Trance Krush Interview : Subtraxx Recordings (Ville Lope - A&R)
Subtraxx Recordings is a Finnish based record label that revels in releasing high quality Electronic music, namely around Trance, and its subgenres.
The label's A&R manager Ville Lope was kind enough to give Trance Krush an interview on the label's past, present and future.
Trance Krush: For the Trance fans out there that may not know, would you be able to explain a bit more about the formation of Subtraxx Recordings?
Ville Lope: Subtraxx is a label founded by Miika Kuisma. Originally Subtraxx was also a closed production forum between some finnish producers with their international friend. Over the time the forum died away and the label stayed.
In 2009 Miika started re-priortising his work. He asked me to help him A&R the label. Later on Bonzai Music took the label underneath their umbrella of labels, I started A&R for the label fully and later on the other remaining trancey labels were rebranded under Subtraxx.
TK: Has the central aim and outlook stayed the same since the formation of the label?
Ville Lope: The sound has lived a bit during the years. Miika’s own sound was deeper and more towards (true) progressive house. My own sound is more trancey and the direction of the main label is going that way. Today our Nemesis imprint sounds alike to what Subtraxx released back in mid & late 2000’s.
To be honest, Subtraxx’s main label sounds Finnish - and that’s the way we want to keep it. It makes and keeps us unique.
TK: How are new Trance producers found? Is a lot of time and effort purely focused on listening to demo’s sent to Subtraxx Recordings? Or is it in your interest to search for creative producers?
Ville Lope: As the label is owned by the lovely people at Bonzai, they do the hard work of separating all the unfitting genres from the demos sent to Subtraxx and/or to Bonzai. There’s still a lot of trance sent to Bonzai, though their own sound has evolved to something totally different!
After getting filtered all the gabba, hip-hop and drum’n’bass demos out of the equation, I get a hefty amount of tracks to listen which I go through thoroughly.
In addition to “basic” demo submissions I get sent a good load of demos and drafts by our in-house artists and friends/colleagues of them.
On top of this I try to keep my ears and eyes open for new talent, checking out newcomers and naturally talking to other producers in my extended circle of friends - some of which aren’t yet doing anything for Subtraxx.
TK: If you had to choose from your record collection your favourite ever Trance records, which ones would they be?
Ville Lope: In Trance it’s all about the emotion in the track, the feeling. Trance sound has evolved a lot from it’s original form. I was brought to the scene in late 90‘s, early 2000, so most of my all time favourites come from that era. Thrillseekers - Synaesthesia, Three Drives - Greece 2000 & Solid Sessions - Janeiro are just some of the favourites.
TK: The Internet has helped the Trance scene to acheive global success, how much has the Internet helped in the promotion of Subtraxx Recordings?
Ville Lope: The record business is in the web, hence it’s most logical to do the promoting on the web as well. Trance scene in the Internet has always been active and loud, the forums are filled with young enthuastic trance fans and it seems to stay that way!
TK: What do you see for the future of Trance?
Ville Lope: The trance genre has evolved, there’s this almost poppish vocal trance direction some big labels are releasing at the moment - the production is super tight, clean and wide. Then again the “true trance” sound is bubbling under. But its darker, gloomier and packed with emotion. The latter will rise in 2012 and the poppy thing will fade away as the current pop/house/prog house ála Guetta & Avicii phenomena goes away.
We live in interesting times from an EDM point of view.
TK: Moving forward is always a priority for an EDM centered record label, what are the future plans for Subtraxx Recordings?
Ville Lope: In the upcoming months we’re launching two new sub labels with slightly different sound from our current labels Subtraxx, Nemesis & Camouflage.
There’s also something big cooking at the moment - we’re growing the label group slowly and steadily.
TK: Finally, who should we look out for from the Subtraxx Recordings label in 2012?
Ville Lope: Neo Kekkonen and Dirkie Coetzee have teamed up and are delivering huge tracks every single time. It’s only matter of time these fellas skyrocket to the limelight of the Trance scene.
Marko Kantola is a name to watch. I’m super honoured to work closely with him, our Lope & Kantola collabration has been really fruitful and the latest track 'Lonely Ranger' is just a scratch of the surface of things to come.
