Italian trio Meduza set a new benchmark in electronic music since the release of their breakout hits in 2019 ‘Piece of Your Heart’ and ‘Lose Control’. The Grammy nominated triple threat are also the biggest globally streamed Italian artist in history, while they’ve headlined major festivals such as EDC, Tomorrowland and Coachella. Additionally, they established their own label AETERNA in 2023, and have held residencies at the likes of Hï Ibiza. This year alone, they hit new milestones with their track ‘Fire’ as the official UEFA Euro 2024 anthem, and have garnered a whopping 794 million Spotify streams across 184 countries.
In an exclusive interview, Meduza talks about Italy’s role in the global electronic music arena, working with Thirty Seconds To Mars, the importance of gratitude and more. They also created a spectacular 1 hour mix for YourEDM which you can stream below!
Hey Meduza, Thank you for chatting to YourEDM, we’re so thrilled to have you! 
Meduza’s sound has evolved significantly since you first started out. How would you describe your evolution over the last few years?
Since the beginning, we always wanted to focus on more than just one platform. Not only covering the radio side but also the club side. Because as a DJ we do DJ sets too. We want our fans to come to a Meduza show and listen to Meduza music. Not to matter if it’s a radio, edits or club music. It was important to keep our show unique. Of course with some exceptions, but mainly Meduza music. This was one of the main reasons why we started working on club music too, why we opened our club label AETERNA, to discover new talent. To introduce them into this community to experiment and test out new sounds. If the sounds work and we like how they fit into our music we add these into the radio side too. Our music has definitely evolved from commercial to more underground and heavy electronic music…
In a recent social media post you mentioned that Italy is one of the most influential countries in electronic music. In your opinion, what makes Italy such a key player in the international electronic scene?
Since the beginning of electronic music in the late 70s and 80s with Moroder. Italy has always been one of the most influential countries in the world for electronic music. Thinking about it, we spoke about the late 70s and 80s, but also in the 90s when Eurodance was a big thing. 80% of the biggest artists in the world were Italians. I can think about Eiffel 65 and Gigi D’Agostino. But then it turned into House Music, especially at the beginning, especially from the South with Junior Jack, Joseph Capriati, Marco Carola, um, and so many. Now we are mainly in the Northern part of Italy with Anyma, Tale of Us, Matame, Benny Benassi too. So Italy has always been a big part of electronic music, I think it’s a cultural thing.
You’ve amassed over 1 billion streams on your breakout hit ‘Piece Of Your Heart’. On Instagram you shared; “Numbers are cruel: they can pave the way for a successful career, or they can definitely kill it”. In light of this, how do you balance the pressure to gain streams with still holding your artistic integrity?
Oh, that’s an easy one. I mean, uh, numbers are cruel. That’s true. And the pressure is really high. But we already show the industry that we can make numbers. We can make it with the music we love – we love making music like the record ‘Piece Of Your Heart’ and ‘Lose Control’. But we also love making tracks like more club tracks like ‘Everything You’ve Done’ or ‘Upside Down’ or ‘Another Word’ – where it’s more club music.
The most important thing, I don’t think it’s to show numbers to people, it’s to make people happy with the music we make which also makes us happy. So we won’t release stuff that we don’t think is 100% right for us first, the project and our fans too. If you don’t want to fall into the streaming business with numbers and stuff like that, it’s just to keep integrity, just making what you really love. And the public will decide what is right and if it’s wrong for that period of time. You as an artist and what you love making is the most important thing in this business if you want to keep integrity. And this means you change style or evolve your style during the years. So it’s not making the same music just because that works, aa it doesn’t mean that it will work forever. So you need to evolve yourself as an artist too.
Working as a trio must be quite interesting and challenging at times. Do you have any memorable behind-the-scenes stories that have taken place recently?
Oh, yeah. We argue every time! You know, we’re Italian too…. so it’s pretty easy to understand. But we argue on every song. But the best part is that when we all agree on the same song, on the same idea, 99% of the ideas work. I remember as an example, on ‘Piece Of Your Heart’, we were arguing with our managers because we left the spoken part before the first drop, the part where it was saying, “um what, Sorry. Just quickly” and starting with the drop. But our other manager was saying, “no we need to keep that part as it makes it special” and then the other manager was saying, “um, no, it’s too it’s too cheesy for that kind of house music – So we need to remove that”. We were arguing between ourselves but we discussed as a team what was the best choice. It took a few days to understand that it was the most special part of the song. So we decided to keep it. You can imagine how we argue as Italians, but then it was for the benefit of the project, of course.
