Slow Roast Records

Finally,  Two minutes with the man behind the music!

It seems like since Codes has been introduced into the scene, He’s been non-stop busy in the lab.
Last week, We talked for a bit about his sound & style, scratching, future projects, and signing to Am Only.

Keep an eye on this guy, he’s moving fast!
facebook.com/​codeshouse
twitter.com/codeshouse

Check back with us here on slowroastrecs.com for more updates.

Peace.

L.Arson

Hey Everybody!

Ludwig Von Pig here checkin’ in!

Hope Ya’ll are havin’ as great of a summer as we are!

Today I’m dropping off two new interviews…

&

Codes discusses his influences, how he got start djing and producing,  and upcoming projects. 
Klever talks tattoos, his transition from turntablism to producing, and the future of Dance music.

Both are awesome reads and feature some free mp3 downloads!

This Summer’s got a whole lot of Slow Roasted Fun coming…
Follow Us on twitter.com/slowroastrecs & Facebook.com/slowroastrecs …

and be sure to keep checkin’ back with us here.

See Ya’ll Soon, Wuuuuuuuueeee!

-Louie

Hey Ya’ll!

We’re really excited to hit ya off with the recap from the first ever Slow Roast Showcase Tour! We had a helluva time goin’ hog wild from coast to coast, and are lookin’ forward to doin’ it again! If you like the video please spread it around for us! We’d really appreciate it!

Love,

Louie

We had met Deco years before while he was doing his thing in Atlanta, and had kept in contact with him over the years about all sorts of music and media related ideas. A couple years later we reconnected in Los Angeles with the Slow Roast Records project in it’s early stages of preparation. With out much hesitation at all, we fired up the kitchen and got to work! We thought it would be of some interest to our readers to do a little Q & A with one of the guys that helped us develop the web and media side of Slow Roast, as well as catch up with some of the other projects Deco has been working on as of late.

The main reason all of us here at Slow Roast initially contacted you to help us with the site had a lot to do with your colorful history as both a web developer as and your involvement in the music world. Give us the rundown on how you started out and what led you down the road to some of the projects you’ve been involved with over the years.

I’ve sort of floated between the worlds of music and technology for the better part of the past decade. On the technology side, I started learning the basics of programming and the ropes of Photoshop and things like that in about 1995 when I was about 14. At the time there wasn’t much of an outlet for young people who were into computers, so I ended up attending a lot of 2600 meetings in my hometown of Atlanta. It’s billed as a hacker meet-up but all types of people ended up there. The connection between technology and music was already really strong in the mid-90s, so a lot of the people I knew through 2600 were also the same people I went out to music events with. We’d go to raves, punk shows, hip-hop events, anything that resonated with us really. When I got into college I started DJing and worked at my school’s radio station, WRAS Atlanta. While I was working there I realized that finding a way to make a living with music was something I had to do, so I’ve been finding ways to blend my technology skills with my love of music ever since.

On the music side, I’ve done about every job there is in radio aside from climbing transmitter towers, I’ve spent many years as a promoter doing drum & bass events in Atlanta with 404Audio and working for Insomniac in LA on shows like Electric Daisy Carnival. My current music focus is Deceast, a record label I started that caters to the deeper side of bass music at all tempos. On the technology side, I’ve worked at several start-ups and interactive agencies over the years with a lot of freelancing mixed in when I don’t have a full-time gig. I mostly work on the web, although there’s a ton of awesome stuff happening in the mobile world right now.

We all learned a lot picking you’re brain during the development stages of slowroastrecs.com. Its obvious you’ve spent a lot of time (so have we!) trying to figure out exactly whats important to our potential fans. What would you say are some key areas that artists should focus on when it comes to making a good impression on the web. Give us all some pointers!

I think there are three aspects of a web presence artists should pay attention to: content, aesthetics, and technology. Your content should be the best you can possibly make it, don’t put out half-finished ideas whether it’s a song going on your album or a paragraph going on your website. Your aesthetics should have a consistent vibe, ideally with the music forming the foundation and the logo, colors, website, writing style, and visual look being built on top of the music. Lastly, well-applied technology will make your good aesthetics great, so make sure the people creating your website or your iPhone app are talented designers and engineers.

Over the past couple years you’ve been developing you’re own record label Deceast, tell us a bit about what influenced you to start the label and how its taken shape.

