This is a transcript of the Beyond the Decks Podcast 001 with Cash Only. The timestamps in the transcript are clickable links that take you directly to that point in the main video. Please note that the transcript is automatically generated, and may have errors. Here are some useful links:
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Table of Contents
00:00:05 – Introduction
00:02:09 – Cash’s Early Influences
00:06:09 – Evolution of UK Garage
00:09:45 – Transitioning to Stoke on Trent
00:17:05 – The Importance of Networking
00:33:15 – The Formation of Unity
00:40:47 – Transition from DJing to Business
00:43:41 – Business to back DJing
01:00:10 – DVINE Sounds and Cash as a Label Manager
01:16:41 – Building Community Through Music
Introduction
(00:00:05)
Robert Simoes
Welcome everybody to Learning to DJ’s Beyond the Decks podcast, your guide to mastering the art and business of DJing and electronic music in the industry. And today I’m actually really excited. I’m really thrilled and grateful, really, to be able to speak to this gentleman. his name is Matt Wilcox, but he goes by his maybe more, established alias, which is DJ Cash Only, which will dive into a little bit. And, Matt is actually an artist and DJ of 20 plus years of experience, first starting his DJ journey in the 90s or mid 90s, era with the earliest scenes of UK garage and house in England. And what’s more, he kind of sort of became a little bit of a promoter in his own way, throwing, you know, occasional dance parties and raves in his local scene of Stoke on Trent and pulling anywhere from 200 to 1500 people for these kind of odd lot, you know, different types of events in a scene that was generally kind of a little bit more resistance, which we’ll talk a little bit about.
(00:01:08)
Robert Simoes
And he had to kind of take a little bit of a turn and a change in his direction, which I’m really excited to, to dive into before coming back to where he is today, where he’s an artist and actually one of the managers for the, the subsidiary label Devine Sounds of the record label conglomerate, Defected Records. And today cash describes himself as connecting the dots between UK garage and house with tons of flavor filled releases on Nervous Records, Upcycled, DVINE Sounds, and a little bit more so I’m, like I said, super grateful and really excited to be able to chat with you today, Matt. So welcome to the podcast.
(00:01:47)
Cash Only
Well, wow, what an intro. Yeah, thanks. thanks for that. And yeah, it’s amazing to, to be here and, Yeah, to be speaking to someone over the pond. and. Yeah, I’m sure we’re we’ll have some good conversation about, you know. Yeah, a lot of stuff. And it’ll be interesting to. Yeah. As I say, connect the dots with a lot of stuff.
(00:02:07)
Cash Only
Not just music, perhaps.
Cash’s Early Influences
(00:02:09)
Robert Simoes
Wonderful. Well, Matt, I want to. Let’s go to the start. Go to the beginning. Right. Because every artist or DJ or what have you has some sort of moment that they kind of clued into this, like this music, whether it’s house music or UK garage or whatever, like, this is my thing. This is the thing that I’m connecting with. Like, where did that start for you as a DJ?
(00:02:33)
Cash Only
I think so I quite, as you say, there’s a couple of pivotal moments that, that I remember that were kind of where I thought, yeah, I want to be a DJ and we’re going back to the 90s. So I was born in 1979. So, you know, in about 1995, that would have been like my final year at school in England. So we finished school at 16 and then it’s up to us what we wanted to do back then. Now we have to stay in school to 18. And I think whereas my dad had aspirations for me to be, you know, to go to university and to to be clever because it would have been quite unique within our family for someone to do that.
(00:03:13)
Cash Only
let’s just say that perhaps my own school experience probably wasn’t, the best. I probably wasn’t. I wasn’t academic, really. I was quite clever. Well, I’d like to think I’m quite clever, but I was I was quite motivated by working. Like I worked at McDonald’s when I was 16, as soon as I was 16, in England. But then you, you were able to get a job. So in the time when I was doing my final exams, I was like literally more interested in in delivering pizzas for a pizza company or working in McDonald’s and, you know, getting my paycheck and going and buying some Versace t shirts and whatnot. But yeah, when I was about, I was about 14, 15. I remember going to, a quite a big record store in the UK back then called HMV. I don’t have it over, over in America or Canada, but that was where everyone went to buy their music and they had listening stations. The way we consume music back then was so totally different to how we do it now.
(00:04:08)
Cash Only
And you would go and you would maybe hear something on radio. the top 40, where people would be selling 500 and 600,000 records to get to number one that week. which is totally, again, totally different to the way that people procure and consume music now. so yeah, you’ll go there and you’ll listen to some music on on headphones and yeah, I’d buy that, I’d buy that. And, and two CDs I remember buying one was, a ministry of sound, Masters at Work CD. So obviously, you know, Louis Vega and Kenny Dope. and that was that. That was just music that I was like, yeah, this is just I just loved it. I didn’t like all of it because all of it, some of it was a little bit, maybe soft or a little bit too musical, but obviously the groove that them guys get within their tracks and the, you know, some of the biggest house records were made by either them together or personally. so that was one CD that really inspired me.
(00:05:01)
Cash Only
And then another CD I bought almost the same week or the week after when I got some more money, I bought a drum and bass CD, or back then in the UK we called it jungle, so it was basically drum and bass, very raw drum and bass infused with like reggae, flavors. So you’d have like a ragga mic over the top of some quite hard, you know, drums and and whatnot. And those like, it was quite different musical styles, but they both inspired me. Shortly after that, there was another CD that came out. So I guess UK garage or garage as you call it, that that evolved from US house being sped up. So in England there was something called a Sunday scene. So on Sunday, when the clubs finished at the weekend, on Sundays everyone would go to, there was a few parties, in London, and there was a few people on the scene that were starting to play or even produce and make this kind of US house. That was a little bit tougher, a little bit more driving, and started to, you know, bootleg R&B vocals over the top of, sounds that were influenced by by that US house scene.
Evolution of UK Garage
(00:06:09)
Cash Only
And that evolved into the early days of UK garage, which was, yeah, 1995 96, probably 9798 is where it really took a hold of London. it’s, it’s it’s quite an iconic genre really, because in England, especially London, you know, it really did have a hold of the capital and like all the other genres, weren’t really as big as what that was in probably 1997 to probably 2000, 2001. And yeah, a lot of the the DJs there, they’re going to do 4 or 5 gigs tonight, sometimes six gigs a night, just going to different clubs around London. And anyway, the point I was making was there was there’s there’s a couple of guys called Tuff Jam, which is called Tough Enough. Browne and Matt Jam Lamont, who you may or may not have heard of, Matt Jam Lamont is still active. Carl Brown isn’t so much, although BMG just bought the the old catalog and just rereleased it on Spotify for the stuff that they were making, and they put out another CD called, Tuff Jam, Underground Frequencies volume one, I think.
(00:07:12)
Cash Only
And again, that was a very pivotal moment for me buying that CD. Or it might even be in a tape because I can’t remember if I used to, you know what Walkman is? Yes. Yeah. Okay. So a lot of people I’m trying to explain this the other day. So like, we’re like what used to get like a little plastic thing and put it into a thing with wheels and press, you press the button. I was like, yeah, that’s how we used to have to do it. so yeah, that was another iconic moment. And then from there I was like, yeah, I want to be a DJ. So the next kind of steps in that journey was, buying a set of decks. So again, decks back then they weren’t digital. You know, we we basically put bits of acetate, which were records of vinyl and put them onto, spinning around things and put a needle on. And obviously.
(00:08:00)
Robert Simoes
You got.
(00:08:00)
Cash Only
Oh, they were, they were horrendous.
(00:08:02)
Cash Only
They were like belt drive. So again, for the for people that will know what I’m talking about. Obviously you have direct drives and belt drives and direct drives like, you know, 12 tens and techniques. You know, the you know, the response, you know, you touched it and sped it up a little bit. It would it would work. Belt drives. You touched it a tiny bit. It would just fly off the chain, you know, be it would just be so hard to stay in the mix. But, you know, 12 tends to be quite expensive back then. God knows how much they are now. But yeah. So it was probably a set of rickety old, new marks or I really can’t remember. So yeah, I cut my teeth on them. started to buy vinyls, and then got into the whole kind of going into central. I was living in, in north west London at the time, and, and at the weekends I would go into central London and visit and just do the rounds of the record shops like, Unity Records, Black Market, Uptown and just and just like, just buy a tracks, take them home, practice mix and.
