What better way to introduce you all to a new label that getting the details directly from the horse's mouth out?! We asked the HOH record label boss a few question to help shed some light on the this whole G House Movement business. Read on...
Tell us a bit about HOH and where the idea came about?
House Of Hustle was always part of the plan when we started
GHM, the G House Movement, which is our community focused on what we like to
call house music with an attitude. We've spent a bit more than a year now
building the community trying to create a space where the music is the actual
focus and where it does not matter if you are a well known artists or not, as
long as the music represents our musical preference it will be featured. Now a
year later having seen such amazing support coming from all over the world, the
label side, House Of Hustle, came as a natural addition to the family.
We've
been running labels before but this project just has a lot more depth. Since
day one we have stayed true to what we set out to do and through the GHM
community, where we promote the music we like through daily reposts on
soundcloud, our podcast series and recently we introduced our monthly top20,
all in all creating a real identity allowing us to promote many of the artists
we now feature on the label.
We could have dropped the label straight away but
we really wanted to focus on the community, adding little features here and
there to keep it interesting. We are just really happy that we have managed to
create such a versatile platform through GHM and now with House Of Hustle we
have a way to engage much closer with both the artists that we admire and of
course our fans. You see so many labels today just releasing what is currently
hot on the beatport top100 chart rather than perhaps create a real identity and
promote something fresh. We used to be part of a lot of these promo services
where u get your weekly 200 tracks but after going through them all finding 2
decent tracks and the rest either really poor musical quality or the ones
"I have this track now in 20.000 variations" we decided to create the
GHM community and now House Of Hustle allowing a space for music that feels
fresh and interesting.
What have you got planned for the first release and who
should would be looking out for?
The first release will be out this summer, a Various Artists
album including 12 original tracks and a bonus track from Sirus Hood. Since we
worked with so many artists from all over the world during our first year with
GHM it was kind of difficult to decide who to approach so we decided to focus
on the track selection, allowing us to showcase a VA that really reflects on
the variety of styles we feel represent that "attitude" we so often
mention.
We are not all about G-House or any other particular genre, you can
find attitude in a lot of styles and that is what we are trying to promote in
this VA. In the end all the tracks are really strong and we are pretty sure it
will please our followers. We have some artists from the UK like TUSK, Disord3r
and Alex Ross, all representing styles that we love, DJ Diass from Bulgaria is
another amazingly talented producer we are really happy to include and to be
honest everyone who is on this VA have something that we like.
What are you looking for when you sign up a track / EP?
The musical quality is by far the most important element, we
are long time musicians and producers so we value tracks that are well
produced, dynamic and have interesting arrangements. Also important to make it
clear that with attitude we don't necessarily mean aggressive, attitude can be
presented in many ways and in the end we want tracks that makes you wanna dance
and where you go..."shiiiit this is hot!". A great point of reference
for everyone wanting to send us demos, check out GHM's monthly TOP20. All demos
can be sent to demos@houseofhustle.co.
Tell us about the music scene in Mexico at the moment, what
djs/producers are smashing it?
Well, I came to Mexico in 2010, I am Swedish but lived 8
years in London and spent 6 months in Barcelona as well so have had a chance to
live and breathe some different scenes, rather than perhaps the typical
"my weekend in Ibiza" reference. I think Mexico has a lot of
potential and you can see lots of people really trying to push their local
scene. We have played quite a lot in different parts of Mexico and people are
always up for a good party. Obviously the BPM festival has drawn a lot
attention to Mexico and some labels like Akbal, Neim and Mexa have been really
solid along with artists such as Balcazar & Sordo, Climbers and of course
our favorites Thee Cool Cats. Music wise I find that there is a lack of
diversity and many still just listen to deep house and nu-disco. Whenever we
play people always come up and ask about the name of the style(s) we are
playing so the interest is there, just not enough movement in the scene pushing
things forward.
Who knows, seeing that it still feels like a pretty young scene,
perhaps if you ask me again in a year things might have changed a lot. Not
impossible that we will do some events, we would of course love to but seeing
that the majority of our followers live elsewhere, we just need to give it a
little bit more time to be able to see if it makes sense.
You use the quote "No glitter, no Guetta - Just
straight up love for the music!" in your label bio on Soundcloud... What
is your opinion on the French DJ/producer?
Well first of all we have nothing against Guetta, everyone
goes their own way and the whole "no glitter, no guetta" refers more
to our somewhat artistically lost and plastic society, where there's so often
little focus on the actual real creative people and their work, pushing the
boundaries, yet still not being heard behind all the low quality media hyped
shit (glitter) and the plastic values (Guetta) of the majority buying into it
without even trying to look what else is out there. Going back to the actual
question, I guess after working many years in the music industry I get why he
is doing what he is doing, always easy to criticize success and in the end it
is up for everyone to decide how to play the game.
If you could feature any artist in the world (dead or alive)
on your label, who would it be and why?
Wow this one is tough, can think of plenty that would be
cool, both tupac and biggie would of course be sick but I think Snoop always
stands out with his coolness when he raps, so to do a sick UK bass style track
with some real tight Snoop on top and perhaps while at it just throw in a sexy
hook from Missy Elliot would probably hit the spot. Like that we could leave
tupac and biggie dropping some tight ad libs in the background and perhaps get
M.J to jump in on some as well.
Thank you... Now go check them out!!
Release Name: House Of Hustle Various Artists Volume One
Beatport Exclusive Release: 31/7/14
Official release: 14/8/14
Featured Artists: Alex Ross, Clyde P, Dash Groove, Disord3r,
DJ Diass, Filthy French, Fractal System, FUTURPOETS, HeartlyBeats, HOL-LY, Liva
K, Perah, Sirus Hood, TSHIKAGO, TUSK, Zack Entwistle
How long have you been DJ'ing and what inspired you to DJ and produce?