Having a label is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time but I haven’t been in a good position to start one until recently. About a year ago I set up Deceast as a website to host all of the DJ mixes I had done over the years, then started posting other content in more of a blog format, and it just sort of carried on from there. I started getting sent a lot of really great music that I wasn’t hearing many other people supporting, so the label was a natural evolution. The first release came out in November (Bro Safari – “Amazon Rock” b/w Mayhem & Section 8 – “Miles In The Sky”) and I’m in the process of lining up the next two or three releases to come out at the beginning of 2011. I’ll also be distributing free releases from the website periodically, the first one just came out last week – it’s a 3 track EP of instrumental hip-hop by myself called “Thoughts of the Past”.

Musically and aesthetically what makes Deceast unique?

I think the music on Deceast is going to end up as a pretty eclectic catalog of genres and sub-genres that are connected by a consistent vibe in the music. I’m into all types of what you could loosely call bass music, whether it’s dubstep, drum & bass, hip-hop, house, or anything else that has a solid low end. The consistency is in the feel of the music I’m putting out: I’m not too concerned about what genre it happens to fit into as long as it has some depth and soul. The visual aesthetic of the label is clean and organic, both of which are pretty common separately but I enjoy coming up with ways to blend the two.

Obviously your involvement in the music world has had a major influence on your artistic vision for the label. I’m interested in how perhaps your background in web development (and other related areas) has effected the direction you are planning to take with Deceast.

My technology background has definitely made my job as a label owner easier. Now that the music industry is essentially digital, having a good grasp of technology makes the day to day label work a lot easier. Whether it’s running the Deceast site or planning online marketing for the upcoming releases, it definitely helps that I’ve already done a lot of this for other people in a professional capacity.

What else is in the works? Plans for the future? Is there any web or music projects we should keep an eye out for? (plug some links if u can)

Deco – Deceast Mix Series #002 by deco

Check out the new Reason ad with a spotlight on the homie… Kill the Noise!

“My World” off of his recently released ROOTS E.P. is the  featured song!

Boom!

Slow Roast Records take over baby!

Hey Ya’ll,

You gotta check out this video, really insightful interview with the founders of our parent label Fools Gold! Wuueee!

<3

Louie

All of us over here at Slow Roast HQ have been brimming with excitement over a fresh new act who’ve recently joined the fam. We first ran into them hangin’ out in the smokey VIP of an old discotheque in Miami. It was tough to really make out what they were saying to be honest, with freestyle beats rattling and general after hours shenanigans at hand. Luckily we caught their names from some groupies as we stumbled out of the club, in time to catch the sunrise on South Beach I might add!

Señor Stereo is: Joe Masurka (aka Joe Maz), Danny Gomez (aka Danny Daze), Matt Masurka (aka Gigamesh) and there is something special about these guys. They possess a unique kinda cool and charisma that sparkles like a disco ball, filling the room with energy and excitement, …and the uncontrollable urge to dance yo’ ass off!

Without hesitation, we organized a meeting. Next thing you know, we were clinking champagne glasses and plotting out plans for their first Slow Roast release. 5 tracks that reach back to the golden era of house and techno, throw in a nice serving of sexy disco and funk, and top it off with some addicting vocal hooks, and you have a (shaken) musical cocktail you’ll be sippin’ on all summer long.

With the world-wide release of Señor Stereo’s debut “Unintentional EP” approaching fast (June 29, 2010), we figured it was about time we gave you all little bit of background on these guys, and a taste of what they’ve been cooking up in the studio, and this time, we chose a little more laid-back setting to have a chat!

Oh, they were also nice enough to give us some music! Don’t forget to grab it on the way out!

Slow Roast Records: First off tell us who you guys are and where you guys are livin’ these days.
Joe: I finally decided to move to Miami where Daze lives from Minneapolis after thinking about it for 3 years. My brother Matt has also decided to join us in Miami this coming September so we really can all be in the same studio working for the same ideas. This is going to be a big step forward.

SRR: People wanna know about the name, Why did u guys choose the name Señor Stereo? Who is Señor Stereo or what does it mean?
Daze: This name was chosen while Joe and I were were on a way to a gig. Took about 30 seconds to think of because we already had an idea of what we were going for. Señor Stereo is more of the lifestyle we would portray if we were him. “Señor Stereo” is a gentleman, stylish, has a bachelor pad in Manhattan with mahogany wooden floors and has knowlege of the finer things in life.

SRR: Most of us got a chance to check your Hogcast #3 Mix, there was quite an eclectic tracklisting! The list includes some obscurities from the Italo disco and techno days. Care to shed a little light on some of your musical backgrounds?
Matt: Yeah, I think we all have the attitude that ‘good music is good music’.  Speaking for myself, I rarely listen to the same genre for a long time so I think that reflects when DJing.  I grew up being really into bands like Nirvana and Radiohead and was later introduced to electronic music through acts like Daft Punk, DJ Shadow, the Chemical Brothers and Mr. Oizo.  It wasn’t until I started taking DJing & production seriously that I got into the more ‘obscure’ history of disco & techno.