(00:08:59)
Cash Only
Yeah, that that kind of got me hooked. And, you know, I did that for a couple of years. And then when I was about 18, I moved out of London up to the Midlands, and I managed to get myself a set of 12 tens. In fact, I was telling the story the other day, I’m sure I bought some. I went so as a as well as working at McDonald’s, I was a pizza boy for a little bit of time. So I had a pizza pizza bike with like a box on the back. And I remember saving up enough money. I just had enough money. And I drove like about 15, 20 miles to this Hi-Fi equipment store, bought this 12 tens, put them in the back of a pizza box and then drove them home. So yeah, that was, you know, I remember that the other day. and that was wow. That was, you know, 25 years ago, when I got my first set of proper decks.
Transitioning to Stoke on Trent
(00:09:45)
Cash Only
and then you need the other equipment, so you need to record a tape. So you’d have to mix and press record on a tape, and then you give tapes to your friends and blah, blah, blah. So yeah, that was my earliest memories of of wanting to be a DJ and whatnot. And then I kind of moved out of London and again, I was working for McDonald’s at the time in a place called Stoke on Trent. Now Stoke on Trent is quite a small town or city. It’s actually a city in the middle of the country. So in the middle of the UK and the music that was in Stoke on Trent, which is in the Midlands, so in between Manchester and Birmingham basically was very different to the music that I was used to in London, UK garage, was basically no one knew really what it was. There was a small like group of people, predominantly people that would normally go to like kind of R&B or hip hop events if they want to sound a little bit more tough for your dancer.
(00:10:37)
Cash Only
And because of the way that UK garage were making bootlegs, that would appeal to that kind of crowd. So there was a few people that are into it, but not a huge amount of people. So it was quite a culture shock for me and that anyone that I knew that I could vibe with on a musical kind of thing wasn’t there anymore. So yeah, it was a bit of a difficult one. However, Stoke on Trent was because it was the middle of the country. It was a bit of an epicenter of the rave scene. So again, back then to find out about an event or a party. People literally used to wait by a phone box for a phone call and they’d say, right, the party’s here, everyone go there now and you’ll have a convoy of cars that would travel to wherever. And then people would just know, oh yeah, if you want to go raving, you’d go there. So Stoke on Trent had a couple of p venues that were really quite big on the rave and the like the hard house and trance scene.
(00:11:32)
Cash Only
So there was a void and before the void there was Shelley’s which again, like not a lot of people know what I’m on about, but for those hardcore ravers that are in their 40s, you know, they’d all know about those kind of places. And, you know, Carl Cox would play there, you know, and, and all sorts of massive names. Now, would play there and they would they’ve obviously evolved into different kind of DJs as things have progressed. But yeah. So in Stoke on Trent I was a DJ and I kind of it was kind of a blessing, a curse that there wasn’t a musical, group around me, but that was kind of good because some of the clubs at that stage, in the early 2000, they started to struggle a little bit. They had to diversify and look at, okay, how can we program our venues slightly differently? And oh yeah, we’ve heard there’s this lad and he’s writing to music and they started to do a few little parties and community centers and house parties where we were getting 100, a couple hundred people.
(00:12:30)
Cash Only
Maybe we should talk to him. So I did a couple of parties in in the bigger club, something like their Fridays or their Thursdays. And he had quite quickly we were getting, you know, 1000, 2000, you know, 3000 people to events. and how do you so that.
(00:12:46)
Robert Simoes
Those opportunities, like you mentioned. Right. You had this these venues, they sort of reached out to you. Were you creating those connections through the rave scene or what were you what were you doing? How did you establish those connections?
(00:12:57)
Cash Only
Well, Stoke on Trent is a very small place and everyone kind of knows everyone. So yeah, I think I, I think I did an event somewhere and then someone reached out and said, oh yeah, we really want to talk to him. Maybe you can do something for us. And then I did something there, and then I kind of proved myself as a promoter. but the struggle was, is that the music that I loved? Like, at that time, UK garage wasn’t really able to be played in a mainstream.
(00:13:22)
Cash Only
It was literally, you know, you could do a party every 4 or 6 weeks and get a few hundred people. If it was just that, if you were putting on someone else, maybe one of the radio one, R&B DJs that you could use as well and maybe do that in a two and multi, venue or multi room venue, then you’d be getting in the thousands. But yeah it was, it was, that was the frustration for me. So then I had to diversify what I played, because I realized that I was in with the right people and I was a DJ and they were using other residents were actually, if you really want be a DJ, maybe you have to diversify your musical style. So I kind of I feel like I sold my soul to the devil for a number of years in that I went from playing, you know, UK underground house and garage to playing like not quite Britney Spears, but Shakira, she Wolff and, Justin Timberlake. You know, that kind of that time when Timberland was making that kind of 120 BPM, like, like R&B, hip hop, stuff like.
(00:14:20)
Cash Only
And then, oh, yeah, I can play a little bit of, like, I can slip a little bit of garage in there, or I can play Jumpman. So anyway, I sold my soul to the devil. And then I started playing multi-format. and I did that for a bit of time, but, you know, it was good money you could earn. And it was, you know, a lot of it was potentially non-invasive. So, yeah, it was good. You know, you could do 4 or 5 nights a week and you’d be alright financially. Do a couple of parties and you wouldn’t have to go to work in a day. So you know.
(00:14:52)
Robert Simoes
Internally though, I mean, as an artist, as somebody who, you know, you resonated with the UK garage, you know, we all have something, whether it’s somebody, it’s like it’s house or they’re hardcore techno person or they love jungle, right? And then it’s like this, what would you call it? Like a tension between what you want to play, what the internal artist or the DJ and you wants to play.
(00:15:14)
Robert Simoes
And then it’s sort of this, like you mentioned, there’s the scene and kind of the audience to cater to. How did you manage that internally, that tension, if there wasn’t?
(00:15:24)
Cash Only
Well, you know, I often say this a lot of the time when you get gigs that you want to play or you like to play, there’s often not really any money. Like, you know, I mean, Glastonbury, for example, there’s a lot of artists that I know, that won’t get paid and they’re big names, you know, people that go out for ten grand plus, you know, pounds. So like what, 14, $15? You know that will that will play Glastonbury once, twice, maybe three times. And they might only get drinks and a rider, you know, they don’t have to pay for their own accommodation. You know, even other big festivals that I won’t mention. But there’s one this weekend, in Europe and they spend a lot of money on stage production. But again, I know firsthand that some of the artists aren’t getting anywhere near what their fee should be.
(00:16:11)
Cash Only
So I guess what helps me manage that internal, frustration, I guess, was the fact that I was earning decent money, you know, for a lad in his early 20s to, you know, to be earning back then, you know, thousand £1,500 a week, you know, it’s it’s quite a lot of money. And yeah, that’s how I managed it. And also a lot of Jack Daniels and Coke got me through it. Yeah. so yeah. And it was I went out and like, I could do four gigs a week Thursday, Friday, Saturday, maybe a Monday shoot at night, 4 or 5 hours, you know, and I had a little DJ agency as well. So I had a couple of lads that worked for me that I was programming other venues with. I did a few parties, you know, as I say, and I kind of at that stage just again, I guess being in the middle of the country, if you one bit of advice I give people is that if you’re not in a major city.
The Importance of Networking
(00:17:05)
Cash Only
So in England, for example, Birmingham, Manchester or London, you’ve not got that network around you. The people that I’ve met in the last two and a half years since, you know, I’ve been like in the mixer, as I call it, like the things I’ve learned, the things that I’ve done and the things that the people that I’ve met, all of these networks, like, you know, what do they say your your network is your network. Yeah. And, you know, I was kind of at the top of my network in a very small city in the middle of the country. So that whole kind of personal self-actualization of what I wanted to do wasn’t really able to happen because I didn’t have the network around me. or I didn’t know how to do it because I couldn’t learn from someone. So yeah, that’s how. That’s how I dealt with it. I mean, I look back on it, I think we should have probably made a little bit more of those days there.
