Lable Profile with RvS
South London record label Reverberations first came into being in 1994 and since that time has put out more than 40 releases featuring a roll call of the good and the great, including Fred Everything, Ian O’Brien, Mr C, Layo and Demarkus Lewis as well as their own team, Asad Rizvi (aka Asadinho), Tom Gillieron, and Paul Soul. Now, after a year off, Reverberations returns under a new name, RvS, which launches with a gig in London this month featuring RvS DJs and special guest Ian Pooley.
With a 2013 release schedule featuring tracks and remixes by Alex Arnout, Asadinho, Joshua Iz, Jef K, Shade and Sean Dimitrie and more, it’s set to be a big year. We caught up with Asad, Tom and Paul to find out more…
You recently took some time off from the label…
Asad Rizvi: Between around 2001 and 2006, we had a great run of producing vinyl. Then one day our distributor folded and we lost thousands. It took the wind out of our sails somewhat and having tried running the label only on digital, it just didn’t feel the same, so I focused on producing and remixing on other labels. It’s been a break of around a year since the last digital release, though it feels longer. We’re now producing vinyl again, with solid distribution, which makes it all worthwhile.
Paul Soul: It also gave us the chance to take care of other things in our life, which has given us a better perspective on where we want to take the labels and our music in the future. Sometimes a rest is good to take stock and see how you want to go forward.
Now you’re back with a vengeance. What’s the reason behind the rebrand, from Reverberations to RvS?
Asad: We felt that in order to kick the label off again, it needed to reinvent itself. We could have just come back with a brand new name, but it’s too close to our hearts to discard. I still get people telling me how much they loved the label and parties, and that we should continue them, so we wanted to keep our baby alive, but with a new look and feel. I deleted our back-catalogue from Beatport so it is as good as a new label for the younger heads, and for those who know us, the link to the old label is obvious. Liza Kazbekova, the designer who has rebranded the label, did an amazing job of capturing the organic but modern aesthetic we were looking for. The rebrand has definitely given us a fresh wave of enthusiasm.
Reverberations / RvS has now been running for 18 years. How did it all start?
Asad: It came about by accident really. Tom and I met at college when we were 17, and having discovered our mutual interest in studios and underground parties, thought we’d have a crack at throwing a night.
Tom Gillieron: Yeah, we had a chat over a coffee and a doughnut, played each other a couple of ‘tunes’ we had made and decided we’d start a label and throw a party in a friend of my dad’s skanky pub in Finsbury Park. I’m not sure we were even old enough to be in the pub in the first place!
Asad: We had told our college friends that running a label was what we wanted to do, and no one believed we could pull it off. A year later, we’d see them in clubs, and they’d say to us: “You actually did it.” We called ourselves Reverb in the beginning and the first release somehow did really well with all sorts of people playing it. But being young and naïve, our first experience with a distributor was not a positive one, so after three releases, we decided to set up again as Reverberations. Tom thought the name sounded like a dub system and that was good enough reason for me.
How has the label changed in its 18 years?
Asad: We’ve been really lucky to work with some amazing people along the way. Charlie Inman was an early member and we produced the second Reverberations record together as Appleheadz as well as some releases on Loaded. Charlie can play almost any instrument and his influence on the early releases is more than significant. Ravi McArthur was a key part from around 1997 till around 2004. We made a lot of records together on Reverb and other labels such as The End, Kickin’, and the UCMG group. We made quite the pair: some magazine referred to us as “The Asian Gallaghers” and the three of us were once mistaken for Asian Dub Foundation! Hopefully, Charlie and Ravi will both make an appearance on the 28th.
Paul and I met around 2002, and instantly hit it off. We had similar tastes in music and I loved his DJing. After we had signed a new distribution deal, I asked Paul if he wanted to help us out. He’s been really dedicated and has put a lot of love into the label and parties. Along with the massively talented DJ and producer Joel Brittain, plus Natalie C, Tom Baker, and Nick Day, all of whom are close friends and honestly some of the best house DJs I know, the RvS family is an entity of which I am very proud.
Paul: Yeah, like the label, we’ve all grown up along the way – we’ve tried our best to learn from mistakes and keep developing. But the ethos hasn’t changed – we are still very much into community and working with friends and artists and getting ideas and contributions from the people around us.
Asad: Exactly, we prefer to work with people with whom we get a warm and sincere feeling from, whether they are newcomers or superstars, and fit our aesthetic.
Reverberations has had a lot of high-profile supporters – from Laurent Garnier to LTJ Bukem, Terry Francis to Danny Tenaglia…
Asad: The support we’ve received has been amazing – you can’t beat hearing that one of your heroes likes your music!
Tom: Everyone who’s been into the music, whether they’re big-name DJs or just random enthusiasts, has been so important in the development and success of the label. People such as Mr C, Murf, Nils and Hans Hess, Nathan Coles, Colin Dale, Chris Liebing, the others you mentioned and more were responsible for getting our music played in the clubs and helping it all gain momentum. Michel de Hey really encouraged me in the early days too – playing and promoting my music and booking us to play in Rotterdam.
