DJ Tennis

Raised among New Jersey, Sicily and Parma and of a household where music did not play a large role, Manfredi Romano became DJ Tennis. Born in 1970, Romano grew up with no additional family learning or playing any musical instruments, had none at his disposal, and no one that adopted any interest in music. Despite this reality, Romano’s imaginative and artful attitude has remained oriented around music, including singing, playing and even collecting instruments with every opportunity to do so. Although Romano did possess a great passion for music, he chose to attend The University of Pisa in 1989 to study computer science. However, he was still singing and playing in school bands, and joined a radio show on a local station in Palermo featuring indie rock. Supporting himself through university consisted of organizing events, recording bands, and DJing at a tennis club he once frequented as a semi-pro player. Note that the DJ Tennis name is derived from his adoration for sport. When Romano graduated from university he never thought he would shift these gigs into an actual music career. Still he became a DJ, first by promoting fresh underground music and then by developing some of the most influential Italian underground musical events, such as the Elita and Dissonanze festivals.

For the last 20 years, Romano has produced music in many forms, including theatre compositions, movie soundtracks and TV commercial scores. His skills are formed with insights from the psychedelic and gloomy sounds of the 1960s through the early 2000’s intelligent dance music period. A few of his role models involve: Beach Boys, The Who, Radiohead, Boards of Canada and Plastikman. In 2010, Romano teamed up with Thugfucker’s Greg Oreck to start a new pop and techno label called Life and Death. DJ Tennis is currently living in Berlin where he and Tale of Us share a studio, as well as the label experience. He has put in great efforts to create a group of innovative musicians like Clockwork and Esperanza. Today Romano primarily works as a promoter and booking agent.