(00:17:57)
Cash Only
But, you know, I enjoyed it. And yeah, it was an experience. But even now, you know, when you look at when I look at some gigs that I play now and you talk about, you know, playing to audiences etc., I can’t just go to a gig and just play what I want to play. If I went to a gig and play only what I liked. I’m not sure many people would stay. But that’s the art of being a DJ, right? You know, you’ve got to read the audience and another deejay that I know, you know, they say stuff like, you know, it’s one for me, one for you. And like, you know, one kind of wild card. And they just play like that, you know. 1111. So, you know, you’re keeping the audience there, you’re keeping them engaged, but then you’re giving them something a little bit more underground. And then it’s chicken and egg. How do you break a record nowadays? It’s getting harder and harder, I think in this day and age to break new music.
(00:18:44)
Cash Only
When I look at all the tracks that I’ve produced, apart from one, they’re all original vocals and I spend a lot of time and I’ve reflected on this recently, actually. I spent a lot of time in writing camps and working with singers and songwriters and putting original music together. And in my belief, I think they’re, you know, good tracks. But again, someone else something said to me once a very, you know, established producer, they said one man’s apple was another man’s orange. You know, you might like apples, but I like oranges. And it’s interesting, you know, in the way that that people judge your music and stuff like that. But the point I’m making is that I feel that a lot of music nowadays is music from back in the day that’s been rehashed or re-edited and blown up on TikTok or blown up on socials, and it’s basically an edit that someone’s made that record label have seen blow up and they’re like, oh, I own that. So we’re going to sign it because we own it.
(00:19:42)
Cash Only
Or actually, thanks for doing that with our track. We’re going to take that back now And I work a deal out with the artist and blah, blah, blah. So, you know, we’re all here grafting. We’re all here trying to trying our best to, to to do what we love. but yeah. Music, the music scene is, is not easy, no matter what level you’re at, in my opinion.
(00:20:03)
Robert Simoes
I want to go back to the the diversification of format quickly. But you brought up something that I thought was so interesting, this, the way that records are broken. And I was listening to, I think, DJ snake on one of his podcasts, talking about the nature of vinyl and how vinyl records were broken. You’d play something on the Friday, and then Monday everybody would be up at the record store being like, what’s, what’s this? What’s this? Can I get a copy? and to what you mentioned about the evolution of music being kind of just not necessarily rehashing, but kind of edits, right, of these older tracks, these older vocals or samples in that way.
(00:20:38)
Robert Simoes
I think it was Joey Negro said that, or Dave Lee, I guess, now said that, you know, one of the main challenges with disco nowadays is that there’s not any real instruments anymore. They used to be old disco bands. They used to be people actually playing these instruments. Is it? You know, we’re in this world right now where we’re between this transience of analog in the digital right. And there’s a lot of focus on the digital. But for some reason, all the all the roots of the digital kind of come from from the analog. Is there is there something there that artists can take as inspiration? Should they start picking up, you know, learning how to play instruments in addition to like Ableton or what have you, in order to create a unique type of sound because it feels that way. Right? You listen to a vinyl record and you’re like, okay, this is, you know, somebody was in some room somewhere, they had no computers. They just had a bunch of synthesizers and stuff all spread over the table.
(00:21:25)
Robert Simoes
And we’re just playing around. There’s something really, satisfying and nourishing about that. How do you think about that?
(00:21:31)
Cash Only
Yeah, I mean, it’s an interesting point you make about the way that records were broken back then. You know, I remember you’d be you’d be in a rave and someone would play a tune like, oh my God, what’s this track? It’s amazing. And as a DJ and a raver, you then go away and you go to record shops. And I’ve heard this song and it goes, no, no, no, no, no, no. And they look at you and like, yeah, I don’t know what you’re on about, mate, but here’s some records. Have a listen to them and let us know if you like. And then you’ll be like, oh that’s that track I’ve heard. And then it would blow up. And you know, a good track was a good track back then. And there was also a sense of FOMO as well. It was like, you know, holding those records back and like making people hunt for them and want them and making them, I guess, a bit like, you know what, what Kenya and Adidas did with Yeezys, you know, here’s a here’s a product.
(00:22:19)
Cash Only
You can’t really have it, but we’re advertising it. It makes you want it more. So it was a bit like, oh give us some records that are under the counter mate. You know, have you got have you. I’ve heard. Yeah. Come on look after me. You know. So yeah it was it’s it’s mad. And back then as well a lot of the records that people made was so simple. If we go back to the UK garage, there’s like a track called A Little Bit of Luck, which is DJ and MC neat. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard it. It’s literally some drums that are ripped off of another track called Hype Funk, or it’s probably called Something Else, but that’s what I call it and that’s it. It’s a white vinyl, so I don’t even know what it’s called. and then it had a bassline on it, a pad and a vocal. Again, if you look at it. So Daniel Bedingfield got to get through this. I don’t know if you’ve heard that.
(00:23:04)
Cash Only
Another that was kind of a that, that that track blew up on the underground and then got signed to the majors and then got into the charts and I mean, Daniel Bedingfield, I think it’s sister Natasha. I think Natasha Bedingfield actually did better than him. I think she was maybe a songwriter or singer or whatnot. So that’s how records used to blow up. And crossover DJs would play them, typically off of dub plates or acetates. People would hear them in the raves, DJs would buy them, they’d get played on pirate radio. Then people like Pete Tong would pick them up or like this, or someone sent me this. You used to have to take your time to listen to music. Oh, here’s a load of vinyl that I’ve been sent. It’s it’s you can feel it. You can touch it. It feels special because you’ve been given it. And you take the time to take it out of its sleeve. Put it on a deck, skip through it all, y’all. Like that one? Put that one on the side in terms of promos or demos or edits or anything that we get sent as artists get sent to the track, press spacebar to let it play, skip it on, skip it on, skip it on.
(00:24:04)
Cash Only
Yeah, I’m not in the mood for that. Don’t like that. Might never go back to it. Do you know what I mean? It’s really music is so disposable now, and it’s quite sad in many ways. And I think that’s the reason why it’s so much harder for original new music to get broken. and, you know, it’s interesting to hear stories over the years of people that that missed out on records. and it was like, well, I did send it to you, you know. It’s like, well, yeah, like I had a track. We got to number four and track source and the garage chart and, Yeah, I bumped into Tom and I said, oh, nice track, man. I was like, yeah, I did send it to you, you know that, don’t you? It’s like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well we’ll do the next one. It’s like, yeah. But yeah, I just think that just the whole evolution, I mean, another very pivotal moment for me, in terms of music and probably one of the points in time where I started to make a transition more.
(00:24:57)
Cash Only
Halsey was in Miami in space on a terrace about four know it would have been later than actually it was daylight. And I was like thinking to myself, what am I doing in here? I think it was like 11 in the morning and Pete Tong was playing and it was sunny and everything, and he played, Bodhi Rocks. Yeah, yeah. So the mirrors, mix a bit and this bassline, I was like, what is that? And I had it in my head for six months, and I kept going into record shops, like, have you got this track? And then, yeah, it must have blown up and it went, it came out on a major and yeah. And they put a vocal over it as well to support that crossover appeal. But yeah, that was another, you know, pivotal moment. And that was probably I mean it was probably played on CJ’s back then. It probably wasn’t final. I mean, even going back to vinyl, when we used to have to travel to gigs, you had to take a massive box of vinyl.
(00:25:45)
Cash Only
It’s like I could if I had to do that Now. We did. We did seven planes at the weekend. Like imagine. Like taking them and like, not wanting to check them in and whether they’re going to the holding the gas. Yeah. So it’s crazy. So yeah, there’s been so much evolution. And I mean, again, that there’s kind of some quite iconic moments of transition within music. So vinyl to digital I mean even deejaying from from digital even to when Apple Music came out, and then Spotify. and then. Yeah. Shall I check for some Beatport? It’s like that was, that was that didn’t happen overnight in my opinion. You know, it took a bit of time. and even from DJing, unlike slapper cases with CDs in to USB Like, you know is it was a moment. But now we’re at this other moment where TikTok, Instagram, viral moments are making or breaking tunes, which then feeds into as an artist, I mean, I sit on both sides of the fence artist and label manager.
