The Winning Tune

Four weeks ago Nokia invited their fans to create the Nokia brand of the future with us in the form of the Nokia Tune contest. 6238 entries from 70 countries and 166,674 votes later, here is Valerio Alessandro Sizzi's winning tune:

Nokia Tune Dubstep Edition

Runners up:

Nokiorchestra • Progressive Nokia • Nokia Capella • Nokya In The Sky • Nokia New Generation

Let's learn more from this composer:

Congratulations on your win, it is a tremendous achievement. How do you feel about winning?

Valerio Alessandro Sizzi: Thank you very much! Well... i actually never expected my version to be so popular and to be highly rated by Nokia, but hey! Nice surprise :D

Tell us a bit about your background.

Sizzi: I'm a 22 y.o. guy from a small town near Milan, Italy. I attended a Sound Design course at IED (Instituto Europeo di Design) in Milan. During my 3-years course i've learn a lot of things about what being a sound designer means and how this professional figure can relate with lots of many different others in so many different creative situations. I'm also a dj, spinning records every Thursday nights in Milan at the event "PopStarz - ...in the end, everything is a gag" by Gasoline Crew since last year, but this event started in 1997 (!). During this nights i usually select tunes from the 80s, 90s, 00s mixed with more indie-rock and electro stuff (so yes! it's a veeery fun night!) in a very magical situation with freaks, drag queens, drag kings and many other "characters".I'm also a producer and A&R of an indipendent digitally-distributed record label called Head2Toes as a division of Fun.Ch Records. As a producer i like to experiment in many different ways. I mostly produce Electro/Fidget House but i'm not one of those that can stand at genres subdivision.If you would have asked me "when did the passion begin"...well... i think since i got able to understand, more or less :D. Music has always been part of my life but my music production started "DIY" back in 2003. I've changed so much, musically talking, since that period but this doesn't mean i stopped changing. I think is still have a lot to learn and to handle :D

What made you participate in the competition?Sizzi: I've found out this competition on one of my teachers' blog, Sergio Messina (a man definetly as competent as quite known in the sound design and music production's italian enviroment). His blog post just tickled my curiosity and then i said "why not? let's try".

You got over thousand likes for your tune and it was rated very highly by Nokia - What inspired you to compose your particular tune?Sizzi: Well... i made a dubstep version of the Nokia Tune. Dubstep has become massivly popular during the last two years (even if its roots are definetly older) between the "hipsters" from all over the world and the production of a dubstep track is something really challenging, as a producer. I just thought as a sound designer that a sparkling, up-to-date and with a certain coolness version of the Nokia Tune would have been perfect to attract young and "cool-hunting" customers. I just thought: if you want to give the fresHest product to a costumer, you better make it "sound" as freshest as you can, also!

What are your thoughts on the original Nokia tune?Sizzi: I think it's he most representative "symbol" of Nokia's brand identity. The Nokia Tune is not just a ringtone, it's a sound-logo, something that in the last few years has reached a massive importance. Whenever you hear the Nokia Tune, you obviosly know that it's about a Nokia's product!

Tell us about your experience with Nokia and the competition?Sizzi: After submitting my entry to the AudioDraft's web-portal i shared the link to a few Facebook friends. But as i checked the contest day by day i just kept on seeing that my entry received many "likes" and many shares. With all those entries, who ever thought about becoming one of the finalists! :D

Thanks to BrandBook.