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Feature: Beatfreak ADE Showcase [Interview]

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With ADE right around the corner we had a chance to chat with the Beatfreak Recordings crew about their upcoming label showcase 'D-Formation Presents: This is Beatfreak'. It's an event fans of the label have been waiting for and with a lineup of many of the imprint's core artists it's sure to embody the heart and soul of the Beatfreak sound. Enjoy!

1. Hello Guys, thanks for joining us today, how are you and what are you up to this week?

Dimas & Teddy: Hey Guys! First of all we thank you for having us for a chat today. With the approach of ADE we are focused on planning everything for Amsterdam and of course preparing for the weekly new release.

2. Teddy, tell us a bit about yourself, how did you got introduced to electronic music and how did you initially meet Dimas and eventually get involved with Beatfreak as a label manager?

Teddy: Well, I have been asked this question many times so far. The truth is that, I know D-Formation as a DJ since 2012. Accidentally I celebrated my birthday in the same club where he was playing celebrating his birthday. As you can imagine I was impressed by him as a DJ and I wanted to stay in touch with this great artist no matter what. 2 years later I had the opportunity, once in a lifetime hahahaha, to meet him in person, so I did it and we have created an extremely strong connection. Me as a person with huge interest in the electronic music and he as one of the best electronic music artists and person with enormous experience in the industry, have decided to work together in this project as well as in many more upcoming ones.

3. Dimas, why and how did you decide to revive Beatfreak again with Teddy's help and what made you trust her for something so serious?

Dimas: The truth is that Beatfreak has gone through many moments in these 20 years of life, to bring a label in conditions it takes a lot of dedication. For some reasons or others the label was more or less inactive from 2012 until the end of 2016, and throughout In 2016 I was thinking about reactivating Beatfreak, I just thought that the time had come to do it, but not just to return to release tracks, but to really make Beatfreak again a big and respected label. During this time I was thinking about the person who I would need to be in charge of all this. By chance of life I met Teddy in 2014 and during these 2 years until 2016 although she had never been in the music industry I saw in her a lot of potential and above all a lot of desire to do something totally different to what had been dedicated until then. Right in the summer of 2016 I proposed her what I had in mind and where I wanted to take the label again. It really was a challenge because as I said before she had never been dedicated to the music industry but I had the vision that I could fully trust her and that she would be the ideal person for this work due to several factors. But ones of the most important is that she loves the music, she likes the challenges and also overcome each day more, I can really say only compliments about Teddy. Even though having to teach her everything she needs to know to be in the industry she has shown me and I can say that she is the best label manager that I have never met in the 30 years of my career. As we usually joke between her and I always say that she is an exact copy of my hahahahah, we currently have the same tastes and practically the same way of thinking.

4. ADE is almost here and you have quite the special gathering planned for your first event there. Tell us about what you have planned and who we can expect to see on the line-up?

Dimas & Teddy: We had like an aim to do a Beatfreak Showcase in ADE at 2018 since the label is getting bigger and bigger every single day. We have contacted NL club and they get back to us very quick with a positive response. Quicker than the organizing we have planned the line-up with artists who are part of the label, these are Betoko, Carlos Manaca, D-Formation, Darin Epsilon, EdOne, Haze-M, Javier Gonzalez, Kintar, Marc DePulse, Oscar L and Wally Lopez. The event will be on Friday, October 19th and everyone who wants to join us for unforgettable night can drop an email to Teddy for a guest list at teddy@beatfreakgroup.com :)

5. What can you tell us about Club NL, the club has a long history does it not?

Dimas & Teddy: Yes, that’s right. The club has a long history and it is one of the best ones, located in the heart of Amsterdam where are hold many other events. It is a small and cozy one and in the same time very modern and cool one with an intimate atmosphere. :)

6. Outside of the nightlife, what are some of your favourite spots in Amsterdam?

Dimas: Amsterdam is a beautiful city and for sure I can spend my time on the canals where the boats are or just walking down the streets. The coffee shops are also nice hahahaha
Teddy: I personally love the canals and the boats in Amsterdam. I wish I could have a spare time when I am in Amsterdam so I could stay on the shore on the river and stare into the water hahahaha, but every time when I go there it’s all about work.

7. You've just celebrated your ADE release, there are a lot of fresh names on it, tell us about that and how you went about selecting the tracks for it.

Dimas: Beatfreak Recordings it is and it has always been a label that supports fresh and talented emerging artists. The selection of the tracks is a process that starts from the received demo tracks in our demo email, through the listening to the demos by Teddy and it’s all finishes by approving the tracks by me. I also test the tracks on my gigs and then I take the final decision to release them or not. When I approve all the music, that will be released on my label, then we together decide where and how the tracks will be released. In the case of the ADE compilation was very easy because lately we receive very good music by emerging artists who are not established yet on the market, and that’s a perfect product for us. :)

8. You also have D-Formation's new concept album coming out, which celebrates the label's 200th release. It's quite a unique collection with some amazing collaborations, who is involved and what makes this such a special release for the label?

