Andrea Oliva’s current status as an established international headline act is the result of an entirely organic journey. Born in ’81, Andrea began teaching himself to DJ at the age of 13. In 2004 he was invited to DJ at Space for the first time and over the following years cemented himself at the heart of Ibiza culture. Throughout his career, Andrea has upheld an ever-strong release schedule, with EP’s on Hot Creations, Desolat, Saved, Moon Harbour, Relief, Rejected, Kaluki and Circus among others. We caught up with Andrea to chat with him ahead of his upcoming release on Solardo’s new label, Sola Nauts.

Hello Andrea! It’s great to have you with us today! How are you doing? How have things been for you the last few months given the global situation?

I am good thank you! I have been making the best out of the situation, and I am using my time to do everything I didn’t have time to do whilst on tour. If you want to hear the positive things, then at least I have now more time for friends, my music and my health.

So we hear Solardo are about to launch their new label “Sola Nauts” and have selected you as the artist to kick things off! Congrats on the release, tell us, how did this one come about and how does it feel to be picked to provide the first release for the label? 

It was a spontaneous decision, we always send tunes back and forth and with ‘Freaks’ we found a track that would fit the new label. I am happy to be contributing to the first release!

The Solardo lads provided a hefty remix of your track for the release too, what were your thoughts when you first heard it? 

They’ve sent me a few versions, but the final one had a special feeling. Straight and effective, its gonna be a club banger for sure!

Back in your early days we hear you used to work in a record store. How much of a part do you think your time there played in you getting to where you are now as an artist?

I worked in record distribution and in a record store which was a dream job for me back than. For sure it influenced me strongly, I honestly miss that time. Every day felt like Christmas to me, unpacking those promos and going through new music was a special ritual I was looking forward to every day. 

We’d love to hear a bit about your studio and your creative process. How do you usually like to approach a track and what do you use when making it? 

Over the years I’ve collected a lot of sounds and samples in my library. It always starts by building a groove, I like to work everything around the rhythm of a track which is basically the core of my productions and then I take it from there. With original tracks it has to flow as if it was a jam session.

With years of experience behind you, what piece of advice would you offer to any aspiring DJs/Producers who may be reading this? 

The artists who really stand out make their own thing at the end of the day. They create their own sound and trademark despite all the hypes in music over the years. It’s difficult to achieve this, you need to be patient, crazy passionate and there are tons of sleepless hours in the studio. You need to go through different processes, some may become difficult steps to pass. But in difficulties you grow and learn, being hungry to learn more and more every day is the key.

It has been a tough time globally recently but we’re hopeful things can improve soon. What are you most looking forward to doing as some form of normality returns? 

I would just be super happy to see our scene wake up again from this nightmare. I am looking forward to the moment when I can see my team going back to work. Promoters, DJs, workers, the whole industry in general being able to plan and having a perspective for the future so we can give all the clubbers their smile back. 

Thanks for speaking with us today Andrea! Before you go, is there anything else upcoming from yourself that you can let us in on?

My pleasure! I have a lot of music coming out until the end of the year and also launching my own label ‘All I Need’ end of 2020. Music is the answer!

Pre-order ‘Freaks’ here: https://www.beatport.com/release/freaks/3102763