Part 1

Name: Nicola Loporchio aka Nico Lahs
Nationality: Italian
Current release: Nico Lahs's Ancestors Call (Part 1) is out via Omena. Ancestors Call (Part 2) will follow on March 10th 2023.
Recommendations: Don Carlos - Paranoia [Calypso Records - CPS 024 – 1992] - This one represents to me a piece of story of Italo house music’s story
Aphrodisiac - Song Of The Siren [Nu Groove - NG-036 – 1990] - A really innovative piece of deep house music from the early 90’s from the mind of Rhano Burrell

If you enjoyed this Nico Lahs interview and would like to know more about his music, visit him on Instagram, Facebook, and Soundcloud.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

I started playing music when I was really young, at the age of 7. It was thanks to my father who was my very first influence. He really wanted me to study music and allowed me to do it. I was studying with some private teachers, focusing on the study of the drums, a connection with an instrument that I deepened more over the years.

Started producing music at the age of 14. I the beginning mainly out of curiosity, but also to test myself, my knowledge and my abilities.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

When I’m listening to songs containing some very good elements I love, I get emotional to the point I may cry. And that’s what (good) music should be about.

In the same way, when I’m producing, I always try to revoke these emotions. I really want to transmit something through my music and really want people finding themselves in it, feeling emotional when listening to my work.

That’s what mainly influences my approach to creativity.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

It’s a long journey, it may take several years. Personally, I’ve been studying a lot to improve my capabilities, to learn more about instruments / gear … all of this to achieve my personal sound, something unique that when you listen to it you say: “That’s Nico Lahs!” This has always been my personal challenge and I think today after almost 20 years in the game, I did it.

Then there comes a time when you feel like experimenting and exploring even more. And that's why I have many aliases / projects with which I can do it. Each time is like raising the bar and wanting to achieve goals higher than me, and that’s the challenging part and what makes me feel alive.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

I’m basically a deep person and that’s what influences me more in terms of choices, both as listener and as artist. When it comes to listening to something, it’s easier to find me listening to something spiritual or with a meaning, a message in it rather than just hits or radio music of the moment.

Same when producing. I try to transfer my person, my way of being, into production and my music. I want that deepness in me to be also into my music.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

The key idea behind my approach to music and art is to create something that can make your body move and, at the same time, can touch your soul.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

I’m interested in both, and think you can listen to it by yourself if browsing my music.

Take for example my project Nico Lahs. It’s not just “continuing a tradition”. It’s just not house or the deep house of the “best tradition”. That’s not what I’m interested in. I don’t wanna be a new Chez Damier, a new Ron Trent, a new Kerri Chandler and so on. We have already had masters, teachers, who have experienced far and wide to achieve the “perfection” of this genre.

What sense would it make continuing a tradition with an exact formula?! None. It wouldn’t set us stimuli, new challenges, the desire to do more, to stand out, to be someone one day in the Olympus with those masters and predecessors.

Maybe what to date is considered perfection, timeless, at the time was considered crap and went completely unnoticed. Same today. If something didn’t stand out today, that doesn't necessarily mean it won't do so in the future. Perhaps to date it hasn’t been understood because it’s too innovative and ahead of its time. Who knows.

Or take my project Cosmic Garden. Yeah, it’s inspired by Italo / dream house and the early 90s sound. But it’s just not that. Inside there’s my vision, an eye to the future.



Or my project NLXLB. Is it house? Is it techno? Who cares! Maybe someone may consider it “just noise” or “crap”. I don’t care. That’s my vision. A look to the past with a step into the future.



All of this to say that tradition is fundamental, but we can’t live on just this. Just like the world, and technology, are constantly evolving, so must traditions, which sometimes need “rejuvenation”.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

As for instruments, I’d say drums and keyboards. Also, listening to 70s music helped me a lot. It’s always been source of inspiration and I've always tried to glean as much as I can from it, making it my own, sometimes emulating it, but more than anything else trying to fully understand it and incorporating it into my own development path to derive my own unique style.

The most promising strategies, in my opinion, are passion, perseverance and consistency.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

I live with my wife in Altamura (45 km from Bari, where I was born and my studio is based). I usually wake up around 8:30 AM and then leave home around 9:15 AM to drive to my studio (Bari). It takes me around 25/30 minutes to arrive. Time for a quick breakfast (espresso coffee and croissant), then to work. I turn on all the synths and the computer and we can start.

Not everyday is the same. Being also a sound engineer, there are days when I do mixdowns and mastering for my clients, and days I dedicate myself to my own productions and their finalization. In the middle, there are always a couple of spliffs, lol. Around 2:00 PM is time for lunch. I go to my parents’ home in Bari and have lunch with them. Then back to the office around 3:30/4 PM.

Afternoons usually are for meetings with clients to check the mixdowns / masterings or, in case I don’t have any meetings, it’s for my music research, sometimes I practice with records and turntables (It never hurts to get a little exercise), or sometimes just meet with some friends and have a chat with them. Oh, and even in the afternoon you can stay sure there’s always room for some “recreational time”.

7:30/8 PM is usually the time I close the studio and drive back home to reunite with my family. Then you go out for dinner or just stay home chilling out and enjoying a movie or for some other recreational time with spliffs, a FIFA match on the PS5 or making music.