NEWS
EVENTS
We catch up with Dosem, a leading light in Spanish house/techno
House | Wednesday 2nd September 2015 | Arren
Dosem has earned himself big support across the house and techno scene from critics and fans alike after a decade of consistently good tunes and equally incredible DJ sets. Last year the Catalonian star landed himself a spot on Beatport’s Top 5 techno artists after a string of heavy-duty releases leading to a third studio album. As a producer his work has been out on some of the best labels from Carl Cox’s Intec, Coyu’s Suara and most recently the legendary Toolroom. After a hefty summer season, we caught up with Dosem to talk South America and label relations.
Hey, how are you doing? How was your summer?
I'm doing fine, the summer season is about to end and I have a very positive feeling about how everything went so far.
You’ve been hitting Ibiza pretty hard as well as the European festival circuit, must have been great fun?
Travelling a lot can be exhausting, but there's nothing better when you arrive at the club or festival and perceive the energy from the crowd. When you play the first track and see the reaction, everything else disappears out of my mind and I focus on the thing I love, music.
What have been your standout moments?
I had quite a few, but recently I had the chance to play after The Chemical Brothers at the Sónar 2015 Opening Concert. That was probably one of the best moments of my career so far, not only because of the gig, but also the meaning itself. It felt like a turning point of many things for me.
Playing after The Chemical Brothers! Pretty epic, must have been a hard act to follow! What went through your mind before stepping up to the decks?
A lot of things, I was doing a sum up of all the experiences I lived thanks to the music and the key memories that led me there.
Not only following The Chemical Brothers, just being on the opening bill for Sónar must have felt great; it’s such a great festival of arts. How did you go about your set for that party?
I just had a big list in my mind of tracks I wanted to play, but as always, I just started playing the first few tracks and followed the vibe of the crowd. The result was a mix of old and new stuff. I played lot of my productions, but also some key tracks from other artists I like and usually play in my sets.
Talking of DJing, you also toured South America earlier on in the summer, how was that?
It was fantastic. I had the chance to visit Santiago de Chile for second time and play in a very cool club named Ex Oz. It's a fantastic location, specially for electronic music in my opinion. I also had the chance to play in Santa Fe and Buenos Aires in Argentina. I love to play there, the vibes from the people are always great, they love to dance and pay attention to each track you play... as an artist it is very comforting and it motivates me a lot to visit the country every year. Gotta say the food is also excellent!
What are your thoughts about the scene in South America?
The country I visited most is Argentina, and the scene there has been growing for many years already. But I'm aware many other countries in South America are also experiencing an exponential grow in the interest for electronic sounds.
Any standout tracks you have been playing this summer?
'Second Story' by Mark Knight released on Suara, 'Ode to Basement' by Jel Ford on Drumcode, 'Overdub' from Dale Howard on Viva Limited... too many to mention!
(Photo: Club Ex Oz in Santiago, Chile.)
Your latest solo release was on Toolroom, and you’ve featured on a fair few Toolroom Live events/stages. How did working with Toolroom come about?
They’ve always been very supportive of my music, for example including some of my tracks on their compilations and exchanging a few emails. So finally I met them at the Amsterdam Dance Event last year. I had a very nice talk with Mark and his crew and I liked their #RESET concept for the label. They then invited me to the Toolroom Live event in London at Fire and we had a very good time. They are a big family with a huge passion for what they do. I loved the musical vibe of the whole night and the party was a success. Toolroom is a big label with a strong worldwide presence and a long history of great music. Mark is not only an amazing DJ but also one of the nicest guys I’ve met in the scene. I’m happy I started working with them, and I’m sure more great projects will come in the following months.
You’re right, Toolroom is an amazing label with a great history behind them, it must be great to be working alongside them.
Yes, they're a very professional group of people.
You’ll be supporting them again in London at the opening party of We Are WHSE in October in the Suffolk Street warehouse, looking forward to that?
Yes, I had the chance to play at We Are FSTVL with them and we had lots of fun. The feedback with the crowd was fantastic. Can't wait to join them again
Aside from Toolroom you’ve seen your work released on other big labels, Suara/Tronic/Intec as examples. Do you send demos out to everyone or do you fine-tune your music for certain labels?
I only work closely with labels when I can meet the team behind it and establish a strong relationship with them, not only on the music side, but also on a personal level. For me it’s very important to perceive passion and love for the music behind the projects, beyond anything else.
So having a healthy, organic relationship with record labels is the best way to work with them? I guess working closely together you can really push the boundaries of your work and unlock unknown potential?
For me the most important thing is to connect personally with the people who take care of the label. If we establish both a professional and personal friendship the workflow becomes easier. I'm an independent artist and I like to keep always my freedom when it comes to music. I like labels that respect that as well and support not only my music, but also the visual concept attached to it.
Your productions are pretty varied, taking you all the way from house, tech-house into techno. Is that something you think about or something that just happens?
It just happens, I don’t think much about the style or genre when I’m in the studio
How did you start your career in dance music, was it something you aspired to do or a lucky accident?
I’ve always been interested in electronic music. Everything started with the movie soundtracks and afterwards I discovered groups like Chemical Brothers, Orbital, Leftfield, Underworld. It was during my college years when I started to go to techno clubs, etc. At that moment I was wanting to do my own version of all those influences. I just started to create music I would like to dance to in a club, which is the same reason I’m doing music now.
Well you’re certainly getting it right, as a lot of people want to be dancing to your beats right now. It ust be a great feeling getting a good reaction to your music, it must motivate you to keep doing your thing!
Absolutely!
What else motivates you?
Being able to create freely and start new projects from scratch. I like that feeling when you get an idea for a song, or an album, or a video, and then you start to plan it, produce it, get people involved, it’s a great feeling.
Has music always been a big part of your life?
Yes, I still remember the impact I got with the soundtrack from Blade Runner composed by Vangelis. Also John Williams, Thomas Newman; all those composers influenced me quite a lot. Then I started to listen music from people like Mike Oldfield and William Orbit, and I also listened other kinds of music during my teenage years like R&B and soul.
Any producers who you can’t stop playing in your sets recently?
Dale Howard, Sidney Charles, Carlo Caldareri, Going Ape, Leftwing & Kody, Max Chapman, Harry Romero, Adrian Hour, Ramiro Lopez, Mendo...
You can catch Dosem supporting Toolroom at the We Are WHSE opening party in early October, more details about that party here. Can't make that? Dont worry you can keep with the Spanish sensation online / Facebook / Twitter.
