Franco BA, DJ on the rise: how his curiosity to create music with the computer led him to have support from Solomun and Carl Cox

Shortly after turning 10 years behind the decks (and a couple more with the FL Studio), FRANCO BA faces a great present and a promising future as one of the DJs of the new Argentine breed with strong international projection. Born in Vicente López and moved to José C. Paz, Franco Pellegrini -his first name- kept the music of the 80s as a common factor in his different houses. Today, he tries to bring a bit of that influence into his mixes as a DJ – although always depending on the schedule and context, of course. “I think that at this moment I can’t exactly define myself in a genre of electronic music,” he tells Filo.news from Aeroparque- I like to play some tech house, maybe more conga at times, more progressive at others. I really like playing indie dance, it’s a genre that I love, and I also enjoy playing classics.” One of the things that characterizes his musical style is exploring all facets of the broad spectrum of electronic dance music: “My beginnings were with a more conguero tech house, then more aggressive, now more progressive, but today I’m producing something more melodic,” he says. Franco is now 27 years old and his first steps with production were taken at about 16 when his younger brother took him handled so much with Avicii that he was curious: “I was very interested in ‘how music is made with a computer’. This question made me spend hours and hours on YouTube until I learned how to do something moderately listenable.” Before going to school, he would open FL Studio – which later became Ableton Live – and try his hand at making music. Later she came to the Virtual DJ: “Honestly, I never imagined that this curiosity was going to take me into this world and even less that it was going to end up being my job. I never imagined taking a plane to go and play music in another province or another country. It’s crazy.” Two years passed from the computer at home to the decks at an event: in 2015 he was already DJing at parties and from 2018 he entered the circuit of key venues of the Buenos Aires electronic scene playing in places such as Crobar, Rio Electronic Music, Bahrain and Moscow (ex Pacha). It was advancing on that path that he began to take a liking to the trays more and more: “If you asked me a few years ago what I was doing the most, I would tell you that producing. Today I really enjoy mixing live, almost at the same time as producing. But I’m quite a geek so, maybe being in the studio listening to music, looking for data or producing, maybe I’m still there. But they are almost on par. Creating something is a totally different feeling, or at least that’s how I experience it today. Maybe later it will change, eh.” But it was precisely through his creations, his own tracks, that the great DJs of the international scene gave him their support. What is said in electronic jargon Support = that they play your track in their sets. “The ones that marked me the most were at first those of Marco Carola and currently those of Solomun,” says Franco. “There was a time when I made music like the one Carlos played and Marco played a lot of my music. Then I changed the style a lot and support from other historical DJs came; Solomun, Carl Cox, Tiesto, Fisher and many more. Nowadays I send music to Solomun and I find quite a few videos of him playing some of my tracks. I’m not telling you that you get used to it, because it’s always good to see that the exponents of the genres play your music, but it does make you see that you’re doing something good.” And he continues: “If you make a style and the greatest exponent of the genre supports you constantly, and then you change the style and a giant like Solomun does it, or Carl Cox, even John Summit or Vintage Culture, at least I think I’m doing something good.” It is likely that you have come across “Rock The House”, one of FRANCO BA’s most recognized tracks. This one, for example, has been playing it for a year now, and other colleagues such as Carl Cox, Tiësto, Green Velvet, James Hype and Wade, among many others, have also included it in their sets. And it’s not their only gem: “Sold My Soul” has been performed by Fisher, Dom Dolla, and Mau P; “People” is Marco Carola’s favorite but has also been used by Latmun and Stefano Noferini; “Sirtys Major” was played by John Summit, Lee Foss and Mark Kitchen, and we could go on. Without a doubt, the hours invested in front of the monitor have paid off, but in order to do so, difficult decisions had to be made. One of them was to abandon his job at the headquarters of the Banco Nación: “Honestly, I had already realized that I didn’t have time to dedicate to music. My position was full time and added to the trip to microcentBy the time I got home I was already tired. On weekends I had to play and I had no life, and if I had to travel, even worse. It has happened to me from having to go to work directly, from having gone to play on a date, or from having arrived from a flight from Tierra del Fuego to Aeroparque at 7 am and going directly to the bank and being there all day working practically without sleeping.” In the last year I realized that 10 years from now I didn’t want to do that every day. And even less if with the career I’m leading as a DJ I’m doing better and better. Or at least I wanted to try. When I realized that I didn’t have time to dedicate to what I liked and that I was doing well in that, that’s where I said ‘I’ll leave the bank to hell'”. Three subjects away from graduating as a lawyer, Franco is committed to music today and is considering his next challenge: “I’m growing but I can always grow more. My current challenge is to be able to end the year with music on labels that really interest me and release music that I like.”You can listen to the tracks of FRANCO BA on his Spotify profile here.

Original source in Spanish