You are holding a series of special events back in the UK to celebrate 20 fine years at the forefront of dance music in Glasgow and London. Talk us through the lineup and your expectations of the events…
The UK Soma 20 nights are at Pressure in The Arches, and the mighty Fabric in London. We’ve asked some of the big names from the label along with some of our newer artists –Slam, Funk D’Void, Silicone Soul, The Black Dog, Gary Beck and Deepchord. We’re going to deliver a great musical cross section of the electronic dance genre and some Soma Classics...
You both run a club night at The Arches in Glasgow called Pressure. What’s the idea behind the project, and what events do you have coming up, other than the above event, of course?
Pressure has been running for 13 years, it’s a 2 or 3 room monthly that has hosted almost everyone you can imagine, from Sven Vath and Richie Hawtin to The Black Dog and Surgeon. The Arches is such a flexible space with a great set of sound systems. Future nights include Loco Dice, Adam Beyer, Chris Liebing, Vitalic and Joseph Capriati.
How involved are you both with the running of Pressure with regard to the programming of it all?
We always decide our Pressure guests – some people just invite themselves, but we’ve always had a very progressive booking policy – always looking for the next new artist, through Live or DJing, to emerge on the scenes.
I always wonder with artists who work in pairs… how do they work it with regard to production and live performance? Do your roles differ in any way with each situation, or is it equal?
Slam’s 'lives' change all the time – from month to month some times. We try and incorporate as much new material as possible every time we play. New programs and new hardware are always being introduced – it’s a pretty liquid set up. Studio production has now ended up almost solely inside the box – 2 laptops – anywhere and anytime – airports , restaurants, hotel rooms , and the studio occasionally – sometimes alone, sometimes together.
With that being the case as Slam, what are you roles within the Soma Label?
We pretty much just A&R at Soma now – back in the day we would fill and mail records orders, number stamp releases, all just mucking in really. Dave Clarke and Glenn Gibbons have been the two guys who have worked tirelessly in the office over the years , along with some great staff, to navigate Soma through some stormy waters – thanks guys!
The Soma label has amassed an impressive history over the course of its 20 years, what are the highlights for you?
Lots and lots – Daft Punk going ballistic with “Da Funk “, Silicone Souls “Right On Right On” the B side that just grew and grew over a year , our own “Positive Education” exposed us to the world and nearly made the top 40 once , Soma One on acetate (first ever record) - we all saw it actually cut . Felix da Housecat’s “Clashback” melting dance floors, James Lavelle recording a milestone release, Roy Ayres recording for us..... There’s plenty more – probably forgotten more than we can remember.
I was at your gig for We Love at Space in Ibiza where you were celebrating 20 years of the Soma record label, I notice that you weren’t using cd or vinyl decks, could you talk us through the technology that you use and why you use it?
We are sponsored by Native Instruments to use Traktor Pro – and what a fantastic program. It’s everything we dreamt about when digital first arrived. 4 decks of perfect syncopation, looping and FXs – rock solid - endless possibilities of live remixing – re arranging songs – vast record crates - no more vinyl A to B.
Again, we’ve gone inside the Apple laptops – with the use of two X1 Controllers each - all Traktor’s features are at your finger tips – all you need is a mixer and a sound system. We can’t sing its praises strongly enough.
So you’ve both been around for a while now, how do you think the dance music industry has changed? For better or worse?
The whole music industry has changed from when we started Soma – the format change (terrestrial to digital) being the biggest hurdle for everyone. Soma’s business model has had to totally change – far less staff. As with most changes or advances there are pluses and minuses – if we could just stop file sharing, we think over all Digital is better.
You are both clearly of the techno mindset predominantly, has it always been this way for you? If you aren’t listening or playing techno what are you?
We play everything from reggae to stripped dark techno – and everything in between. We do a show called MONOPOD which is the first hour of our Return to Mono nights – check it out, very chilled. Think it’s fair to say the majority of our productions are more tech flavoured , but we listen to as much diverse music as we can and given the chance try to be as eclectic as possible with our DJ sets – it takes the best part of a week to listen to all the promos we are sent – so not much time for home listening.
Some of your latest releases on the Soma label are remix projects and releases celebrating this 20-year anniversary, tell us about these…
Soma asked over 60 producers if they would be interested in choosing a track to remix from the back catalogue, thinking some would say no – but none of them did – so we ended up with so many great mixes – too many to release this year , so a few will be appearing in 2012. We’re still receiving request from producers asking if they could remix they’re favourite Soma track – so more to come....
I’m keen to make the most of this time we have with you and to pick your brains about running a label. Clearly, when you started Soma things were a lot different to how the music industry is now. What advice could you offer?
Don’t start an Electronic Dance label if you wanting to get rich fast (Soma has been a real labour of love), always believe in the material your releasing and never copy anyone else – try and keep it fresh and original – good luck!
With the events in Glasgow, London and your gig at We Love at Space, do you have any other plans to bring in this 20th year? Where does the label, and yourselves as artists, go from here?
Soma has just released its ’20 Years Anniversary CD’, with some of the milestones tracks from the history - plus 2 DJ mixes from Slam (all the new remixes) and Silicone Soul (from the back catalogue). We also have some great new projects in the pipeline – Albums from Gary Beck and Madrid’s Alex Under, a new projects from the Silicone Soul boys and Steve Rachmad + Heiko Laux - another busy year ahead.
Slam have some new productions for Adam Beyer’s Drumcode label, new tracks from our Paragraph label + remixes a go-go and also some Slam remixes – Carl Craig’s – Throw, a new track of Alex Under and various others – tours of Asia, USA , Australia and South America – should keep us out of trouble... or in – not sure which!
You have very kindly agreed to provide our latest Spotlight Podcast. For those that will listen, could you talk us through some of the tracks we can expect to hear?
The opening track is a new one from the Silicone Soul boys. ‘Alive from the Opium Den’ marks their 50th release on their Darkroom Dubs labels. You’ll also here Sebrok’s remix of Vector Lovers - Comptrfnk and our new remix for Carl Craig. He asked us to do a mix of Paperclip People – Throw and in turn he has remixed our Azure track for the Soma20 celebrations. Dave Clarke’s legendary mix of Midfield General drops towards the end too... this has been a massive track at Pressure over the years.
