This year is starting off well for Erik, stay tuned for more mixes, tracks, parties and exciting new projects which are making this pale blue eyed Norwegian very much In Demand!
New vs Old
Lisa: I’ve noticed you are bringing a lot of older tracks into your mixes recently, which I think is great, do you find it hard to find as much quality tracks as there say 10 years ago?
Erik: Not really I still find a lot of great music, takes a little more time, but just as many good bits out there I think. Many of the old tunes I still love and I know a lot of people havent heard them before, so I like to mix it up a little sometimes.
Lisa: Ya I agree, I think a lot of people are always looking for the next new thing and forget how much great stuff was produced in the past. But finding that new hot track is always exciting.
Erik: Yes me too, personally I don’t like “classics” nights but some classics here and there are great.
Oslo
Lisa: What is the scene like in Oslo now? You had some residencies before, what happened to those?
Erik: It’s still very small and when you go out you see all the familiar faces. I had a little argument with one of the promoters about different views on things, that sometimes you have to spend money to make money, so I didn’t feel motivated to play there anymore. Now the club has a new booking manager so I am going to gig there again in a few months. Some upgrades have been done too. We haven’t got many pure house clubs/bars here. Only about 3 I would say. Some good DJs come here every month at a night called Sunkissed. It’s the best one, Spencer Parker is playing for them this coming Saturday, looking forward to it.
Producing
Lisa: In the past year you have been producing a lot more than ever before, is this something you are going to focus on more now?
Erik: Yeah Vadim and me share ideas well and the results have been good so far, so we plan on working more together for sure. Got 3 tracks we are sending to some labels these days, got a couple offers in which we are considering at the moment.
Lisa: So even though Vadim is in the States you still find it easy enough to work together?
Erik: He is the wiz in Ableton and is great at getting the ideas in there. When he is sending over a little loop I tell him what I like and don’t like, what can be done to it, sending over some loops, samples that might be cool to add and so on. Because of the time difference it can be hard sometimes, but I work less at my daytime job these days, so it works out ok. We merge our ideas and sounds into something that usually end up being a track.
Lisa: Do you see the need to have some proper studio time together in the future?
Erik: I would like to. I think we can make even better tunes that way. Maybe I’ll go on a holiday to see him or maybe he can come to Oslo, time will show. We are sharing a room in Miami for WMC, but I doubt we’ll get any time for tune making there.. Hehe.
Lisa: Haha doubtful! How did you come up with the idea for your Earth Wind and Fire track?
Erik: Vadim and me were working on a tune, then my mate Mono asked me if I could track down an Earth Wind and Fire tune for him called September. Then I realized I had this wicked acapella of their SOS tune, which worked perfectly on top of that tune we were working on…I wanted to release the tune on Discoteca, but the boys were a little scared we could get sued, so its prob best not to. More exciting that Guillame wanted it too, for their white label, as I am a fan of his music. Its called “Do Your Dance” but when its coming on that vinyl, our names won’t be attached to it, so we won’t get in trouble. Will be named “Shimmy Sham sham xxx” something…
Lisa: How many whitelabels of it will they make?
Erik: I am not sure, maybe 500 copies, it’s going to be limited and exclusive.
WMC
Lisa: What are you looking forward to at this WMC?
Erik: Mostly looking forward to see all my friends that I haven’t seen since the last time or that I haven’t seen in months. The boat parties are always great and some of the best parties to attend during the week. Hopefully we can manage to sort out a Discoteca party as well, but its all up in the air atm. Also looking forward to seeing some DJs I haven’t seen live before, Joris Voorn in particular as he has been killing it the last year, actually I him at Mysteryland.
Lisa: I’ve heard that’s an amazing festival, Id like to go.
Erik: It’s one of the best festivals I have been to. Desyn took me and a friend there. Great day, great DJs and sick visuals and atmosphere, sound, had it all.
Lisa: Do you see the point in making promo CDs for WMC?
Erik: We did a CD last year with promo mixes on, which were popular. So we are doing some CD’s this year too.
Top Secret
Lisa: Are you still doing A&R for Desyn?
Erik: Yes I am, we have a very exciting project coming up together. More info soon.
Lisa: I never hear of anything coming out on Alternative Route, how is the label doing?
Erik: We haven’t found any really big tunes so we havent released anything in a while, therefore we have this new project in the process, which I think will be great.
Discoteca Music
Lisa: How do you feel Discoteca is doing since it first started 2 years ago?
Erik: I think we are doing pretty well, signing good artists and getting good remixes for the tunes we sign. I wish everyone could use their network a little more to get new bits to sign, but that might come… in the future. Vadim and I have ‘Dirty dubbin’ coming out on Discoteca, with a remix from my friend Giorgio Roma, I played his remix in this In Demand mix, its the piano tune at 26 mins.
Lisa: Ya, lovely tune.
White Labels
Lisa: BTW this is my favorite track from the whole mix (41 min). I love that twangy 20s style it has to it, that white label you mentioned.
Erik: Its a bootleg Guillame and the Couto dumonts did for their shimmy sham sham whitelabel bootleg series. He asked if Vadim and me wants to release our Earth Wind and Fire bootleg on same label, so that’s coming out later in the year…
Lisa: For those that don’t know what is a white label?
Erik: Whitelabels are vinyl’s with a white label in the middle, that can’t be traced back to the one who printed it, at least hard to trace who made them. Usually done for illegal bootlegs and they are often very limited.
Lisa: What is the purpose of a white label?
Erik: The purpose for printing white labels are sometimes to test to see if a record will sell before you make more copies. Or most of the times for illegal bootlegs, if you sample some famous artist or something.
Lisa: Right, to avoid licensing or copyright fees.
Erik: Yes. 500 copies of a bootleg won’t hurt the artist they sampled. I still buy some of those, actually ordered 2 whites yesterday 
Lisa: Hehe nice, where do you order them from?
Erik: You can find them in any record shops really, I ordered from Juno. When I used to go record shopping years ago it was always fun to check the white label sections. Tons of crap, but always some good ones too.
DJs are good Hunters
Lisa: So when you find a good one it must be satisfying, you have to be a good hunter to be a good DJ.
Erik: Definately, the one I ordered yesterday I had been looking for a while. I think it’s a big part of being a good DJ to find great records, and it takes a lot of time to play something different than all the other top sales chart Beatport DJs.
Lisa: I totally agree. I want to be surprised when I hear a DJ, not bored cause I’ve already heard all the same tracks played by another DJ.
Erik: I agree, most clubbers like to hear tunes they have heard 1000 times before though.
Lisa: Ya that’s boring, I mean I love to hear one or two that I know and love, like an old track that brings back good memories, but on the whole, its more exciting hearing something new.
Erik: Yeah, since I listen to so much music it’s not that often I hear something wicked and new when I go out here, but when I do its very refreshing. I was in Berlin recently and most of the tunes I heard the DJs played I hadn’t heard before. I had an amazing time.
