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February 10, 2023
Having performed at festivals and venues around the world their latest release Horror Vacui reinforces why they are so popular and continue to accumulate hundreds of thousands of views of their music.
Duo Francesco Malvaso and Alessandro D'addario Fernandez talk exclusively with BeatMatch, offering up an insight into why these guys are in such demand. In their own words, here is what they had to say.
Invadhertz: We’ve been passionate about music since we were teenagers, always having an interest in production and in the process of making music.
Francesco: I started to listen to Hip Hop music when I was 13 or 14. I was very into that 90’s classic boom bap sound like DJ Premiere, Pete Rock, A Tribe Called Quest, Wu Tang Clan, Jungle Brothers etc.. Not long after I started to make some beats. I was very fascinated by the sampling techniques so I started to listen to all that old soul and funk music in order to find samples to use in my own productions. But I quickly started to absolutely love that music and spent hours and hours in my teenage years listening to it. A few years later I found out about electronic music listening to artists like Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, Propellerheads etc.. Not too long after I heard my first dnb track, and I’m pretty sure it was a tune by EZ Rollers, called ‘Tough at the Top’. I immediately fell in love with the rhythm and the vibe, and couldn’t stop listening to it. Consequentially I discovered all the drum and bass world. At the beginning I was into the heaviest stuff, like Noisia, Pendulum, Black Sun Empire, Ed Rush & Optical, Phace & Misanthrop etc.. then I slowly moved to a more deep and soulful sound with artists like Calibre, Spectrasoul, Alix Perez, DLR ,Break, Ivy Lab and many more.
Alessandro: I started listening to music around 14/15 as well, but my background is different than Francesco’s one. I grew up listening to Punk hardcore, artists like Agnostic Front, Death Kennedys, Oppressed, Bull Brigade, Nabat etc.. I also played guitar for a bit during my teenage years. In my early 20’s I discovered electronic music, particularly techno. I used to listen to artists like Octave One, Seth Troxler and many more. A few years later I got into Garage, Future Garage, Dubstep, 140 as well, and I fell In love with labels like R&S Records and Hyperdub. Eventually at university where I met Francesco, I started to listen to Drum and Bass, I really loved the vibes and I was really interested in the sound design. My biggest influcenes since the beginning are artists like DLR, Scar, Zero T, Rockwell, Alix Perez, Spectrasoul, and all that kind of early 2000 Dispatch and Shogun’s Sound to be honest.
Invadhertz: It is kind of a funny story. One of our best friends (and former member of the group), came up with this name. At that time none of us knew English that well. In Italian “Invadhertz” could be considered a play on words since Invaders and Invadhertz (Hertz like frequencies) is pronounced the same way. When I (Francesco) moved to London and my English improved I understood that it didn't really make sense and it is also kind of hard to pronounce or to get the right pronunciation (If there is one haha). But we decided to keep the name anyway because why not haha it is part of our story.
Invadhertz: Do you mean one of our songs? If it is one of our songs it would be:
Francesco: Beautiful Stranger or The Ride
Alessandro: Every Moment or Anxiety VIP
A track from a different artist would be:
Francesco: Mutt – Conversation, or Ivy Lab – 20 Questions
Alessandro: Alix Perez & Spectrasoul – Forsaken, Break & DLR – New Design
Invadhertz: Well we would love to work with some of our favourite artists and biggest influences like: Halogenix, Workforce, Alix Perez, Lenzman, Hyroglifics, DLR, Break etc.
Invadhertz: Ephyum and ourselves are very close friends. We have known each other for more than ten years. We first met at university where all of us were studying sound design. To be honest we are always in contact also if we live in different cities. We have a group chat where we talk on a daily basis, we share music, draft, ideas, exchange feedback and advice, we are really involved in each other musical process. On every track that we’ve released ephyum has provided us with feedback and suggestions and we do the same with him. We had been thinking we’d love to make something together for a long time, we have previously released just one collab on Lifestyle music in 2018 or 2019. Finally, in 2021, we had the time to properly work on a full EP together and we are very happy with the results, we think it mixes both our sounds very well together and of course we had loads of fun making it! We’re planning to work on new stuff as well very soon. Also releasing with Dispatch was a milestone for us, a label we are very big fan of since our early days.
