Recently we were lucky enough to catch Teki Latex of French labels Sound Pellegrino and Institubes at White Rabbit in NYC, alongside Classixx, 12th Planet, Acid Girls + others. After creating a small, yet respectable collection of leftover cover stickers of the latest Sound Pellegrino release ‘Straight From The Spring’ we moved to the dance floor to catch the Thermal Team’s set. A friend was able to snag Teki’s email afterward and hooked us up with an interview via email.
LBS: According to your twitter bio you are a ‘Curator extraordinaire’, how does one achieve such a status?
TEKI: It’s a lazy way of saying I spend my days having ideas, bringing people together, finding out about wonderful things, music, artworks, and bringing them together on projects that are gonna make the people happy and hopefully generate some money somewhere down the road. Whether I’m working on a DJ line-up for a party, selecting remixers for a release, or just giving advice on someone else’s project or career, or putting tracks together on a compilation for a brand, I consider myself as a curator. You know when you were a kid and you were inventing superheroes with new superpowers, or making up imaginary video games or later on dream lists of rappers who should collaborate together or stuff like that? (I used to do that, anyway). Well once you get older and it becomes a job, I guess it’s called “being a curator”, but it’s really just being a kid and coming up with wacky ideas and making them real.
LBS: You are the co-founder of two great labels, Institubes as well as sub-label Sound Pellegrino. What is it like touring, managing, promoting all these artists and how do you find the time?
TEKI: Well since a few years there’s been people working on Institubes full-time and they are really the ones running it so now my role in Institubes is more that of a counselor. When it comes to Sound Pellegrino, it takes up a lot of time but we’re taking it one release at a time, and the release process gets more fluid and natural with each release. It’s digital and we only release EP’s so it’s not as much of a heavy process as a big traditional record company. The touring and the promotion and the whole public relations aspect all go hand in hand. We have hectic schedules but we love hard work!
LBS: There are so many new labels coming out with solid releases, how do you keep up with all of them?
TEKI: I don’t know if i keep up with all of them! But in general when something new and great slips off my radar, Orgasmic notices it, which is the great thing about Sound Pellegrino being a two-headed hydra.
LBS: What’s the scene in France like compared to that in the US, do you think we can ever catch up?
TEKI: In France there’s plenty of kids coming up but everything is divided in micro scenes so nothing really ever blows up, at least it hasn’t really happened since the mid 00′s, but maybe now is the time? I think crews like Youngunz and Club Cheval are doing great things. The US are very much catching up. The American appreciation of dance music is just a bit different, but for example I was suprised to see how popular UK styles were when we played in New York. Of course commercial dubstep is huge but I’m also talking about more hybrid things like what Hessle audio or Nightslugs are doing, people knew about it and reacted to it naturally, more than they did with “traditional” house, and with people like Dubbel Dutch, Brenmar, Kingdom, Nguzunguzu there’s sort of a US equivalent of that scene developing nowadays. When you think of it there’s always been a strong following for bass music since the Miami/Atlanta bass days in the states, and Chicago house is coming back in a major way nowadays so it makes sense that American people would be ready for what Sound Pellegrino has to deliver.
LBS: Who are some of your favorite artists/tracks coming out right now?
TEKI: The Club Cheval camp has lots of hot tracks in the pipeline, I just heard the new Myd demos and they are, pardon my french, “off the chain”. Nightshifters are coming up with awesome releases by Magnum and Distal, I’m always excited for the new Dirtybird releases, ‘Spock’ is massive and we’re having the great honor to play alongside The Martin brothers at the next Sound Pellegrino party at Social Club Paris in October. My friend Jonathan, the vocalist from DOP, is working on tons of exciting projects. I’m also very into Soul Clap and some of Nicolas Jaar’s stuff nowadays, on a deeper house tip.
LBS: What is next for Sound Pellegrino the label, and Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team?
TEKI: When it comes to the label, we’re dropping a Dinosaurs with Guns remix EP in September with mixes by Canblaster, Funkin Matt, Bobmo and of course remix competition winners TWR72. Then there’s a Panteros666 EP that’s gonna contain a few hot remixes and collaborations (This one is gonna take everybody by surprise)… Our release schedule is full until 2011 but I’d like to keep the rest of what’s in store as a little bit of a surprise. I like suprises. As for Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team no word of a release for now but it might hit you when you expect it the least! I’ve learned to be very cautious with release dates announcements in this world of angry internet nerds.
Well there you have it, all you internet nerds fall back! Thanks Teki & Matt!
