Tom, a superb label you have in Switchstance Recordings alongside partner Ingo, peers such as LTJ Bukem, Mr Scruff, Soulpatrol and Quantic all huge fans. Your latest dancefloor smash ‘We Are To Answer’ album is out in the shops right now – a complete across the board mish mash of Hip Hop, Drum n’ Bass, Funk, Soul, Jazz and Trip Hop – talk us through the album – in your own words, “a musical trip through the cosmos returning back to earth with spacey flutes, intergalactic lyrics and earthy drum beats”…what tracks stand out for you?
“Yo Dan. ‘Oblivion’ with Azeem and DJ Zeph, ‘Dark Green Rod’ with Ulf Stricker and ‘A Hole To Swallow Us’ with Phat Old Mamas are three tracks we are happy with.”
You are the world’s biggest musical people in the urban Boardsports world, you have worked with artists such as The Pharcyde, The Jungle Brothers and Tippa Irie and feature at contests such as Air&Style, King Of The Lake, the Etnies European Bowl Masters, the Roxy Chicken Jam and the Burton European Open. What was the idea behind the label in the first place?
“The idea was to have ultimate freedom in doing what we wanted to – no musical restrictions at all. We also said that we never wanted to work again with assholes. You meet a lot of fake and not loyal people in the night life so we said we totally do our own conscious way.
Three years ago saw Switchstance Recordings launch the ‘Trix And Flix’ event with Cologne based Discodogs – a massive international snowboard and skateboard event featuring video premieres and urban grooves – what have been the highlights at the event since its conception and also, why do you think Cologne had been overlooked with rival events already taking place in the likes of Munich, Garmisch and Zurich?
“Our musical highlight was without doubt Mr Thing or the Mr Bongo Records sound system and the dopest video premieres are always with the Pirate Movie Production and the Ästhetiker crew both from Austria.But also our album release party in June was great, we showed the first movie for over ten years from legendary skateboard company Powell Skateboards called ‘FUN’. An epic movie!”
So you have an unlimited budget – who would be the artists that you would put on at a dream ‘Trip and Flix’ event?
“I guess we would invite a whole bunch of Ninja artists like Mr. Scruff and Coldcut to let them perform their breakbeat vs animation massacre. At the start of the night we’d maybe put on maybe Bonobo or Cinematic Orchestra live. DJ Krush would always be a favourite for us, or Wax Tailor and maybe also some nice live performances by Tha Alkaholiks, Del & the Hieroglyphics or MF Doom.”
Your home city Cologne is famous for its museums, art and media heritage – what is the best thing about living there?
“The best thing about it is the diverse music scene from Hip Hop to Reggae to Funk/Soul/Jazz, Drum & Bass to the more electronic styles. That is really good for us all and also, the city is full of hot girls. As you know there are no good parties without no ladies! Also, Cologne is also fairly small which makes it easy to get everywhere you want…and it´s a big skateboard city.”
Who are the best snowboarder and skate stars in the world right now?
“Hmm, actually I am not following all the contests or the TTR world ranking at the moment – my favourite snowboarder is Nicolas Müller from Switzerland. Skatewise I think Mike Vallely still kicks a lot of ass.”
Your video premieres are obviously a major part of your event – what is the best ever skate/board video ever made?
“Kingsize” by Marco Lutz when it comes to snowboarding. And I still love the old ‘Whiskey skatemovies.”
What is…
The best ever Hip Hop record made?
“This is really hard to say. There are so many outstanding records, it´s hard to pin point one. But “People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm” is definitely one of the best albums ever, but also the first album by KMD, Poor Righteous Teachers, School Of Hardknox, Mc Mello, Tha Alkaholiks, Deltron 3030, Main Source, Nas, WU, Pharcyde, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Handsome Boy Modelling School, Erik B & Rakim, Artefacts, Gangstarr, etc…the list goes on and on…
The best 5 releases from Switchstance Recordings?
