The Ultimate Veteran Of Style – Catching up with Activator.

Being named as a “jack of all genres,” Manuel Tessarollo or better known as Activator in the world of the harder styles is an example of a truly versatile and longstanding hero. Representing Italy for the past 15 years throughout not only hardstyle, but also piloting the Subground sound, Activator knows the scene like no other and has lived the experience to the fullest. With the upcoming release of his second album, “Veteran Of Style,” we just had to pull Mr. Activator aside to find out more about the prohect, to have a chat about Italy, his favourite foods and more!

1. Hi Manuel! Thanks for chatting with me today, how is life going in general?
Ciao Cassi! You’re welcome. Everything is going pretty well, my new house is almost finished, my daughter is growing up healthy and beautiful, the summer is coming and I’m still going great with music after 15 years.

2. Firstly, we are dying to know more about your upcoming album “Veteran Of Style!” Can you explain the concept and story of the album a little further?
Well, there’s not much behind it, I decided to make the album last March. As Activator, I’ve spent the last 2 years producing only rawstyle but I’ve always been a very versatile producer, making every kind of hardstyle since its birth. As I had so many good ideas parked on my hard drive, I thought it would have been a shame not to finish and release them all, that’s how I started thinking about “Veteran Of Style”.
It’s divided into 4 parts. Each part will contain 6 tracks, and the parts will be released separately every 2 months starting from May. The aim is to keep everyone’s eyes constantly on the project with news, previews and releases almost weekly until the end of the year. Of course the album is not complete yet, I’m actually still working on the second part.

3. So “Veteran Of Style” is focused on four parts (early, euphoric, nu-style and raw). Tell me, why did you choose to focus on album on these four concepts?
I simply followed the evolution and the path of hardstyle up until nowadays. The genre that is now defined as “early” was based on kicks, off beat-reversed bass, drums and screeches. This started to change form around the end of 2005 when it met the melody and the distorted tonal kick (nu-style). In the beginning of this decade, hardstyle became darker (rawstyle) on one end and more pop-like and trancey (euphoric) on the other. I’ve started, experienced, produced and played all of these changes throughout my career, and only a few other artists (as well as myself) are still here after 15 years in this music which led to the name “Veteran of Style.”

**Activator – I Close My Eyes. Taken from Part 1 of VOS (euphoric)**

4. Do you feel as though it is important to experiment when producing an album?
Of course you have more chances to experiment and be creative when producing an album. Let’s say that this time I haven’t pushed the boundaries so much in terms of experimenting because I wanted to make the album sound more like a summary of hardstyle instead of a personal path.

5. There’s a lot of albums released in hardstyle in 2015! How will “Veteran Of Style” stand out?
Well if you like hardstyle in general, you can fall in love with this album or at least with some parts of it. VOS contains the genre in all of its forms and all of the tracks are A-class produced. It teaches not only new listeners more about hardstyle but it also impresses an expert at the same time. I bet there will be no other album in 2015 pleasing you like mine ;).

6. We also love the ‘sketch-book’ styled artwork – what was your inspiration for this kind of artwork?
The idea was to put together most of the icons/symbols of my life and some of the most representative titles of my past discography. I explained the idea to my good friend and artist NeroArgento who has designed it for me. The inspiration for the artwork comes from a Diesel T-shirt of last winter collection.

7. How many tracks are going to be on the album?
In total 24, but who knows, I might decide to make another chapter at end, maybe called “Authentic Style”. I have some tracks which cannot be labelled into one of the 4 chapters.

8. Are there any collaborations with other artists on the album that you can tell us about?
There are no collaborations at all, just like my 2009 debut album; besides a couple of tracks “featuring” the singer Timothy Drake and the vocalist Natski. I’m planning to make a rawstyle track with an MC but I’m still thinking about which one could fit in the project.

9. You have also been posting previews of the tracks throughout your social media, how has the response been so far?
I only posted the previews of the euphoric part and the feedback has been great so far, from both the fans and DJ’s. The first impact was shocking for some of my supporters because they thought that the album was only about those previews, but when they discovered the other chapters they stopped complaining.

10. So I want to do a little bit of a #TBT now. You’ve been producing hardstyle since 2001, can you tell me two of your greatest ever memories on stage?
I will never forget 2 events that I played b2b with my friend Zatox: Sensation Black 2008 and Q-BASE 2014!

11. Which of your tracks bring back the greatest memories for you?
Let me pick at least 4 of them, one for each chapter!
Nord Jet (2001 Early)
Crap Out (2007 Nu-style)
Satana (2012 Raw)
Summer Breeze (2012 Euphoric).

12. What are your opinions on the new generation of producers? Do you have any favourites?
There are some really good and talented new producers out there like Pherato, Audiotricz, Phuture Noize or Kronos. They will own the big stages sooner or later!

13. You are also quite busy with producing subground under your alias. What is new for ACTI in 2015?
Well first of all, there’s some new releases coming! A couple of them will be a collaborations with Organ Donors and Smoke. I’ll be playing at all QULT stages at the big European festivals such as Tomorrowland or Defqon.1 and I’ll play for the first time in Japan in October which is really exciting.

14. Being the pioneer of the subground sound – where do you hope to see the genre going in the future?
I see the roots of Subground as clubby and underground, however if it reaches the mainstream level one day, it will probably be very different from the original concept.

15. What is it like producing and releasing two genres of music? (does it get busy or stressful? Is it fun? Do you feel more creative?)
Did you say 2 genres?! Well I produce hardstyle and subground under Activator and ACTI, but I also ghost produce and I’m behind some other projects; from deep house to pop passing through techno and EDM. I even wrote lullabies for my daughter! To be honest, money doesn’t really come from hardstyle or subground productions. I love music in general and this passion gives me a lot of creativity! It makes me very busy of course, but it’s never stressful, it’s always a pleasure to do something that I love :-).

16. What is the best thing about living in Italy?
The food, the wines, the weather, the fashion, the sports cars, the history, the family, the lifestyle, the art culture, the countryside, the sea, the mountains, the lakes… I could go on until the end of this page!

17. Besides pizza, pasta and gelato, what is another typical Italian food that you love to eat?
Oh man, there are so many foods I love besides those you listed, which are already in my top 5. I would add risotto and piadina. By the way, did you know that in Italy we have more than 200 kinds of bread?

18. Finally, what did you eat for breakfast today?
A big fat pancake!

Thanks for the chat Activator! We wish you the very best with the release of “Veteran Of Style,” and readers, don’t forget that you can purchase Part 1 from the album from the following links:

Hardstyle.com: https://www.hardstyle.com/album/activator-veteran-of-style-part-1/61128

Itunes.com: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/veteran-of-style-vol.-1-ep/id987103403