With the name Hervè already taken, Italian born producer Hervè Atsè states he had to change his moniker to the next closest thing in the run up to his debut EP on Bosconi Extra Virgin in 2011. Nineteen years old at the time and a fresh name to the electronic music scene in Florence, the ‘Skin’ EP saw his debut release channel influences at a period where Herva was greatly interested in downbeat music. The soulful, downtempo house jams are a far cry, and almost a tad safe, compared to some of his more recent experimental productions on All City and Don’t Be Afraid, but they still served as a starting point for a young producer with a considerable talent to grow. In our interview with the young Italian, Herva mentions he owes the hookup with Bosconi down to his long time friend Marco (Dukwa), another Italian producer who he often collaborates with under the alias Life’s Track. “At the time I had not tried to send demos out yet. Marco was already working with Bosconi on his first EP and since he strongly believed in my music, he helped me to send some of my own productions to the Bosconi headquarter.” The person who received the music was Fabio Della Torre, co founder of Bosconi and an important figure in the Italian DJ circuit. Herva mentions that he’s forever grateful to Fabio for signing two young teenagers to his label, despite the risks of signing two unknown producers in a difficult Italian market. “There’s no big communication and not enough hype in Italy when releasing records. When you invest in new music and new artists it’s so much harder to get results, especially from two unknown kids with no releases yet.” Despite this, Herva still speaks with profound respect for the local talent in Florence, mentioning a long list of names that we should keep an eye out for. “There’s people like Dukwa, Bosconi, Dunk, Sciahri, Samuele Pagliai, Lorenzo, VSUM, Mirko Casalini, Biga, Lorenzo Ballerini and Emanuele Porcinai that are all doing their best to keep this city alive.”

Finding himself under the wing of the people at Bosconi, Herva soon found a second home with dutch label Delsin who put out his ‘What I Feel EP’ after a series of quick email exchanges with Marsel. “I tried sending a demo randomly after discovering an email on their Soundcloud. I’ve been really lucky to be honest as I think I found the right moment with the right music. After the “break through” email I sent more music to Marsel and he proposed the idea of an EP with them”. It’s clear very early on in our conversation that Herva isn’t limiting himself to any genre and wants to just have fun making music. One of the standout tracks from the Delsin compilation in 2013 was by the man himself; submitting a 156 BPM track called ‘Radio’s Mutterings’ in a sea of four by four techno productions. “I try to change things as much as possible when making music. I don’t care about BPM or genres. I make music at the speed that I feel to do it. BPM are just conventions otherwise.” His second album ‘Instant Broadcast’ is a testament to this, refusing to settle to any defining genre whilst experimenting with time signatures all across the LP. Juno described it as Drexciya, Skudge, Theo Parrish, Aphex Twin and Vibert all combined after a fistful of hallucinogenics which fits his ethos perfectly.

As well as producing solo and as Life’s Track with friend Marco, Herva has found a new production output in the form of an open collective with some of his Bosconi acquaintances. “Matteo Tagliavini made it all possible. He’s the mind behind Marmo Music as well. He organised our first jam session when I went to Berlin, and soon after we were joined by Mass Prod, Rufus and Raffaele in studio. According to Matteo, that night we jammed to music that could be described as the decline of western civilisation. We are now working on new music with different teams as Tru West is an open collective. I love this feeling, it’s not about who but just about the music.” When asked what else he has planned for the rest of the year Herva reveals a load of exciting news with some labels we love. “As Herva I have signed some tracks to Planet Mu, and I’ve also made a remix for Nick Höppner which is coming out on Ostgut Ton at the end of this summer. On the Life’s Track side, we’ll be releasing our first album in June on Bosconi and an EP on Opal Tapes (Black Opal) planned for June as well. In terms of Tru West we’ll be giving that a further nudge after the summer with a new EP on Marmo Music. All in all this year will be tough.”