In 1995 he began his devistating career. With the formation Hardcore Terrorists he earned much respect in his place of birth Rome and conquered Italy with his Hardcore sound. After organizing released his first album. Now in 2016 he is ready to strike with his own label called Dogfight. This DJ and amazing producer is truly Hardcore to the bone. We are speaking about Filippo Calcagni, better known under his alias DJ Mad Dog! Let’s have a chat with DJ Mad Dog about this brand new label.
Hi Mad Dog, last weeks must have been very hectic for you. How are you doing after Dominator and the release of the first Dogfight tracks?
I’m amazed, I didn’t expect so many reactions on the DOGFIGHT news, I’m just back from Los Angeles and also their people are very enthusiastic about this new project.
We are working really hard to bring this label to the top and we are going to release lots of new tracks in the next months.
From the age of 16 you did start playing as a DJ. Did you directly fell in love with the hardcore sound?
Yes, I’ve always been a Hardcore lover from day one, at that time it was the most innovative and futuristic genre for me.
It’s one of the oldest genres in the electronic music, and there would not be Hardstyle, Raw, Industrial or Frenchcore without the mother Hardcore.
You did organize many events at a younger age. We see that many of the main artists of today did organize events back then, especially in Italy. What was your reason behind it?
There are many reasons behind it, the main one is surely because at that time it wasn’t easy to reach the big Dutch events, so we decided to create our own scene.
We were hungry for Hardcore, we were starving for that music, it was like a religion and the best and fastest way to have it was to organize our own events.
Do you still think that this can help you to start your own career these days?
No, my career didn’t start because I was a promoter. Organizing events can help you out to have contacts, but if you don’t work hard in the studio and get the right demo, you will go nowhere.
Actually, I had to interrupt my job as a promoter in order to dedicate all my time to the studio work.
Nowadays you travel around the globe playing in America, Asia, and Europe. Can you tell us something about the difference at these continents?
In America and Asia people are not used to have Hardcore parties every weekend, and so, when they have the luck of having a DJ coming from Europe, they go completely nuts, out of control, dancing and screaming on every song for all night long.
From the other side, perform in Europe gives you great shivers, because you can have in front of you thousands of people, like Dominator or Masters Of Hardcore but sometimes, some Europeans, take for granted what they have, due to the variety of festivals and clubs which they can benefit every weekend.
You are in the scene for a long time now, Hardcore is at an enormous peak right now. Why do you think the scene is growing so fast these days?
There are many reasons, first of all, Internet, nowadays you can find information about Hardcore via Social Media, back in the days we had nothing but a back of the cover with some pictures, or some lucky of us a VHS.
Second, promoters, big companies like Art Of Dance, Q-Dance or B2S are doing extraordinary events, which attracts new public every year.
And last, the most important thing, Music! The more time passes the more our music improves, technically and artistically, under every aspect.
Recently you started your record label Dogfight. Whats the reason behind this?
Recently I moved to Most Wanted DJ, a leading company in Artists management, together we thought that a new label was necessary, I always got many demos from people through my social media, and finally I can help them to emerge in the scene.
We believe that a new label means fresh music, new artists, new projects that will push this music even further. Moreover is a new personal challenge, that after 15 years in this music, I’m ready to face.
Does this mean that you won’t release on Traxtorm records anymore?
My work relation with Traxtorm has been 15 years long, I grew up in that label and we went far beyond our possibility, reaching unimaginable goals.
Fortunately, we parted on good terms, as friends, and in peace. This doesn’t mean that you will see a new DJ Mad Dog solo E.P on Traxtorm, but we are open to other kinds of collaboration, such as remixes or collaborations between the artists.
For your label Dogfight you did select industry-leading artists Unexist, AniMe and the talented Tears of Fury, why did you select them in particular?
We believe that this line up gives us the strength to achieve memorable goals. Any of these artists is unique in our scene, with an extraordinary talent, and with a strong fan base.
With such a team we can already compete with the biggest Hardcore labels and we are ready to spread a large variety of tracks.
Is Dogfight about Italian hardcore or can we expect artists from other countries as well?
DOGFIGHT is open to any producer who wants to push this music into the future, we are open to artists from all over the world.
How would you describe the Dogfight sound?
‘We stay Hardcore!’
We strongly believe in this music that in all these years gave us a lot, we respect it, we want to evolve it, but at the same time keep it pure. We are looking for quality more than quantity, artists with enthusiasm and passion for this genre, producers that know what means to work hard in the studio.
Can we expect a Dogfight showcase anytime soon or maybe an event?
Yes for sure, surprisingly we already have requests for showcases and events. But we think that it’s better to wait, release more music and grow a bigger fan base.
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What are you’re the future plans and the future plans of Dogfight?
From the first of August, I will start working on my third solo album, it’s a long process and with the birth of DOGFIGHT will be even longer, the estimated release period should be July 2017.
In the meantime DOGFIGHT will release a lot of tracks, we planned one release every three weeks; in September AniMe will release her new track, Unexist, and Tears Of Fury will release immediately after.
We did spot some crazy Dogfight merchandise at Dominator. Are these for sale yet? Were can we buy them?
As I told you, I’m just back from Los Angeles and I saw few guys with DOGFIGHT T-shirts already, even if we didn’t start selling merchandise yet!! We are receiving huge requests already, requests that will be satisfied from September.
Final Question: Do you have something left to tell your fans?
Stay hardcore !!