

The inspiration for Panic Attack Music happened when I got tired of chasing A&R and music executives in order to get placements and publishing companies to get a publishing deal. I’ve been doing music now for quite sometimes, it has been such a rollercoaster of emotions, most of the time you think “Oh finally i’m close to make it happen, i’m about to get this placements” or “I’m about to sign my publishing deal” etc. but then when those things you were dreaming of for long time don’t come true it’s easy to fall into a deep frustration and start to doubting and questioning yourself about your talent and the only solution you see is giving up. The music industry is tough, now more than ever because it seems like the talent doesn’t count anymore but what it seems to count more than anything is how many followers you have on social media, in case of a publishing deal they claim that you must approach them with a catalogue already full of hits. So, after I realized that I love music so much to quit and that I can’t be sad anymore for all this stuff, I decided to create my own brand and released my own music, because music is objective and the ordinary people judges it’s way much more important than a no said by an A&R. And this is what creates a successful story. 

 

Denali and I met in 2020 thanks to the fact we’ve always loved each other’s work and we started to collaborate on our catalogue. He’s an amazing songwriter and vocal producer, in fact the vocal bible aka R&B superstar  Brandy who decided to work with him could be a proof of how talented he is. Denali has been a huge reporter of mine and after I released my debut single with my friend Nyemiah Supreme Dumb and then Motions with Drèa Real I knew I wanted to do a single with Denali. I have to thank Denali for releasing MAY B U because i was picking another song we did, then he told me that he wanted to do something more afrobeat and i embraced his ideas, we made the records in a few weeks and we loved it right away. I believe this song it’s gonna change our life, because out of the bleu is going viral on vlogs on YouTube but i feel like it’ll go far or at least i hope so 

 

I really hope I can release a lot of both my personal music and songs I produce for other artists . But regarding Andrea Carax’s project I’m planning my debut project, putting the song together, I’m figuring whether it’ll be an album or EPs.