Hi Pablo – Thanks for taking the time to chat with us. What have you been up to these past few weeks?
Nice to chat with you guys. Well, recently I was touring North America, it was fantastic, this time I played at Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Calgary and Toronto, visiting friends and meeting new and interesting people. After the tour at my return to Barcelona we had a funny Endless Showcase at Nitsa club with my friends Luca Bacchetti and Eduardo de la Calle. Then I rested for 4 days in Tenerife.
Loving your new release on Berlin’s Moodmusic – mind telling us a bit more about it?
Ah thank you! It’s a 3 track EP, with two dreamy tracks plus a modern techno track, something different that my usual stuff.
You’re a very prolific producer and have released on a number of excellent labels under your real name and various pseudonyms: what’s your approach to producing music and where do you get your constant inspiration from? Also, whenever you hit a dry spell, what do you do to get over it?
Hehe, I just sit in the studio and I let the magic flow, sometimes it comes early but other times you need to work hard to find what you are looking for. For me it’s necessary to be in contact with nature every week, hiking, mountain bike, beach walking. I try to do it alone to think and meditate about life and refresh my creative mind.
Could you tell us a bit about why you set up your label Seven Villas?
In 2009 I created Avantroots with my friend Sergio, we were managing it really cool until at some point I felt I was losing lot of great release because it wasn’t the style of the label. In 2014 I decided to create my own label, Seven Villas, and release my music style, the sound that I like, deep music for the club, playable, music for warm up and peak time sometimes. To add a personal touch I used the name of my home town region, this is pure love and passion. Now I can say I am really happy with how the label is going, I love the new talents I’m signing and releasing music from, I think everything makes sense.
We know you receive a lot of demos for your imprint, what is it that makes a release stand out for you?
I try to listen to all the demos we receive, sometimes with just 3 seconds you realise the sounds is not good. For me the quality of the production is very important, if the sound is not good it’s difficult to consider it for a release. If there’s something interesting on the demo, we’ll listen to it many times during different moments of the day, headphones, travelling etc… I am very strict with the style of the label. In rare cases I get a really interesting demo, but the sound quality is not the best, as it happen with Yarosslav, Usmev and Hirotaka, If I see a strong album/EP and I have time, I ask the artists to send me the stems and I do the co-production or mix of tracks with the sound that I like.
In one of your recent interviews you spoke of how you like visiting the States, any other places around the world that you enjoy and what is it that draws you to a place?
I’ve visited Japan 4/5 times and I can say it is my #1 destination, it’s very different to any other country, the people are very friendly and the countryside is very quiet, I love that. Thailand is my second favourite destination, the landscapes are infinite, the beaches, and the food… oh god, I love Thai food, I think I could live there easily.
What do you make of the current saturation in the music scene? Many labels are releasing music on a weekly basis to keep up with each other, meaning you could argue their audience have little time to really listen or digest an EP before the next one drops. Being a label boss we wanted to hear your thoughts.
Yes, the overload of the market is crazy. The electronic music labels are playing to be “music companies” as the real ones as Warner, Universal, Sony… but with underground releases that make very small fees it’s very difficult, they need to release new material or compilations every week to reach the numbers they want. It’s very sad because they are loosing the real essence of the music, they just want to have successful numbers. But there are lot of great underground labels out there, we just need to skip the “fake” ones.
What’s the best piece of advice you could offer an aspiring record label in today’s climate?
Follow your style and do it with love and passion.
Ibiza season is upon us have you got any plans to hit up the famous island? Either as a DJ or a punter!
Not yet, ibiza is not my cup of tea I am afraid!
Finally – we all know of Sonar nowadays, but could you tell us about a hidden musical gem in Barcelona that flies under the radar? Be it a club, record store etc.
Lot of things are happening in Barcelona these days, my brothers from Creaductions are doing excellent work at R33 and OMM clubs. A new club called RED 58 that looks very nice has opened recently, and new record shops are opening at Galerías Olimpia, sharing the space with music studios from local artists. Also my friends from Subwax Bcn, Discos Paradiso, Macarena, Bar 33/45, Switch Bar… the scene is really cool!
Space & Form’ EP out via Moodmusic is out now
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