Nic Fanciulli is a rising star that’s been on our radar for a while, but even though he’s long graduated from rookie status, this Brit’s profile just keeps on growing. Yet even though he’s been on tour for most of the last three years, the place he still proudly calls his home is Maidstone, a small country town near London. Maidstone is the place where he grew up, worked in a record shop at the age of 16, and fell for the art of DJing when he saw the likes of Sasha, Digweed and Carl Cox tearing it up at ClubClass on a weekly basis. Not bad for a town of 75,000.
At age 19, Fanciulli was made a resident at the club after slipping the promoter unmarked mixtapes, sparking a six week manhunt. He’s still involved with ClubClass, which does various things in and around Maidstone (as well as managing Fanciulli along with Paolo Mojo, Yousef and more). Fanciulli obviously still loves the town which nurtured his career – even if “I’ve called it home for about four days this year.” But Fanciulli, well-known as one of the nice guys of the dance scene, is not a martyr, and cheerfully volunteers, “You enjoy it, so you don’t really notice how long you’re away.” But when you’re as busy as this guy is, it’s not surprising that the big city lights of nearby London are a turnoff. “I choose not to live in London,” he happily admits down a crackly phoneline, as he struggles through a thunderstorm en route to a studio in the English capital.
Fanciulli’s rise and rise, which started at ClubClass in 2000, which continued soon after with label management Portent, and which has led to infamous residencies such as Space Ibiza, reached another zenith last year when he took his One+One project across the world with James Zabiela, which including wowing the crowds in Australia. “It was really hard work… in America we were driving for seven hours a day and then going to the gig in the evening. But the whole point of that tour was to do it together so we had each other’s company so we had each other and it was good fun – it was a lot easier than touring on your own.”
So what’s next for One+One? “We’re going to spend this year doing our own thing,” Fanciulli says. “We’re probably going to do another compilation in a couple of years.” And in the short term? “We’re going to do five parties this year,” Fanciulli reveals, namechecking Miami, Ibiza, London, Italy, and another US party. Since One+One’s world tour wrapped up, his days have been dominated by the realization of a long-held dream – the debut album from another of his projects Skylark. “That was, like, 10 years coming,” Fanciulli says of -Panik He and Andy Chatterley had a couple of releases over the years (also under their Buick Project moniker), but “we both went off and did our own thing, solo stuff, then got back together.” And Fanciulli’s really chuffed about this one. “It’s great, we just had the whole album remixed actually, we’ve picked our favourite artists, people like Funk D’Void, Joel Mull and UNKLE.”
The stellar guest cast betrays Fanciulli’s own diverse taste. “It’s such a wide range of music… People like Laurent Garnier and Francois K had a really big influence on me. I’m a big drum n’ bass fan, a big house fan, a big techno fan – I get bored really easily!” The name i-Panik may also have something to do with the fact it was exclusively released on Beatport, the online record store du jour. However, this doesn’t mean a complete move away from vinyl. Fanciulli won’t be drawn into one of those ‘Is Vinyl Dead?’ discussions, calling the Beatport exclusive “more of a soft release for the Skylark album. We knew we were going to get the whole album remixed, so we are coming back in April with a full vinyl and full CD.”
In fact, while Fanciulli has always been a champion of new technology – he was one of the early adopters of Ableton up on that Space terrace – his experience as a label owner also shows. “It’s important to cater for other people’s needs, especially people that just play vinyl. Myself, I still buy vinyl but I don’t play it at all anymore, because I find traveling with it is just a nightmare.” While he’s certainly not afraid of using new toys in the way that some of the old guard are, it seems that level-headed Fanciulli hasn’t forgotten those days back in the Maidstone record store, surrounded by vinyl, with nay a peer-to-peer client in sight.
Fanciulli also has fond memories of Australia. He reels off a list of every gig he’s played in Sydney – where it was and who he played with. Even though he’s seen the inside of lots of that city’s venues – Home, Yu, Chinese Laundry, Royal Hall of Industries – the demands of touring mean he’s had time for little else. “Sydney’s one of those places where I’ve always had an amazing gig, always. But I’ve never actually got to see Sydney.” This time he’s happy to report he’s got more than a few hours to check out the city – and for the rest of the country he’s got a whole week and the Easter break. And after that it’s over to Miami for the WMC…
And life isn’t slowing down anytime soon for Nic Fanciulli. From Maidstone to Miami, this shy-guy turned superstar is loving being able to wow us, just as much as we’re enjoying being wowed.
Nic Fanciulli is back this weekend, and Sydney-siders will get the chance to see him play an exclusive set for free at the next installment of the ITM Members BBQ on Easter Saturday – RSVP HERE.
14th March: Platinum, Gold Coast
15th March: Empire, Brisbane
20th March: Renaissance, Sydney
21st March: Brown Alley, Melbourne
22nd March: Chinese Laundry, Sydney
