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 “I had this image of being a producer who was discovered at a fairly young age and everyone used to rave about his deep house records and I thought ‘f**k it’. I’m not going to stay with that image of being this chin-stroking producer who makes great house records; I’m going to have some fun.”
Chatting down the line from his Battersea deep house studios, London deep/ progressive house producer Omid 16B sounds cheerful, despite being laid up with a recurring bout of gout, the infamously painful Victorian disease traditionally linked to excess and fine living.
Talking to Skrufff about his long awaited artist album ‘Like 3 Ears and 1 Eye’ he’s both enthusiastic and open about the sometimes tough times of the last few years as the music business suddenly ‘got crumbly’, as he puts it. “I don’t really know what happened, I put out two albums: one with Eye Q and another with Hooj (Tunes) but both those labels went bust at one point,” he muses, “It wasn’t because they spent too much money on me it was more about them signing a lot of music that they expected to be massive and it didn’t work out. I didn’t want to put myself in that position again. The relationship you have with the label only lasts as long as the label lasts; it’s not like a lifelong relationship where you’re best mates forever. I wanted to gain my independence again and not really rely on anyone and rather stand on my own two feet.” Standing on his own two feet, he’s reworked the best ideas from his album that would have come out on Hooj and added lots more for ‘3 Eyes’. “I’m actually glad I didn’t put the album out sooner because if I had, I don’t know what would have happened with it.” He admits. “Minimal hadn’t even come in 5 years ago. The electro thing had started bubbling up but the minimal thing, which has had a huge impact, came later.” And as far as is ego is concerned, he admits he’s since abandoned his laissez-faire approach for a more balanced approach to pushing himself forwards. “Eventually I got bored of not caring and started to care more again,” he chuckles, “It was a cycle of losing your ego then letting the ego creep back in but keeping it constantly under control.”
Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): It’s been 7 years since your last album, I know you had some label problems, how much does the album include elements from the whole seven year period?
Omid 16B: “I’d say at least a third of the album includes samples, ideas and riffs I’d been working on. Basically I lost the audio samples from the previous album so I recreated some of the ideas I had from then but started all over again. I had a chance to rethink everything which actually gave me a head start to think about what I really wanted to put out there. Because times had changed. I wanted to give people some music that they can come back home to and enjoy and experience or journey that they wouldn’t necessarily feel when they hear a DJ playing out. But it’s still dance music and it’s still electronica.” Skrufff: You mentioned the rise of minimal, are you a fan? Omid 16B: “I must admit I do like minimal, my stance is more that I’m anti-shit music, to be honest. You can feel music that hasn’t had heart put into it, minimal to me is more about people starting to think for themselves a bit more rather than copying a sample. I’m not saying minimal’s necessarily the best music out there at the moment but it’s definitely the most interesting element. What’s also interesting is the people getting it; the house heads will now drop a few minimal records whereas the minimal heads wouldn’t dream of dropping house records. The minimal sound is creeping into a lot of DJs’ sets, but what’s it about ultimately? It’s about stripping it back and seeing what the real essentials are.” Skrufff: You mentioned losing the tracks from your earlier unreleased album after Hooj shut, how easy was that to deal with? Omid 16B: “ Losing the music and doing it all again actually gave me some inner strength I’d forgotten about for a while. When you’re signed to a label it’s a constant case of trying to please them and making them care about you and work for you but if at one point things go wrong and they have to care about themselves more then you become a second priority. Whereas when it’s your own baby it’s all about you and you’ve always got to be looking after it or your life’s going to crumble. Being your own boss is a reward in itself, no-one tells you what to do and you tend not to tell too many people what to do either; you got about your life so you can get a little bit of what you need and that’s it.” Skrufff: Did you take a knock in confidence when both the labels you were signed to folded? Omid 16B: “It would be a lie to say my confidence didn’t take a knock, because it’s the music industry. It’s not just all about art, some of it is quite seedy and negative to a certain degree. I spent a lot of time reading, and cycling and going to the park, meditating and just trying to think of more positive things. The mind is a very powerful thing, it’s really all about how you