‘Make Music with Your Soul' - Emmanuel Interview

In the past few years we have seen Emmanuel’s label ARTS and his own musical journey fulminate in the techno realm. His label going strength from to strength "pushing of the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or the status quo, primarily in the art and cultural realm." You can see a lot of gruelling work has gone into this prominent label, not only musically but the physical product has been meticulously crafted for your aesthetic pleasure. His patience and dedication has paid off alongside with his refreshingly honest attitude towards music.

In this interview Emmanuel’s passion towards his work is palpable. His authenticity and candid answers make this interview a compelling read. MOTZ had the pleasure to discuss topical issues within the industry with Emmanuel. In this interview he talks about techno as business, the work entailed, the hype and visuals aspects of the produce.

Hey Emmanuel thanks for chatting with us, your label ARTS has an incredible catalogue of artists. Have you seen some of these artists flourish since you first released their music?

Hi Motz thank you for having me. Well this can be easily answered - Yes. Not only is the number of Artists “blowing up” very high, but probably 90% of these guys that work with the label are becoming noticed in the Techno scene for all the right reasons. People like Roman Poncet, Cleric, Dax J, Keith Carnal and I Hate Models, just to name a few, can tell you something more about this. Aside from showing off this side of the label, I have to say that I am really lucky to be a part of the Techno scene that is developing today. Techno is stronger than ever. (If you take away the drama)

What has been the biggest challenges your label has had to date?

Creating a label from scratch has lot of challenges to overcome. One of the biggest is simply gaining the trust of the listeners. It takes lot of time to gain attention and even more to get respect from them. This is the largest challenge, but then you have to take care of the timing of releases as it is very crucial to have a planned workflow. The timing of a label is essential in order to reach higher levels. Luckily I work with a very precise person in my office, that takes care of this aspect much better than I do.

A numerous amount music platforms are making lists charting djs, artists and labels. Do you think people should take such lists seriously?

Techno nowadays is a very well planned business. There are good things and those good things are all about a few passionate people working just for pure passion. All the others are there for the monetary gain that they can try to possess – those in the black clothes. Gaining Hype is one of the biggest keys to success in this scene and nowadays a record that gains good hype in the right channels sells more than a record that is 100 times stronger artistically speaking. I think personally that all those lists are a huge Joke, but don't take me the wrong way as it is good to have people that associate you for what is good and what is crap.

It is like having a friend giving you sincere feedback of a restaurant that they believe is excellent. But in this case 90% of those lists are all about gaining hype over the years. A lot of top charters have good relations with strong PR agencies linked to the mags and websites. So the result is the same name rotating for some time. Sometimes it is about the right profile that they need to promote and other times it is simply over gaining hype to fill the space of their article. Think about it, who is going to take a listen to powerful music that isn’t associated with a strong name in the masses (Besides those that dig deep)? They do their job to keep their mag interesting (as they think) and most of all they NEED people to visit their website often - they need numbers. So in the end they just do their job exactly like all those clothing websites like “Hypebeast “, to name one, that gain hype randomly just for the sake of the site clicks, but at least they have a proper name for the website. I think that over-all everyone in the business knows how it works and the less you talk about it the better it is for yourself since everyone wants to be there. But I also think that it is a good way to show what this world is about to those individuals that genuinely want to join this world. Any kind of list is a result of some hype and when people “vote” they are voting a result of only certain names that pop up in their feeds, but not the best artists they know.

I end up saying one wise phrase from a Chef called Marco Pierre White (one of the best UK chefs in the world), “I handed back my 3 Michelin Stars, because I was tired of being judged by people who have less knowledge than me.” This is exactly what I think.

A lot of effort has been put into your artwork for the label. Do you think visual aspects are important to selling music?

Thank you. Surely it is very important to put effort on the Artwork, and in anything that you do. I love the aesthetic aspect of things. The Artwork, the cover and the way a record presents itself is very crucial in my opinion. That’s the first thing you see when you go to a record shop. You take the record in your hands and you reach for the turntable to listen to it. While you make that move you have the record right in front of you and there are two moments, the 1st is the first impact and the 2nd is the moment when you listen to the record and examine how the records looks, simply by reading the artist name and the titles etc. There are other ways to present it in Techno and one of the oldest ways is to create mystery. To do so you have to simply press a white-label with no info, so everyone will wonder what this record is about and then you listen to it, to check it out and so forth. This is the opposite way of what I just described and also the oldest and the most boring way to do it (today). Since there are Hundreds of records doing this trick, it tends to not have the same effect as it once did. In the 90's this was a must and it was a very cool idea. Music is the key, but on top of that, you need to find the right way to channel it to a human being. Art is the best way.

What has been your favourite gig you’ve ever played?

Over the last year I had amazing gigs with lovely people and insane crowds with lots of positive energy and very hungry promoters too. The best gig I had was surely the Enemy Vs Arts night in Berghain. That was one of the biggest accomplishments of the year for me and Dustin. We worked very hard to reach a level where we were able to showcase a lot of our internal artists to the people and that occasion was very special. You can check why on the enemy website where we wrote a little bit about that special night.

Do you think it’s important for label to be consistent with genres?

I think that people should do what they feel and how they feel it. Saying that, label owners should also concentrate on releasing music that has a meaning and not stuff that you forget after the two times you play that particular record. Nowadays the tendency is simply to put out the same sound on and on. That’s one of the most boring things you can do when you release Techno and Electronic music, which most of the time is already repetitive music. Why put out records that sound almost the same? To wait for a better prepared record to put out in the already over saturated market? Just my thoughts.

Do you have advice for producers who are looking to get material released on labels?

The only advice I can give is simply to make music with your soul. I don't care about names, profiles or anything. That helps for sure, but all I care about is certain artists that have personality and know what they are doing. This is achieved by showcasing big skills that can be developed over time. It Is crucial for me to work with artists that follow my vision that leads in to their future vision. And please stop to making the same sound of the people we have on the label - That is exactly what I don't want. Good luck.

#ARTS #Techno #Emmanuel