Named as “second best French new talent in 2012″ by the French “Only For DJ’s” magazine, Tony Romera is a DJ, producer and remixer born in the early 90’s. After a slew of successful releases on 17:44 Records, Subliminal Records, Run DBN and Strictly Rhythm’s “Xtra Life” and “Wasted Youth”, the Lyon-based has gathered support from some of the biggest DJ’s such as Tiësto, Fatboy Slim, Chuckie, Fedde Le Grand, Dada Life, Roger Sanchez, Tristan Garner, DBN, Gregori Klosman, Joachim Garraud, Nicky Romero, Ron Carroll, Steve Aoki and many more.
Tony had his first release on Toolroom in the summer of 2022 with his remix of David Amo’s, Julio Navas’ And Gustavo Bravetti’s ‘Raw’ and hasn’t looked back since. He recently visited Toolroom HQ and we sat down to have a chat about all things production, his career so far and his roots in Music.
I’m good thank you, I’m currently at Toolroom HQ in Maidstone, Kent! It’s my first time here and I’m super happy to be here.
I would probably say disco and funk, my parents were listening to a lot of this when I was younger, so I think that’s where my influences come from.
I started off playing the guitar. I wanted to be able to play the guitar on the beach, you know, for the girls haha. However, I ended up making some electronic music with my friends in high school. We learned how to produce, how to mix etc and it went from there.
I loved the song back in the day, I was always playing it in my sets when I was a resident DJ in my local city, it always seemed to get a great reaction when it I played it out. I then made my own edit of it that I was playing in my set for years. Last year, I wanted to make a new version of it, with some fresh drums and to make it more in line with today’s sound. So that’s what I did. I’m so glad I did as the feedback was amazing and everyone was playing it. To hit number 1 on Beatport, that was WILD!
I wake up in the morning, I sometimes have to take my daughter to the babysitter before heading to the studio. I usually get there for around 8/9am. I will then work in there all day, giving myself a 30 minute break to eat. l usually head home around 7pm and get a good nights sleep. When I’m in the studio, I have the music super loud so need a rest when I get home.
This really depends. I like to keep ideas that come to me in the notes folder on my phone, so if i need inspiration, I often go into there and have a listen for something cool. Other times, I will listen to my Spotify playlist on shuffle when in the car and often get inspiration from a disco or tech house record that comes on. Sometimes, I tend to work from a sample. If I find something interesting, I will add it to a project and build a track around it. I do have some hardware synths aswell, sometimes I will jam on them until I come up with something that inspires me and then go from there.
It has to be one that I played in my mix earlier, Havoc & Lawn – Reflection. The bassline is just wow!
I use Logic Pro X.
No I don’t think I would. It was good to learn from my errors. If honest, I wasn’t working hard enough at the beginning but I wouldn’t change that as it still taught me a lot. I am really happy with where I am right now and I wouldn’t have got here without those experiences.
To be honest, I never really get it. It only tends to happen once a year or so! If it does though, I don’t force myself to produce. I’ll stay at home, hang out with my daughter and family. Usually I’m touring a lot so it’s nice to do this from time to time. I tend to only go to the studio if I’m inspired, therefore don’t tend to struggle with writers block.
Definitely Serum, I always use that. Another one would be the Roland TR-909, I use that a lot for drums. These are the biggest two. I also use a lot of Logic’s notive plug ins, they are great.
The most important tip I ever received about production was a long time ago. It was to not have too much material, not to many synthesisers and keep your sample library lean. This encourages you to use what you have before getting something else. Having too many options can slow down your workflow.
Another tip for aspiring producers is to be patient with yourself. It’s so important. I have been producing for over 15 years. It takes time to learn and develop your sound. Keep going with it, it’s worth it.
In 2013, I signed a record to Nicky Romero’s label, it was an EDM record, but really kicked things off for me. Off the back of that release, I was able to start touring. More recently, the release of ‘Raw’ has been massive. It’s led to playing big festival stages such as Tomorrowland. I’m super happy about it!
Probably ‘Raw’. Also ‘Le Monde De Demain’ that’s been released on Tomorrowland Music. That record really represents me because not only do I love the groove, but the melodies also.
So many gigs come back to me when i begin thinking about it. Tomorrowland, Tomorrowland Winter, my tours in the USA and Asia. Electrobeach festival in France is a highlight for me, the crowd is always full of energy there and because I’m from there originally, it will always be a special gig. It’s hard for me to pin it down to one, I have so many great memories.
Fred Again is really inspiring me at the moment, some of the stuff he’s releasing is crazy!
A newcomer that’s worth keeping an eye on is KEELD, we’ve been close friends for 15 years and still frequently work together now. He’s got some great stuff coming out at the moment.
In 2023, I’ve had a new collab just come out with Raumakustik on Toolroom called ‘That Groove’. I also have some more releases lined up with Toolroom and other labels for later in the year. There are also some big shows coming up, I’m back at Tomorrowland in Belgium during the summer which will be great; lots of other festivals as well as a few I can’t reveal just yet. I’m looking forward to it all.
Check it out!
