As the release date of Between the Lines (Bonus Edition) – the remix version of Nick Curly’s debut album – approaches, we catch up with the man behind 8Bit, Cécille and Kehakuma to discuss 5 years of his label, playing at Space and having his musical heroes remix his records.
You’re currently in the middle of a tour for 5 years of Cecile… how is it so far?
Really great. Last year we were Village Underground here in London with Sasha Dive, Daniel Stefanik , Mattias Meyer and myself. It was great for a Sunday night and we had tough competition with other events. It was fun. It was a good crowd. We started in October last year in Amsterdam, at AIR and then we are going to do some other European events and then we’re going to take it to America. I think we’re going to something at BPM in Mexico and then maybe Miami too. We’re going to plan a special vinyl box to celebrate 5 years with some special tracks from the artists.
You say you’re going to America… do you find there are more opportunities for you to DJ there in the last couple of years than perhaps there were before?
The market is definitely better now. There were always good parties in Canada – in Toronto, and Montreal – but now New York, Miami and LA are getting better and better; everywhere you can see new clubs opening.
I’ve spoken to a couple of people recently and they’ve said that Amsterdam has really come to the fore in terms of championing high-quality techno parties, maybe because of the ADE. Is that something you’ve seen?
Yeah I agree. Berlin for me is definitely the capital, maybe worldwide, at the moment for electronic music because there are so many clubs, and so many DJs have moved there. Clubbing is still cheap there, and even flights to Berlin are really cheap. But Amsterdam is doing pretty good. There are new clubs opening and also Holland has a really good festival market; sometimes they have two big festivals on the same day in Amsterdam in the summer for electronic music with similar line-ups, which is crazy for such a small country.
So after 5 years of Cécille what are some of the things you are most proud of that you’ve achieved in that time?
I was proud of the label right from the beginning. I started doing 8bit Records seven year ago now, that was with another partner Gorge. Then I spoke to my best friend Mark and said “Ok we have some great stuff we want to release but it doesn’t fit with 8bit. It’s something different”. So we put it out on a new platform, called it Cécille, and it worked from the first release
There are so many labels now, and many more starting every year… what is the biggest challenge you’ve had in making yourself stand out from the crowd?
To be honest, we never went in to challenge anyone else; we just wanted to release the music we wanted to release. Five years ago, when we first started the label, it was a time when not every DJ had their own record label. I would say if you were going to start a new record label these days, it’s much harder because people don’t get any money anymore from vinyl sales. So you need really the experience to know how to make money from the label, or how to find good artists to release on the label. It’s not easy these days.
You’ve been heavily involved in Ibiza for a number of years now, and your Kehakuma residency has become an integral party of the party scene. How do you think this season compares to others you’ve done previously?
For me I’ve played at Space for four years now and this year Richie [Hawtin] got in with his Enter project so that was definitely a big change this year. It worked really well – the whole night. We did Kehakuma on the terrace, but to be honest, when Richie got in it was only Enter - the whole club. Kehakuma was on the terrace, but it was one party and the party was called Enter. I think it was a great concept and I think Richie and his crew did a great job. It was a good vibe right from the beginning and given it was its first year, it worked really well.
And you think you complemented each other well musically?
Yeah. It was perfect. On the terrace it was more housey stuff and in the more techno-orientated. It’s good not to have the same music, but it was similar. It fitted. There was always a good vibe.
You released your debut album last year. It’s a bit slower and perhaps a bit more introspective than what people hear you playing in clubs… is there any particular inspiration behind the album?
I always wanted to do something different. I’m also not a person who listens to club tracks during the week or in my car. I wanted to produce music that I could listen to in the car, at home, during the week. I would say the album is more Nick Curly Monday to Friday afternoon. But yeah I tried to build a story behind the album. It’s a CD you where you can’t really listen to any particular track at random, you have to listen from the start to the end.
I produced it with a bass guitar player, Sebastian Flack He’s a musician and we share a studio and he helped me record live instruments. We recorded live drums and singers so the whole project was something different from what we had done before.
How long did the album take?
The album was produced in 4 or 5 months. Sebastian and I worked with a lot of different guys. We recorded live drums, live basslines and we worked with three different singers. So it took time to bring them into the studio and write all the material. It was a different project. I’ve never worked like this before so we put more time into the quality. At the end, you could hear the difference. So it was a nice experience.
Did you have to take time off your touring?
No, to be honest. It was weird. It was always a project I wanted to do but because I was releasing it on my own label, on Cecille, there was no rush. I want to produce music and when it finished, it’s done. I didn’t say it has to be finished in 3 months or 4 or 5 months. When I’m happy with it I release it. For three or four months I wasn’t working on it constantly every day. I started on it in September when we were in Ibiza. We did two or three days a week and recorded some drums out there and then worked on the track three weeks later, so the whole process took 4 or 5 months.
Is it a difficult thing finding studio time?
It’s not about the time. I think to be creative in the studio you don’t need to say “tomorrow I want to go in the studio and be creative”. You have to be creative. You have to feel creative. You have to have the right ideas in the studio. This is the important thing. The most important thing is to not to go into the studio with any pressure. Also when I agree to do a remix I say “please, yes, but I need time”.
Why did you decide to work with Defected on the current remix album?
When I spoke to Simon [Dunmore], he offered me a remix package with all these remixes from artists like Osunlade and Larry Heard. I said ok because these guys can maybe bring these tracks to a different level because these guys are heroes of house music. So I think for me these names fitted perfectly with the sound of album. So that was a great offer from Defected and one I was happy to go with.
Is it a strange feeling to have your own work remixed by these people who you might have been growing up listening to?
Yeah of course. It was a big honour for me. I’m really happy with these names; they all did a great job with their remixes. Some of the remixes have come out on Cecille already and some of them are going to come out on Defected. The Dennis Ferrer remix is doing well, so I’m super happy. It’s not always easy. You need an idea to do a good remix and these guys did a great job. It’s not always easy to find a good idea to remix a track.
We did a remix competition with the Underground track on Beatport and I think 800 people entered; after that I realised how hard it is to get a good remix; you can’t just pick a vocal and do a remix. The vocal has to fit to the beat, so it was not easy to remix that track. So I was really happy with the job they’ve done so far.
I heard that he wasn’t very happy with the remix when he originally did it. Is that true?
Yeah, that’s what he said. But I when he got the feedback at the end I think he realised it is a good remix. I talked before about 800 people remixing the track on Beatport and when you see what Dennis did, you can see this guy has talent.
Earlier you mention Richie Hawtin who played more house music this year than he traditionally might have done. Do you think there is a movement of house and techno towards each other?
Yeah, and I’m happy with this. As a DJ I was never someone who decided “I’m just going to play tech house, deep house or techno music”. I like to play it all. I like to listen to pop music, I like to listen to listen to hip hop and I like to pick the tracks I like from any type of music. Ok, I wouldn’t play Nirvana or hip hop in my sets but from the electronic genre I like to pick mix house and techno and I think these guys do this as well now.
I think before maybe Richie, with his Plastikman shows, he was always standing for techno, but for some sets he was playing house music as well. And people like it. They get into it now more and more. Also even guys like Guetta, I think they open doors to people who would never listen to electronic music otherwise. Even if it’s not the music we’re doing, they open doors for people who come from hip hop. They get into this electronic music thing and then they find their way to other genres and find their way to house or techno. So I think this is really important for the whole scene.
