The Random Mix With San Soda
By Si • Dec 28th, 2008 • Category: Featured, Mixes, Music
With his first two releases being played to the masses by the likes of Jimpster, Ame and Garnier, San Soda (aka Nicolas Geysens) has certainly hit the ground running in 2008. So it only felt right that we had a word with him before he was snapped up by others (which judging by his upcoming work, this is a surefire guarantee).
He’s also been so kind as to supply us with a rather excellent Detroit influenced mix…
Q. Tell us about your musical background…
A. I grew up in Belgium, Deinze. Didn’t really care about music until one night, at the age of 18, I heard Tyree Cooper djing and mcing in our small local youth bar ‘Clues’. The people I was with that night left quite early but Tyree’s music had caught my attention and I stayed, along with a bunch of people I didn’t really know. That night was the closest i ever got to ‘house’, by which I mean the sensation people experienced in the 80’s in clubs like Warehouse, Musicbox etc. The connection, the excitement, the energy. At this point everything changed, music became a serious thing, an obsession actually. Besides djing, collecting vinyl and producing (since 2007), finding out about and listening to a new artist or genre is like oxygen to me.
Q. At the moment your tracks are exclusively out on the “We Play House” label. How did you get involved with WPH? There are rumours it happened on a football pitch…
A. The goalie from the ‘Leiejongens’ had something to do with it, yes :) Actually, it wasn’t on the pitch itself but when we hit the showers after a game I slipped him - Red D - a CD with a couple of tracks I was working on. He was thinking about starting a label for some time and 2 tracks on the CD - ‘Quilombo’ and ‘20070505′ - triggered the actual process. He played them in the main house clubs in Belgium, the public responded well, we had a small talk and the rest is history… We started up We Play House Recordings almost a year ago now and if all goes well WPH003 should be out in February.
Q. How is the scene in your part of the world, Deinze (Belgium)? Red D seems to be a big influence over there…
A. People in Deinze are spoiled without even knowing it, being able to experience djsets by the likes of Scott Ferguson, Mike Grant, Dj Minx, Eddie Fowlkes, Boo Williams, Tyree Cooper and Charles Webster in this small bar in Deinze that can barely contain 100 people, for free. However, Deinze is the house-exception in Belgium… Red D is the guy inviting these cats. He’s the leading house dj in Belgium at the moment, performing together with great vocalist Lady Linn, organising his own events and releasing 2 EP’s, on Ferrispark and Morse.
Q. You have recently been involved with the Red Bull Music Academy; can you tell us more about your experiences with the RBMA?
A. I could write a book about it, which I’m not. Briefly, the academy opened up my mind completely and made it clear to me that my life will always keep on revolving around music. There’s a blog I posted on my Myspace (myspace.com/sansoda) that describes my two week adventure in Barcelona day by day. Also, I tweaked a TB303, played on a Fender Rhodes and heard a dj play ‘Barely Breakin’ Even’ all for the first time of my life :)
Q. Your tracks stands out for the both the quality of music and quality of production, can you tell us more about your production methods? What’s in the studio of San Soda? Has the RBMA experience changed your production methods?
A. Everything that came out until now was made in Reason and Ableton Live only, no hardware, no plugins. As I said, I’ve only been producing for about two years now and these last few months my view on a good studio has broadended immensly. As i’m still studying, I work my ass of a couple of nights a week to be able to afford the equipment I want. This is what I acquired so far: Roland Juno 106, Jomox Xbase 09, Novation Nova, Yamaha AN-1X, MacBook Pro, Elektrik Piano software and recently a Akai MPC 2500. The academy has surely influenced my wantlist, I learned a lot about mixing and mastering so my next buy’s will be a decent mixer and probably a Sherman filterbank. Also, I decided to take up the piano.
Q. One of your tracks is called 20070505…did something special happen on this date?
A. No, that’s the date i made the track, inspiration on naming it was low that day :) But I must say, since I moved my studio equipment to Bart’s (Red D) attic, his collection of old video’s, books and board games opened up new windows… Keep an eye out for WPH004 ;)
Q. You have some heavyweight influences on your MySpace from the world of soul, jazz, hip hop and house; which artists and people can you say have had the biggest influence on you over the years? Are there any times or experiences you can pinpoint?
A. It’s impossible to name them all, but just to name a few: Theo Parrish, Greg Carmichael, Fela Kuti, Jaydee, Larry Heard, Roy Ayers, Kerri Chandler and Flying Lotus. A few months ago, Kerri Chandler played in Ghent along with Osunlade, Red D and Lady Linn, a mindblowing night!
Q. As a dj, which artists and labels have you been really excited about in 2008?
A. Artists: Flying Lotus, Deetron, Theo Parrish, Carl Craig and Mike Huckaby
Labels: Up My Alley, Brontosaurus, Sonar Kollektiv and Rush Hour
Q. What do you have coming up next?
A. A remix I made together with Red D, for Maxim Lany, a producer from Ghent, Belgium. It will feature on the 3th WPH-release. Another EP with more tracks of mine can be expected in the beginning of next year, if all goes well.
Q. Finally, can you tell us about the mix you have done for Random Circuits?
A. To be honest, this last year, I kinda forgot all about djing. Concentrating more on finding out what it takes to produce a good track, discovering so much great new music, constantly looking things up, listening to stuff and having to study and work in between, rather let my turntables get pretty dusty. In fact, I decided to buy a decent mixer and start playing more again, remembering how fun it was to be able to tell a story through music.
Download Random Mix 11 With San Soda
Tracklist:
1. Patchworks - Sugar (Still Music)
2. Cesaria Evora - Angola (Carl Craig’s Mix) (Lusafrica)
3. San Soda - Got Me Jumpin’ In My Car (We Play House Recordings)
4. Oasis - Seventeen (FXHE Records)
5. San Soda - 20070505 (We Play House Recordings)
6. Patrice Scott - Do You Feel Me (Sistrum Recordings)
7. Theo Parrish - Overyahead (Sound Signature)
8. Mike Huckaby - Jupiter (SYNTH)
9. Extra Produktionen - Feuerwehrhaus (Brontosaurus)
10. San Soda - Shouts In Peace (unreleased)
Si is
Email this author | All posts by Si
This is superb. A great insight into San Soda & a fantastic mix to end the year with.
Really nice mix to chill on new year’s day and that reminds me that i forgot “Feuerhaus” on all my year end charts ;) Also an interesting interview, sounds like this guy is going to release some more fantastic tracks in ‘09. Thumbs up for Si and Nicolas!
This is awesome - really nice mix with lots of varying influences, still kept very tight though.
I really enjoyed the interview, Soda seems like a very cool, down to earth cat. Thanks for sharing this!
All the best,
~M