Page 39 - DemoZone Magazine Summer Issue 2020

Hi Paul, thanks for talking to us. Firstly can we ask you what your first musical memories are?
I think the first memories of music are me listening to my Dad's playing bands such as OMD and Depeche Mode. Then at school I fell in love with 80s pop in a big way. I started listening to Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, Aha and The Pet Shop Boys. I loved all those synths and dodgy clothes.
From that, how did you first venture out into the world of dance music?
It stemmed from listening to old school hip hop, I was well into Public Enemy and A Tribe Called Quest. That was pretty much all I listened to, until we had a new lad start at my school who was from Holland. I was 14, I think and stayed over at his place one weekend, his Brother was blasting out Dutch acid house. I remember thinking 'What the hell is this, its amazing!'. He gave me a couple of tapes and that was it, I was hooked. It was about the time the rave scene was kicking off in 92 and that was me hooked for ever.
What came first, DJing or the label?
The label has literally just started, so it has always been DJing that's the first love. I was about 16 when I first touched any decks. Myself and a friend went halves on a old
set of Technics and a cheap mixer. It was so basic that it had no eq and no fader, just volume sliders. Fun times. I started playing Gabba and Happy Hardcore, it was all the rage then. It wasn't until I went to a Revelation night at the awesome Plymouth Warehouse with Carl Cox, Trevor Rockliffe and Dave Angel playing. Their sound was more techno and Trance, not the trance we know today, It was just a lot slower and more groove laden than I was used to. It changed my taste over night. Following from this a new house night called Screem started weekly at The Warehouse with such amazing Djs like Sasha, Digweed, Dave Seaman and Nick Warren all playing regularly. (You can check an essential mix of Pete Tong live from there on YouTube with Nick Warren and the place just goes off!). This is when I totally fell into the Progressive sound I still love today, some two decades on, also heightening my desire to become a DJ.
I Luckily got to play many gigs over the years with gigs in Ibiza and Ministry of Sound to name a few. Back in 2016, I made a jump into production after a drunken chat with another producer friend Louk at another friends night. After a lot of help from Louk I made a track named after my son, called 'Seren's Dream', which dropped on the awesome Discover label and had great support and that was me hooked on making music. I only intended to write one track but have produced and remixed over fifty. I've stuck with it, pushed through all the knockbacks and have luckily been signed to some of the best labels out there including Perfecto Black, Colorize, FSOE Parallels, Black Hole/Avanti, Lost Language and Bonzai Progressive to name a few, and got to remix some anthems for Limbo, Jan Johnston, Whoop and helped relaunch the Urban Collective label with my remix of Justin Garrett. Obviously the natural progression was to start my own label up and here we are now with e=mc2.
" The first release was from Holland's Pako. I've
" The first release was from Holland's Pako. I've
been a fan of him ever since his releases on
been a fan of him ever since his releases on
Bedrock, and he sent over a stack of awesome
Bedrock, and he sent over a stack of awesome
demos under his Creosol alias "
demos under his Creosol alias "