Alessio Fabrizi @ Dance Music 101

Alessio Fabrizi is a partner to Room 26, in Rome, one of the best clubs of all Italy and the co-founder of IPM, the International Promoters Meeting, that took place for some years in Rome and which objective was to bring together all kind of promoters to discuss the Dance Music industry from their perspective.


Life: when was the moment you figured out that Dance Music was meant to you?

Since when I was a child I always tried to be involved in the Club and Dance Music Industry.

Unfortunately at the age of 16 years old I still look like a 12 years old guy. Every time I wanted to go to dance I used to get dressed with the help of my best friend's sister Deborah trying to look like a fashionable guy but regularly at the door they never did let me get in!!!! Never!!! For this reason I promised to myself... “I will have my own club!!!!”

Me and my best friend Luis Radio started to play music in the cellar of his house where we created our little world going more and more deeply in the real “House music World”!!! All our friends started to come there to dance and to spend time together. We also gave a name to his cellar and it became our little paradise where we were free to express ourselves.

From that moment Luis Radio became both the DJ and producer that he is now and also my main partner in all the events I organized and the clubs I owned.

Moreover, the cellar where we started to play became the recording studios of his label and his Sister Deborah De Angelis became one of the most important lawyer of the music rights in Italy and she founded ADj and married Maurizio Clemente, a real pioneer of the Italian house music scene.

So, it is really funny, but I believe that “door selectors” that didn't let me get in have worked with me in the last twenty years.


Laugh: when was the last time you had real fun?

At the moment I live in Berlin where there are so amazing clubs and festivals, but if we are talking about the real fun for me, after 22 years of works in entertainment industry, it is something more "structured”.

My best merit and my worse flaw is that I am able to design and realize only the things I like.

It does not mean that I do not have fun when I join someone else’s event or festival it is just a matter of the sensations I feel when the production is made from me and my team.

I think the DJs, for example, can understand this mind.

I mean, if they want to listen one track in a particular moment they just play it and the sensation that they feels when the crowd enjoy it is something more than just listen it.

For this reason the last time I had real fun it was during one of my productions. In particular the second edition of IPM (International Promoters meeting) during a format we called "Rome Pool Party". With my partners we made this event every July since 2005 but this edition was great because was the closing party of IPM 2012. There were a lot of friends from all over the world and real good vibes and a strong energy.  Every time I remind it I have a melting pot of sensations.


Love: name the one thing you love more than anything – and why is that?

OMG this is too Big for me!!

Life because is Beautiful.

It's really impossible for me to have one person or one thing to love more than everyone and everything.

Once my sister Violante Sanfelice, rest in peace, told me..."love is not a hard disk, we can keep loving all from our present and future without remove nothing to our past.”

Me and Violante designed IPM – the International Promoters Meeting, in Rome.


Past: name a significant moment in your career in Dance Music – and why is that?

There are different moments in my professional past that I remember as very important for the person who I'm now.

Most of all the first event I organized, the opening party of my ex club, the Room26, and the first edition of IPM.

To be honest, these are very important moments but the most significant is when we decided to freeze IPM.

This is the point when my career had an important break and I had the opportunity to start to watch all my professional life from a step outside.

This decision was very hard for me, for Andrea Masci and for all the staff, but at the same time it was a wise and conscious choice and a trauma. Probably I will remember this crossroads of my life as a moment in which I had the opportunity to grow up again and faster. I am sure about that and I am deeply convinced that everything comes to you for a reason and everything will come back to you in the way you deserve.

Present: what do you think that is trending today in music, clubs and festivals

In my opinion there is a different trend in every different country. For example in Italy the picture you can made to the entertainment industry is, of course, influenced by the crisis that the country is crossing.

In other words the music and the offer, in terms of clubs and festival, is restricted and more commercial because of the general economy.

In this case the first initiatives to cut out are the experimental and the pioneering ones. To survive the companies must be focused just on the products in terms of sells abandoning the idea to influence the market with their thinking and passion. The competition became a race of political connections and dirty capitals.

Regarding the other realities I know, like Berlin, I saw that the best policy is always linked to the identity and to the capacity to keep this identity on the market. Best example are Berghain/Panorama Bar or DC10 in Ibiza that in the years never changed their style.

Future: where is industry heading in the years to come?

Tomorrow is always the best day for me!

I'm sure that the new generations will be able to reinvent the music and the dance club culture. Again and again! I really can't say exactly what will happen because fortunately it will depend on the creativity of someone else who will rework his past experiences and will influence the market.