Dear #DJDIARY, #CroatiaSquad Wednesday, 11 June, 2014
“The only place where dreams are impossible is in your own mind," Croatia Squad.
For deep, tech house and nudisco lovers the name Croatia Squad should be familiar. And if it’s not, this is why it should be...
This is #DJDIARYENTRY/TWO
Contrary to what the stage name Croatia Squad may suggest, there’s only one man behind that squad, Alejandro Torres.
Interestingly, he’s not Croatian either but a Swiss born and was inspired to name himself Croatia Squad because of his time spent in Croatia as a resident DJ during their summers.
“It’s where I spent the best time of my life,” Alejandro says. “My goal was to make some music inspired by the good vibes, sun and positive vibrations. The reaction of the people was amazing.”
Croatia Squad was born in 2010, but Alejandro’s love for house music has been kindled since he started DJing in 1998.
For the past four years he has brought high quality funk to the deep, tech house and nudisco/indie scene with his remixes and songs.
The name Croatia Squad is no stranger to Beatport’s top 100 with his remix of Nora En Pure's, “You Are My Pride” hiting beatport’s number one.
And recent singles by Croatia Squad, “Be Good to Me,” “Pop Your Pu**y,” “What Can U Do” and “The Conductor” all hit Beatport’s Top 10 nudisco/indie dance charts.
Alejandro says he is overwhelmed that the community loves his music, “it makes me happy and inspires me to spend more time in the studio.”
He says he couldn’t have gotten to where he is without the support of record label Enormous Tunes, known to carry such artists as Nora En Pure, Calippo and EDX.
“I‘m part of a fresh nudisco movement that is still growing and taking over the clubs worldwide with high quality dance music,” Alejandro says.
For those of you not quite sure what the flying F nudiso is, it’s a renewed interest in the 1970s and early 1980s disco sound with a 21st century modern spin and #DJDARIES thinks it’s dope.
Croatia Squad wants to bring the underground house and techno sound to society in a manner that it can be accepted by the mass public and in doing so he says: “There are two important things; the performance and the production.”
I keep the balance in my own style between the mass suitable sounds and quality techno and house music. It’s all about quality and how you bring your music to the people.”
Although he would choose Armand Van Helden if given the chance to collaborate with any other producer in the world his greatest influence is German producer Sven Väth, who would be familiar to our parents; you know for people who partied in the 80S.
“I used to collect the Cocoon vinyls and for me he‘s [Sven Väth] an example for every DJ-alive,” Alejandro says.
Playing around the world for more than 30 years,Sven went through several generations, created brands with his own style. He's simply an icon of the techno movement and still on the spot after such a long time.”
Croatia Squad hasn’t yet come to Australia to party with us but he says he hopes to very soon.
“I get lots of lovely messages from Australians following my music. I can‘t wait to party with you guys.”
#DJDIARY/SECRETS
#DJDIARIES asked Croatia Squad: Key to a DJ’s success is how he reads a crowd and their reaction to his sound – what are some key factors you look for in a crowd you are jamming to?
A: I Just let it flow, keeping the wire to the party animals, like a conductor. The DJ is part of the crowd.
Photo: courtesy of Sirup Music.