DJs of the Year: Tale of Us

Carmine describes his background as modest; the impression is that Matteo's was less so. His father is a business consultant and economist. "He wanted me to take his path – it's a good one, it could have been easy, but it was always going to be something predestined. If I followed his path I was never going to know if I really deserved it, you know?" Matteo's 27 and was born in New York where his father studied, and raised in Italy's Umbrian countryside.

His education came through Aphex Twin, Autechre and the IDM style. "I don't really have a lot of weird musical skills," says Matteo, half-nodding towards Carmine as if 'weird musical skills' are his speciality. "I mean, I've learned a lot about chords and progressions and stuff, but in the beginning it was more just playing with software. Right through school, I was a bit of a nerd. I had Logic, I had Reason, I was on Cubase for five years, then Logic switched to Mac and I had that again."

Matteo also started out in a 'proper' career – he studied economics – but he quit. They both ended up at the SAE Institute in Milan studying music, which is where their paths crossed. "The school was more like a meeting point for us, it wasn't teaching us anything we really wanted to know," says Matteo. "It was more technical stuff. It's a good school, a famous institute, but it's more for engineers. We don't like it."

"Yeah, we don't like it," confirms Carmine with a laugh.

"It's also a problem with Italy, with the way of teaching there," says Matteo, sitting up urgently. "It's why I didn't like university - it's like, 'Learn this by memory and tomorrow tell me what it is'. Not like a group thing, like in other countries, with projects. You don't learn about music by reading a two-hundred page textbook."

"You learn music by doing music," confirms Carmine. "The connection between us is a musical connection, a passion. It's very strong, actually. Really, we come from two different realities otherwise, different crowds."

This was, says Matteo, the beginning of the first phase of Tale Of Us – there have been three. "The first phase, we reconnected with the deep house movement," he says. "I don't deny that we sounded like deep house. Most of our colleagues, like Jamie (Jones) and Seth, were very successful in this, but we didn't find our place somehow. It was, I don't know… it was really not our thing."

"It got boring," offers Carmine.

"We went with it because it was big," says Matteo. "It was big and we were considered precursors, so we made more music like that because the fans were there. It wasn't exactly what we liked. We were getting a bit lost by the end of the deep house Tale Of Us period."

The answer, he says, was to change their sound. Inspired by the invitation to expand on their love of progressive house with a Renaissance mix in 2013, they moved on. "We got out of the deep house loop and we educated ourselves in all electronic music," says Matteo. "Renaissance was the end of the deep house phase and 'Another Earth' on Minus was the start of the more melodic, arpeggiated techno stuff. When I say techno, I don't mean Berlin techno, not at all. We don't make Berlin techno and we never will, because we're Italian."

You make Italian techno, right?" Yes, in a way," he laughs. "It's more emotional, I'm not going to deny. There's more drama. We're not going to hide it. We like it."

"It's true," smiles Carmine, resting his thumb on the barrel of his lighter expectantly. "We like emotion and drama."

Matteo picks up a copy of a German dance music magazine and points to the coverline alongside their picture. "Someone named it 'new romantic house'. We don't like that either, but we understand what they mean. It's romantic techno. It's the movement we're in now, and I think it's the movement we're going to close soon, because this sound has got to its saturation point. We're taking a new journey."

The confidence to change again comes from the knowledge that they've done it once, and the vote of affirmation offered by having a label with R&S' history take them on. "R&S is going back to this IDM, broken, atmospheric sound," says Matteo. "It makes a lot of sense to be on this label because we've been listening to it for ten years. And they approached us. They sent us an email – 'Hey guys, we really like your stuff, we think it's got so much potential, we think you can go to a broader audience that's not only dance.' We've been working on an album for five years; we've announced it three times. But you know, the artist album, especially in the dance world, has to be right."

This is where Tale Of Us' evolution is taking them. They've tried out albums and realised they were writing a series of good dance tracks, so they've broken them up into EPs instead. To record an LP is a huge ambition for them, but not one they're going to rush. "We're going to make an album when it's right," says Matteo. "You're not going to see a couple of DJs who made an album, and people know about them because of the press campaign – you're going to see an act in the evening, buying the ticket for only this act. I think this is how we want to make the album, and this is going to take more time, unfortunately."

Car horns blare up from the road outside, as two drivers move at once for the same space. "I like the model of an artist like Massive Attack," Matteo continues. "Forget the music – although I like it too – but you buy a ticket to Massive Attack whether it's a concert or a club, and you go to listen and watch. You don't think, 'Are they DJs, are they live, are they cool, do they have a night in Ibiza?' You just see the name and you don't worry. We want that: to express ourselves to more people with freedom, to be able to do what we want and stay true to ourselves."

Despite that, the pair do have their own night in Ibiza – or at least they did for five consecutive Fridays this summer under the Life And Death banner. There, too, they took to uncharted territory and made it their own, stripping back a DC10 dancefloor more used to big Circoloco productions to its bare bones. With the help of label friends like Mind Against and Recondite, they put on a darkened, purist's warehouse techno rave. It was another success.

"We like Ibiza, but the reality is it doesn't belong to us so much," says Matteo. "We brought our great vision of a party. We had more experimental line-ups, and more interesting music, in our opinion. The island can start brands and careers, but for us our brand was already successful and our career was fine. We were like, if we're going to do Ibiza, we're going to do it right. We had great feedback. We're not sure if we're going to do it again, we'll see. We sowed some seeds."

Later, Matteo enthuses over the concept for photographer Christian Lamb's austere, stylish pictures of the pair in Spain, Iceland and America, while Carmine shows us his home studio, a red-lit attic room packed with pianos, keyboards and Italian Dylan Dog comic books. He plays us his minimal piano compositions and pats us happily on the shoulder when we agree they sound beautiful. "We think about putting them out," he says, "but there's plenty of time. We don't want to show too many sides."

To call artists 'ones to watch' is a cliché, but it applies to Tale Of Us. Keep an eye on them, because they're always changing. "We live in times where it seems easy to have overnight success," says Dixon, with whom they've worked and played. "Often this leads to artists being lazy. Some even think that having great ideas is all you need. But the hard work that every artist or craftsman must put in is almost forgotten. Tale Of Us, though, invest everything and go the extra mile. I really respect them for this."

"The Tale Of Us is our story," says Matteo, pacing the floor while Carmine opens a window to let the smoke out and the cold Berlin night in. "The concept doesn't allow us to stagnate. We're not a lifestyle act and we can't stop evolving our sound. It's a journey, and the end is the end. Once it stops, you're dead." We should just enjoy that journey wherever it – and Tale Of Us – takes us.

Taken from the January issue of Mixmag, out now