(00:26:54)
Cash Only
So I’m always, I always try to be as sympathetic as I can to artists when they’re pitching tracks to me, because I know how it feels. I often feel as an artist that I’ve basically got a bucket throwing a load of USBs in it with music and just throwing it at the wall because, you know, getting responses, feedback and stuff like that is often, yeah, it’s very hard. But I get it. You know, the amount of demos that we get sent is, is phenomenal. and you know, the amount of demos some of these other bigger labels must get must be huge. So yeah, it’s, you know, yeah, it’s frustrating. But yeah, this, this whole moment, at this moment in time where. Yeah, it’s a great track. It’s an amazing track. We love it. But like we haven’t got that viral TikTok video. It’s like, right, well is it a good song or is it not a good song. So it’s frustrating, but you’ve got to sell records again if you’ll put, you know, to get £3,000 or whatever it is, you’ve got to get million streams, You know that’s not easy.
(00:27:50)
Cash Only
Like my track on Nervous Records. That’s approaching 100 K now. But it’s only £300 when you take out you know the splits. You know the mastering the the infrastructure cost in terms of the servicing and the promotion. You know, there’s not a lot of money there because sales on Beatport and track source again they’re not we’re not talking thousands and thousands of pounds I’m sure. So you do kind of need that that track that is going to cross over and the wider audience kind of resonate with. And then off the back of that, I guess it’s how long are you going to stay at that point where you’ve got to. And I think it’s about consistency as well. I mean, I’m quite impatient, so I’m like, I feel like I’ve thrown everything at it this year as an artist myself and I, you know, I put out a track on Friday, which is arguably, in my opinion, my best work. And I’ve got two videos which are absolutely, you know, incredible. One played at a massive festival in in England with a drone and all this and another video, played at a choir, seven, 8000 people.
(00:28:54)
Cash Only
And, you know, not to mention big radio plays, a lot of money spent behind radio promotion and playlist promotion for Spotify, and it’s just not getting to where it should be. So as an artist, you like, well, I’m going to give up. Forget it. Yeah, but yeah, you can’t do that. Look, you know, again, one man’s orange is another man’s apple. You know, here’s what it is. You know, I think I just think people just have to be consistent. If you keep consistently putting music out every six weeks or every so often, you build up a body of work and people find you and they join your community and you know, they they love everything about you. You start playing shows. you know, we played Glastonbury, you know, it was about four or 5 or 6000 people there. You know, I’d like to think that a handful of those decided to follow me on socials and, and join my journey and, and whatnot.
(00:29:46)
Cash Only
And I was again, that’s another, you know, point. It gets so busy. But I was when anyone ever reaches out to me on socials, you know, I was trying to take time at least to say thanks or, or to, like, pick them up, you know, because even on Spotify, it’s like I’m on Spotify and like 2 or 10 people or 20 people listen to my music, even if it was one person that was listening to one of my tracks. You know, I feel very appreciative that they’ve taken the time to do that. And they found me. So, yeah, like, you know, I’ve been doing music for 25, 30 years, but, you know, only really been back at it the last, the last 18 months probably. Yeah. So, you know, I’m very mindful that this is a very early journey for me. And, I guess you have to treat it like a hobby. I think at this stage of my career, you know, you have to be very grateful for those opportunities that you’re given, but at the same time not take it too seriously.
(00:30:38)
Cash Only
There’s a very, very few minor handful of people that are ever going to get to where every DJ wants to get to. So take take the winds as you take them and you don’t give up as well as is a great bit of advice, because it’s very easy as an artist to give up, I think, and that is why a lot of people don’t like get there to where they want to get to, To you to join me?
(00:31:03)
Robert Simoes
Yeah. And I think even this, even I think almost in any pursuit or creative, journey, whether it’s building a business, building a brand as an artist, the thing that I’m noticing is we do. Maybe it’s a consequence of the fixation on social media. We have this obsession with the viral, outcome. Instead of viewing a long tail of our whole portfolio of different tracks that we have. And, you know, I think it was demure, one of the, tracking house artists here in Toronto who had this, thing that he said about how you can create these, like, tracks or ideas that you never released, and then you sort of just put them in the locker and then, you know, who knows, a year later, three years later, they then become like assets for you, useful because you pull that loop that was really groovy.
(00:31:48)
Robert Simoes
And you can kind of take it in a way. But because we’re so focused on that in the moment of trying to get that viral hit, it’s it can feel as though everything is almost like, just do or die, right? It’s like, gotta, gotta hit it. But at the same time, like you said, I mean, these tracks, you know, the tracks are great and it’s that kind of signal to noise problem. How do you create that, essence or uniqueness? And I think what’s interesting is what you mentioned is like trying to treat it as a hobby or treat it as like a passion. Then you sort of bring your own unique flair to it, because I feel like if it becomes too co-opted so that you’re trying to appeal like nobody really wants to be appealed to, we want to have an experience. I think that’s what Steve Jobs said. Right. And it’s like bringing some of that authenticity. Or like your friend said, I love that little analogy. One for one for that, one for the crowd, one for me, and then one just wild card.
(00:32:39)
Robert Simoes
And that sort of keeps it interesting. But you mentioned this really interesting point, which is that you’ve just picked up on this journey. Now back into your artistry, back into your DJing. And we kind of skipped over a little bit of the kind of in-between of what happened. And so I know myself, you know, that you started this community youth project, which I would love to, to speak about, but I’d love to hear from your own words. You know, you were in Stoke and then you started this, this community project unity. And tell us about the the epicenter of that. What was the motivation? Why why start unity and what was unity.
The Formation of Unity
(00:33:15)
Cash Only
Yeah. So Stoke on Trent is well Stoke on Trent is known for a couple of things. So first of all is Robbie Williams. second of all is slash the guitarist from Guns and Roses? yeah. I’m sure he prefers L.A. to, Stoke on Trent. the other thing we’re really famous for is pottery. So if you go to a restaurant later, take a look underneath your plate.
(00:33:35)
Cash Only
If it says Made in Staffordshire or made in England. Nine times out of ten, it’s going to be made in, in, in Stoke on Trent because it was built on land that had lots of clay. So yeah, anyway, I’m sure a lot of it isn’t made in Stoke on Trent anymore. But yeah, we’re known and the local football team, Stoke City, they’re known as the Potters. So yeah, up the Potters. Anyway, so we’re known for those, those things. And we’re also known at that moment in time for being the 16th most deprived, city in the whole of the country. So there was a lot of social deprivation, a lot of social problems. There was, it was I went from kind of London where, we were a very diverse community, to Stoke on Trent, which was well, I mean, they at one stage they had five local councillors. I don’t know what you call them over there, but kind of, like almost in the, in the mayor’s office, like they’re like like, like you have the mayor and then you have like, like a committee, like underneath him.
(00:34:30)
Cash Only
And we had five very right wing. they were members of what was called the British National Party. So we had five members of the British National Party as an example, which, you know, it’s not good. You’re trying. You’re trying to grow grow a city and develop a city. You know, we’re going to invite, okay, Amazon, come and come and set up here okay. Fantastic. Oh yeah. But you know it’s not very diverse and I’m not sure. You know my chief exec. He’s he’s he’s of Asian descent. He’s not going to want to move his family to a city where there’s there’s five, you know, BNP councillors, I mean thankfully. And we did a lot of kind of, community cohesion and, and anti-racist kind of, you know, anti-racism work. And we broke that down. So thankfully that doesn’t exist anymore. But yeah, in Stoke on Trent over the last 20 years has evolved. But anyway, it was a very deprived city. And because, as I say, I was only working like 4 or 5 nights a week and I was earning great money, I had a lot of time on my hands.
(00:35:21)
Cash Only
I kind of mentioned briefly that that my own childhood or schooling was a bit of a car crash. Really. you know, I didn’t necessarily get in trouble with the police and stuff like that. but I was just. I was quite a difficult child, if I’m honest. and that might be a number. There might be a whole number of reasons why that was. But, you know, as I say, I feel that I was quite streetwise, I common sense, and I was quite driven and I and, you know, give them my track record. I think that’s evident now. So yeah. So I was DJ and, ad hoc and I really wanted to do something with my time in the day, and I saw that the city had a lot of deprivation. I reflected back into what pivotal moments for me that built my confidence and drove my self-esteem and stuff like that. And it was music and kind of a little bit of research and whatnot. And I felt that creative means was a great way to kind of empower and develop, kids, especially kids that were living in a city with a lot of deprivation, a lot of social issues, a lot of unemployment.
