NX1: “We use numbers to name tracks so that they couldn't give you a feeling before listening to the music”
Daina Dubauskaitė 2015-03-25 22:44
After exchanging just a few emails between Vilnius and Barcelona I already feel I know the NX1 duo pretty well! I still haven’t experienced them live, but the witnesses of Supynes’2013 still feel their warmth. The latter could be a tricky word for defining techno, but it definitely comes from the true passion of the producers Samot and Surit that have been steadily working on fulfilling their conceptual idea. They will be back in Lithuania very soon for the Dimensions fesitival launch party in Kablys, and before that here’s some techno warmth deciphered into words and sentences.
Were you collaborating before you started NX1, or is it your first project together?
Samot: We've been working in music together for many years before releasing anything as NX1, in fact, when we decided to release the first record it was something we felt we had to do because we had a lot of stuff that for us was already nice to be released.
Surit: We have known each other since we were kids, we grew up together in the same town and we've been developing together many things in our lives, so for us has been always very easy to understand and work together.
What were the artists and labels that inspired you to create one of your own – both international and Spanish?
Surit: To be honest it's impossible for both of us to mention just a few names. We've been listening and enjoying a wide range of electronic music since the very early 90s… We can appreciate and enjoy many kinds of music and each track, artists and labels that we've liked at any moment in our lives is an input that directly or indirectly inspired us to do what we're doing now.
Samot: We can say many names or labels from electro to techno, but also we've been influenced from other kinds of music, not necessarily electronic. It's true that techno has been always the style with more presence in our lives and any of the first artists from the genre have been a direct inspiration, but we cannot name just a few, there are too many artists or labels to mention over the years.
What is your main memory from the Lithuanian Supynes festival in 2013?
Samot: What we'll always keep in our minds is the privileged area where the festival takes place, that natural reserve is amazing.
Surit: It was a totally experience to play there. We also have to mention the people that were very friendly with us. We Conforce met for first time who was playing before us, and we had a great time also with Nerijus and Milda, with whom we keep a good relationship since nowadays.
Now you will be playing in the Dimensions festival party in Vilnius. What are your thoughts and feelings towards Dimensions?
Surit: I was lucky to be in the first Dimensions Festival that happened in Croatia, it's an amazing festival and that space where the festival takes place is very mystic. That abandoned fort is a place to visit even if there isn’t any festival there and the full line up is one of the best that you can find.
Samot: We'll play a completely new live set, so we're very excited about it. A lot of good feelings and positive energy, and a lot o new music that we'll play for the first time.
You’re based in Barcelona. Do you have a strong home following and your 'home' club?
Samot: We've had the pleasure to play in almost all the clubs where you can find techno in our city, clubs like The Loft (Razzmatazz), Becool, Nitsa, Moog, Insert… You can find some good parties every month in terms of techno if you live in Barcelona, and even if we don't think that there is a consolidated techno scene we can feel things growing in the last few years.
Surit: If we have to mention one club as our 'home' or where we play more often and feel more comfortable, that would be Moog, without any doubt. We have a good connection with the people who run the club and we’ve played there many times. Also Nitsa is a club with an excellent vibe, we enjoy it a lot and it is also very common for us to visit the club to enjoy some artist playing there that we like.
What clubs in the world do you generally like and why?
Samot: We can say that any club where you can find a good atmosphere and good energy. If you have this, you can enjoy any place in the world.
Surit: Sometimes you get an unforgettable experience playing at a small club or venue that you never expected… This is the magic that makes us enjoy it and we keep that in our mind. But I think we both agree that Trouw was one of the times we most enjoyed playing.
The first release on your label hit the jackpot - even if we’re talking about 200 copies, only. What do you think was the basis for the success? Were you tempted to make a repress?
Surit: Without any doubt it was a great start for a new label, maybe to do just 200 limited white vinyl hand-stamped copies and the fact that we were completely unknown helped us in terms to create expectation about the project.
Samot: Also we got a very early support from names like Surgeon or Marcel Dettmann that were playing the record many time before it was out. After the release it became on the top sold records at clone.nl in a week… It was so nice. The repress of that record is not in our mind at the moment.
What do you think about record resellers profiting from music that is on demand? The NX1 01 is now sold for at least €40 on Discogs and you won’t be getting even a share of the profit…
Surit: We cannot agree with the speculation, I mean, to buy three records at 9€ and after some time to resell them for the double of the price you paid or what else… Let other people access to that music in vinyl at the same price you paid, we're not making so much business from our label, so it is not good for us that other people make it if we don’t.
Samot: Anyway, this is something we cannot control and unfortunately it's also happening in many other things in life… We also have to say that we can feel honoured if someone is paying that amount of money for any of our records, it means that our feelings and idea connect very strong with this people.
If you work on a release, when do you realize it’s time to finish? How long does it usually take to prepare a release for you, starting from the initial idea?
Samot: It's very difficult to measure a release in terms of time, to be exact… we are used to have many ideas and projects started which are evolving every time we go back to them. Sometimes some track can be done two years ago and we update it when we want to release it or when we think it can fit in a particular record. We can have a track ready in a week if we focus just on it, for example, a remix, but this is not the way we usually work.
Surit: If we talk about our NX1 label we always have a track from which we develop the following tracks, sometimes that track can be old and we work on it again according to our evolution. After that we work on the other ones and it can take us a lot of time because we're also working normally on other things and we take a lot of time before releasing it. If it is a release for any other label, we try to keep that idea, too, but sometimes, for example, on M_Rec, we release 4 tracks that have no relation between each other, so every track has his own story.
As far as I see, NX1 is a sublabel and Nexe is the main label. A-Nexe is still yet to come. What can we expect from A-Nexe and when?
Surit: This is a good question… we're working to define Nexe Records and we hope to start the first releases on the label soon, maybe next year. We first thought about the structure of the label that we wanted to have and that's how we explained and understood our project. We know it is strange to start with a sub-label of a label… But the things came like this for us and we hope to give aphysical form to the full idea of the label soon.
Samot: First of all we've to focus to develop Nexe Records in the best way we can and there is still a lot of work to be done. A-Nexe is still very far we think but we never know how the things could come. The idea to have another sub-label as A-Nexe is to be able release stuff that is not for a club, to escape from strictly dance music, some rarities, ambient, electronic… This is our idea but as we have to think a lot about that, and that is all what we can say for now.
Your releases are stripped down to the minimum in means of presentation, there are even no names, just numbers. What is the philosophy behind this?
Surit: The is something that we realy like, simple in every detail, just our stamp on the vinyl and the paper insert explaining the concept and meaning that we give to each release, with a frame of the video we prepare for every release as an image or artwork of the release.
Samot: We use numbers to name tracks so that it couldn't give you a feeling before listening to it, by associating that name to something, to some feeling or experience you have had. You just can read the numbers and letters, so you have to listen to the track to have your own feeling. This is what we're looking for.
What is your main ambition in the world of techno?
Surit: Just to keep doing what we like and express ourselves through the music like we've done since day one.
Samot: Also to realize the Nexe Records project like it is in our minds and to keep spreading our voice through loudspeakers.
How do you feel about a Samsung camera also named NX1? Maybe you own one?
Samot: Hahaha…! We definitely do not own any Samsung NX1.
Surit: Haha! I'll keep eyed around to see if anyone is using that camera to ask if I could have in my hands just a moment.
Dimensions Festival Launch Party @ Kablys, 04.03
nexerecords.com
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