Invadhertz: We started writing this EP long time ago, I think the first draft of “Horror Vacui” was from 2017. We worked on every track quite a lot, especially on the mixdowns. I think we changed it 3 or 4 times for each track. The making of this EP was quite a long process. Talking about each track The first version of Beautiful Stranger was completely different, the beat was different. When Sydney sent us the vocals, we felt like they were too good for the beat haha we weren’t very happy with it so we decided to re-arrange the track completely and I think it works pretty good now. We’re very glad we did that, and we love the final version. About The Ride, we had that beat ready since 2019 or something like that. We knew we wanted a soulful singer on it but we couldn’t figure out who or couldn’t find the right one until we came across a Syren River’s track called Changes released on Fokuz Recordings last year I think. We absolutely loved that tune and his style of singing so we sent a message to Syren and he was keen to work on the track! We think what he did on it is amazing and we couldn’t be happier with the result. 'Under' came out in a different way, Gemma contacted us and asked us if we would be interested in working on something together. She sent us some demos she wrote, we particularly liked one and so she sent us the piano arrangement and the vocal and then we created everything else. We had loads of fun working in this way and it was also very interesting to change the approach, something we would like to do again in the future! For some reason we thought that these 4 tracks would work very well together and so we created the EP. It wasn’t really planned to be released in this way, but I think it worked quite well, we’re very grateful to have collaborated with such awesome and talented artists and singers. And of course, big up our Delta9 fam for releasing it!
Francesco: I don’t really have any analog gear at the moment, so if I had to choose a plug in, something I couldn’t make music without is definitely Serum.
Alessandro: I bought a Moog Sub Phatty a few years ago, and now I use it in every project, so I think I couldn’t go back making music without it now or at least I would be pretty sad haha.
Francesco: I don’t think there was a specific moment but I wanted to do this since I was a teenager to be honest, since I started making hip hop beats, the joy and the fun that making music gives me is something unique and I knew when I started to use my first music software that this is what I want to do.
Alessandro: Same as Francesco, I don’t think I have a specific moment, but I’ve known that being a musician is what I wanted to do in my life since I started to play out in Rome, since the first gigs etc. Those are all moments that made me decide that music is what I wanted to do in my life.
Invadhertz: Check two thousand times that we have our sticks and headphones with us haha. Other than that, not really. We like to have a couple of beers before the gigs to release a bit of the pressure and that’s it really.
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Invadhertz: Same as we said before to be honest our biggest influences are : Halogenix, Workforce, Spectrasoul, Ivy Lab, Alix Perez, Lenzman, Pola & Bryson, GLXY, Artists that we listen to in our daily routine.
Francesco: I think just life and growing up. I moved to London at the end of 2015 and I lived there for 5 years before moving back to Italy, and I think that definitely influenced massively our music. All the new people that I met, all the DJs, Producers, friends I’ve made during the years. Also all the nights in London, the lifestyle and all the events I went to, I think all that played a big influence in our sound.
Invadhertz: There are loads of them, every gig is special in its own way, but if we had to mentioned a few.
Alessandro: When we launched our EP “When In Rome” with Tephra and Arkoze at Fabric in London. When we had the chance to open a big skankandbass event at Corsica Studio always in London.
Francesco: Predators Lab in Salzurg is one gig that I always have in my heart, it was my first gig outside of Italy and the UK, and the vibes were insane! Then last year in 2021 I had the chance to do a couple of gigs in New Zealand and I played at Love Not Lost with Sail Away in Wellington, and same thing, amazing vibes and good people. One last mention got to be Seville in 2021, with the Parallel Depth crew, one of the best nights we ever did and it the first European one after almost 2 years of no gigs because of Covid, so it was a special one! These are just few mentions but every gig is special and I would love to mention every promoter that has ever booked us because we have loads of great memories and we always have a great time everywhere we’ve been to so far! It is very hard and probably unfair to choose just a few!
Francesco: Yeah, I was supposed to perform last year in 2021 but then covid happened again and so the festival was postponed to this year. I absolutely loved playing there, the vibes were great! I met loads of amazing people and I received loads of love during the day, so it really was amazing. I absolutely love New Zealand and of course as you know the dnb scene is massive, one of the best one in the world in my opinion. But I also have a deeper connection to NZ, my wife is from there, we live in Italy but we come back every year to visit family and spend time there, I consider it a second home now! So every time that we come back I try to book some gigs around as well, hopefully you’re going to hear more and more of Invadhertz on that side of the world haha!
Francesco: I would go back with my biggest non dnb influences when I was younger : Dj Premiere, Chemical Brothers, Fat Boy Slim.
Alessandro: Aphex Twin, Dave, Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn from Sleaford mods.
Francesco: I kind of got into cooking recently haha and also I like watch movies and series and play Nintendo switch.
Alessandro: I like watching Anime and play soccer when I have time.
Invadhertz: To make something of your own and then share it with the world is a unique and beautiful feeling. And also, the beauty of the process is just as rewarding as the final product.
Invadhertz: We have a couple of remixes and a single collab track to be released next year. But I can’t really share more details. We also have loads of new music pretty much ready to go, but we’re still planning what to do with it. But yeah if you are interested and want to check news and updates from us please give us a follow on our socials and you can find all the latest updates. Thanks Beatmatch for the interview and for having us it has been a pleasure, much love!
