DJ Tennis

Manfredi Romano, born in 1970 in italy, came to the booth sideways. a semi-professional tennis player who studied computer programming, he tour-managed punk bands from 1992 and ran the Daze booking agency in milan from 1995 to 2010. the alias is literal, he named himself after the tennis club in sicily where he used to throw parties.

in 2010 he stepped out as DJ Tennis and co-founded Life and Death with greg oreck. the label name was a mission statement, he has said it started as a way to bring melodies, indie and singing back into a scene stuck in percussive minimal. his own records have landed on Kompakt, Running Back, !K7, Cercle, Circoloco and Cocoon, and in 2017 he mixed DJ-Kicks no 59.

the collaborations run wide. Cinecittà with Carlita and alex metric on cercle records in 2022, All In A Dream with LP Giobbi and joseph ashworth in 2023, and remixes for WhoMadeWho, maribou state, trentemoller, ludovico einaudi, diplo and röyksopp. the festival record covers burning man, tomorrowland, glastonbury and time warp.

Once you get people to trust you and feel comfortable, then you can go everywhere, but first you have to gain their trust.

dj tennis to telekom electronic beats, september 2018

away from the decks he cooks. he launched Munchietown, a short-form cooking series, in december 2023, and built the Astra Club live concept with carlita. based in miami since 2013, he keeps releasing on his own label, most recently the three-track single Cold Hands, out on life and death in august 2026.