FOLD Invites Svreca
SVRECA likes to do things his own way, which also happens to be the most natural way possible. From curating his Semantica label (now past its 15th anniversary) to subverting current waves of music in the studio and how he works, the alias of Enrique Mena has always stayed true to his very best interests: authenticity and connecting with people.
Despite Semantica’s consistent popularity, it has also remained staunchly underground, remaining open to creative license and always spearheading a sundry array of techno and its derivatives. Such a lack of adherence to any strict “sound” has become one of the reigning strengths of the label. Instead, they have been focusing on unconventional, quality releases that look both inwards and towards people simultaneously, with an intuition that has always maneuvered with the times.
For our next feature interview, Enrique spoke to us candidly about the label’s milestone and his thoughts on the direction of the musical landscape. For his accompanying mix, he provided us with a snaking archival set, recorded live at Chiba in Japan in 2014.
During lockdown, many producers have turned to increased studio time with the lack of gigs happening right now. Have you picked up any new habits or hardware that have helped keep the inspiration flowing?
I was working during the first months of the lockdown, finishing a few pending projects. But after that I entered into a new hiatus and denied signing any projects or remix requests. I´m not a prolific producer anyway, but at the moment I’m not keen on writing any material with any sort of negativity on the mind.
Fortunately, there are lots of artists who have been focused and writing awesome stuff in these weird times.
Are there any new sounds that you've been exploring in the studio which has been of note?
I was working with the Syncussion on a kind of personal tribute to Mika Vainio - maybe on reflection, I was in search of purity and simplicity against all of the music input I have lately experienced. I think every one of us looks for refuge if don't feel comfortable with the current wave.
Our scene was experiencing a lot of changes before COVID, and with this forced interruption we have received interesting things in exchange regarding music. The question is if those trends will continue expanding when we return to clubs.
Pre-COVID, DJs were on a constant cycle of finding new and exciting tunes to keep their regular sets fresh. How do you approach digging for and sorting records in a time of not yet hearing them out shortly after?
I’ve continued working with music in terms of buying and downloading stuff, but I’m not investing as many hours and hours of listening and testing all tracks subjected to play during sets.
Maybe it sounds a bit drastic but I prefer to put my mind and efforts in other directions, because the way I work with music for my sets is a continuum of playing gigs – which stopped exactly a year ago.
Has there been any music from the past that you have come back to visit, and if so, why?
Always. Because stuff is so solid, you know how to handle making a great impact on the audience, but I never put classic tunes into my sets as a basis. I usually do so as a nostalgic exercise, so I can play a very special one for closing or in the last segment!
This year, your label Semantica has reached its 15-year milestone. In what ways would you say the label has evolved in the last 5 years?
Not very much I think. The label structure, formats and purposes are still very similar from the very beginning, but it’s a question that is very hard to answer looking from the inside.
Some of your artists (for example, Arcanoid) have been part of the family since the label's early days. What qualities do these types of producers have which has kept you connected as Semantica has grown?
Any kind of relationship is complicated and there are always multiple factors to stop the professional side, and this works in both directions. Semantica is a small label - a totally independent imprint - but not every artists understands it in this way.
Producers usually want to release on different labels, so I think it is a natural evolution to sign with other imprints and platforms, so as to allow yourself to reach different audiences with your own material.
I think the music is the main reason to understand this shift on artists/labels, because both are evolving and an encounter that happened in the past could have less sense today.
Do people send you demos often? What are you looking for (and avoiding) when considering who to bring on for a release?
I haven’t accepted demos for a long time - I had very bad experiences writing back to people talking about their stuff - even showing interest in future music - so I decided not to listen to material from people I don’t know.
I listen to demos from new people who I meet around gigs - this became key in the last few years because many of the new releases were born from my travels and there´s a beautiful link to cities, artists, friends and promoters. It’s a wonderful cycle.
What is the vision you have for the label going forward? Is there anything in particular you're really excited by?
We prepared a series of releases to celebrate the 15 years. The first we unveiled is a digital compilation series to make a revision from the very early age of the imprint to the current days. I’m sure it will be exciting for the listeners who arrived at the label catalogue recently or even to the ones who only started following us from some years ago.
The future is so uncertain today, so we delivered our future to the Tarot cards…
https://semanticarecords.bandcamp.com/album/el-ermita-o-semantica-tt01
Semantica already has a plethora of material that explores all types of moods and situations. What is your opinion on the direction that labels like yours are going in - do you expect them to explore more ambient/home-listening sounds with the lack of dancefloors at the moment, or do you think they will slingshot back to club tracks?
I love the moment of the ambient / experimental music we are living in now, but I think dance-floor stuff and home-listening are separated and there are specialised labels focused on each thing. When clubs and festivals return, the offer of club music will rise again, as always. But is great to see how many labels adapted a new balance and release dance-floor oriented music with an experimental or ambient twist - that’s perfect to me.
What is it that you really enjoy about with curating and overseeing the label?
I really love my work with the label. I enjoy it much more than producing music or the gigs and it’s evident I feel so glad of the label route to date. At the moment it’s the most natural process for me and I feel it as heavily connected with my DJ role. In a way, it’s a part of the same overall job: filter music, define a direction, a range. Curating a label is very similar as working on a set, but it requires much more communication with third parties.
Tell us more about your own output at the moment. What can we expect to see from you in the coming weeks and months?
I have some selected stuff ready for Semantica, but it’s nothing compared with the upcoming releases from the label.