One of the coolest labels on the planet celebrates their 50th release…
“We Love ‘Trice Recordings’ because they bring a fresh and unique sound into current’s EDM scene. Trice is the perfect combination of intemporal melodic tunes with a very modern tweak to it which makes the label very recognizable and unique.We are happy to know that there will be releasing tracks from many influential artists – their 50th release ‘Matisse & Sadko – Azonto’ sums up so well what the sound of Trice is. Full Support from us!”
Lush & Simon
“Congratulations to Trice Recordings with their 50th Release! Really Love the musical vibe on the label and looking forward to their upcoming releases. Supporting artists like Vicetone with “ Chasing Time”, Martin Volt & Quentin State with “ Shadows” and of course the talented Julian Calor with “Griffin”, being my top 3 favourite releases on Trice.”
Kill The Buzz
“Greetings and Congratulations to Trice Recordings on their 50th Release! You have reached a new milestone. We are honored to express our appreciation as our single #AZONTO was chosen to crown this accomplishment. We are confident you will continue to even greater heights.”
Matisse & Sadko
Onno welcome to DMCWORLD and congratulations on the label’s 50th release! Let’s begin with when it all started for Trice and the original concept for our favourite booming bass label…
“Thank you guys! Exactly two years ago on this day, June 4th, the label kicked off with Tom Fall – iROK which was heavily supported by a lot of the big DJs like Third Party, Hardwell, Deorro, Sick Individuals and W&W, to name a few.”
What is your story, when did you first fall in love with dance music and how did you get to be sitting in one of the coolest A&R hot seats on the planet?
“Back in 1995/96 a friend of mine gave me a cassette tape with a collection of trance tracks, and from that moment I was hooked! At the time, this was new music and I wanted to know everything about it and was constantly searching for new tracks and artists. One of the first vinyls I bought was ‘Billie Ray Martin – Honey (Chicane Mix)’, I still love that one. In the summer of 2009 a friend of mine named Mattijs (who is now part of Hardwell’s management team) was working at Cloud 9 Holland Music Publishing (which shares offices with Armada) and informed me about a vacancy for the A&R department of Armada Music. After my interview with Maykel and Sander I was hired as an A&R assistant, and so it began…”
Is there a lot of office competition between the labels under the Armada umbrella?
“Every labels has its own sound and identity, so I wouldn’t call it competition.”
We saw you busy in meetings at the recent IMS in Ibiza, how important are events like IMS, ADE and WMC in Miami for signing and licensing tracks, these days it seems it is more about the party than putting the pen to paper?
“These events are every important and deals are naturally done at this time. It’s always good to meet new people and catch up with those you already know. I like ADE the most because almost everybody in the music scene attends.”
How many demos would you say you receive a week and is it all down to you to sift through them all?
“About 250, the whole team listens to them. Unfortunately we can’t reply to every one we receive.”
A difficult job but somebody has to do it, please give us your All Time Trice Top 10?
“In no particular order…
Vicetone feat. Jonny Rose – Stars
Matisse & Sadko – Azonto
Audien – Sup
Tom Fall – iROK
Lush & Simon – City Of Lights
Funkagenda – One Day At A Time
Grum – In Love
Dabruck & Klein vs Morgan Page – Liaison
Daleri feat. Vice – Somebody Told Me (En Route)
CLMD – Drifting
When DMCWORLD and The Buzz Chart team listen to the likes of CLMD, Grum and the new Funkagenda, we hear a classic Ibiza vibe from 1999. Is this something you are looking to recreate away from today’s hardstyle kick drum?
“Indeed, we really like the groovy hypnotic productions from the likes of CLMD, Grum and Funkagenda. We’re also big fans of the festival bangers, but they need to contain strong original melodies in order to stand out.”
Who would be the dream signing to Trice Recordings?
“Zedd, Madeon, The M Machine…”
There are so many hi nrg vocal releases from the label, do you have a team of songwriters waiting for an instrumental to drop or do they work with the artists in real time?
“We work with various very talented topline writers from around the world. Sometimes the artist will deliver a complete track including the vocals, and sometimes we have to pitch the instrumental to the writers/vocalists we work with.”
From a label’s point of view as dance music spreads to every country in the world and America FINALLY gets it (!!), is this the healthiest our scene is or from a business point of view – the hardest financially?
It’s great to be able to exploit music in various ways, especially with Spotify which is now rapidly growing – we are fully embracing this portal! For example, we have a daily updated playlist with the biggest tracks we like.”
For all of the aspiring producers out there reading this interview, what advice can you offer for those wanting to send you their material for consideration?
“Just a few of tips:
Don’t just send a download-link without anything else. A bit of background information about you as a producer and, if applicable, previous releases would be good.
Don’t copy 100 different A&R’s on the email. Send a personal email to one label at the time.
Don’t attach a track of 20MB to the email. Instead, send a dropbox or soundcloud link.”
And finally, please divulge some of the big summer releases Trice has coming our way this year…
“This has to stay a secret, but we have some very exciting news for you soon. One big summer release we can reveal is by upcoming talent Arston, it’s a smasher!”
***
Matisse & Sadko ‘Azonto’ is out now…check the video here…http://youtu.be/EUnvEFPKyKg