(00:36:22)
Cash Only
You know, we had about 30% of of the kids in the city at that time were out of any sort of education, employment or training. So in essence, they were, you know, just ready to start collecting benefits, which, again, is a social problem in itself. so we set up, a youth based organization with, a couple of people that I was DJing with at the time. So like minded individuals that were had time on their hands in a day. And we just started to round up kids off the streets and say, right, we’re doing a DJ workshop here every Friday. It’s basically a youth club, but you guys can come learn to DJ and you can emcee. So that was really, really successful. And you know, we were building numbers and then we started to get loads of, younger girls that were coming as well because the boys were there. The girls wanted to come. So we started to do activities for, for the young girls. So like, you know, fashion or learning how to do nails and stuff like that.
(00:37:14)
Cash Only
And all of a sudden we kind of created this, very engaging, community youth project that got kids off the streets and then was acting as a platform for the other agencies to come in and signpost them to things like, oh, did you know you can go and do this college course? Or do you know you can go and find an apprenticeship here? And we started to network and we’ve got some sponsorship from Vodafone, which is a big UK phone provider in the UK. So they, they paid for what we called our first creative academy. So it’s a load of imac’s music making equipment, stuff like that. And then Robbie Williams I mentioned he’s from Stoke and obviously everyone knows who Robbie is. So Robbie actually visited our youth project. because where we set it up was basically in the little town in Stoke where he grew up, and he gave us £30,000 through his charitable giving, and that basically paid for two years worth of youth club, facilitation for the kids. But and so as this journey started to grow, other people started to ask us to do stuff.
(00:38:14)
Cash Only
So one big problem was kids being excluded from education. So if you were 13, 14 and you you’ve been really naughty at school, or it might not even been that, it might just mean that school wasn’t for you. You just wanted to work or you wanted to do something more vocational. So that was a big problem in Stoke. So we were asked to set up what’s called alternative education. So it’s a place where if you’re excluded from school, you can come and learn with us and we’ll teach you English, maths, math, science, but we’ll also integrated with sport, or we’ll teach you how to join and we’ll teach you how to make music. So I guess we should get the boring stuff out of the way in the morning, and then we should do the fun stuff in the, in the afternoon. So let’s go and play soccer or let’s go and play, you know, basketball. Let’s go and teach how to deejay. Let’s do some creative arts. Let’s do a massive papier maché elephant, you know, and we’re still getting qualifications.
(00:39:04)
Cash Only
They might not be GCSEs, but they’ll be kind of equivalent level two, level three kind of qualifications. And most importantly will support you post 16 to where you’re going to next. So we had we basically had our own school and it was called unity the Creative Academy. And it was regulated from Ofsted, which was which is the body in England that that makes sure you’re doing what you’re meant to do. So we run that for a little bit, and then we decided to also set up, I don’t know what you call them over there, but in England they’re called children’s homes. So they’re small settings for children that have been abused, neglected, might have struggled with their own personal issues. I mean, we’ve looked after all sorts of different children. We looked after a child. That’s that dad had killed his mother. So, you know, that was quite a difficult situation for the child. Like, I still kind of love my dad, but he killed my mum, and I haven’t got my mum, so, like, you know.
(00:39:57)
Cash Only
So we, you know, we’re really in a really terrible. You know, I can’t really talk too much about the individual cases and whatnot. But yeah, there was some pretty horrific things. So we set up also a group of children’s homes. So they were basically places where 2 or 3 children would come and live and they’d get looked after by a team of care staff that would work there for two days, go home for four days, come back for two days. So it’s like a it was like a family model, but it was kind of it wasn’t institutional because that all that kind of institutional kind of children’s home, like 30 kids living together and causing havoc, that model didn’t work. And they went to more what’s called kind of small group homes. So we also had that. So we kind of had, the, the kind of creative kind of youth club type stuff that was going on that we run for a social enterprise. And then we had the school and then we had the care business.
Transition from DJing to Business
(00:40:47)
Cash Only
And yeah, I kind of had to make a decision because the company was getting bigger and bigger. we at one stage we employed 180 people. We looked after 44 kids in social care, and we looked after about 20, 30 kids in our school. And I had to make a decision that I just couldn’t keep going out deejaying and going into the office at like seven, eight in the morning. So I dropped the multi-format DJ and so no more Shakira. She will. No more, Beyoncé, Britney Spears. so yeah, I just had to go and do that. So I did that for ten years. So I was out of music for ten years, which, you know, was amazing, to do because it was very rewarding. but equally, it was very challenging. You had the challenges of running, you know, a multimillion pound business as a chief exec and all the different things that can go wrong with 180 staff and 44 kids, especially kids that can be at times quite difficult to manage, sometimes not through their own fault of their own, you know, they just were unfortunately brought up in, in a family environment that was very abusive and didn’t give them the best start in life.
(00:41:56)
Cash Only
So we did that. I ran that for ten years until 2019, and then we had an offer to sell it. and we took that decision to do that because it was I had this kind of idea that at 40, I wanted to go back to music. And like 2019 was September 2019 was literally my, 40th birthday. So we did the deal, just before my birthday. And then we sold it in December of 2019. And then my dream was to go back to do music. I was like, right, I’m going to get this villa in Ibiza. So we sold the business for a lot of money. Like it was ridiculous. What, what they what they paid for it. it didn’t quite work out as perfect as it should have in the end. and actually, I’ve actually got another business that’s like that now. So I had, I had two years where I couldn’t do anything in social care because when you sell a business, you’re not allowed, in a contract. It’s like a non-compete.
(00:42:50)
Cash Only
But, yeah, two years, two years and a bit afterwards, we set up again. And, I’m really pleased to say that that business is is doing almost as well as the last one that took me ten years to do. It’s now taken. I mean, it’s only been going to about two years. and again. But it’s very different now. I’m not the chief exec. I’m literally an investor. I took a lot of my money from the previous sale. Put it back into this. We have an ethos and vision, in this company where we know where we might have done things a little bit better last time. We make sure we do that this time. And also last time we had 14 houses and we’ve got no desires to get to that level again. We’re quite happy to have a smaller model, which is very therapeutic centred on these on, on on very challenging. The children nowadays are even more challenging. They’ve had the coronavirus to deal with all the all the other social issues that have come out in those times.
Business to back DJing
(00:43:41)
Cash Only
So the child that we’re dealing with now is even more challenging than the children we dealt with prior. So I have actually got another investment in that business. But whereas before I was the chief exec, I literally make a couple of phone calls now and then I go to a couple of board meetings and, you know, and it just runs in the background and, you know, it’s it’s very hands off. But anyway, 2019, we sold the first business and my dream was right, I’m going to go to IBF, I’m going to get this villa, I’m going to get a set of cdjs, I’m gonna take my laptop and I’m going to rediscover music because I was still listening to music, but just consuming it as a punter as opposed to, like a DJ or an artist. So I’d still kept the best of it. And I, you know, and in this ten years of not doing music, I discovered a lot of other music. So everything ranging from, you know, very weird African jazz all the way through to very hard 140 BPM, you know, driving tech kind of stuff.
(00:44:40)
Cash Only
And, you know, I’ve saved that music up and stored it and whatnot. So yeah, that was the dream. Anyway, December 2019. Sold it. Excited to go to eBay for in March April 2020. Obviously we know what happened in in March 2020. The whole world ground to a halt. So it’s a bit mad. It’s like, right, you’re going to run this company for ten years. You can do really well out of it, and you’re never going to have to work a day in your life again. You can go anywhere in the world and do anything you want. Oh, three months later. Sorry. You’ve got to stay in your house and you can’t see your friends and all the all that round the world trip that you booked, paid for and organise. You’re not doing it anymore. So, yeah, it was, So yeah, that put the, that put the stoppers on that idea. However, I did get to Ibiza for a short period of time, but again, the rules kept changing, so it didn’t really last.
(00:45:31)
Cash Only
and then shortly after that, I, I met the the future wife. So that was, I guess, the most pivotal moment, for me as a, as an artist. because obviously she’s probably I mean, certainly in my opinion, you know, the biggest, one of the biggest house DJs in the world and for me, most certainly the biggest female house DJ in the world. And while male, female doesn’t really matter, I think that in the journey that she’s been on, in the way that she’s pioneered females in the industry, I certainly think it’s it’s worth mentioning.
