After creating an iconic capsule for Bally, Leo Mas returns to his primary language: music. For the fifteenth episode of the Deli-Music playlist, Deliberti entrusts one of the pioneers of the Balearic sound with curating a selection that spans eras, vibes, and visions.
We interviewed him to talk about fashion, club culture, collaborations, and inspiration.
A conversation by Augusto Penna that sounds just like his playlist: authentic, free, and timeless.
Let’s start right away: how did this collaboration with Bally, considering you’re one of the pioneers of the Balearic genre?
“My collaboration with Bally began when, through a dear friend, I found out that their marketing and events manager was looking for me. He put me in touch with her and told me that Bally’s creative director wanted me to work on the music for their fashion show. That made me very happy and took me back to 1983/84, when – even before becoming a DJ – I collaborated with Basile and other fashion brands, creating the music for runway shows, which I would assemble using a Revox B77. It was a very artisanal job, cutting tape and sequencing the chosen tracks for the show.”
“Back to Bally – I agreed to meet Simone Bellotti, who told me he was a fan and used to come see me play in clubs in the ’90s, even at afterhours. That’s where the collaboration with Bally started. I curated the music for two shows (both beautiful and emotional), and partly for a third one. After seeing some T-shirts I had given him – printing and producing tees has been a passion of mine since 1983 – Simone said they were fantastic and asked if we could collaborate on a capsule collection using some of my graphics. That’s how the BALLY / LEO MAS capsule was born.”
When you first started playing, what role did fashion have in clubs and in cultural movements in general?
“When I started, in the summer of 1985 at Amnesia Ibiza – my first club – fashion was an integral part of club life. Clubs were creative labs and a source of inspiration for designers. Jean Paul Gaultier was a regular in the clubs of Ibiza – not the only one – and those places inspired his more provocative and daring creations.
Fashion has always fed off the imagination and expressive freedom that clubbing provided. It reflected those trends. For many designers, going to clubs during those hedonistic years was a blessing: a source of inspiration and even financial success. New movements and musical phenomena were born in clubs – and since the late ’50s, they’ve always been a source of energy for fashion.”
Today, fashion and music – especially that of festivals and clubs – go hand in hand. The most influential communities seem to consider this bond essential. Is that a good or bad thing?
“When we talk about fashion, we’re also talking about art. I love art in all its different forms, and I find it excitingwhen the arts are free to come together. I like it – it’s something vital to me. I feed off this kind of contamination.”
Ibiza – which no one knows better than you – does it still have an avant-garde and rebellious spirit, or has it completely changed its skin?
“Ibiza has always had freedom in its DNA, and with that, transgression. The world meets in Ibiza – it has always been the perfect stage to breathe, taste, and express that spirit.
Of course, the world has changed, and Ibiza has changed too, in these forty years I’ve known it. Talking about avant-garde today, in a world that lives inside a smartphone, is difficult. But the island is still vibrant: clubs are opening or reopening, while all over Europe they’re closing. Tourism is booming, the season gets longer every year.
All this leads to higher costs and increasingly five-star tourism, but if you choose the right time to go, Ibiza remains unique. It offers 24/7 service, just an hour and a half away by plane.
As I always say: it’s a place where, if you don’t want to sleep, you don’t have to, but if you’re looking for peace and quiet, you can still find that too. Every day, the clubs offer lineups you won’t find anywhere else in the world with this kind of intensity.
It’s been almost forty years that Ibiza is the global capital of clubbing. All of this happened because, in the mid-1980s, something truly avant-garde took place: Ibiza exported its way of living the night – and its sound – to the world.
Back then it was all spontaneous and heartfelt. Today, it’s an industry that carries it forward – but it’s no longer avant-garde, it’s standardization.”
Listen the playlist Deli-Music 15 curated by Leo Mas on Spotify