Quickfire: Five minutes with OFF Recordings boss Andre Crom
Over the past year or so OFF Recordings has unleashed a steady stream of high quality dancefloor tracks, from Daniel Dexter and Nhan Solo’s Our Thang through to more recent hits like Mat.Joe’s Safe Flight. The man at the helm of this German label is Andre Crom, ahead of his forthcoming UK tour I grabbed five minutes with him for a brief chat about his history and the future.
What’s your earliest memory of music?
My sister playing Michael Jackson’s Thriller, when I was maybe six-years-old.
Can you remember when you decided that you wanted to play/make music?
It was pretty much the first time I entered a proper club.
Was becoming a musician always a dream of yours or did you have other dreams/ambitions as a youngster?
Not really but I always knew I wanted to do something that I love.
What was your first clubbing experience like?
I loved it because it was this totally different world which you enter for a few hours, so much more exciting than the little village where I grew up!
Did you find it difficult to become a DJ/producer?
It was both difficult and natural for me. Natural because DJing and producing music is the only job that I ever truly loved. Difficult because it’s not a classical career where somebody tells you how to do it – you have to learn everything yourself.
Why you decide to name your label ‘OFF’?
I wanted a strong name that is easy to remember and that is not connected to any musical genre.
How did you manage to make your first signings?
Besides my own productions, I just sent mails to people whose music I liked, asking them for demos.
How is the label doing at the moment?
It’s doing really amazing right now. We get amazing feedback from all sides, are regularly amongst Resident Advisor’s “recently most charted labels”, and often have up to five tracks in Beatport’s “Deep House top 100” at once. But the biggest satisfaction for me personally is still to see a crowd go wild about a new signing which they have never heard before.
Although the music is really popular at the moment there isn’t a lot of money in it because of the poor global economy. How does this make you feel?
The weak economy might harm clubs in certain regions but if you do a good job you can still make a good living by playing more in other places – it’s beautiful that the passion for Deep House has really gone global.
How do you feel about the increasing popularity of house music at the moment in particular?
I think it’s great. Even the rise of mainstream dance because a lot of people get into the 4/4 beat via this and maybe discover deeper music later.
You’re heading over to the UK for a tour soon, how do you feel about this?
I look forward to it very much. Besides Germany, the UK is the strongest country for OFF.
What do you like most about playing in the UK?
The UK is one of my favourite places to play in the world because it has a passion for underground dance music that evolved over more than two decades. I feel UK clubbers are very well informed about the music and very serious about a good party!
What are your plans for the future of OFF?
Besides growing further, establishing our artist family and releasing great music, I especially want to focus on the event side. For example label nights in special locations.
Career-wise, what are you working on right now?
In the past six months I have been really focusing on music production. Right now I see the results of this with many amazing tour offers all over the world. So I’ll definitely follow that road, planning to release my first album in the first half of 2013.
Which artists are really impressing you at the moment?
There are so many great artists out there but if I had to name just a few, it would be my recent discoveries for OFF Recordings – Robosonic and Mat.Joe.
The OFF UK Tour kicks off on October 5 at Apogee Presents: The OFF UK Tour, followed by a show in Birmingham and finishing up at Vision, Sankeys in Manchester.
For more information visit Andre’s Facebook page HERE.
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