5Qs with Umek - Friday Oct. 10th at Marquee
Tell us about your new album "Rhythmia". What does the title mean and what was your inspiration behind making it?
I always do music inspired by what is happening on the dance floors and for the dance floors. "Rhythmia" is my artistic response to the current state of electronic music scene from the dance floor’s point of view. It showcases my vision of current global trends in electronic music, clubs and festival scene and reflects what I do when I’m put in charge of a party. The same as my sets, it’s moving between house, techno and tech-house. I named it "Rhythmia" as a complete opposite state of arrhythmia, as it indicates that something is in harmony and equilibrium.
You collaborated with a few different artists on some of the album's tracks. How did those come together?
Although I’ve done couple of successful collaboration in the past I never actually push certain joint ventures. They just happen as I am in contact with many artists that contribute their music to my "Behind the Iron Curtain" radio show as well 1605 label and we send each other demos and ideas all the time. We talk music, discuss ideas, I prep a track, send it over, then he adds something to it and so on, and if the final result is good we release it. The only guy I actually sat together in the studio with is my fellow countryman Mike Vale, with whom I’ve joined forces for the lead single "Hard Times", and we invited Chris the Voice on this ride as we love his voice. We must have done a dozen successful releases already, but again, most of these projects happened spontaneously. We hang out together, go out, I crash in his guest room after a day of snowboarding or he sleeps over in my house when he is doing something in my hometown Ljubljana and at some point we are already pulling an all-nighter in the studio.
Right now you're in the midst of touring North America. What do you have planned for your debut set at Marquee this Friday?
As usual I have a great time touring USA. I really love the energy of the crowds here, so I’m doing couple of tours in the States every year. In Marquee I’ll play one of my standard sets, that are based on my artist production, edits, remixes and music that I’m promoting through my label and radio show and as my fans already know - my sets are all about building a good energy on the dance floor. Obviously I’ll play some of the tracks from the new album as well as bunch of yet unreleased tracks. I’ve just finished couple of new tracks between the gigs in the USA and I plan to test one or two in Marquee for the first time. So this party will be at least a bit exclusive.
What is the music scene like in Slovenia?
In the 90s we our small scene from scratch and for a decade and a half it was growing as it was run by some good local and regional promoters. Club K4 in Ljubljana run by Student Union and the regional electronic music super club, Ambasada Gavioli, have been the main nests of electronic culture, we’ve had some nice summer and winter festivals for 3.000 - 5.000 people, some specialized radio shows, magazines and websites. The scene in Slovenia was always a bit more underground, based mostly on various shades of techno and later house, we’ve had our own hierarchy of most popular regional and international deejays and the infrastructure supported steady growth of new talents.
In the last decade, Dutch and UK promoters got involved and audience got introduced to big flashy indoor and outdoor EDM shows with superstar DJs, pumped up lightning, sound systems and special effects. This way a mass of young people got exposed to electronic music that became mainstream, but at the same time nobody really educated people as everybody started playing the card of creating the hype instead of creating interest for certain sounds. When the recession hit us, everything collapsed and now there’s no major EDM shows anymore. But that’s not necessarily bad for the scene that went back to the underground. But it will take time to grow a new base, new collectives and promoters are already building their own base and with hard work and some luck people will get intrigued again. As far as I’m concerned, I only do couple of domestic gigs annually (there’s only 2 million people living in Slovenia) but I’m supporting the scene with infrastructure, some festivals and events, label, radio show as well as helping some young artists.
What can we look forward to on your own 1605 label over the next few months?
The most important thing is that I’ll be releasing a bit more of my stuff on 1605 in the next couple of months – a combination of fresh original tracks and remixes of some of my past anthems. With bunch of releases on other labels and Rhythmia I wasn’t present on my own label in the last six months, so I have to redeem for that. As I’ve already revealed I’ve done couple of new tracks on the road and I’ll hire a studio in Los Angeles to do final mix and mastering.
Umek's "Rhythmia" tour comes to marqueeny this Friday, October 10th.
