In this new episode of 6Shots we had the pleasure to have with us LA Vision, whose debut single “Hollywood” with Gigi D’agostino is already certified 3x Platinum, 1x Gold and collected more than 100 milions streams on Spotify.
Marco Sissa, LA Vision alter-ego, is no stranger to the Italan dance and pop scene, working as a producer and songwriter behind countless hits for artists such as Benji & Fede, Roshelle, Merk & Kremont, Il Pagante and Fabio Rovazzi. LA Vision is his latest challenge: revamping the late ’90 italodance sound to shine in the modern dance scene; here’s our interview.
Stefano: Hi Marco, first things first, how did this new project came to life? It’s a pretty big step forward from your career as Marco Sissa to LA Vision and the success of “Hollywood”, how did it all happen?
LA Vision: From an outsider it sure looks like a big leap, but personally it was a choice I was thinking about for a long time; for years I thought how to develop my personal sound and to start a project by myself, being a producer for others has been a wonderful time, but I wanted to be the spokeperson of my music.
Somewhere around 4 years ago I started a musical research that brought to life many songs for as many different artists with a similar profile to what LA Vision would have become, but I felt that I couldn’t express myself at the fullest working for other people. So, I took Hollywood, which I firstly offered to Dynoro, in my own hands and decided to sign it under LA Vision, I wanted to have complete freedom over my musical “Vision”.
Hollywood is the recipient of my nostalgia for the sound and the feelings of the late ’90, some sort of melancholia for those times, it isn’t the bassline or the drop that makes the song, but the feelings and memories it can recall to the listener. On the other hand, it was a smart choice to try and “resurrect” a forgotten genre like this, it was the right time.
Stefano: How far do you want to go with LA Vision? How are you planning your follow up after Hollywood’s success?
LA Vision: Kick-starting the project with he help of Gigi, to whom I will always be grateful, has been a great way to conect two generations. The whole thing is born as a trip down memory lane, diving into my past in the moments where house and disco music influenced my entire life.
Hollywood is the first chapter of many stories I wrote: a story of broken dreams about a eastern european girl who moves to Los Angeles to find fortune as an actress in 1999. There are more chapters I want to release going forward, and with the timeline progressing so will the life of the protagonist and the music surrounding her, evolving her “soundtrack”.
After 3 or 4 more songs I’d like to pivot into something more personal, creatively speaking, becoming an all-around performer rather than a simple producer and songwriter, something like what Calvin Haris is doing right now.
The whole LA Vision thing is born as a statement: to see how further I, Marco Sissa, can go with my experience and my talent, giving 100% of what I want to express. A little spoiler: my next two tracks will be two collaborations, the first with YouNotUs, a german duo very popular in their homeland, while the second will be with R3hab.
Stefano: Let’s talk about Los Angeles: how are you tied to this city,,as much as putting it in your stage name?
LA Vision: I’m bound to LA since my first trip to USA. We were at The Village to record with Aloe Blacc, fresh out of his success of Wake Me Up with Avicii and during that time I had the opportunity to know an other face of the industry and the music business which really helped me in my artistic grown. At the start the project should have be named “The Vision”, but it was already in use by some englishmen from Defected Records; coincidentally I started to write Hollywood during that time and my manager suggested to change my name, so I decided to take LA in my name, as well as in my heart.
Stefano: You used to work with many big names from the Italian’s pop and dance scene. how do you see the mainstream dance picture right now? Do you thnk it needs to lean on bigger pop productions to bring some new sounds to the radios, with the risk of watering down the product, or do you think we can fill the gap with the other electronic and dance scenes in Europe in the near future?
LA Vision: That’s the great dilemma of our generation, here in Italy we used a more demotic approach in the last years, lacking the fertile soil for a proper movement like the ones in Sweden, UK or Germany, and sure the media didn’t help playing new sounds on the radio, even if they were radio-friendly bangers like my songs with Merk & Kremont. Taking Fabio Rovazzi’s case, the medias started to play “Andiamo a Comandare” only when it was trending #1 on every other platform, like they were forced by their sons and nephews.
But I don’t actually see blending new genres in the mainstream scene as a bad thing: since the ’80, sampling popular songs in dance music helped the genre to being more accessible, now the cards has just been shuffled and the tables turned. I also saw a steady progressive change in the last 10 years, the next generation of producers in Italy have started to align with other European mentalities.
Stefano: Are there any Italian upcomers or already established names you want to collaborate with in the future?
LA Vision: I’m a very helpful and available person, open to work with whoever has something to propose. I don’t like to make names in particular because I think that everybody has an hidden music within themselves, I’d like to stumble across some young and promising talent to work with. As some already established names I’d say MEDUZA, which I know for years, even if our sounds aren’t exactly “mixable” or Gabry Ponte, more likely; we had a song together some months ago that didn’t see the light, but I’d like to make with him an “Hollywood 2.0” maybe in the future
Stefano: Have you got any residency or festival planned for this summer?
LA Vision: I have to admit, since the start of this new project I haven’t rest for a minute. The fear of not having enough material made me close myself in the studio, working and writing relentlessly. Funnily enough now I have enough material for an album. With the new reopenings after the pandemic I can start to plan my summer and my live sets, maybe offering an all-around performance, considering I’m also the singer in most of the songs I produce. like in Hollywood, where my voice has been pitched to resemble a more feminine one. I could bring something like that to my future shows.
