During the 3rd edition of Tomorrowland Winter at Alpe D’Huez in the French Alps, we had the chance to cover the festival as media and the opportunity to interview Tony Romera. The very talented French DJ shared a moment with us, talking deeper about his personal career that is finally getting a hit for the last few years, in parallel of his Bellecour project in duo with his friend Keeld + the management of his own label Sans Merci!
Kevin: Tony, thanks for being with us today. What I would like to ask you first is that we are only a few hours away from your first mainstage at Tomorrowland Winter in our French Alps. How do you feel and what’s your feeling before playing your two-hour set happening in few hours? Tell me all.
Tony Romera: First of all, hi youBEAT! Thanks for having me it’s cool. Look, this is going to be a bit strange to do my first Tomorrowland mainstage. It’s something like a childhood dream for over ten years, so it’s really bizarre to think that I’m going to play there. I’ve seen pictures a little bit already of the stage and everything, it’s pretty crazy. It’s hard to realize that but I can’t wait. Especially two-hours set, I’m one of the only ones so really happy to be able to make a set evolving properly and not just playing as many tracks as possible in one hour. In general I’m trying to do that to play a lot of new tracks of mine and so. There at least I will have time I can let my tracks infuse and have fun so it’s going to be a really pure pleasure.
Kevin: That’s great. And how do you prepare? Are you feeling anxious, or do you feel excited? A bit of apprehension, or really you think “I’m going to be able to give everything” and take advantage of this opportunity?
Tony Romera: Honestly these last few days I was feeling a bit pressured, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I was focusing myself on preparing it well, I worked hard on my set, I did a lot of new songs / edits / etc. But today strangely I’m pretty chill. Until when? I don’t know! But in general the D-day of a show I feel relaxed so that’s cool. When I was younger I used to stress a lot but with the experience I’m able to control it a bit more. I’m 30 years old now so yeah, I will drink a beer or two when we get there and everything will be fine!
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Kevin: True that. Now you’re 30 years old and besides, when we think back about the Tony Romera from 10 years ago, when you were just starting out in the early stages of fame, we remember the signature of Nicky Romero on the title Pandor. How did we finally come to the Tony we have today when we think about this Tony we had like 10 years ago?
Tony Romera: Well, there have been a lot of changes. It wasn’t easy all the time, there was a great hit at the time when signing with Nicky Romero etc., but afterwards it didn’t work like it should because I didn’t work hard enough in the studio. I’ve made mistakes, I didn’t work hard enough I think but then I realized those mistakes and took it back. It was a little hard to get up from everything because it can go up quickly, but can go down even faster and even hit the bottom! And then to go back up it’s super tough. So I had big periods of emptiness, long periods of questioning. In fact at that time, I was trying to make music that didn’t sound like me. That’s why I couldn’t make it, it didn’t fit properly, and in the end I made my own music and what I like. Then it evolved over the years, my tastes have always been pretty much the same but they obviously change over the time, and as a result I think my sound is now becoming more and more mature. To be honest I’m having more and more fun and now it’s the best period, I really do what I truly love. I’m lucky enough to be signed on all the labels that I have always dreamed of signing for and playing for the biggest festivals where I always wanted to play, so that’s incredible!
Kevin: Precisely, if we go back on this change of style you operated the last few years, it’s true that we knew you previously a little bit more “agressive”, we could for example call you the “butcher from Lyon” for the most intimate ones. What explains this real difference compared to the Tony Romera from 4/5 years ago with this change in styles you operate especially since the Covid period?
Tony Romera: Well, I would say that Covid surely had an impact, in the sense that I had no audience to test my sounds so I think as a result, it became more melodious and I started to listen more to myself. Before I was thinking a little too much about how the audience would react to my tracks, but since then I really listened to myself mainly, that lead me to really make what I deeply enjoyand then hopefully the public reacts positively. But if not, I don’t try to adapt as much as I was doing before. I still try to fit depending on the kind of crowd facing me. By the way in terms of production, I really do my own thing based on my tastes. However something has changed recently, I’ve always loved being super eclectic and produce lots of different styles all the time, but I realized that people didn’t understand from one release to another that it suddenly changes, like when I make a track at 112 BPM and then something at 128 instead. It was not consistent enough. And now I’m trying to make the project consistent with all the future releases. There will be a lot of Tech House vibes with a lot of melodic stuff and so, so it will be definitely more consistent and now I’m having just so much fun doing it. Then my live sets are more coherent also because before, I used to navigate a bit in all directions but I got lost somehow and now I’ve really found myself.
STREAM “Le Monde De Demain” out now on Tomorrowland Music!
Kevin: So now I would like to know more about today’s Tony Romera, a super busy man all the time travelling around. How are you able to manage everything, on one hand the Sans Merci label management with all your friends, but also your alias Bellecour with Keeld as a DJ duo, and all of this in parallel of your personal career which is really taking an unprecedented boom. How do you manage and prioritize all that? What project suits you the most? How do you handle all this overall?
Tony Romera: I have to admit it’s not that easy and I don’t sleep much! I can’t enjoy enough time with my family as I would like to. I have a daughter over a year old now, and unfortunately I don’t spend much time with her so it’s a bit tough. But on the other hand the priority is clearly Tony Romera’s project because that’s where a lot of stuff is happening right now. Then with Bellecour duo we never stop making sounds, we still spend time at the studio with Keeld to work a lot. Saying that we have planned to release few tracks in 2023, there will be one in April normally. I’m not going to reveal the label yet but it’s a big label for who I already signed as Romera, let’s say more or less for them it’s a sub label in fact, anyway it’s gonna be cool. Then we have the Sans Merci label too, there is a really a lot of work. We are looking to make things going forward for the summer like finalizing the releases and so, then we are looking to move things a bit inside the label like reorganizing some stuffs. So we’ll take a little break from September normally until January. It will be a good time to put everything back in place correctly and to breathe a little bit, because we have been releasing tracks every month during the last 5 years, even sometimes with a rhythm of two releases per month. I manage all of that almost by myself, I am working alone with only the help of Keeld and my graphic designer. It’s true that I don’t have a manager to help me out on that. Once the things will be reorganized accordingly, we will have people to help me working on it so it’s going to be cool. I can say we are ready to step up with plenty of releases coming soon. There will be the Sans Merci Camping festival during a weekend from May 19th to 21st, it’s gonna be sick clearly! We are really planning to get things crazy there!
Kevin: Tell me about it, there is no doubt that it will be insane. OK one last question, if you could speak to the Tony Romera from 20 years ago, the one that was spending hours on FL Studio in his bedroom etc. If you could have the opportunity to talk to this Tony what would you advise him? What would you say to him?
Tony Romera: Only one thing: keep going little boy! I don’t know how to say it in English, “don’t give up my kid” 💪 or something like this, that’s a french expression ahah. Thanks so much for having me youBEAT!
Kevin: Yeah thanks Tony, it was a big pleasure! And enjoy your set tonight!
Thanks again Tony Romera and Tomorrowland crew for the opportunity to chat with!
Relive the most magical and warm moments of Tomorrowland Winter 2023 with the official aftermovie:
