Home Music Tour News Contact About Shop 16 February 2021
Faze Magazine Interview

Talking all things Selador to coincide with the label’s 5th Birthday celebrations, here’s my recent interview for the Germany’s Faze Magazine transcribed into English…

Selador23_preview

Wow, time went by so fast… You and Steve Parry have managed the label Selador for five years now. We tried to figure out what Selador means – but did not find it. Please help us.

We adapted the name from a line in the cult film ‘Donnie Darko’ where it’s said that the syllables that make up the words ‘Cellar Door’ are the most beautiful sounding combination in the English language. It kind of struck a chord with us. Musically, we’re always on the search for beauty and perfection 🙂

How long have you known each other and how did you get the idea to start a label?

We’ve known each other for almost 30 years! Steve served me vinyl for many years throughout the 90s and early 2000s when he worked at 3 Beat Records so we’d always had a bond over our shared love of music and clubbing. After I had laid my previous label, Audio Therapy, to rest in 2011, I took some time off from that side of the business but it wasn’t long before I realised how much I missed it. So when Steve mentioned to me during a phone conversation we had late in 2012, that it was one of his ambitions to run a record label, it wasn’t a stretch for me to propose the idea of starting an imprint together. 6 months later, Selador was born.

Let’s review the first five years of Selador. Which acts are under contract and what is Selador’s style?

We’re really happy with how far we’ve come and what we’ve achieved in our first 5 years. It’s such a competitive business running an independent dance music label these days so it’s hard to establish yourself but we believe we’re slowly getting there. We’ve worked really hard and there’s still a lot more work to do. We’ve always tried to release a variety of styles that reflected our wide tastes. We definitely didn’t want to get stuck in one niche genre. Hence, over our short history we’ve released everything from the tougher Techno influenced work of Reset Robot, Wehbba and Victor Ruiz through to the deeper end of the spectrum such as Ruede Hagelstein, Tim Engelhardt & Charles Webster. And everything in-between! But if we’re asking who’s actually appeared on the label the most? Aside from Steve & I, that accolade would probably fall to either Quivver or Robert Babicz. Too close to call.

It’s better look forward than back but with you, it is worthwhile to have a look at the past. Keyword “Global Underground”. How did you experience this time? It was the stepping stone for you to the top?

Yes, I look back on the big Global Underground years with very fond memories. It’s not so often the Underground actually becomes mainstream for such a extended period of time but that is exactly what happened around the end of the 90s and start of the new millennium. There was a huge appetite for what we were doing all around the World. So many new places were really just opening up to the dance music/DJ revolution so they were very exciting times. I think GU really managed to capture that with their releases. It was an honour to be part of it. 

Back to the future: What are the future plans with Selador?

Our immediate focus is our 5th Birthday. It’s a big project for us and we’re very proud of the results. We’ve lined up have 3 EPs featuring 12 exclusive collaboration tracks between 24 of our artists. The final line up is..

Quivver & Cristoph

Stelios Vassiloudis & Robert Babicz

Raw District & Just Her

Luke Brancaccio & Tim Healey

Martin Eyerer & Namito

Florian Kruse & Justin Massei

Acumen & JOBE

Gorge & Joeski

Guy Mantzur & Lonya

Marc DePulse & Several Definitions

Wally Lopez & Joal

And finally Steve & myself

As you can see, it’s a huge project! 

On April 26, you celebrate the fifth anniversary of Selador at the Watergate club in Berlin. What about the line-up, is there already a timetable and what awaits the party people?

Steve & I will both be playing alongside our Berlin resident Justin Massei and this time our guest will be Quivver. It’s going to be be our 4th label showcase at Watergate. It’s such a great club and we’ve always had such great fun there, we really couldn’t think of anywhere better to kickstart our 5th Birthday celebrations. 

Your current top 5 tracks are:

Well, whilst we’re talking all things Selador, let’s make it a current Selador Top 5.

  1. Florian Kruse & Lazarusman ’Breathe’ (Frankey Remix)
  2. Dave Seaman & Steve Parry ‘Repeat Offender’ 
  3. Cristoph & Quivver ‘In Name Only’
  4. Gorge & Joeski ‘Jogo’ 
  5. Luke Brancaccio & Tim Healey feat. Kiki Cave ‘I Hear Voices’ 
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