Get ready to dive into the artist journey of T78, a renowned DJ/Producer from Italy and the founder of Autektone Records, a prominent techno label.

His skills are not limited to producing. He is also a highly skilled DJ! T78 sets are exciting, filled with his productions like Blast-Attak, Fisto, Acid Lick and the remix of “All the hurts we made” for the legendary Moby, combined with exclusive tracks from fellow producing friends.

T78 has a superb way of connecting with his audience and taking them on an intense musical journey with high energetic grooves, which never seem to fail!!

His weekly podcast has amassed an impressive following in a short time; -Autektone, the planet’s voice- is a weekly showcase of all the best new tracks doing it for T78. T78 talks to 6AM and takes us through his exhilarating journey as he talks about his first-ever debut in the USA and shares his insights into the music industry. So sit back, relax, and enjoy!

Listen Now: Global Vibe Radio 356 feat. T78

Hi T78, thanks for talking to SIX AM, how are you doing?

Hi everybody. It’s a pleasure being here and doing this interview with you guys from 6AM. I’m actually having a break from studio time, so when I’m producing something I’m always in a good mood.

You’ve famously created the phrase for your music and label- “Only Bombs”. Why did you decide to go with this and was this a phrase you’ve always used to associate your music with?

Well, when I started producing techno around the end of 2015, I had some demos. Actually let me say the first 8-9 catalog numbers of the Autektone back catalog. I was showing this music to some other DJ’s, friends and producers. Because I wanted to have their opinion, because techno in that time was not the techno we are listening nowadays. It was more like groovy, like tech house. Let me say that techno did not really have drop actually. Also the more ‘aggressive’ sound from my background, early days, was never originated from last decade’s techno sound. But the reaction I had from those people was always “man this is a bomb this is this is a fucking bomb”… something like that. So I said okay so why don’t we create like a hashtag.

Because I was also in the beginning of T78, I wanted to create, all the social media and stuff. I had to come up with something unique and that’s why I created the hashtag #Onlybombs. And I’m keeping it. You know, saying that each time I create a new track because the crowd reaction is always bombing whenever I play new music in my DJ set.

Your Instagram has been known for its hilarious video sketches in addition to promoting your music. This is fairly unique amongst techno artists so how did this come about?

Again in the beginning of T78 I was coming from another genre, another scene and I wanted to approach the techno scene in a different way. So everyone was looking very serious, black and white pictures, which was cool in a way, but I felt that, EDM popularity was also starting to go down a bit in in that period. And I was thinking the kids need to find the same energy and the same kind of vibe they are used to get with EDM artists and sound. And I put that into the techno that I’m going to make. So it’s going to be different in sound and different into the social media approach.

In the very beginning I wasn’t making those hilarious videos but still the approach was kind of unique using those old 30s, 40s, 50s cartoons, black and white cartoons from you know Walt Disney and other stuff. Some also more recent cartoons, but just make it fit with my music. Those videos were quite successful in the beginning, quite unique, but it required a lot a lot of hours on researching on YouTube to see if they could fit with my music. So at the end each time I was like thinking about a new post, it took me like a day or something to create the content- And I realized it became too time consuming at a certain point.

So then the pandemic came and I had more time to think of what I could do. And I have always been a very hilarious guy, I think. Always loved comedians and stuff like that. And I said why I should put this kind of sense of humor that I have into the videos. And you know I had a lot of time to do that and I started during the pandemic and it went really crazy. Some of the videos were having over millions of sharing and views on many social media platforms. So yeah, it was kind of unique. It’s still kind of unique because I don’t see so many techno artists spending time in creating content like that.

We’ve recently heard that you’re able to tour in the US, are there any specific places you’re excited about or wanting to perform at?

Yeah, I’m getting messages from my US fans for ages. Thanks also to I_O. Rest in peace. That was the number one supporter of my music between 2018 and 2020. So thanks to his support I’ve been known by a lot of American ravers. Some tracks became huge over there, and so I started to get messages from left to right from every corner of the of the United States, especially LA, New York, Texas and San Francisco.

I’m actually looking forward to play anywhere in that country because I know it’s going to be crazy and I sometimes check videos online of big raves and events they do over there and it always looks amazing. The productions are wonderful, so I can not wait to play over there. I’m quite sure it’s going to be November. I don’t know for sure if I will have the chance to come there earlier, but definitely November is going to be the first official tour of myself in the United States.

Is there anything specific about the US techno scene or that you may have heard about, that interests you?

Well, first of all, of course, the origin of techno from Detroit. Even if I’m not really, how do you say, linked with that first wave of techno from Detroit, to me, everything started when I was like a kid hearing music from Belgium and Germany- which was more like the European interpretation of US techno, Detroit techno.
So I went back and rediscovered those original tracks that started everything back in the second-half of the 80s. And of course then I had some heroes from the US back in the days in the early 90s who were like a kind of inspiration for me when I was a little kid and I was buying music from all those guys- especially the label called Industrial Strength By Lenny D.

Other than that, I think now America is super ready for the kind of techno that is popular at the moment which is much more energetic than ever. I’m not talking about like hard, but still, you know, kind of pumping techno that is completely replacing the EDM wave, big room wave that was massive over there during the last decade.

For the US audience how would you describe your sound? What can they expect at a T78 show?

So I’m quite sure that everyone could say that the T78 sound is a unique way of making techno and I wouldn’t say only techno. Of course techno can be a global word that is like a box where you can put everything inside. I mean the basic foundation of my sound is techno. But then you have trance influences, you have house influences, you have hardcore influences, you have a mix- a little bit of everything, even 80s, a lot of 90s. Of course that’s the period where I grew up and is in my in my blood I would say.

And so a T78 set it can depend of course on the crowd in front of me. But basically it’s always banging and it’s of course only bombs from the first to the last tune. So in general I start with more melodic bangers like techno-trance and I finish some with some harder stuff and lately also very hard because it’s the sound at the moment- after the pandemic the sound became much more faster and aggressive.

I was producing that music for like 15 years so to me it’s kind of natural to come up with something like that. But yeah, you will have no time to go to the bar to get a drink. If I’m playing two hours you will have feet pain after my set because it’s like, no mercy. It’s like a banger after banger, bomb after bomb.

Thanks for talking with us, is there anything else you’d like to let our audience know about? What other projects do you have on the horizon?

Well, I can say that I’m producing a lot lately, doing many, many collaboration. I had a lot of requests last year to do music with other producers, but I was busy making something else for my own and now I’m just, collaborating with a lot of people.

Now I have a track with Cosmic Boys coming out and another one with A*S*Y*S. I’m doing a remix for the Cyberpunkers into my next compilation called Tektones. Then again, solar release on Oliver Helden‘s helddeep label and some other collaborations. And finally a new EP which is going to be Retro Future volume 4, I think September beginning or October. But yeah many, many things.

And also I’m busy making some hard techno under the my former alias, Activator, to have more bombs for my sets, when its the case to play the harder stuff. But anyway, next time in America for me will be a celebration DJ set. Not only playing my latest stuff but also, all those tracks that made me popular like Megator, like the outsiders remix and so on. So I cannot wait to play in the US in the near future and deliver only bombs. Thank you 6AM for having me for this interview and we’ll see you soon. Take care Ciao!

Connect with T78: SoundCloud | Instagram