Zone-Magazine-Wally-Lopez-Issue-040

featureinterview
_________________
Words Simon Huxtable
______________________
Photography @maytitalozano
_____________________________
Connect https://facebook.com/wallylopez
Wally Lopez is considered the most important spanish DJ's.
Owner of Factoria Records and Factomania Group, and resident
every thurdays at BE (Space Ibiza).
Born in San Blas in Madrid, 1976, Angel David López starts his career as a DJ and radio presenter at the early age of
thirteen. With an innovative programme, specialized in dance music, he broadcasts his sessions at Top Radio (Spain) in the
early mornings of the weekend.
Wally, a pioneer of the house music in Spain, starts his career as producer in 2000 by launching the label Weekend
Records, and remixing artists such as Tiësto, Marco V, Valentino Kanzyani, Dirty Vegas, Bob Sinclar and Robbie Riviera.
Many of his records are successfully published with renowned labels including Defected, Underwater, Yoshitoshi and
Subliminal. In the same year he also produces what it will be his first international hit ‘Amman’, followed by ‘Patricia Never
Leaves the House’ (both remixes have been relaunched in TheFactoria recently) and ‘Disco Night’, played all over the
globe by DJs like Pete Tong, Hernan Cattaneo or Steve Lawler. The later even dubbed him as ‘The Man of the Moment’…
After working for numerous labels and artists, he decides to create ‘La Factoria Records’ - now TheFactoria - in 2001, as
well as a more underground sub-label called Formula Records. Recently Lopez has added a new label called FatXL that he
has launched together with his colleagues Ismael Rivas and Iván Pica. The three labels together form part of the
Factonomia Group that Wally presides, and it counts with different areas such as a management agency, management
label or the Tremenda clothes shop in Madrid.
TheFactoria counts with more than thirty references of great international repercussion such as ‘Love Time’, ‘Strike Me
Down’ or the more recent tunes ‘Planet Earth’, ‘Burning Inside’ or ‘Close to Me’. The last two were at the number one for
many weeks in a row at the Maxima 51 chart of Maxima FM – the most important dance chart in Spain. Besides, Wally has
the honour to host a national programme of electronic music in Maxima FM, which counts with more than 340,000
listeners each Friday and is also broadcasted in English in Belgium, France, Italy and Russia. Musically speaking his
selected compilations stand out, particularly the Weekend CD Series and I’m Coming To… series. After the editions in
London, Paris, Dubai and Ibiza, Wally Lopez is already preparing a second edition for this summer 2009 that will repeat
destination to the White Island.However, it is in 2004 when Wally Lopez’ musical career acquires its current dimension. It
happens in an uncomfortable train trip from Madrid to Valencia where he creates his remix for David Guetta’s ‘Just A Little
More Love’. In Wally’s hands the tune becomes turns into a world hit and the Madridian becomes one of the undisputable
winners at the Ibiza DJ Awards 2004. In this good year he starts his residency at Pacha Ibiza, together with Darren
Emerson and Tim Deluxe, which he combines with other residencies including The End in London, where he plays next to
artists like Fatboy Slim or XPress2. Later he gains residencies at Discotèque and Pacha in Barcelona, Red Light and The Mix
in Paris and Ministry of Sound in London and appearances at festivals including 10th Anniversary of Creamfields Liverpool,
Creamfields Buenos Aires, Global Gathering, Exit Festival, Weekend Dance, Rock in Rio, Monegros Desert Festival and
Creamfields Andalusia, finally achieving his current summer residency who many consider the best in the world, Space
Ibiza for the Be@Space parties. Besides Wally has the honour to have been the first Spanish DJ to be invited to play at a
Madonna concert (Seville 08).
36 ZONE-MAGAZINE.EU