Asad: Radio and press had a huge impact too. Back in the day, when Kiss FM ruled the London airwaves, it was host to some legendary shows by Colin Dale, Mr C, and Dave Mothersole. They all supported almost every release, and given that people would listen to these shows religiously it did us the world of good. Also, magazines like Muzik, Jockeyslut, M8, Mixmag and DJ would regularly review our stuff and feature us, which really helped the label and our artists get known.
Tom: And without my dad’s support, things would have been very different…
Asad: Definitely, if it were not for him we wouldn’t have had the facility to produce records to that fidelity and therefore know what we know now. My parents have been incredibly supportive since day one too, as were Ravi’s.
RvS is not only famous for quality music but renowned for throwing great parties and getting up to a bit of mischief on tour. Care to share some of your finest moments – or does what goes on tour stay on tour?
Asad: We’ve played in more than 200 cities across 40 countries, yet it’s not always been the jetset lifestyle some perceive it to be…far from it at times! Ravi’s mantra was “Decadence on a shoestring”. We’ve learned through these travels that nothing outlasts our good selves. I could fill a couple of books with weird and wacky stories…
Paul: When Asad and I were on tour in Hawaii we were invited to a party after a gig, but on arrival, it became clear it wasn’t actually an after-party, but a house in the middle of nowhere with no one there apart from our host. We’d been kidnapped to be made to listen to this person DJing in their living room, and to say it wasn’t listenable would be an understatement. We tried to escape and got lost in a forest being chased by dogs, before finally being rescued by the promoter.
Asad: Another time, Ravi and I went to DJ in Cambodia for a millennium “Apocalypse Now” party – we were to be flown to an island in ex-Vietnam War choppers where at midnight they were going to recreate the bridge scene in the film. After we arrived, having had to fill a brown envelope for officials at the airport, the party was cancelled because a rival bar owner paid the police to put the promoter in jail. We were stuck there for three weeks. Not only we were not paid, but the promoter, after getting out of jail, charged us for all our costs because we played at another bar while we were there. Given that his best mate was an Uzi-packing former IRA hitman and the PM’s bodyguard, it was an invoice we had to take seriously. So we were basically on the run for the last two weeks with no money. We played one gig in Phnom Penh when the owner said, “If you see anything strange, duck.”
Tom: Then there was the time we had to keep breaking into building sites in Berlin to illegally siphon diesel so that we could power a UK fire engine that our friends had installed a sound-system in. We kept showing up to gigs stinking of fuel.
Asad: The parties at the studio in Brixton are some of our fondest memories too. We would send out one email and suddenly 500 people would show up. I don’t know how we got away with it: the venue was bang on Brixton Hill, we were running our own bar with lasers flying out the windows and the music was more than audible. But we only ever had one complaint, which we quelled with a bottle of champagne, and the police never batted an eyelid. The logistics practically killed us but when people would tell us that it was the best party they’d been to since 1988, it was all worthwhile.
Finally, after 18 years and more than 40 releases, can you name your favourite RvS tracks?
Asad: Paul Soul and Chris Harry’s ‘Crazy Way’ still sounds amazing; the original and Style of Eye remix of Ravi’s ‘Don’t Fiddle With It’; the Fred Everything remix of Sean Dimitrie’s ‘Dr Doo Yoo’, which was a big tune for us; and also Tom’s ‘Beats Around the Bush’, which sounded way ahead of its time.
Paul: It’s difficult to single any out really, but if pushed I would probably say ‘Dr Doo You’ by Sean Dimitire too. The original is a lovely piece of music, complemented by two great remixes by Fred Everything and Asad. It’s hard to know which one to play.
Tom: I was really happy with my ‘Beats Around the Bush’ EP, still am – getting it mastered at Abbey Road was a massive buzz. Reverb 001 by Asad (Memory Tree) was a ground-breaking record. ‘Fear and Loathing by the Bosphorus’ by Asad and Tangun is also a massive track. Ravi McArthur’s ‘Don’t Fiddle with it’ is probably my all-time favourite though.
What are the next steps for RvS – when is the next release?
Asad: The next one is by a talented French producer by the name of Shade, who runs the excellent Polyphonics label. We have remixes by Joshua Iz, Jef K and Alex Mourak and myself. After that we have a track by myself with remixes by Alex Arnout and Joel Brittain remix, and a release by Sean Dimitrie who returns to the label with another strong vocal track after ‘Dr Doo Yoo’. We will also be continuing the parties, with an emphasis on developing them as an interactive experience. Really looking forward to next year!
RvS, featuring Ian Pooley, Asad Rizvi, Paul Soul, Nick Day, Varon V
Friday 28th December, 10pm-6am, Dukes House (Formerly T-Bar), 32-38 Dukes Place, London EC3A 7LP
http://www.residentadvisor.net/event.aspx?424686
https://www.facebook.com/events/557335547626366/
http://rvsmusic.net/
