booking artists if you're looking to book one of our artists, please free to contact us at booking [at] phatelephant.com visit our shoptake full advantage of special deals in our own shop |
||||
sound-
|
Interview Si Tew
Si Tew's first Phat Elephant release "Not My Fault" is coming out on the 11th of January, we had a short interview with Si, learn about his inspirations and tips and tricks for new DJ/producers.
Did you / do you have a mentor or someone who inspired you?
Yeah, I’ve been lucky enough to work with Martin Atjazz for the last 6 odd years. I was introduced to him after being involved in the BBC urban music bursary back in 2005. I started doing sound design for video games with him and then we started the Mist Works project. He’s been like Yoda, always hooking me up with advice and introducing me to people. It’s always good to have a refined second opinion on things and it’s really helped me out over the years.
What was your first payed gig and how did you get it?
I can’t remember to be honest? If you count being paid petrol money and beer then I guess it was a free party back in Warwickshire when I was about 16. A few friends ran different sound systems and they put on a party in a really nice location with a few other rigs. It was a great night, but half way through my set the police came and closed the whole thing down. I don’t think they liked my tunes!
What is it in what you do that keeps you inspired every day?
Because writing music is such a big part of my life I guess I get inspired by everything in some way. I try to start each day by taking my dog for a walk through the fields. It feels like a nice way to reset the balance of sitting in the studio all hours, and I always feel more relaxed when I start writing.
What is your greatest lesson learned?
I quite like little one-liners and pearls of advice. My mate gave me a book called Damn Good Advice for creative people and that is full of stuff. But I think a college tutor gave the best bit of advice to me years ago. He said that ‘As soon as you think you know everything about you’re craft then you need to stop because you’ll never know everything. An experienced musician can still learn from someone who started yesterday’
I used to teach music tech to kids and they would show me little tricks I wouldn’t have thought of, or just a quicker way to do something. It’s made me always on the hunt for more information which isn’t a bad thing.
How does your dream line-up look like?
That’s a hard question, too many to choose from! I always like to see Modeselektor live. I’ve never seen Jon Hopkins or The Roots so definitely them. Then maybe Fourtet and Flying Lotus to top it off.
Any tips for starting dj/producers?
Try and break sounds as much as possible and just do any weird stuff you can think of to make noises. I like happy accidents and I think they make music sound more organic but to get accidents you have to experiment with weird routings, or sample noises from somewhere unexpected.
interview Offshore & Coen
Did you / do you have a mentor or someone who inspired you?
We are mostly doing everything on our own. We do not have a mentor. We have some local friends who we are working with. We are inspired by a lot of DJ’s producers as our awareness of dancemusic goes back to the beginning. Coen was begin 20 when he first got in contact with housemusic in 86/87. Offshore became addicted some ten years later. We met each other playing the same basic style with little different flavor. That was inspiring and that was the reason to team up. These days we are inspired by labels like Freerange, Simple, Aus, Room with a View, Local Talk, Heist, Delusions of Grandeur, Tsuba and of course Phat Elephant!
What was your first payed gig and how did you get it?
Our first gig was at a Isgoed bootjesfeest in The hague in a German bunker. There we met and decided to do something together in our passion of music. We got the gig because we both separately played once an a while at Café Koos. The owner programmed us B2B.
What is it in what you do that keeps you inspired every day?
Music in general is inspiring us. We both have always been connected to music in one or another way. We work/worked as a light technician, roady, manager of bands and so on.
During gigs we are searching for the moment that makes us and the crowd simultaneously happy. Sometimes that is difficult but when it happens it gives a marvelous feeling. Then we hit the jackpot and we get more inspiring energy to continue.
What is your greatest lesson learned?
Take life on a day tot day base.
The more I learn the more I realize how little I actually know.
Right. And we think it is better that way…..
How does your dream line-up look like?
We had one: Will Saul, Bicep and us! It was an honour to play with these guys.
Any tips for starting dj/producers?
Keep loyal to your passion and stay out of drugs.
interview smok
Did you / do you have a mentor or someone who inspired you?
Probably the biggest inspiration for me has been another Finn, Jori Hulkkonen, whose music and performances behind the decks got me interested in DJing and producing music. Jori Hulkkonen's releases on F-Communications were also the first ones I bought back in the late 90s.
Greatest mentor for me over the years in producing has been my friend Hector 87 who is always giving me great tips and feedback on what I do. Besides these guys there are lots of friends who have helped, inspired and supported me over the years.
What was your first payed gig and how did you get it?