Having performed at festivals and venues around the world their latest release Horror Vacui reinforces why they are so popular and continue to accumulate hundreds of thousands of views of their music.
Duo Francesco Malvaso and Alessandro D'addario Fernandez talk exclusively with BeatMatch, offering up an insight into why these guys are in such demand. In their own words, here is what they had to say.
Invadhertz: We’ve been passionate about music since we were teenagers, always having an interest in production and in the process of making music.
Francesco: I started to listen to Hip Hop music when I was 13 or 14. I was very into that 90’s classic boom bap sound like DJ Premiere, Pete Rock, A Tribe Called Quest, Wu Tang Clan, Jungle Brothers etc.. Not long after I started to make some beats. I was very fascinated by the sampling techniques so I started to listen to all that old soul and funk music in order to find samples to use in my own productions. But I quickly started to absolutely love that music and spent hours and hours in my teenage years listening to it. A few years later I found out about electronic music listening to artists like Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, Propellerheads etc.. Not too long after I heard my first dnb track, and I’m pretty sure it was a tune by EZ Rollers, called ‘Tough at the Top’. I immediately fell in love with the rhythm and the vibe, and couldn’t stop listening to it. Consequentially I discovered all the drum and bass world. At the beginning I was into the heaviest stuff, like Noisia, Pendulum, Black Sun Empire, Ed Rush & Optical, Phace & Misanthrop etc.. then I slowly moved to a more deep and soulful sound with artists like Calibre, Spectrasoul, Alix Perez, DLR ,Break, Ivy Lab and many more.
Alessandro: I started listening to music around 14/15 as well, but my background is different than Francesco’s one. I grew up listening to Punk hardcore, artists like Agnostic Front, Death Kennedys, Oppressed, Bull Brigade, Nabat etc.. I also played guitar for a bit during my teenage years. In my early 20’s I discovered electronic music, particularly techno. I used to listen to artists like Octave One, Seth Troxler and many more. A few years later I got into Garage, Future Garage, Dubstep, 140 as well, and I fell In love with labels like R&S Records and Hyperdub. Eventually at university where I met Francesco, I started to listen to Drum and Bass, I really loved the vibes and I was really interested in the sound design. My biggest influcenes since the beginning are artists like DLR, Scar, Zero T, Rockwell, Alix Perez, Spectrasoul, and all that kind of early 2000 Dispatch and Shogun’s Sound to be honest.
Invadhertz: It is kind of a funny story. One of our best friends (and former member of the group), came up with this name. At that time none of us knew English that well. In Italian “Invadhertz” could be considered a play on words since Invaders and Invadhertz (Hertz like frequencies) is pronounced the same way. When I (Francesco) moved to London and my English improved I understood that it didn't really make sense and it is also kind of hard to pronounce or to get the right pronunciation (If there is one haha). But we decided to keep the name anyway because why not haha it is part of our story.
Invadhertz: Do you mean one of our songs? If it is one of our songs it would be:
Francesco: Beautiful Stranger or The Ride
Alessandro: Every Moment or Anxiety VIP
A track from a different artist would be:
Francesco: Mutt – Conversation, or Ivy Lab – 20 Questions
Alessandro: Alix Perez & Spectrasoul – Forsaken, Break & DLR – New Design
Invadhertz: Well we would love to work with some of our favourite artists and biggest influences like: Halogenix, Workforce, Alix Perez, Lenzman, Hyroglifics, DLR, Break etc.
Invadhertz: Ephyum and ourselves are very close friends. We have known each other for more than ten years. We first met at university where all of us were studying sound design. To be honest we are always in contact also if we live in different cities. We have a group chat where we talk on a daily basis, we share music, draft, ideas, exchange feedback and advice, we are really involved in each other musical process. On every track that we’ve released ephyum has provided us with feedback and suggestions and we do the same with him. We had been thinking we’d love to make something together for a long time, we have previously released just one collab on Lifestyle music in 2018 or 2019. Finally, in 2021, we had the time to properly work on a full EP together and we are very happy with the results, we think it mixes both our sounds very well together and of course we had loads of fun making it! We’re planning to work on new stuff as well very soon. Also releasing with Dispatch was a milestone for us, a label we are very big fan of since our early days.
