‘L’ is for Lifestyle Music. Coincidentally it also marks the rather large L compilation as they reach 50 releases. From this alone you can tell that there was a LOT to discuss with Lifestyle supremo Catharsis, kicking off with that podcast of theirs…
Hi Catharsis, I’m enjoying your music and your podcast. That’s good listening and it struck me what a good cross section of D&B it was too…
Thanks for the kind words. I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying the podcast, it always seems to have good feedback and it’s certainly one of our most unique aspects as a label.
Piper and I have committed to delivering the show now on the first of every month under the hashtag #pinchpunch. It’s something we really look forward to every month as there’s so much good D&B around at the moment, from all corners of the genre and globe, we listen to a lot of music that is sent to us and also take into account our own tunes that should be included, which takes time!
We like to have a bit of a laugh while doing it too; mispronouncing names, making our own comments about the scene and sometimes even providing the odd D&B fact, but at the end of the day it’s all about the music.
How did you become part of D&B yourself?
I quickly fell in love with the genre after purchasing a pair of 1210s and started working at Fabric Nightclub stewarding the notorious Room 2 DJ booth for three years. For me Room 2 was the capital of D&B on most Friday’s of the month. I met with many inspirational artists in the scene and this was fundamentally the reason why I decided to start a record label.
Fast forward to today and I can’t quite believe how far the label has come. The fact that we have a great roster of up and coming artists and the state that D&B is in today, I am very hopeful for the next five years.
You seem to be part of a big gang with Lifestyle, loads of great names and characters here, how did you and label evolve?
Yes, a label that has been operating for over five years and actively encouraging new potential artists to continue doing what they are doing will have a great deal of names on a roster.
Initially Lifestyle started with three individuals when I was studying and grew to around eight to ten after meeting with others around the local area and online. We all shared the same love for D&B and grew the label as much as we could for that time, but times change, and as such, so have the members of the label.
I moved to Horsham in West Sussex last year, which is pretty much halfway between London and Brighton and I knew Piper who’s from the town. Prior to the move I had met with a fan of the label who’s from Brighton and has since joined us as a Marketing Manager.
I think it’s also worth also mentioning how valuable Cygnus Music has been, they are an excellent distributor, have always encouraged us and pointed us in the right direction, so I must thank them for that. They are very much a part of the label too.
Now it’s a bit of an international look with the L album and it fuses together great… can you tell us about some of the names we’ll find on the comp?
There’s a good range of artists on this compilation, some new and some existing Lifestyle artists.
This really is the release to define our sound, our artists’ sound and the artists that we wish to work closely with over the coming years.
Kicking off the release with ‘Ergonomica’ and with a two-track feature with ‘Jump Down’ is Italian producer KELA who had his Strage EP out with us last month and his Karma EP out in October 2014.
KELA is an artist who is quickly growing into the scene and has had excellent feedback since.
We move on to a Lifestyle active artist who joined us for our Warp Speed compilation LP in early 2013, A.S.K from Birmingham delivers a fantastic track called ‘Elemental’ that truly defines what he’s about and even got an upload to the mighty Neurofunkgrid.
Of course Lockjaw from Australia is a big feature on the LP with not only his track ‘Idol’ being the track of our recent remix competition, but a new piece for your ears: ‘Mirror Image’ which has heavy anthemic values.
The winner of Lockjaw’s remix also features, a truly epic re-work from Sensus, a producer based in Toronto, Canada.
Lifestyle artists Jazzatron are also on the album… the Italian Stallions as we like to call them. A duo fresh out of Turin in Italy who’ve been with the label for a good four years and we will continue to release their astounding productions.
They’ve released a number of EP’s with Lifestyle over the years and have offered the masterpiece ‘Dedicato’ for L.
Newcomers Despicable Youth from Bristol who will be a strong part of the label have the breakthrough hit ‘Borderline’ which I feel holds a unique sound with accurate production.
Taelimb, a London-based producer, stepped up with an offering for L with his track ‘Teacup’, which supplies the release with a more atmospheric feel to the sound of the label. He’s certainly one artist to watch closely.
We’re also pleased to announce that Instinkt, the German duo from Berlin have joined Lifestyle and will be supplying us with a lot more music as the label pushes on. Their gift to the LP is ‘Plymouth’, which provides ground breaking production with a stepping beat.
Finally, to finish off the release we have SubCorp. a duo from Prague in the Czech-Republic. I personally find music from this area to be heavily melodic with a strong character and this is exactly what I felt when hearing ‘Bee +,’ and I’m interested to see how this number goes down.
Over to your track, can you talk us through ‘No Good’ and why the title? It’s a unique tune.
Thanks for that, ‘No Good’ has been in the pipeline for some time. This track was actually started towards the middle of 2014.
