A lifetime of passion can be heard in the sounds of Switzerland’s Nicola Capobianco, otherwise known as Liquid Soul. Addicted to electronic music from an early age, Nicola made his first steps into the progressive trance world over twenty years ago.
Hey Liquid Soul, thanks for taking some time to have a chat with Forte Magazine. For those who aren’t familiar with who you are, can you briefly describe your style and what it is you do?
I am Nicola Capobianco, aka Liquid Soul, DJ/producer/progressive psytrance from Switzerland. I started deejaying in 1993 as a very young kid, and two to three years later I started to produce my first tracks. At about 18 I was already playing at major Euro-trance events in Switzerland until I decided to start my new project as Liquid Soul. Meanwhile I released over 100 tracks and four albums, and won the Beatport award for the ‘Best Psytrance Track’ in 2009 and in 2010.
I achieved my biggest success by winning the prize of the ‘Best Beatport Artist’ and ‘Best Beatport Track’ at the DJ Awards in Ibiza in psytrance categories.
What have you been up to lately and where are you right now?
At the moment I’m working on my upcoming 120-min continuous DJ mix Full on Fluoro Vol.4 on Perfecto Records, which will be released in August 2014 on Beatport, iTunes etc.
Not a lot of people fully understand or appreciate progressive trance music. What would you say to them?
Take a risk and experience it 😉
What do you think of the Australian trance music scene? Do you have any favourites?
I think Australians are very open-minded in regard to music and art. I have always been impressed by the colourful people at parties and always feel a good connection with the crowd and the organisers. For me it’s always been a big pleasure to play at such great festivals. Besides the amazing festivals such as Strawberry Fields, Earthcore or Rainbow Serpent, Australia has some really unique and talented artists such as Freq and Sun Control Species, who I really love!
What made you decide to transition from being a DJ to the project producer?
I just felt I could do more than just deejaying in order to be more creative and express my feeling through my own productions.
You won the ‘Best Psychedelic Trance Beatport Artist’, ‘Best Psychedelic Trance Beatport Track’ and the ‘Psychedelic Trance DJ Award’ in Ibiza all in 2010. Tell us about that!
2010 was definitely a great year for me and it showed me that I chose the right path over the last 20 years. And of course it’s amazing to win all those prizes. It gave me a lot of motivation and respect. I am very thankful to experience all that.
How do you balance your label Mikrokosmos Records with your projects Liquid Soul, Sleek and Earsugar?
Well, to be honest it’s hard to keep all those projects alive as I’ve became too busy these last few years with my Liquid Soul project. But there are many almost finished tracks of Sleek, which I run just for fun, to have the freedom to do some low-BPM productions, which contain a lot of different styles from experimental deep-house to banging techno.
You’ve been around for a while. What are some big changes you have seen in the industry?
Basically everything became more professional, bigger and faster. It has its good and bad side, but I am happy that I don’t need to sleep in a tent behind the stage anymore.
In your long history of touring you’ve been to some pretty amazing corners of the world. Where has been your favourite place to play?
That’s a very hard question as I have been to so many beautiful places. But my personal highlight was Ozora 2011 when I had the privilege to close the festival as a surprise act. It was just mind-blowing and I will never forget that!
What do you think of the Australian crowd? Do we know how to party?
Absolutely yes! The crowd always surprise me with their energy and creativity. They seems to love three days of non-stop dancing at the festivals and partying like there’s no tomorrow.
Are you excited to be playing at Earthcore?
I am very excited as it’s my first time with Earthcore. I have heard only good things about it and I’m really looking forward for my set.
You teamed up recently with Ace Ventura, who is also playing Earthcore. What was it like working with him?
I met him around 10 years back for the first time and we liked each other straight away and soon after produced our first few tracks together. Nowadays we play together as Liquid Ace from time to time and it’s always a pleasure for us. As he will move to my country [Switzerland] soon, we will for sure spend more time together and will produce new tracks.
Before we finish up, is there anything you’d like to add?
I just want to thank all the amazing people and promoters for the great time I have had up and down and hope the scene will keep the vibe as real as it is now!
When&Where: Earthcore, Pyalong – Nov 27 to Dec 1