Dance Music for Heroes
Today’s guest is Alex Holmes: an English singer and songwriter for Pop and EDM music. She’s worked with hundreds of producers and labels worldwide and is ranked the #1 five star vocalist on the Vocalizr platform. Her releases include tracks with Universal Music, Sony Music, No Copyright Sounds and Spinnin’ Records, and she has featured on records with Sean Paul, Pitbull, Mashd N Kutcher and DJ The Prophet.
Ignacio Arfeli was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. There wasn’t much of a techno scene there, so he moved to the mecca for techno: Berlin. Ignacio’s music blurs the line between the techno underground and the mainstream. 2019 was a breakout year for him as he landed some of the most respected labels in techno including Kraftek, Suara, Octopus Recordings, and several more. Charlotte De Witte has frequently opened festivals with his tracks, and he has had support from Alan Fitzpatrick, Eric Pryzd, Dense & Pika, and Dj Rush.
On March 2nd, Bandcamp announced they were partnering with Epic Games (yes, of Fortnite fame). What does that mean for the independent musician? In this episode I look at the announcements, the media coverage, and offer a few suggestions for what you should do now.
Today’s guest is Yera, better known in the Atlanta techno scene as Shakes. Yera is a die-hard techno fan, fashionista and the founder of Twisted Lines. Twisted Lines began in 2018 in the alleyways of L.A., but has grown into an Atlanta-based community of techno and house music lovers who build art events inspired by the underground warehouse raves of the 90’s. Her events are much more than just themed music nights: past events have incorporated sports car collectives, art installations, and they recently closed out Atlanta’s Digital Art Week.
Vital is an incredibly powerful free spectral warping wavetable synth. I started experimenting with it last month and was so impressed, I decided to dedicate an entire episode to Vital.
Today we welcome back Sean Giovanni. Gio is an audio engineer, producer and the multitalented owner of The Record Shop in Nashville, Tennessee. During his career Gio has worked with big acts and labels to include: Alabama, John Legend, Lil Jon, Meatloaf, Sister Hazel, The Wallflowers, Sony Music, Warner Music Group, Universal, and many more.
Today we’re talking with Bruce Zalcer from Panama. Bruce is a multi-instrumentalist who began with music in his teens playing in rock bands and DJing. After school, he largely left the scene and moved on to a more conventional life selling insurance and raising a family for many years until 2018 when he decided to return to music. Since then, Bruce’s unique approach to techno incorporating synthesizers, drum machines, and sounds sampled from daily life has been making waves in the techno world. He’s released a dozen tracks including his Lifeblood EP and already has tracks signed on some of the biggest techno labels in the industry including Terminal M, 1605, and Codex Recordings. Additionally, his first live performance in 20 years was in Amsterdam for ADE! Finally, because there isn’t a huge techno following in Panama he created Dialectic Live: an organization that is dedicated to growing the techno movement in that country.
Today’s guest is Mauro Somm, an up-and-coming techno producer from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He’s been signed on Christian Smith’s Tronic label and has had support from some of the most creative artists in the industry, including UMEK, Gallya, Joyce Mercedes, and Space 92.
Today’s guest is Heather Johnson, the CEO of the Nintey9Lives. Heather also serves on the advisory board of the American Association of Independent Music which advocates for independent music rights holders. This episode was actually recorded LAST April, but due to a super secret announcement at the end of the podcast, I couldn’t release it until now.
Today I’m excited to introduce Sam WOLFE: a breakout techno star from Atlanta. His 2020 debut EP Triangulum reached #1 on overall Beatport releases which lead to a collaboration with techno legends the YellowHeads. That collab, Hippodrome, then went on to chart #4 for Beatport hype and #16 on techno world top 100 and received support from top techno artists including UMEK. Since then he’s released his debut EP on Christian Smith ‘s imprint, Tronic, which topped the Beatport overall release charts at #1, and received support from Bart Skils, Joyhauser, Lily Palmer, Marco Carola and others. In 2021 he signed exclusively with UMEK’s 1605 label and has big plans for 2022.