Teddy: Well, we wanted to do something special with the 200th reference of Beatfreak Recordings. One day we had having a lunch and Dimas suddenly asked me: “What do you think if for the 200th reference of Beatfreak we release an album by D-Formation?” I saw the idea pretty cool and I said “Ok, even we can do some collaborations in the album with another artists.” And on November 2nd you can check this special release on Beatport and Spotify where you can find 3 original tracks solo and 3 original tracks in collaborations with Citizen Kain; Rick Pier O’Neil and Stephane K & Koutarou A. plus 2 special DJ tools.

9. Beatfreak has stood the test of time, 20 years and 200 releases later how have you managed to keep the brand fresh and relevant as many labels have a good run of a few years and then seem to fall by the wayside.

Dimas: As I mentioned earlier Beatfreak has had very good years and other years that it has been on standby. Sometimes it is better to take a break because the music goes through cycles. When changes occur and you don’t feel the music then this is the moment when you have to pause and return when you really feel that the music or your style is back on your side. We are not a label of commercial music that launches tracks depending on how the market is. It is a hard work and sometimes we need to feel what we do, if not nothing would have made sense for us and I also say this as a producer, I am unable to do music that I do not really feel.

10. How would you describe what you’re doing at Beatfreak and what differentiates what you’re doing from other labels?

Teddy: Well, all what I am doing at Beatfreak is because I love it. You can not do anything well if you are not in love with it. With this I want to say that my life has turned into the label hahahaha. I wake up with it and I spend my day with it and I go to bed with it, sometimes I dream of it when I am sleeping too hahahaha. Yeah it seems like a joke but it’s exactly like that. I am in charge with almost everything that comes to a label work – listening to demos, doing artist and license contracts, taking care of the whole promotion of the label and maintaining its social accounts and website, talking to artists, searching for artists, doing audio snippets of the tracks that go later on our SoundCloud and Instagram accounts, recently I have started also doing interviews with the artists who release on Beatfreak, I also follow very strictly all the deadlines that occurs in terms of running a label and etc etc… But the boss is the boss :). Dimas (D-Formation) has the final word every time and absolutely everything depends of him and of our another boss, who stays a little bit in a shadow but is very important - Jesus Segura. The Beatfreak team consists of the 3 of us, each one adores the music. I don’t know what differentiates what we are doing from other labels but I think due to the enormous love the 3 of us have to the music, we are where we are now. As I previously said it’s impossible to be dedicated 100% to something if you are not in love with it. Here is the moment to say big Thanks to everyone who believe in the label and supports it. This mean a lot to us :)

11. What are your thoughts on the progressive house and melodic techno music that’s being released at the moment? And where do you see Beatfreak going in terms of sound?

Dimas: One of the reasons why I decided to relaunch Beatfreak is precisely because of the sound now. I have always felt identified with more melodic sound in general as anyone can hear in my productions. Everything in life is cyclical and of course the music also. I sincerely believe that the time has come for this melodic or progressive house sound or melodic techno, call it whatever you want, but in reality this sound for me is what it is called music, not just library of loops. And of course Beatfreak is betting on this sound and on any other that has musicality and we consider that he follows the musical parameters of the label.

12. What do you love most about the industry as it sits today and what would you say it’s lacking?

Dimas: Actually the industry from years ago has changed a lot, in some cases better and in other cases worse or simply different. Currently we live in the era of mp3 or streaming. This has many advantages but also disadvantages, of course when it comes to promoting any track or an artist we have a world of possibilities, available for anyone without the need to invest money or much money. On the other hand I miss the physical touch that has been lost and I miss to be able to have the music in my hands in different formats such as vinyl or CD but as I mentioned earlier everything has its positive and negative side.

13. What’s been the labels biggest achievement thus far or the release you’re most proud of?

Dimas & Teddy: Talking about the last 12 months of the label we are proud of several releases on Beatfreak, but we can surely say that Wally Lopez – Sunday Trip (Quivver Remix) and D-Formation – Anbar (Original Mix) are the biggest achievements of the label so far where they respectively reached Top 1 and Top 3 in the Progressive House chart on Beatport.

14. Beatfreak is a label that has a healthy mix of fresh new talent along with some of the scenes biggest artists, tell us about a few of the newer artists who have particularly impressed you.

Dimas & Teddy: As we mentioned before Beatfreak releases good music, which mean supporting fresh names and being proud of having great names like Quivver, Betoko, Nick Muir, Bebetta, Dmitry Molosh, Marc DePulse and many many more… Actually since I set up my first label in 1994 I've always liked to bet and support new talents. Clear example are my great friends Chus and Ceballos, the union between them came from each one separately worked in my label and coincidences of life ended up being together and nowadays they are one of the greatest artists. With this I mean that since years ago I am still betting on new talents, of course on Beatfreak there are great consecrated artists as we said before but I can say some like Paul Anthonne, Haze-M, Rafael Cerato, Coeus, EdOne, Animal Print they look really amazing artists

15. What can you tell us about what's coming up on Beatfreak for the remainder of the year and early 2019?

Dimas & Teddy: Particularly on the label it’s coming great music. Generally are coming new projects that will expand the brand Beatfreak :)

'D-Formation Presents: This is Beatfreak' happens Friday October 19th at Club NL, more info here: https://bit.ly/2Adk4sf

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