Label Love #31: Love On The Rocks

Music

"Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."

Love On The Rocks is a Berlin based record label run by Paramida, founder of Paradisco club night and cohort of the revered Salon Zur Wilde Renate. Paramida has cultivated an individual musical style that has seen her become one of Berlin’s most in demand DJs. Just four releases in we've found them very palatable on the ear with releases from Telephones, Khidja, Massimiliano Pagliara and ESS O ESS and some fine remixes including the mighty Gatto Fritto.

She doesn't like interviews very much but we needed to find out a bit more…

Who are you?

Berlin’s most hated.

Where are you?

In my bed right now.

What are you?

Something really annoying.

Can you tell us a little bit about Love On The Rocks and what the label's original blueprints were? What sparked the idea and kicked it into gear?

Just the fact that I thought I could run a label better than other people.

What are some of the label's formative musical influences?

Good question. Therefore I need to go back to the past, when I was 17 or 18 years old. I grew up near Frankfurt and musically I’m socialised by the club Robert Johnson. DJs like Ata, Prins Thomas and Lauer's Brontosaurus Club made me basically create the taste I have now.

Is there a particular framework/concept you work to with the releases on the label?

There is absolutely no framework/concept. Everything I do happens totally unexpected. Everything I plan turns out in a different way.

How do you source material for the label?

Partly I get sent stuff, partly I chase people to send me stuff.

With the process of selecting & finding music for release, do you find that there's a tendency towards music from producers who directly approach the label or is a lot of it sourced yourself?

I don’t know. My label is pretty young, I don’t know how the tendency used to be before. In general, I think people shouldn’t hesitate to send music. I always try to answer and give feedback, even if it’s not quite for Love On The Rocks. On the other hand, the best producers sit at home and are too much of a perfectionist about their own sound and hesitate sending out or releasing their own music. That’s why we get swamped every week with mediocre releases, because people who are half as good are way more confident about their own sound.

Tell us a bit about Paradisco. How does Paradisco influence the sound of Love On The Rocks?

Paradisco is my monthly party at Renate. Soundwise it’s pretty much identical, that’s why I try to combine Love On The Rocks Nights with Paradisco.

How do the likes of R$N favourites Red Axes and Moscoman go down in Berlin?

They go down smooth like a crack ho in east LA. They are the Renate sound in a way, Disco & Rock’n’Roll with Techno kisses.”

What’s your relationship with Salon Zur wilden Renate?

I had my first gig in Berlin at Renate. After moving here I played more and more often and became a resident. Since April 2013 I have had my own night Paradisco.

How much do you love Love On The Rocks and what’s your relationship with Neil Diamond?

Wrong question! The link is not Neil Diamond, it’s Lama’s “Love On The Rocks” from 1983, a cover version of Chaplin’s Band “Il Veliero”. And yes, I love that track very much!

In the age of the 3 second attention span, do you still listen to albums?

Yes, but mostly at work in the record shop or after a long weekend at home.

What has been the label’s happiest accident?

All the releases have been happy accidents that turned out differently than planned.

What's the best thing you've heard this year?

Khidja’s “Never Seen The Dunes” and upcoming stuff on Love On The Rocks including Fantastic Man’s new EP in May. Fasten your seatbelts!

Which record labels have been the most influential in your own musical journey?

There has a never been a label for me that has put out amazing music constantly in my eyes. But if I would have to choose one, I would choose Prins Thomas’ “Full Pupp”. I’m totally obsessed with the Oslo Disko sound and the early Full Pupp stuff.

How do you as an individual ‘consume’ music most? Is it at home on speakers, on your headphones on the move or something else?

Since everything I do is related to music (label A&R, working in a record shop, djing every weekend), I listen to music less and less in private. Sad, but true. When someone asks me, 'what's your favourite music?', I always answer “silence”.

If you could release any record from musical history, what would it be? Is there anything that you'd like done differently with the record?

Oh yeah, I would have gone back to the time before Trance became Trance, Proto-Trance and Proto-Prog and would have released it in a different way, so it could have never gone into a shitty direction.