When working on new music and projects, what is the creative process like between the three of you? Do you divide roles, or do you allow things to flow organically?
There’s not a specific role for people in the team for everyone. Luca is more of the producer / on the technical side of things. Luca and Simone are more of the musicians and me (Matt) as a DJ, the one working more on the structure of the song.
But when we are in the studio together, everybody is free to share ideas, do experiments. Even working on the top line, when we are in the studio with songwriters or singers, it’s all about the chemistry in between us. It’s all about the feelings. We are all working together to make the best song possible. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. But there’s not a specific rule. We just start from scratch, and anybody can have the first idea or the top line idea. And then we start from there, playing some chords and then everything happens. Uh, but when we are in the studio, we are all the same. And we are a team working on the same thing.
How do you go about preparing for sets that are 5 or 6 hours long? Is the preparation process any different from when you’re playing a 1 or 2 hour set?
When you have to play a one or two hour set, it depends where you play. For example, if you had to play a festival, you need to be linked to the visual guy, the light guy and the camera guy, the video maker team. You need to prepare something before and have an idea on the set list for everybody in the team. From the visuals, to the lights – they need to be prepared for what they need to do. It’s almost impossible to play a big show (Tomorrowland, EDC) and freestyle because everybody, as I said, needs to be prepared on what they are going to do.
When you play one or two hours in a club, when it’s just you and the crowd – it’s a freestyle. You just need to understand the vibe and the mood of the venue and the vibe of the crowd and play some song. If it’s wrong, you go somewhere else. If it’s right, you continue with a path and the same thing happens when you have to play five, six hours. It’s just like a wave, it’s a journey! You need to drive people in the crowd through a journey, because they’re not going to stay for six, seven, ten hours in the crowd. They just need to be in the mood wherever they are in the club. And you need to guide them through these moments when you just chill a little bit and keep the rhythm. And when you stop everything and create the moment with the melodies and the vocals. So that’s a journey. Um, but of course, this is the main difference. It’s just like clubs and festivals.
You often draw inspiration from 90s inspired rave, techno and trance. In your opinion, what sets this electronic music era apart from other eras?
Yeah, we grew up with that music from the 90s, especially the acid from Manchester or the trance from, uh, Tïesto. The feeling at that time was that raving was a new thing. People were just like going to the clubs and dancing until that moment when they started making music for bigger venues, for raves. And the feeling was wow what’s going to happen now! This is a new way of living, the nightlife and the music was more just like a big room. I think that this feeling is something that is coming back and especially after Covid, when people have been locked in their houses for a couple of years. The feeling when they started going out again, it’s kind of the same. Going to bigger venues, just having fun because I’ve been home for two years home and just raving, partying until the morning. So this is probably why this music is coming back.
You’ve toured all over the world, this year alone Meduza has travelled to Dubai, Bali, Tokyo and the US to name just a few. How do you manage to stay creative and motivated while touring?
The fact is we are travelling all around the world and we see different cultures every week. We’re meeting different people every week. It really motivates us and our inspiration to make music, because you see the world in a different way than just turning on TV and watching the news and see what’s going on in the real world outside of your house. Talking to different people from all around the world and their experience of living every day is just so inspirational and motivational for us. And then you put everything into the music. It really helps you because no matter if you’re just like David Guetta or Solomun or Meduza or Tïesto, you need to adjust your set based on where you’re playing, into which country you’re playing. People are different everywhere, and you need to let them have fun with your music, in a different way in every place. Most of the time its not going to be always the same. And this is inspirational because you can really learn a lot of things travelling the world.
Visuals are a fundamental aspect of electronic music today, and Meduza has such a powerful aesthetic and visual appeal. How involved are you with the visual aspects of Meduza?
We are living in a new technology era, so visuals need to be part of the music show. The most important thing is that we need to understand how to experience that in a club and in festivals. Because if you want to go to the club to see just a visual show with the music as a soundtrack, that’s not the right place to do that. I think people need to focus more on the music and then have the visuals as part of a show to complete the experience of the show. I see a lot of people arguing about phones and stuff like that. I think there’s a new generation coming and they are living a completely different experience than what people used to do in clubs. And we need to accept that. We just need to understand everybody on what’s the best way to live this experience and give importance to the music and to the visuals, without losing the vibe or the connection between the DJ and the crowd. And, uh, that’s probably the hardest part.
One thing that comes across very clearly is how none of your achievements or experiences are taken for granted. What do you attribute to this unwavering sense of gratitude?