Protassov – ‘Shalina Music’
Kabanjak meets Protassov – ‘Grow’
Deela – ‘Mano Mano’
Ancient Astronauts – ‘We Are To Answer’
VA – ‘The Joined Forces EP’
The best club you have ever played at and why?
” One of the best clubs we´ve ever played is the Hot Jazz Club in Münster in Germany. The club had a great atmosphere and was nicely designed, but the most important thing is that people were really open minded for all kinds of different music styles.”
Your most prized piece of skate/board/music memorabilia you own?
“Wow, we don’t know, we have a lot of old records that must be of a certain value but we actually never have a look what they would be worth nowadays. We are just happy to have them! So coming from both of us, maybe the Burton snowboard that I got for fee (!!) last winter – my friends told me it was the most expensive model of last season – ha ha ha!”
Coming next from your label?
” Well we just changed our exclusive worldwide digital distribution to Finetunes and will release our first digital only label compilation which showcases the recent years of Switchstance Recordings. The compilation is called ‘Forward Ever, Backward Never’ and features some of the nicest and heaviest tunes from our Switchstance back catalogue. This will be released on the August 14th worldwide. Also watch out for the next Protassov EP ‘Where We Live’ which will be a pure banger ranging from advanced Headz beatizm to more uptempo dopebeat biznizz. There is also the forthcoming Deela EP ‘Everything Counts’ that as the Ancient Astronauts, we are working on –
What artists though were you listening to growing up that made you want to get into this whole club culture scene?
“Definitely classic Ninja Tune artists such as DJ Vadim, Up Bustle & Out, Mr. Scruff, Dynamic Syncopation, Coldcut, etc who were all huge influencesfor us, these cats really brought a form of instrumental Hip Hop to the dancefloors at a time when Hip Hop just became Gangsta crap and R&B sell out. It´s rather the fact that we always loved to party ourselves and frequently visited clubs to dance and have a good time….guess things didn´t change that much – we have always wanted people to enjoy themselves and aim to represent an intelligent and forward thinking form of Hip Hop mixed together with all its musical roots.”
Tom, are you a ‘Goofy’ man or ‘Regular’ sort of guy?
“Regular, but I like to switch my styles.”
What are currently the best clubs in Germany?
” Actually we don´t have a clue about what are the best nights. The scene for our music is different than Techno and House and stuff like that. We really like clubs that are not too big, maybe for something like 500 people maximum, but clubs change and new ones open. In our scene we do not have anything compared to a clubs like Fabric in London.
Dogu: “For me one of the best clubs ever is Icon in Berlin, they are doing Ninja Tune nights and amazing Drum & Bass stuff there for more than 10 years. I really appreciate this love they have.”
What is the Turntablist scene like there too?
” We can´t tell you about it as we aren’t turntablists…we are more concerned about tight mixing with some decent cuts here and there. We definitely have some good turntablists in our country but I don´t think that this is different to any other European country nowadays, and actually we are not very interested in that scene cause it´s just Hip Hop nonstop – you know? We enjoy the freestyle nights where you can listen to some heavy jazz and afrobeat as well as some raw funk and doped up hip hop and some heavy reggae too…”
What new artist on your label are you most excited about working with?
” Looking forward to do more work with Azeem & DJ Zeph, Raashan Ahmad, DJ Brace, Brown Bag Allstars, Rykarda Parasol, Bajka and Ulf Stricker…”
What are the 10 big tunes you are rocking dancefloors at the moment with?
“Edgelactic” – The Beatstalkers
“Woebegone (Flylo´s Like Woe Remix)” – The Long Lost
“Death Of Autotune” – Jay Z
“Everybody” – Ancient Astronauts
“What We Came For” – Ancient Astronauts
“Heard It Through The Grapevine” – The Beatstalkers
“Supermagic” – Mos Def
“El Boom” – The Snip
“Point Blank” – Marc Hype & Jim Dunloop
“The Roc Boys Get Back” – Jay´s Soul Connection
And finally, if one day an extraterrestrial being landed on your doorstep – what would you ask him?
“Can you rap or sing?”
