Person: S. Oliva

Sandro Oliva is a Eurobeat artist who was involved in the songs for the anime series Initial D. He once belonged to the A-Beat C label but is now with Go Go's Music.
His e-mail there is [email protected]

Sandro Oliva was born in Mantova during the 1970's, when light music and pop was in full swing. From the time he was very young he was attracted by everything that made sound (record players, radio, musical instruments, etc...). When he was seven years old he played the drums in a band; he later started paying guitar.

He set up various bands with his friends but the real challenge came when he was 13 and started to play bass guitar; he met 'real' musicians and he started a real band: 'CONTRASTO'. With 'CONTRASTO' Sandro had the opportunity of having his first experience in a recording studio where he recorded a brand new song that was unexpectedly successful; it was transmitted continuously by all the local radio stations. The group changed over the years: musicians changed and Sandro set up the most important 'dance' cover-band in Italy: 'UBI MAJOR'. Their single 'Just a Moment' was released in 1982 published by the record company DISCO MAGIC who decided to use the pseudonym 'LIQUID MASK'.
A few months from the release of the groups' single the band broke up due to personal reasons and Sandro Oliva decided to continue with his solo career. His infinite love for music led him to produce many songs, including the singles: 'You are'nt fall in love' by Mark Tower, 'A Y O Mexico' by Trias and 'The rose of Tokyo' by City-O.

In March 1984 Sandro Oliva produced and wrote Ken Laszlo's first single 'Hey Hey Guy' for the record company 'Memory Records'. The record would be very successful throughout the world, especially in France where the producer, together with 'Memory Rec' signed an exclusive contract with the well-known record company 'Skorpio Records'. The song 'Tonight' was released in 1986, produced by Sandro Oliva and written in collaboration with Gino Caria; this was followed in 1987 by 'Red Man' and in 1989 by 'I love You', always with Caria.

Nonetheless Sandro Oliva's work as a producer was not limited to the record company Memory Records. He met Mauro Farina and Giuliano Crivellente around this time and started working with them as a sound engineer at Factory Sound Studios. In 1984 he met Giacomo Maiolini, at that time the owner of Time Records and Power Records.
In collaboration with different writers Sandro composed various songs published under the Time label, these include: Magika 'I Know Magika', Tommy Kerisch 'Speedy Life', Alesis 'Steppin' Up', DeNiro 'Italian Boy', etc..

In 1986 Sandro Oliva created a new work team with Gino Caria and Claudio Cattafesta with whom to produce new songs for Ken Laszlo, sadly Claudio Cattafesta died a few years later from a fatal illness and Sandro and Gino had to continue working without their close friend and colleague. In 1991 they began working closely with Dave Rodgers; Sandro had met Dave in the '80s when he was working on the single 'Fly to me' by the group Aleph. Sandro Oliva produced many artists for the ABeatC label: Lolita, Annerley Gordon, Digital Planet, Suzy W, Matt Land, King & Queen, Meganrgman, GoGo Girls, Norma Sheffield, Nuage, Mickey B, Karen, Katchy Core, Virginelle, Domino, Brian Ice, Dave Rodgers, Manuel, Dr. D.O.P.E., Dr's Girl, Valentina, Powerfull T...
In these years he also did some important work for Walt Disney and also worked with important musicians such as Jennifer Batten, Patrick Rondat, Kiko Loureiro, Steve Lukather...

In February 2006 Sandro Oliva decided to separate his production from that of A-Beat-C and he set up, together with Alessandra Gatti (Domino), a new label 'GOGO'S MUSIC'... the rest, as they say, is history...