I did my first proper club gig on February 15th in 2002 in a B-eat-Z club in my hometown. I still know the date because I have kept the flyer of the event as a keepsake. The biggest thing I can remember about the night is that I was extremely nervous because the place was packed but I also still remember a couple of records I played in my set. I got my first gig by handing out my mixtape to one of the B-eat-Z club promoters but my intention wasn't getting a gig from their club but to get some feedback about my mixing so I was very surprised when the promoter called me some time later and asked me if I would like to come and play at their club.
Of course I couldn't turn down that opportunity to play for a real audience and I have to say that I quite haven't got that same feeling ever since about playing records in a club I got that night but some of the gigs I have done have been quite close.
What is it in what you do that keeps you inspired every day?
I guess generally the biggest inspiration for me is all the great music I hear and manage to find every day but the feeling you get when you are playing in a club and you see a bunch of people on the dance floor enjoying the music I love to play is what makes me want to continue doing this.
What is your greatest lesson learned?
The more I learn the more I realize how little I actually know.
How does your dream line-up look like?
There are just too many great artists and DJs I would like to see but Joey Negro and Dimitri From Paris have had probably the biggest influence on me during the past year and I haven't seen them live yet.
Any tips for starting dj/producers?
Do what you love to do and experiment with different things. Sometimes it might not be very easy but don't give up and someday you'll be rewarded.
ADE '13 rwav x phat elephant
This year at ADE Phat Elephant will be mixing it up with respected german label Room With A View, bringing you the best dj's from aroud the globe on Wednesday the 16th from 22 till 5. check te flyer below for more information on the event.
SMOK -Serenity EP
Here it is, our latest summer release and the second Phat Elephant release of the talented SMOK from Finland. We received great feedback on SMOK's first release "Still" and we sure hope you like this one too!
Peter Kruder - Yeah is for me. The others are cool as well...
Makossa & Megablast - solid tracks
Michel de Hey - Thanks for the ep, support
Deepinradio - Nice one! Yeah is our favorite.
Black Wax - We are one is HOT!
BRING US YOUR DEMOS AT DANCEFAIR
In the weekend of 16 and 17th of February Phat Elephant Recordings will be taking part at the Dancefair Demo Lounge in Utrecht. We will be listening and giving feedback on the spot, we are looking for new releases for Phat Elephant (Deep House) and our new sublabel Odd Oxpecker (Tech House). For more information & registration check out the Dancefair site: www.dancefair.nl
New Ep G-Spice to be releases shortly
Yet another great Ep From Greek Deep House pilar G-Spice to be release just before ADE this years. Tiltled ' The Way We Where' with great remixes from Smok and Zorz Post & Emme
New releases this Summer
We've got some great releases coming your way this summer with releases from South African producer Jazzuelle, French Producer Le Bird and Finish artist Smok.
interview with Jazzuelle
Did you / do you have a mentor or someone who inspired you?
Oh yeah man, three guys were instrumental in the early years of my career, namely Leighton Moody, Cassiem Latief and Erefaan Pearce. More recently though I was blessed to have spent a lot of time with Chris Brann (Ananda Project) when he was in South Africa, he taught me a lot about the scene and the music too
What was your first payed gig and how did you get it?
In Cape Town in 2007 at the Airport City NYE bash, happened by accident, my boy had to go play another gig and didn’t get back on time, and I was there with my music and the promoter put me on the line-up
What is it in what you do that keeps you inspired every day?
Progress, nothing beats movement. You can be anything in this world, but if you’re not moving closer towards your dreams you’re wasting your time
What is your greatest lesson learned?
Well, as long as I’m breathing, perhaps the lesson is not one event, but many, that contribute to our own awareness and ultimately we mature and learn from all the lessons we go threw in our lifetime
How does your dream line-up look like?
Moodymann
CTEPEO ‘57
Max Graef
Floating Points
Bonobo
Little Dragon
Any tips for starting dj/producers?
Be a sponge, keep an open mind and never, ever stop pushing the boundaries….
The best of them
Latest Phat Elephant Release and first solo EP by Olivier Boogie.
Fish Go Deep - Best Of Them for me. Good sparse groove with a nice spooky vibe.
Rainer Trueby - Best Of Them is indeed the best of them, loving it!
Ludovic Llorca - lovin the "best of them" track here, this is a different kind of deep house !
Simon Harrison - Nice to hear some new tracks from Olivier B, Champagneship is ace!!
Lars Behrenroth - love the rawness of "best Of them" ! Phat
Rob Luis - Best Of Them is my have.