Invadhertz: We started writing this EP long time ago, I think the first draft of “Horror Vacui” was from 2017. We worked on every track quite a lot, especially on the mixdowns. I think we changed it 3 or 4 times for each track. The making of this EP was quite a long process. Talking about each track The first version of Beautiful Stranger was completely different, the beat was different. When Sydney sent us the vocals, we felt like they were too good for the beat haha we weren’t very happy with it so we decided to re-arrange the track completely and I think it works pretty good now. We’re very glad we did that, and we love the final version. About The Ride, we had that beat ready since 2019 or something like that. We knew we wanted a soulful singer on it but we couldn’t figure out who or couldn’t find the right one until we came across a Syren River’s track called Changes released on Fokuz Recordings last year I think. We absolutely loved that tune and his style of singing so we sent a message to Syren and he was keen to work on the track! We think what he did on it is amazing and we couldn’t be happier with the result. 'Under' came out in a different way, Gemma contacted us and asked us if we would be interested in working on something together. She sent us some demos she wrote, we particularly liked one and so she sent us the piano arrangement and the vocal and then we created everything else. We had loads of fun working in this way and it was also very interesting to change the approach, something we would like to do again in the future! For some reason we thought that these 4 tracks would work very well together and so we created the EP. It wasn’t really planned to be released in this way, but I think it worked quite well, we’re very grateful to have collaborated with such awesome and talented artists and singers. And of course, big up our Delta9 fam for releasing it!
Francesco: I don’t really have any analog gear at the moment, so if I had to choose a plug in, something I couldn’t make music without is definitely Serum.
Alessandro: I bought a Moog Sub Phatty a few years ago, and now I use it in every project, so I think I couldn’t go back making music without it now or at least I would be pretty sad haha.
Francesco: I don’t think there was a specific moment but I wanted to do this since I was a teenager to be honest, since I started making hip hop beats, the joy and the fun that making music gives me is something unique and I knew when I started to use my first music software that this is what I want to do.
Alessandro: Same as Francesco, I don’t think I have a specific moment, but I’ve known that being a musician is what I wanted to do in my life since I started to play out in Rome, since the first gigs etc. Those are all moments that made me decide that music is what I wanted to do in my life.
Invadhertz: Check two thousand times that we have our sticks and headphones with us haha. Other than that, not really. We like to have a couple of beers before the gigs to release a bit of the pressure and that’s it really.
Invadhertz: Same as we said before to be honest our biggest influences are : Halogenix, Workforce, Spectrasoul, Ivy Lab, Alix Perez, Lenzman, Pola & Bryson, GLXY, Artists that we listen to in our daily routine.
Francesco: I think just life and growing up. I moved to London at the end of 2015 and I lived there for 5 years before moving back to Italy, and I think that definitely influenced massively our music. All the new people that I met, all the DJs, Producers, friends I’ve made during the years. Also all the nights in London, the lifestyle and all the events I went to, I think all that played a big influence in our sound.
Invadhertz: There are loads of them, every gig is special in its own way, but if we had to mentioned a few.
Alessandro: When we launched our EP “When In Rome” with Tephra and Arkoze at Fabric in London. When we had the chance to open a big skankandbass event at Corsica Studio always in London.
Francesco: Predators Lab in Salzurg is one gig that I always have in my heart, it was my first gig outside of Italy and the UK, and the vibes were insane! Then last year in 2021 I had the chance to do a couple of gigs in New Zealand and I played at Love Not Lost with Sail Away in Wellington, and same thing, amazing vibes and good people. One last mention got to be Seville in 2021, with the Parallel Depth crew, one of the best nights we ever did and it the first European one after almost 2 years of no gigs because of Covid, so it was a special one! These are just few mentions but every gig is special and I would love to mention every promoter that has ever booked us because we have loads of great memories and we always have a great time everywhere we’ve been to so far! It is very hard and probably unfair to choose just a few!
Francesco: Yeah, I was supposed to perform last year in 2021 but then covid happened again and so the festival was postponed to this year. I absolutely loved playing there, the vibes were great! I met loads of amazing people and I received loads of love during the day, so it really was amazing. I absolutely love New Zealand and of course as you know the dnb scene is massive, one of the best one in the world in my opinion. But I also have a deeper connection to NZ, my wife is from there, we live in Italy but we come back every year to visit family and spend time there, I consider it a second home now! So every time that we come back I try to book some gigs around as well, hopefully you’re going to hear more and more of Invadhertz on that side of the world haha!
Francesco: I would go back with my biggest non dnb influences when I was younger : Dj Premiere, Chemical Brothers, Fat Boy Slim.
Alessandro: Aphex Twin, Dave, Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn from Sleaford mods.
Francesco: I kind of got into cooking recently haha and also I like watch movies and series and play Nintendo switch.
Alessandro: I like watching Anime and play soccer when I have time.
Invadhertz: To make something of your own and then share it with the world is a unique and beautiful feeling. And also, the beauty of the process is just as rewarding as the final product.
Invadhertz: We have a couple of remixes and a single collab track to be released next year. But I can’t really share more details. We also have loads of new music pretty much ready to go, but we’re still planning what to do with it. But yeah if you are interested and want to check news and updates from us please give us a follow on our socials and you can find all the latest updates. Thanks Beatmatch for the interview and for having us it has been a pleasure, much love!
