My label partner Steve Parry & I did an interview for DJ Mag in Holland recently discussing all aspects of the label and more besides. Read it in full here>>

This will be the fourth ADE for the label. What has meant ADE for your label over the past few years?

Steve: Always love ADE – so many things to keep you busy! Meeting friends, people you work with, artists and remixers for the label, and also spending time with Dave as we live in different cities in UK so don’t see each other that much! Also we had our first party, at Club NL in conjunction with our good friends at Sincopat – was great!

Dave: It’s the best industry conference out there for actually getting stuff done rather than just having a bit of a “jolly”. For starting and developing relationships, for promoting and growing your brand and also for celebrating our culture, with so many parties to attend and so many DJs to hear, there’s nothing more important on the dance music calendar.

Next April Selador will celebrate its 4th birthday. How did the label develop the past few years?

Steve: I think musically we wanted to show that we were more than a ‘progressive house’ label, and highlight all of the music that we like. Over the years we’ve been fairly diverse with tracks and remixes, but all fits nicely under our Selador musical umbrella.

Dave: We’ve worked tirelessly from the beginning and I think it’s now really starting to pay off. It was definitely a lot tougher at the start. Gaining people’s trust is something that only comes with time but we stuck to our guns and we feel we’re in a really good place after 3 and half years in existence. There’s still so much we want to do though.

Selador has built a clear vision and quickly built a reputation as leader of house and techno. Has the label developed as you expected from the very beginning? 

Steve: Its been a great experience, and has been hard work from the start, but we knew if we put the effort in, then time would start to reward us. I’ve been involved in music through DJ-ing, promoting, radio shows, record stores and more since i was 15 and I thought I knew a fair bit about the industry, but running a label was more time consuming and harder than i expected, not in a bad way, but in a way of having g to learn new skills and realising to take your time and do it right, rather than putting any old release out. We take care of the tracks we sign, the remixers, the artwork, videos, promo.. every strand of the process. Working hard on every release is very important.

Dave: Yes, as Steve says, it’s really competitive out there these days with so many labels and artists vying for your attention so we really try to keep the quality as high as possible. Presentation has been an important factor for us. And we’ve got a great team of people around us now too. You’ve got to do your best to stand out from the crowd.

Most artists start their own label so they can instantly release their own music on the label. If we take a look at the history of Selador’s releases, especially in the beginning, you guys didn’t release that much yourself. Why is that? What’s the philosophy of the label?

Steve: We just wanted to release music we like. That we both like, and we would both play. And that’s it really. It could be house, or an ambient remix, or could be melodic or serious heads down techno. It makes sense to Me and Dave, but i imagine from an outsider’s view or for a producer, we are a bit of a nightmare to second guess!

Dave: Ha! That’s true. The amount of times someone has said to me that they have a track that’s absolutely perfect for the label and when we listen to it we just think, really?! That’s not something we’d ever consider signing! Then on the flip side of that, you’ll get another producer say they’ve got some new music but don’t necessarily think it’s something we’d like for Selador and we absolutely love it. With regards releasing our own music on the label, we just wanted to make sure we chose the right tracks. We weren’t particularly in a hurry. We knew we’d know when the time was right. And are very happy that ‘Naughty Forest’, ‘Justified Replacement Of Lulu’, ‘Apricity’ & ‘Nightfalls’ are the four we decided on.

You (Dave) and Selador managed to fund the first mix compilation through crowd sourcing, which I find very interesting. Can you explain what this means exactly?

Dave: It was a CD that I did through ‘Kickstarter’ where we raised the funds for a mix compilation through people pledging money to the project and in return, depending on how they’d contributed, I would give them a DJ lesson or DJ at a private party at their house or simply just send them an exclusive signed copy of the CD and/or a T shirt – none of which would be available to buy anywhere else. We reached our target of £25,00 and then some and it was a thrilling project but took a crazy 12 months delivering on my side of the bargain afterwards.

This is a new way of funding, especially now that we live in a digital world this is an important milestone. What does this development mean for the future of releasing and funding music?

Dave: You’re right, it’s a huge development in that it cuts out the middle man. If you have an audience that trust you and follow you through social media, you can communicate directly with them and get all sorts of projects off the ground by asking for their support. If as an artist you’re capable of being your own label, promoter, distributor or whatever, the floodgates have opened, the world is now your oyster. The digital age has brought a whole new way of working on many levels.

Steve and Dave, you’re both owners of Selador. Why are you the perfect combination in terms of the label?

Steve: We’ve known each other for years – and we have very similar musical tastes, but not exactly the same, which is a good thing! We have a hunger for new music too – we’re both a little bit obsessed to be honest. As well as this, we both have other companies and both have families, so we understand that sometimes one of us needs to take the baton and run for a bit, as the other is having a hectic time.

Selador is a relatively young label. What is the future perspective according to you guys?

Steve: Onwards and upwards really. Keeping up the quality of the releases, and doing more label parties. We’ve been lucky that we’ve already done Space Ibiza, Watergate Berlin, ADE and Pikes Ibiza, some fantastic venues, so hopefully more of that!

The roster of the label is of great size. How is the composition of the roster established?

Dave: Again, there’s no hard and fast rules. We just both need to like an artist and they’re music and we’d welcome them on the label. Our only problem at the moment is finding room on the release schedule. We’re already full for the next 6 months! It’s been crazy how much material we’ve been sent.

Last one: If I visit your website, I can pre-order Selador’s debut vinyl release. What can you tell about this?

Steve: You can indeed, as well as a choice of t-shirts! (always got to get a plug for the merchandise in!). Well we wanted to dip our toe in the world of vinyl. I worked in record shops for years and dave ran Stress Records and Audio Therapy, so is fully aware of the love, hard work and also unpredictability of vinyl! Robert Babicz is one of our boys and we wanted to present him with something different – and we backed this up with some fine remixes too. So everyone was happy!

Dave: We’d definitely like to do some more vinyl releases. In fact, like I said earlier, there’s so much more we’d like to do. Unfortunately, there’s just not enough hours in the day.