(00:46:07)
Robert Simoes
And so for folks who don’t know, Sam Divine is, who Matt is referring to she’s one of the top, huge house DJs. and even her story is really interesting. Like, even the way she grew up and, how she discovered. I just remember I was listening to a podcast of her doing a little turntables, and she practice her A’s and B’s, and then they didn’t work anyways. But, the reason I found unity really interesting, from your story, was the focus on community.
(00:46:37)
Robert Simoes
And I want to know what your perspective on the thread that you know brings together community and deejaying, because I feel as though in my own experience, right? When everybody’s at a rave or a festival and everybody kind of kind of feel the same vibe, they feel like they belong. And this feeling of belongingness creates a container where I feel like people can start to explore and expand their sense of identity. And I found it really interesting how you’re constantly placing yourself in the role of kind of community creator or curator, right? Whether it was with the unity project, whether it was with trying to, you know, jazz up a bit of stoke intense community with some of your own sound, and now with what you’re doing with DVINE Sounds, which we’ll talk about, but kind of breaking out these new artists. How do you see the role of deejaying and community connecting?
(00:47:28)
Cash Only
I think it’s the most important thing. I think if we if we think to the word club, what does the word club mean? So you’re going to a night club okay.
(00:47:38)
Cash Only
So that’s a group of people whether it’s a like a a football club, a soccer club, a basketball club or a team, it’s a club. It’s where a group of like minded people go to share a shared passion. So whether that’s a sports club or whether it’s a music club or whether it’s a, you know, if we think back to again, you know, the way that the internet integrated with music and we had the kind of online forums for different genres and you’d get a certain number of stars or ratings or friends, you know, it’s all numbers, you know, it’s all it’s all a club. You felt that you could go on to that forum and it’s like, oh, there’s my friend that also likes that music. I’ve never met you in my life, but it’s a club. Even like the kids were there playing video games, you know, they’re in like, plans. So I think we’re all searching for a place that we feel comfortable in being, and a good club or community gives people the safety and the support to to do that and to build your confidence and to boost your self-esteem and to network with you and give you advice.
(00:48:44)
Cash Only
You know, I’m really like a lot of I hear a lot of people in the industry nowadays going on about gatekeeping this and blocking this and blah, blah, blah. Anyone can ask me any, you want to know who masters my track? So I’ll tell you. You want to know who I worked with on that track? I’ll tell you. You want to know how I do this? If I know how to do it, I’ll tell you. I’m not blocking anyone from doing anything in this industry because I know how hard it is. but there are people out there that will be very precious about their own stuff and be scared if they tell you that little bit of information that it might hamper them, you know? But any artist, all you’ve got to do, all you ever do is look forwards. You can’t look behind you all to the side of you, you know. Again, when we had the children’s homes, we had competition. But I never saw them as competition. They were like useful friends.
(00:49:30)
Cash Only
I would make a beeline to be friends with my peers and in that scene, because I could ring you up at any time and ask you a bit of advice on something. And equally, you could ask me and we can reciprocate. I think music, is very reciprocal as well. So I can do something for you. You will. I won’t ask you necessarily to do something for me. I might do sometimes, but do something for me in return. And let’s just work together like some of my best music that I’m making at the moment of collaborations, checks that I’m doing with other artists that we’re. And in this world of technology, we’re sending music to you on the internet and you’re sending it back to me, and I’m sending it back to you, and I’m sending it to a vocalist. I worked on a track this week where I met a guy at a choir defected. He’s from South Africa. and we just got talking, and he was really interested in transferring that kind of free step South African sound into the house kind of sound.
(00:50:22)
Cash Only
And we got talking. I sent him an Afro melodic track that I had made that I really, really feel has got legs. And he said, yeah, I love this track. And then he sent me a track back and he says, I really believe in this track. do you think you could do anything with it? And so I sent that track to a vocalist. The vocalist vocal did, and it’s unbelievable what she’s done. And then I went into the studio on Tuesday, and then we work that up into a more Halsey kind of kind of track. Now all of that is done as being part of a club or a team. So I feel that working as a club or a team is really important. And in terms of being an artist, the biggest thing you can do, my biggest bit of advice is building your community. So like Sam Divine, she has the Divine Tribe and she has obviously some very hardcore fans that we see all around the world, you know, and I feel that it’s really important when they make the journey to come to a gig and want a photo that we always do our best.
(00:51:16)
Cash Only
And Sam’s really, really good at that in terms of, you know, she’s so grateful that people, you know, will come to her shows and and whatnot. And if they want a photo, a selfie, which is the modern day autograph, no problem. You know, we’ve even got people now around the world with Sam Divine tattoos. You know, it’s getting a bit of a thing now. They’re like, oh, here’s a is a, here’s a Sharpie, like, can you sign my arm? And, you know, the next day they send a picture of of the tattoo. So building your community or your tribe is just so important nowadays.
(00:51:44)
Robert Simoes
And I think that’s really fascinating actually, that point that you made around the club. and I find it really personally very interesting to see how the evolution of music has gone about, because I do, I remember some of those forms I used to I there was like this Polish form for like hands up hard dance music that I used to troll way back when I was first doing deejaying and used to have these things.
(00:52:05)
Robert Simoes
But what I find nowadays is you don’t have as many of those things. There’s there’s, you know, only kind of a few central platforms, so to speak. And it kind of is fascinating to me because I look at the I feel as, as DJs, we have to be constantly sort of we are natural searchers or explorers, so we are looking for that sort of frontier of the new. But when the new eventually becomes the standard, it’s kind of like it’s changed, it’s moulded. It’s that common conundrum of like the underground has been commercialised and now it’s not underground or something like that. But when I look at a few different platforms of what has facilitated the ascendancy of dance music, because I feel personally that DJs essentially the modern pop star today is what it seems like. You had the rock stars back in the 80s and 90s, but now it’s people are talking about Tiesto or Van Buren, these huge, huge names, or Carl Cox or what have you in, in those scenes. and so I look at platforms, for example, like Boiler Room, which from where it started with like maybe 100,000 subscribers or whatever to where it is now.
(00:53:10)
Robert Simoes
It’s just the the scale is, is so wide. And I wonder, how is it that we can maintain this intimate sense of community because like you mentioned, right, whether you’re working as teams in these, with vocalists and producers to create these, projects, but when you’re working on a scale of 4 million people, let’s say, like, how do you facilitate that same sense of intimate community or is it not feasible?
(00:53:37)
Cash Only
Yeah, it’s an interesting one. I just come back to your point there about, you know, the rock stars and whatnot. I mean, it’s an interesting thing in IB for obviously, you know, for Europeans especially, and obviously I know a lot of Canadians and Americans also go there. But I’d be for is the epicenter for dance music like in Europe, if not the world. I’d be for rocks, which is quite a big venue there. So that was that. That’s used the programme bands. And then if you think about it, if you’ve got a book, a band, you’ve got to get six flights, maybe security, maybe this, maybe that he might be in for 10 or 15 flights, which means it’s a private jet.
(00:54:11)
Cash Only
Then you’re in for all the equipment and the haulage and everything else on that. All the logistics around the band is so complicated, and the modern day DJ can actually sell as many records as some of these bands, so I’d be for rocks kind of made that transition in a way that you, you know, you’re saying in that, but I’m just trying to add some extra, context to it in that some of the reasons why now it’s easier to pay Tiesto to turn up for 203 hundred grand, whatever he is with his USB stick and headphones, play for two hours, put some really amazing stage production on and blow people away that way because you’re in for the same money anyway, with I mean, God knows how much Metallica are, but you know, it’s it’s like, yeah, I mean, yeah, God knows. I mean, yeah, Sam played on a stage in Saudi Arabia not so long ago. And I mean, they had everyone they had Tyler, the creator on one stage, you know, Tiesto on another stage, Metallica on another stage.
