JOIN US'Being a DJ can really exhaust you'
A popular name in the house music circuit, Nicolas Scaravilli, better known by his stage name Kid Crème, is as genuine as it gets.
A self-made producer-DJ with 20 years of experience behind him, he is a man on a mission. Metrolife gets into the mind of the producer during his recent visit to the City to play
at ‘Cirkus Indigo’.
On the perks of this job, Nicolas says, “What makes me feel most grateful is when people come to me and say that they’ve grown up with my music. Some of them make their living by producing music now and I feel really blessed that I could share my passion with them.” But he adds that this was not the life he foresaw for himself. “I’m just passionate about producing music. Then again, if you do something from your heart, people start feeling it at a certain point,” he says.
Though he does it for a living, Nicolas finds DJing awfully tedious. “I don’t want to blame anyone but DJing is really easy. Creating a track is totally different because you’re creating something from nothing. Making music and playing music are two different things. The money is in DJing but the happiness is in producing,” he shares.
He adds that because of DJing, there are times when he contemplates calling it quits. “There have been years when I’ve played 80 gigs. And as you know, there are 52 weeks in a year. If I don’t see my studio enough and can’t produce music, I feel sad. So I like to find a balance. Being a DJ can really exhaust you,” confesses Nicolas, adding that sometimes, he wishes that he had considered directing films or doing martial arts instead.
Does this imply that his life is full of regrets? He immediately replies, “No! There is happiness. But it’s just that when you’re young, you have your whole life ahead of you and you think that you can do this and that. I dreamt of having a big studio and producing and I’ve done that. So I’m really pleased and grateful!”
Asked what he thinks of the new generation of producers, Nicolas offers an interesting perspective. “I wouldn’t advise anyone to start producing music now,” he states, elaborating, “Today, the number of producers is hundred times more than it was 20 years ago. On ‘Beatport’, for instance, there is at least 800 new tracks uploaded everyday. The market is too full.”
Nicolas adds that while this is part of the business of music, the problem is that most of the new music isn’t even worth listening to. “Music has become consumable – you get a track and play it for one month and then find another track to fuss about. Twenty years ago, if you had a good track, you’d keep playing it for a year. Things change and I don’t want to sound like a dinosaur. There are plenty of good things happening but for me, the level of electronic music has fallen down,” he sums up.