UNER

WORDS BY ROB CHADWICK

UNER a huge welcome back to DMCWORLD, how are you – what’s been good and bad so far this year?

All good. Chilling at home now, doing a nice interview for DMC! Everything is good for now. A lot of work, good inspirations, lovely souls surrounding me…what else can I ask for. About bad… nothing is bad enough for me to remember it, so I’m happy.

Your Solar Distance label has had a big year so far – how come you have put out more music than any other year? Will things stay like this now, or does it all just depend on whether you like what you are sent?

Yes. I’m so happy with the label and with my team. We all together are doing a great job! About the music, we are releasing one every month and a half. But we are working really hard on the promotion for the artists. We love to take care of every detail and we want to deliver the best promo for them. Most of them are not well known yet, so we are working together to deliver always great stuff. Also I’m doing a lot of music myself now for the label as I want to focus on it. So we will continue putting all our effort on this.

Is there a certain sound you have in mind for the label? Or do you just release music you feel?

I release music and stories. Every time I have the chance to talk with the artists I always say the same: do whatever you feel. If there is something special behind it, that’s perfect for us. We want to deliver music from the soul. We don’t want dance floor killers, or music at 125 bpm, or  techno or whatever…we need their soul. Nowadays the scene is full of tracks and tools. We want real MUSIC.

Ibiza season is now under way – do you still get a buzz to play there? What makes it so special do you think?

I have played in Ibiza for the last 9 years. For me, as an artist,  the most interesting part is the freedom that I have to be able to play what I want. I can change my “speech” very often and I can play things that I could not otherwise. It is something magical. That’s super special on the island and that’s a very important part of the connection with the clubbers. The other special thing about playing in Ibiza is the exposure to the public that we get. Thousands of people pass through the island every weekend and each time you play you have 7 or 8 thousand people in front of you. And that changes every week. There is no club in the world that has that many different audiences every weekend and that is the most interesting thing in Ibiza.

What is your current deck set up? You often play across four with various controllers, right?

I’m back to the cdjs again. But 4 cdjs. And some pedal effects. I have been playing with traktor for years, and I really still love it. But I had the necessary feeling of doing some changes on my setup and I thought about returning to cdjs but with the same point of view like when I was playing with traktor, so here we are!

How often do you spend looking for new music, and where do you look? 

I dedicate 1 day a week. All day long! I listen to  a lot of promos and I try to find new artists via soundcloud, or beatport, or itunes, or traxsource… I try to listen also to some vinyl stuff and I also listen to my girlfriend because she has an amazing taste in music.

You play back to back with Anja Schneider at Monumental in Barcelona – have you played with her before?

I’ve played with her at the same venue but never b2b before so I’m extremely excited. I have really respected Anja for years and I love her style. She has the respect of the industry after years of doing great with the labels, with her music, with her dj sets so it is an amazing opportunity for me to share a great time with her, playing music and of course learning about someone who’s been in the industry for as long as she has.

Will you plan the set? Will you talk before the gig about what might work?

We will have a talk for sure, but I have to say I don’t like to prepare my sets. Of course I always listen to the music a thousand times to know what I have on my “box” but about the live set I prefer to see what the people want and need and I’m trying to deliver my best always. So that time will be the same for sure and we will enjoy together for the very first time.

What’s it like playing back home in Spain? Do you play different at home gigs like that?

Every country, or every club is different. But I always play what I like. Its not about if I’m playing in Spain or outside. We are talking about music and music doesn’t know where are you playing. It’s about the connection with the people you’re playing to.

What else have you got coming up/are you looking forward to?

The most exciting project at the moment for me is my new album. I’ve been working on it for about a year and a half now. Plenty of musicians, great collaborations with other artists, a lot of different new styles of music. I want to express myself with this new stuff, but we will talk about it again when everything is 100% done and fixed!