(00:55:03)
Cash Only
I mean Saudi Arabia going for it right now. I mean, it’s a really cool place to visit, by the way. I mean, obviously it gets a lot of bad press. And we flew in there, overnight from the Bay. And I was just so impressed, like with with the place. I want, I want to go there on holiday. As mad as that sounds, and I think, you know, they’d spend a lot of money and kind of breaking down some of those. obviously there are some cultural things there that that you can’t agree with. But at the same time, you know, it’s a safe and clean and amazing city and what they’re doing there. And it’s quite interesting, again, to see the evolution of dance music in the Middle East, where things like drugs, which, let’s face it, drugs are unfortunately a key part of dance music. They’re not as prevalent really there. You know, we went to a gig and they were like, here’s your rider, Fanta and a Coca Cola.
(00:55:55)
Cash Only
Although someone did come home and says, do you want some vodka? I was like, no, I’m all right. I’m all right. I’m not. I’m not doing anything that I shouldn’t be doing here. Yeah. yeah. So yeah. Anyway, yeah, the point is, you know, these these modern day DJs. Yeah. I think they can carry the same way as bands nowadays. But not everyone likes electronic music. You know, people do do still, like, you know, like like in America, like what the country and western scene is, is still huge. They do did that big. Was it stagecoach like after Coachella? you know, that’s meant to be mental like crazy. I went to Coachella a couple of years ago, and I, I just remember everyone talking about Stagecoach, like the week or month after. but yeah, but, you know, communities, I mean, how do you keep an intimate community within a large community? Well, I guess it is those moments where you’re playing a more intimate club.
(00:56:43)
Cash Only
But, you know, for example, I, I play a lot smaller venues than Sam. For example. Sam will play festival stages, so there is always a disconnect as well. There’s even a disconnect there between the crowd and you. Whereas if you play in a club where it’s just a set of decks and you know, and you’re and the people can high-five you and reach out and everything. I think those are the moments, what you capitalize on to, to interact with your community and your fans, because it’s totally impossible for an artist of like, you know, Sam statue where she’s got 250 K plus on her socials. You know, the amount of messages she must get, like from, like just random people that just want to tell her that they love her must be huge. And and I know that she feels frustrated that she can’t necessarily engage in thank all of her fans, but it’s just not feasibly possible unless you’ve got someone doing it for you. And even then, it’s not the it’s not really intimate anyway, because you might as well have I or robot doing it for you.
(00:57:35)
Cash Only
So yeah, I just think in terms of keeping those close connections, just, just just taking those those opportunities when on tour to engage with that fan, you know, that has made the time to come and see you. And we’ve got we’ve got fans that come to loads of shows. And I because Sam’s busy I always try and, welcome them. And if there’s an opportunity to get them on stage or in the box because that I just think back to when I was a raver, that to be invited to have a jam in the box is just such an amazing experience for them. And as long as they behave, which they normally do, because again, we’re in a we’re in an environment where all sorts of things are in the mixer, you know, drink and whatever else. And, and sometimes people can behave strangely. So, you know, it’s important that people act with decorum and, behave. But yeah, that whole it’s an interesting perspective on that whole kind of community thing. yeah.
(00:58:27)
Cash Only
And, you know, there are there are methods now, like with broadcast groups on Instagram and stuff like that, where you can try and engage with, a real hardcore group of fans. And, you know, I’m going to do some work on discord and Reddit and stuff like that soon to try and see if there’s a way of building stuff up via that. And there’s newsletters and and whatnot. I mean, what’s really interesting, again, if we talk about people like Sam at her level, so defected, obviously Defected Records, probably the biggest house music label in the world, established by Simon Dunmore, you know, nearly 30 years ago, responsible for some of the most iconic and biggest, you know, tracks ever played that’s still getting played. Now, you know, when Sam walks around, defected in Croatia, their main festival of the year. You know, you might as well. It’s like Beyonce’s walking around, you know, just people are just, like, in awe of her.
(00:59:16)
Cash Only
But, you know, she’s so down to earth and she’ll always take time to, to say hi to people and, and, you know, whatnot. It’s yeah, I get I guess those are the moments where you really, you really build those real strong connections with the hardcore community.
(00:59:32)
Robert Simoes
Yeah. And creating those. Yeah. Like you said, those even those small intimate opportunities. Because that’s the thing I found amazing is some teachers that have gone and I’ve seen it on these little tiny events and they just they’re just really down to earth like nice, nice folks. And you’re just like, hey, you know that track that you did loved it so much? I mean, you’re sort of it’s I’m sort of in startup. I’m like, oh my gosh, right. But but, if I may, I want to shift somewhat to your role as the label manager now because you mentioned this kind of accessibility point that you have. Right? So, Sam, obviously with her huge network, is getting tons of these demos, tons of these, potentially underground artists who have these great sound.
DVINE Sounds and Cash as a Label Manager
(01:00:10)
Robert Simoes
But like you said, they’re having trouble breaking through, right? They’re having trouble either getting their music out there or getting their name as a DJ out there. And so my understanding is that DVINE Sounds was founded essentially from the desire to create a platform. I think the story was that Sam was playing some tracks from some person on SoundCloud, and then they’re like, right, let’s just sign them right to this label. but since then it’s become, you know, this growing label and you act as essentially a label manager with this dual empathy of both artists and, you know, the person who manages the label. So from that perspective, sitting in the chair of, I suppose, what would be the inner person, right? You receiving all these symbols? How is it that you are approaching and filtering through the the music and deejays that you receive? Are you looking at aspects of their technical and DJing ability, or is it mostly focused on the production? What is your kind of filter criteria?
(01:01:05)
Cash Only
Yeah, well, there’s a few things on that that I think will be really useful for people that listen to this, that are looking for some little nuggets of advice on how they can get to where they want to get to.
(01:01:15)
Cash Only
So the first thing I would say, though, and maybe I shouldn’t say this as a label manager for a record label that’s looking for tracks to be sent. I’m also looking at it. Don’t forget, as an emerging artist myself, and I honestly believe in this day and age that if you’ve got a track that you believe in and you think it’s amazing and you’ve played it out and love it, you should just self release it. It’s not that hard to self-released a track you can use distro kid label works. There’s 1,000,001 people out there that will get your track into track. Source, Spotify, Beatport and then just promoted to your community. Because when a record label sounds your track, you’re only going to get 40, maybe 50% of that track in terms of publishing royalty, blah, blah, blah. So when people are really hard core on saying it’s an amazing tune, this amazing tune. Part of me thinks, well, like release it yourself then, because that’s what I’m doing next year.
(01:02:04)
Cash Only
I’m in the same boat as a lot of these artists, even though I know all the guys at all the big record labels Armada, Tauren, blah blah blah, you know, even defected. You know, these people are slammed out with demos. They’re working. You know, we’re working at DVINE Sounds now. April 2025. We put out ten records a year. Sam will put one out. I’ll put one out a year. So, you know, we’ve probably only got 4 or 5 records left to put out before 2026. So the competition is extremely fierce for artists. So yeah, I mean that’s that’s the first point really. I just think that if you got a track that you really believe in, put it out yourself because you know what The added weight of a label attached to you. It will add value and it will get you some plays and it will get you some support. But good music will always shine through. You know, so that’s always a thing I think that people should consider.
(01:03:02)
Cash Only
And also, if you’ve self-released ten tracks and you’ve built up a bit of traction, you’ll get into 3050 K monthly listeners on Spotify. It does make it a lot easier when you’re sending an email with a demo to a label. Well, here’s who I am. Don’t give me Warren peace, but just tell me who you are. Notable releases. Chart position. Streaming numbers. Community. Who supports you? What music do you. That’s all I want now. Send me the. Send me the links and you know that. But in terms of how we accept demos of the hundreds and hundreds we’ve received the acid test for, whether we sign a track to define sounds is Will Sam play it and does she love it? And it’s as simple as that. So unlike some labels that will sit with it, will get all their demos in and do it like a listening party. They might have 3 or 4 guys in there. They’ll play it. Yeah, it’s all right. Yeah, I love it.
(01:03:55)
Cash Only
Yeah. I don’t like it. Okay. Next. Do you know what I mean? That is when music becomes very, recycling or just just just writing, you know? Do you know what I mean? Yeah. What we want is give us all your music, okay? Keep us up to date with your music just because it’s not for us on the first occasion, or just because we haven’t fed back to you in the first week or month for six months. Music. Good music is timeless, in my opinion. In the house world. Okay, we go through some kind of, cultural changes. I mean, like, obviously the whole kind music, Afro house type, world is quite big right now. And, you know, hopefully that stays there for a bit. But before we know it, there’ll be another like in the UK. We had this really fast kind of organ house, 140 bpm thing, popping and that’s still popping. But yeah, you know, it might. And then another fad and a trend will come in.