Daze: I grew up listening to Old School Electro (Cybotron, Afrika Bambaataa, Newcleus ect …) then little by little got into Techno where I started djing at the Full Moon raves when I was 13. There was a quote that said “If Pac Man affected us as kids, we’d all run around in a darkened room munching pills and listening to repetitive music”. Except for the pills part, that quote was meant for me. The fact we grew up in different areas listening to multiple genres gives us the sound we have going.

Joe: I’m going to be straight up, I was completely in love with west coast hip hop and punk rock growing up. My mom rocked the Led Zeppelin and Carly Simon and dad was into country.  My brother actually turned me on to electronic music in about 96 with Daft Punk. From there we were both really into Fatboy Slim, Crystal Method, Prodigy, Chemical Brothers.  I must have listed to Crystal Method – Vegas about 82792876387927343284 times in my car.  I still like hip hop, but only the old school stuff for the most part.

SRR: Are any of you classically trained musicians? How has this influenced your music?
Joe: I played the piano and trumpet really well up until the time I decided being the NBA was my new purpose in life. Turns out I was 6′3″ with a weak ass vertical.  I could dunk but I really had to work at it.  I fell into djing and producing in 2002. I can still play the keys but not anywhere near what I used to do.

Daze: If it wasn’t for MIDI, I’d be a working in a bowling alley or somehting. No training whatever here.

Matt: Yeah I have a bachelor in music.  It helps but the stuff I learned in school are skills anyone with a good ear could pick up in a few months (basic music theory).

SRR: We know you guys spend a lot of time in the studio, what are some of your favorite pieces of gear you use?
Daze: We would love to say we’re these huge analog freaks but unfortunately an ARP 2600 cost a bit too much money and isn’t very practical. Although we do have analog gear some of my favorites pieces in the studio are the Roland JP-8080 and the VF-11 vocoder. We’ve got one virtual synth we use alot which ryhmes with “Moe.Me.Mex” but we’re keeping that one on lock.

Matt: My favorite gear pieces are my ears and coffee mug.

SRR: What can we expect when Señor Stereo goes on tour?
Matt: Time will tell! We’ll likely have to distinguish between live sets and DJ sets. Eventually the live sets will include a drummer and possibly other musicians but it will mostly depend on where we get booked and what works best for each gig.

Daze: Groupies

Joe: World Domination, Polar Ice Caps Melting.

SRR: Haha, great answers! Can you tell us about any other projects you guys have been involved in?
Daze: We each have our own taste when it comes to music. On the solo tip, I tend to produce techno/house/sleeper music

Matt: Yeah we do a pretty big variety of projects.  I produce bands/solo artists and we all do occasional pop remixes (gotta pay the bills!).

SRR: What plans do you guys have for the future?
Daze: Like Matt said above, time will tell. For now we’re hitting the studio and producing music we feel is true to who we are. Expect different styles, Miami Bass, Techno, Italo Disco, all kind of stuff just blended together made for people to dance. Eventually we’d like to collab with legendary artist ……. Giorgio Moroder send me a text if you see this.

SRR: Give us a little background on these two tracks we are going to share with our readers. (Hot Damn! and Babe We’re Gonna Love Tonight)
Matt: Babe We’re Gonna Love Tonight is a cover of the Lime classic. I think it was Danny’s idea to cover the song and I had my friends from the band Lookbook provide guest vocals. Hot Damn was definitely one of those things that came out pretty organically. We all contributed ideas and over the course of a few days in Danny’s studio it was done.  We basically just wanted to make a straight forward, happy party song that blended some different styles.

Thanks guys for meetin’ up for a little Q and A for us! Don’t forget to grab their debut EP everywhere that carries digital releases June 29th! We can all catch Señor Stereo LIVE in select cities TBA on the multi-city Slow Roast Tour this summer. Keep checkin’ the calendar for dates. You can find a full tracklisting and other info for the “Unintentional EP” by visiting the Releases section!

As promised here’s some music compliments of Señor Stereo. (DJ’s and enthusiasts alike will appreciate these 320kpbs mp3’s!)

Señor Stereo – Hot Damn! .mp3 (right click / save as)

Señor Stereo – Babe We’re Gonna Love Tonight (feat. Lookbook) .mp3 (right click/ save as)

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Our main man, Kill The Noise sat down with the Propellerheads software (creators of Reason, Recycle, etc) to discuss music, production techniques, and more! You can read a little more on the Propellerheads website!