look at things, without sounding too Scooby Doo about it. You get affected by something and you have to learn to let go of that effect at one point. And see it was a motivator, or a kick up the arse to steer you more towards what you should be doing. The way I look at it now is that whatever negatives happened during my time with Hooj, it was all a learning curve and it taught me about how my relationship should be with people that I signed to my label. About how much I should and shouldn’t promise people. And about how I should behave if I take somebody under my wing. All these things I learned from how Hooj dealt with their artists. Before that experience when I had my own label I was always so enthusiastic to sign as many records as I could. Little did I know that some nights the artists would phone up because their washing machines had broken down and they’d hold me responsible for paying for it. With those kind of situations I just thought ‘fuck that, I’m not some kind of Mother Teresa just yet’. I’d like to be there for everyone and to have the money to fix his washing machine but it’s not really my responsibility. I’ve had to rethink how I work with other people so they don’t need you too much and you don’t need them too much. You both productively move forward independently. It did knock my confidence yes, but the DJing helped me get through it a lot too. Being out there with people was great, it allowed me to experiment with the kind of music and edits I was doing. I started dropping a lot of 80s stuff into my sets, such as edited versions of Depeche Mode and Bronski Beat tunes before clubbers in Eastern Europe had heard of those tunes. Now it’s quite fashionable to edit tunes in Ableton but back in the day when you had to do it with decks and CDJs it wasn’t so common. And that started me going down the road of not caring so much about what I was putting out and having more fun with it. So I started doing more covers, purely for the club interest.”
Skrufff: What’s your general state of mind today?
Omid 16B: “I’m never happier than when I’m waking up playing the guitar for an hour, then playing my drums- which I got for my birthday by the way, then going into the studio to listen to some tunes and creating some good vibes for myself. Then hopefully releasing them and sharing them with others. I thank the universe every day for what I do because I know there are people out there who’d give their right foot to do what we’re doing. I’m not one of those greedy f**kers that wants more and more and more I’m just happy with what I’ve got and to be able to carry on like that until the day I die. Or until I’m too old to pick up my CD wallet anymore. I want to be as productive as possible without letting the industry suck me into this mediocrity or ego competition; of who’s more popular than the other one. I got so tired of the ego-centricism that the industry seems to drag you into.”
Skrufff: You have a reputation for being a serious party animal, in Slovenia in particular, according to the Absinthe party promoters in Ljubjlana, is it deserved? Omid 16B: “It must have been a good party in Slovenia because I can’t even remember. I have been known to get stuck in once in a while but more in a laugh sense rather than sitting stuck in a hotel room for three days caning it. Though having said that, after I turned 30 something happened and I started wanting to be totally clear headed when I was DJing, I didn’t want any substance, whether alcohol or spliff, to creep in and affect the music. Once the set’s over don’t ask me what I get up to. Thinking about Slovenia, I probably did have a few shots on Absinthe but never again, man, that stuff is lethal.” Skrufff: When did you get gout? Omid 16B: “I first developed gout three or four years ago and first got it in Colombia for some reason.” Skrufff: What exactly is gout? Omid 16B: “It’s uric acid that hasn’t been broken down naturally in your body. I got gout from playing long DJ sets and not going to the toilet and holding my piss for as long as I could. So my body basically filled up with uric acid over time, which is what they call gout. The uric acid gathers around one of your joints, in your big toe and it starts to swell and increasingly diverts you from everything else you’re doing. You end up having to just lie there waiting for it to get better. And drink lots of water, avoid narcotics, red meat, chicken . . . it’s actually good for your diet. This is the third time I’ve had it and I want to make sure it’s my last. It was also partly caused by the amount of flying I was doing. I had six gigs in two weeks and it wore me out a little, going up in the air too much and coming down. I got back to London on Christmas Eve and that’s when I got it again. It was a nightmare, I had a gig at Ministry of Sound on New Year’s Eve and this bouncer had to literally come outside and escort me in to make sure nobody could tread on my foot.” Omid 16B: ‘Like 3 Ears and 1 Eye’ is out now on SexOnWax Records.
http://sexonwax.com Interview by Jonty Skrufff (Skrufff.com) Subscribe to Skrufff music newsletter at www.Skrufff.com |
