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Della Zouch Interview
House | Tuesday 16th July 2013 | Beth
Guestlist Welcomes Della Zouch
Certainly no stranger to the house music scene, Della Zouch brings his two record labels and twelve years of DJing to the Guestlist.
Where did your interest in music first stem from?
Hard to trace back to my first musical interest but I remember the 1st album I bought was Michael Jackson 'Off The Wall' (on cassette). I had an early obsession with vinyl though and used to mess around with my mum's collection and player well before that, don't think I was into her music so much but loved playing with the vinyl.
What got you into the house music scene in particular?
I used to buy all the tape packs from Dreamscape and Slammin' Vinyl when I was way too young to actually go to raves and I suppose it developed from there. I got some turntables at 16 and started playing house music, then shortly after went to my first club 'The Manor House' down in Dorset. It was an amazing and unique club that was inside an old manor house and I was hugely inspired by the likes of Laurent Garnier and Sasha that played there.
Where did the name Della Zouch come from?
It was strangely inspired by a town in the Midlands that I happened to be driving past when I came up with the idea of the new artist project. A lot of people pronounce it incorrectly, which I can understand and expected but it's actually pronounced Zoo-ssh rather than Z-ouch.
You've DJ'd around the world - do you have a favourite location? Where did you find the best atmosphere?
There are so many good clubs and countries to play in and they all have there own characteristics and quirks but Space in Ibiza has to be my favourite club that I've played. The Terrace has an amazing atmosphere and the sound system is so precise and agile. I also really enjoy going to countries where the house scene is in a more infant state as there is an amazing sense of excitement and the crowds have so much enthusiasm.
Do you prefer larger or smaller venues?
Well the Space Terrace is actually pretty big but feels much smaller some how, I guess the main thing is that the sound has to be tight and certain rooms seem to create better atmospheres than others. It's not good when you feel detached from the audience, I won't mention any names but having a swimming pool and 50ft between you and the dancefloor isn't great for atmosphere. Also I think that deeper house music works best in an intimate environment so I'd probably swing in the favour of smaller venues.
Which of your tracks usually get the best reaction?
A new track that's coming out on Luke Brancaccio's label CitySeven called, 'Rebel' and also 'What They Want' that's coming out on ALiVE Recordings are getting a fair bit of attention at the moment so really looking forward to them coming out. A remix I did for Josh Butler's 'Music Is Everything' always works really well too.
How did you get into working in A&R and production?
I started messing around with production when I was at University and ended up doing an HND in Music Technology. After that I started working for Cr2 Records in promotions and seemed to fall into A&R really. 3 years later I setup my own label and started taking my own productions a lot more seriously. I got into music through DJing and it was enhanced by production so it's good to spend most of my time doing that. I love running the labels and discovering new music as well but nowadays I try to balance it slightly more in favour of studio time.
You now run two of your own labels, can you tell us more about them?
So Zouch Records is more in line with my own productions and is house, deep house and nu-disco but K9 is mainly, but not limited to, tech house and techno. I wouldn't play many of the K9 tracks in a Della Zouch set but having been involved in the tech house and techno scene for a long time I still have a passion for it. It's nice to have contrasting labels too as it keeps it interesting and allows me to sign a broader spectrum of music. The labels tend to have a mix of well-established and new artists as I like to bring new people in and music is signed purely on merit and not on the profile of the artist.
If you could collaborate with anyone in the world, who would you choose and why?
That's a tough one... There are so many people that I can think of from inside the house scene that I would love to work with but I think it would be more interesting to work with someone a little different, maybe Caribou or Four Tet but then again working with someone like David Bowie or Prince would be pretty cool too.
Who are you listening to the most right now? Any favourite tracks?
At the moment I seem to be playing a lot of tracks from Kink, Catz n Dogz, Deetron, Adam Port, Waze & Odessey, Detroit Swindle, Squarehead and guys like that. Outside of house music, I listen to pretty chilled out stuff really, Bonobo, Boards Of Canada, Quantic, Jagwar Ma, Mount Kimbie, Cinematic Orchestra and of course as I mentioned before Four Tet and Caribou. Literally right now I'm listening to Fat Freddy's Drop, it always seems to come out in the summer.
Do you have anything exciting lined up for the future?
I spoke about a couple of the upcoming releases but have releases coming up on the legendary King Street Sounds and Sex Panda, as well as ALiVE and CitySeven in the coming months. I have also remixed a really good band called 'Duologue', which was really interesting, it was great to work with some different material and do something a little different. I haven't been pushing the DJing side of things just yet but the interest is building so I'll be looking for a new booking agent soon for Della Zouch but there are gigs coming up in London, eastern Europe and I'm in process of organising a Brazil tour.
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Beth Hallatt
@bethhallatt