Nothing is taken for granted in this life, especially in the music industry, but in life in general. No matter what your job is, you need to make sacrifices to do that. I know we always see the best part of our life on social media, but behind that, the truth is that we are all living a life of sacrifices. Even for us, yes – We made a lot of big tracks. We travel the world, we do big festivals, we play big venues with thousands and thousands of people in the front with fans. But there’s always a different side that people usually don’t see. Just like travelling means stress and a lot of flights and staying away from family for most of the time, and most of the time. We stay away from our family for more than half a year, and that’s a big sacrifice. The rest of the time, even when we are home, we need to stay in the studio to move the project on…to make new music. Sometimes festivals or shows are not going as planned. So, you can feel sad, which are things you don’t see on socials. It’s different nowadays. People’s communication with the fans, with the crowd and trying to tell them and try to let them understand. There’s always a different side that you usually don’t see. And it’s, uh, the one with sacrifices and hard work.
All the negative things happen in life before every achievement. So this is to move the artist on a more human connection with their fans. Um, and I think this is really helpful for people because as I said, they need to understand this is not only a good life for sure. But not good things happen every day. It’s just like it’s a life made by negative and positive things.
You recently posted a photo hanging out with Thirty Seconds to Mars. Can you tell us a bit about that experience?
Yeah, we’ve been in the studio in LA for a couple of days with Jared Letto and Shannon Letto and it’s been great. First time I met the guys was backstage at the Lollapalooza festival in Argentina. We were next to each other and we said hello. I’ve always been a rock guy and been a fan of them and Jared’s voice. They said they were fans of our music, too. We shared our contacts and text each other trying to find the best time to go into the studio together and work on something new together. Then this happened. We went to LA to a studio working two days in the studio writing new music. This has been a great experience. These two guys are so talented. Jared and Shannon are so talented. And, um, it was a real pleasure. We learned a lot of things from both of them in the studio. And then it’s been a fun time too. Just like even just talking to each other and sharing the experience of how we live this industry in two different ways.
They are more into this as they have been making music since 15 years ago, probably more, on a different level. On a pop / rock level. So it’s completely different from what we’re living, and it’s a completely different world. And we were trying to understand how their side of the industry or the music industry lived, and they were doing the same. So it’s been a great sharing experience, but also just like a big creative moment together, working on this new couple of songs that we have. Um, and then now we need to work on both and then see how it goes. It takes time. But, uh, what we made in the studio, we’re pretty happy about what we made in the studio. So I really hope that fans will listen to that as soon as possible and we’ll judge what we made, and then hopefully they’re gonna like it.
In just 5 years, Meduza has been nominated for a Grammy, performed at the Euro 2024 Final, and are the most globally streamed Italian artists in Italian Music History. Are there any other major milestones that you’d still like to see come to life?
Yeah, winning a Grammy would be a great achievement, honestly. But it’s not our main focus I think the biggest achievement we can get is just to continue what we love. Making music and touring the world and playing shows as much as we can. That’s the biggest goal that we have. The other goals are great, but are just awards. It’s more important to wake up every morning thinking about how lucky we are in living the life that we are living at the moment. And then we want to continue making music and playing shows, as much as we can, as long as we can. Winning awards like the Grammy or something is just a bonus for what we do.
What can we expect from your upcoming releases?
2025 is going to be a change for the Meduza project. We are going to start doing live shows. With keyboards, piano etc. But we will announce more details early 2025. Same with music, we will continue to make the club records on AETERNA with new and talented young artists like GENESI. We will continue to experiment. For the radio side we are still trying to work out the best way to evolve the sounds of Meduza. We have a couple of ideas, working with Jared and Shannon Letto, and also Benson Boone, and other names. But I have already spoiled a lot! Can’t wait for 2025, it’s going to be a good year for Meduza.
Stream the exclusive YourEDM mix by Meduza below:
Tracklist:
SESA & Alexandra Prince – So Many Times
Hardsoul – Deep Inside (CASSIMM Remix)
Oppaacha – My Berry
ALPHADOG – Underground
Funkerman – Speed Up (Ben Sterling Extended Remix)
GENESI x Laherte – Pleasure
Meduza x HAYLA – Another World (Kevin De Vries & SLVR Remix)
ZODIAC ‘Genesis’ ft. Jalja (Dub Mix)- Rafael Cerato guestmix
Rafael Cerato, Kinky Sound – Floating
Rafael Cerato, Kinky Sound – The Flow
Sidepiece – Sex Sells
Rafael Cerato, Sonickraft – Hitlist
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