The track began from the vocal sample: I was working through a large bank of files I had recently acquired, found the two words amongst a verse and they felt so powerful I just had to base the track around that. I personally feel with vocals that ‘less is more’ and can really explain what a producer is getting at with their music. If you could hear the sample as it was originally it would sound entirely different: it was an incredibly ethereal voice that came out very rugged and coarse.
My production came from quite a soft laid back background and as such I always want to pay tribute to that in my music, but since discovering D&B I found the darker and heavier side to music and have grown attached to synthesis and sound design.
This track is the starting point for me for creating the foundation of our sound, for the future: light ethereal atmos with a hard and powerful zenith.
To sum up, what’s the overall feel of the compilation would you say, in terms of vibe?
I think that all of these artists have something in common, which is the greatest part of every compilation especially when their music is vastly different to each other.
For me I can hear a combination of Liquid and Neurofunk, although some say that Neurofunk has completely changed now. It still holds its place, to me.
I’ve heard people call it ‘Melodic Neurofunk’ and when it comes to naming a sound, it comes from the listener. That’s my opinion.
What’s happening on the live front, connected to the label?
I am glad you asked me that because as it stands, we are currently building a base for live events in Brighton. We want to showcase our artists on the label whilst supporting artists that we feel are up and coming in the scene. On July 24th, I am going to be playing alongside Lockjaw and Despicable Youth, both Lifestyle artists, as well as Phase who we feel is going to blow up this year!
Looking forward to this one.
Tell us more?
What with the label’s relocation, a new aim has been to establish a night in Brighton. We had our debut event at the prestigious Komedia last month, and this was put in place to celebrate five years as a label, the remix competition and our 50th release. On that night we were joined by Gamma and Artifact, with a contingency of Lifestyle crew including Piper, Trixx, Nerv and myself Catharsis.
We had a superb turnout and we already have our next Brighton line up at Komedia set, which is shaping up to be quite special.
For this event on July 24, we’re hosting two UK debuts with Lockjaw and Phase both flying over. Unless anybody’s been hiding under a rock for the last year, they should know these two are set for really big things, with both seeing releases on some of the most respected labels in the scene.
We’re quite honoured to be able to bring them down. Despicable Youth are also making an appearance alongside the Lifestyle Crew of Piper, Trixx and myself all playing again. This is going to be taking place on Friday July 24: you have no excuse not to be there.
We’re also going to have 50 CDs of L signed by various artists from the release on the night.
That’s 50 to commemorate the 50th release and these will be made available following the event on our website.
What tracks are you enjoying right now?
Well such is the nature of my role within Lifestyle I don’t have a lot of time to listen to any other genres but there are still a few favourites outside of D&B that I regularly listen to.
Matrix and Futurebound ‘Glow Worm’
Bluescreens ‘Clockaround’
Jakwob ‘Fade feat. Maiday (Etherwood Remix)’
Aphex Twin ‘Vordhosbn’
Royksopp ‘Eple’
I have to say when I first listened to Etherwood’s remix of ‘Fade’ it really reignited a fire: that is a truly remarkable D&B remix with a fantastic singing voice. Great job to all involved! Royksopp has stuck with me from a young age and Eple is good listening for beat makers. Aphex Twin is just a king no need to say more there really.
Matrix and Futurebound have cracked out an instant classic with ‘Glow Worm’, it reminds me of their older track ‘Womb’ that I favoured from the start. Bluescreens have really wow’d me with ‘Clockaround’, I’ve heard very little of these guys but it’s an incredible track.
Speaking about some D&B here, what would be your fave era(s) of D&B?
Well, there are so many eras of D&B it is so hard to pinpoint just one. For me the early era of Andy C and Ant Miles was certainly a favourite of mine. Bad Company supplied a classic sound to D&B; Konflikt ‘Messiah’ being the birth of something relatively ‘Neurofunk’. Also this then leading on to the Lifted crew and Spor creating some of the strongest D&B sounds ever heard.
What really bought me into D&B music on a personal level was Liquid, which I think can be the same for many a D&B fan, as well as ‘Jump Up’ with artists such as Taxman, Original Sin and Clipz.
What shines through the most for me was around the time that Hospital Records released Logistics – ‘Reality Checkpoint’: their output in that era was really deep atmospheric but still strong dance music, Danny Byrd ‘Shock Out’: another classic track that defined that time to me.
It’s always worth mentioning Noisia, who have been a huge inspiration to me since the start and Logistics: ‘Together’ has to be my favourite D&B tune.
So in parting?
As mentioned, people need to watch out for our big event at Komedia, July 24. This will be a massive milestone for us, as bringing over both Lockjaw and Phase for their UK debuts we hope really sets the tone of our direction with the label.
Apart from that we’re looking to continue what we are doing, looking to carry on defining the sound that we have brought forward in the release of ‘L’ and to continue to grow our events.
If you are a producer yourself please don’t hesitate before sending a demo over to Lifestyle: we are always eager to listen to something fresh, we love to provide feedback and an honest answer. We’ll also consider it for airing on our podcast, so email us. Thanks!