For many years HOSH has been a pillar of the underground dance music world. He has been a core part of the Diynamic label with his own melodically infused tech sound. He has previously stepped away for special 10” vinyl projects and now does so again to start his own new label fryhide.
It kicks off with a release of his free to download double disc mix of all his own fresh new productions and will then go on to release the tracks as EPs as well as music of others. He has a busy summer ahead and so we speak to him about how and why he made the new album, about life as a father and much more besides.
“Good are all sorts of things. For example seeing my almost 6 month daughter grow up and spending time with her. Being in Ibiza and enjoying the different seasons. Launching this album project and just being alive. Bad is basically whats always bad, wars, politics and all the suffering in the world.”
How are you, what’s good, what’s bad right now?
I am great, thanks for asking. Good are all sorts of things. For example seeing my almost 6 month daughter grow up and spending time with her. Being in Ibiza and enjoying the different seasons.
Launching this album project and just being alive. Bad is basically whats always bad, wars, politics and all the suffering in the world. But I guess you mean this more related to me and so I must say I did pretty good of getting the bad out of my life. So left are only hangovers and mosquitos.
Why have you decided to do your latest album for free?
I basically just react to the times and circumstances we are living in. If you look at my album for example its something between an album and a mix compilation. The classic format would be the CD for this. Most of us don´t even have CD slots in our computers anymore, neither most don´t own stereos with CD players. On top of that mixes in form of podcasts are available in masses every day. If you do an album you usually get press and obviously we all rely on that but the actual album as a product is hard to place. So it was just a logical decision in the end to offer the album as I intended it to be in a mixed form for free. And thats another thing also as I really don´t see the point of doing a dance album and not mixing it to be honest.
What sort of gear did you use to make the album? Are you a hardware specialist, do you geek out over the tools?
Oh I used to geek out over tools and I loved those times to be honest. At one point I just put this into relation of actual output and I figured in all this geeking the actual music making became secondary. I am happy though I had this period as i really learned a lot which comes in handy still. Still I wouldn´t call myself a hardware specialist. For the album I chose a rather minimalistic approach. I used a few of my favorite synths and a drum machine and ran it through an old noisy broadcast mixer with some reverbs and delays on the sends. Synths were the Prophet 6, OB6 mainly. Drum machine was the TR8. Mixer a Sony MXP 21. I recorded longer runs and sessions into logic and would use best fitting takes in the end. This happened in a very tiny sleeping room.
The mixdown I did in a newly build studio later. I basically was mixing stems here and ran it through the more expensive highend hardware that I collected. I always do that as I just get faster where I want the track to be. Used gear here was: API 5500 EQ, Electrodyne 511 EQ´s, IGS Rubberband 500 ME, Foote P3S ME Compressor, UREI 1178 Compressor, Neve style pre amps for coloration.
And why put it out on a new label, fryhide? What start that?
Also this is a natural logical decision. Since the mix is free download it kind of takes the classic label role away. However I still wanted to make the tracks available as tools for other DJs as well and thats why I decided to put them out in 4 EPs as well. You can imagine that it’s impossible to ask a label like Diynamic with so many artists that all deserve their release slots to give me 4 slots to approach my idea. So in the end the only way was to come up with an own label. Thing is though that even before Diynamic started I always wanted to do a label. Things were just so busy and running good that I never had the urge to do this in the end. With fryhide now I have another chance here to actually fulfil that dream. And I will really dive in finding talents and kick ass music that I believe is forward thinking and deserves a platform.
Will you still work with Diynamic? Do you still spend lots of time with those guys?
Oh yes sure. Diynamic will always be my base. There just is no other way. I feel so integrated here and we really achieved a lot in the last century. Since we all have a lets say busy touring schedule its a bit harder to find those times where we actually can spend some quality time. But when we do its like always.
How much did your location in Ibiza influence the sounds you make on this album?
It influenced it a lot. When we moved to the island last year I really felt different. As if I arrived somehow. In the album this comes through in my opinion. Obviously there are also other things influencing the music besides the location but it played a significant role. It´s a special place.
And are you a father yet? How has or will that change things, will you want to be at home more and way less?
Yes, it´s really hard for me to leave home for the weekend. Even worse are the longer tours. Babies are growing fast and I hate to miss out on some steps in between. But if you compare my job to a regular 9 to 5 or 9 to 8 than in the end maybe I have even more quality time with our little one. I mean I also work in this time but I can decide when. So thats actually an advantage. For the future I try to plan tours for one long weekend rather than two weekends.
Tell us about the tune on the album you made that was for your wife – have you done that before? Did she like it?
It was one of those rainy November days and the melody was just very simple and repetitive but still very touching, just as she loves it. So it was clear that this is somehow her track. Thank god she loves it. It´s maybe her favorite even on the album. For me its great as the album starts with the heartbeat of my daughter and ends with Natalia’s Lullaby. And no, i never did this before. It´s just my way of saying thank you.
What else have you got coming up/are you looking forward to?
The album and the whole process around it took quite some space. Next I will dive into some remixing but mainly focus on the album tour. It will be a very busy year. Thats safe to say.
Where in Ibiza will you be playing this summer? What makes the island so good to play at after all these years?
Due to the album tour we will take it a bit slower in Ibiza this season. I will be playing 3 times in DC10. For Circoloco twice and for our Diynamic showcase. I will play at Hï Ibiza for Andrea Oliva and some shows are still in the final making at this point.
Listen & Download “Stories from SA TALAIA” – HERE