(01:04:44)
Cash Only
But yeah. So the way that we, we deal with our demos at Define Sounds is we don’t do listening parties. It’s very difficult, if I’m honest with you. You know, Sam, her touring schedule and my touring schedule and, you know, our time at home, the last thing, it’s a bit like a painter and decorator. The last thing a painter and decorator wants to do when they get home at the weekend, when they’re up to their eyeballs in paint and rollers and paint brushes. Is paint their own house? Yeah. So. And especially over the summer from from May to November. You’re lucky to get any sort of response from us. Do you know what I mean? The touring schedule is mental, as I say, six, seven planes at the weekend. This weekend. I mean, this is the only day I’ve got now until the 7th of August to do anything because from tomorrow it’s tomorrow land, it’s Italy. So I’d be for I’d be for Croatia for a week and then back home.
(01:05:35)
Cash Only
And then it’s the 6th of August. So all I’m trying to say is we’re incredibly busy. Sam’s even more so busy. Send us your music. I download all of it. And this is the other really big bit of advice. Please do not send me any demo that is not downloadable, because that could be the thing that stops me from getting a killer track into our inbox, because I might be too busy to email you back. Please send downloadable. I don’t get keep your music. Don’t think I’m going to take it. Steal it like you’re giving it to me so I can make sure that the biggest, like, female house deejay in the world is going to potentially play it. Make it easy for me. So yeah, make it downloadable. So I go on about this because I’ve just done a video yesterday about actually yesterday just to post, please make everything downloadable. So your soundcloud link. I can just play it. I can’t just play that to Sam when she’s sorting out her set, you know what I mean? So all the music goes into a folder and when the time is right, Sam will pick through it and say, oh yeah, I quite like that.
(01:06:32)
Cash Only
Let me test that. Or the other way that we sign tracks is that we find tracks that are already out on other labels, and we really like them. So I’ll reach out to the artist. there’s an artist at the moment called, Chico Ross, who has done a track called Slow Down. I reached out to him. I was like, oh, yeah, we really like your track. Oh, here’s a video of Sam playing it. So he’s grateful to me because, like, he’s got this wicked bit of, like, social media now and that starts a relationship going where, you know, we like what you’re doing. We really like to take time from your label. Anyway, as it turns out, we put out a track from him years ago, but this was before I was managing the label. I was like, you, you do realize we put out a track from him before, So it’s really interesting that, I mean, but it’s really cool, interesting the story of the label and that, as you say, you know, it was started with a view to support the emerging talent.
(01:07:19)
Cash Only
And I mean, I’m not sure where Chika Rose was as an artist back then in terms of his numbers and his gigs and whatnot. But it’s really cool that now we’ve gone back to him to play a track of his solidly now, both of us, and that when you when I’ve done my research on who he is, is nice. His streaming numbers are amazing. You know, his record sales are amazing. So it’s so if Sam and the label played a part in his development at that stage, then great. I mean, I’m talking to artists now that, you know, we might we want a track from them, for example, but we haven’t found the right track yet. And as I say, the acid test is Will. Sam played his set religiously because that’s how we signed music at DVINE Sounds. Now there’s a couple of other bits that we consider when we’re taking tracks. So cross over potential again. There’s a lot of money spent behind the scenes on infrastructure costs. Even just sorting things out like the label copy, the distribution, the online, social assets, the all this kind of stuff that costs money.
(01:08:15)
Cash Only
And as we both know, when you’re only doing a couple of thousand streams and you’re, you know, you’re doing like top 50. Beatport track source. We’re not talking huge money there. So you know it’s just it’s just really important that the music that we’re taking for the label is, is perfect really. And that Sam just absolutely gets behind it. So yeah, that’s that’s the true acid test really. I.
(01:08:41)
Robert Simoes
Think and I think that authenticity point, though is so critical, honestly, like I think of some of the labels that I really like. For example, one of my, labels I absolutely adore as Henry Street Music, from Johnny D on, out of New York. And I mean, they’ve been producing stuff for ages and ages and ages, but it’s like like, I don’t know what it is. It doesn’t matter where I go in that, like, part of the label is just like, I picked something. I’m like, I love this. Right? So yeah. And I think having, I suppose that authentic perspective where you’re like, this is something I love, especially if you’ve got your name behind it is going to bring that sense of, differential like differentiating possibility, right? Versus like you mentioned, if you’re just putting out everything in anything, that you, that you think could sell or sounds sounds good from that perspective, do you ever take the time to it sounds like maybe you have this insane amount of.
(01:09:38)
Robert Simoes
I’m just imagining, like, you’re in this room and you have all these different, like, stacks of vinyl or USBs and records and stuff, or you’re like, where do I start? and are you ever researching into these DJs or artists who are sending you music, like looking at their streaming numbers? yeah, I’m curious about that.
(01:09:54)
Cash Only
Yeah. So I mean, it’s not the a good track, it’s a good track. And as I say, the true acid test is will sound support. And as you like it? It doesn’t matter if Tiesto has made it or it doesn’t matter if Joe Joe Bloggs or John Jane Doe, whatever has made the track, obviously. You know, as I said, the key points on whether we will soundtrack is Will Sam play it, has it got crossover potential? Is there cultural significance within it as well? So obviously, from a cultural perspective, Sam has advocated and hammered hard the whole female DJ and female producer kind of thing. So it’s really important to us that we also are diverse.
(01:10:26)
Cash Only
It’s really it is frustrating because there’s fewer, obviously fewer female producers out there. And that means that in the if you’ve got a million demos from males and only 20,000 demos from females, obviously the chances of finding a killer track from a female artist is even harder. So there is a lot of work that I do in building relationships with potentially more established female artists. but yeah, it’s it’s it’s it’s hard. And then, yeah, obviously we have to do a bit of research into the artists. We need to know that you can sell records. we do our part. We do everything we can. We will get you plays on on Sams radio. we’ll get it onto defective playlists. We’ll get it pitched to the best we can. But, you know, as we say, one man’s orange and iron man’s apple. it’s, you know, it’s it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Sometimes what we love isn’t always what other people love. And a viral video doesn’t always get you where you think you’re going to get.
(01:11:24)
Cash Only
so, yeah, it’s it is a difficult one, but research and artist is a key part of what I do, and I love building relationships with people. I’m working with an artist at the moment is he’s got 100, 1.5 million monthly listeners, but he hasn’t done anything new or relevant for a couple of years. He’s almost still kind of, trading off the back of his previous success. And I’m working with him and his manager at the moment. I think that with his numbers, we can definitely do something, and Sam’s playing a couple of his edits at the moment, but because they’re not original tracks, obviously, unless we get them cleared or unless defected on it and we can talk to them about clearing it. We can’t go anywhere with it. And there’s a few of these conversations going on at the moment, but as I say, people have to have patience in this industry and I’m not really want to talk because, as Sam says, I’m not the most impatient person ever. But, you know, it’s it’s these things, that music.
(01:12:13)
Cash Only
It just takes time. As I say, we’re into April next year, you know, God knows where Defected Tool Room and Armada are, for example. You know, I’m sure they’re I’m sure they’re just as far ahead as us. And, you know, things change. Schedule shuffle. It’s safe to say we can’t release that because I’ve got this. You sign a check from markets, all of a sudden they put another track out that blows up. Then you’ve got. So there’s all there’s lots of moving parts. The sooner that things can get contracted up and boxed off with a release date is good in my opinion. But you know, if people I think maybe the reason for your question is that people are worried that because they haven’t got that social presence or they haven’t got those numbers behind them, it’s going to hamper them. I would say, as I say, a good track is a good track. It will come through. Don’t get me wrong, in this day and age we are almost a and are in with our eyes.
(01:12:59)
Cash Only
So whereas before you just hear a good track and get a good track, now you are having to take the time to see, right. Well, let’s look at the socials. Let’s look at what kind of community and culture they’re building as an artist. Let’s look at, you know, their chart positions. In essence, all I want to know from you, if you’re submitting me a demo is, what are the notable releases and chart positions we’ve achieved on Beatport and track source? What notable support have you had from whoever DJs? What are your streaming numbers and what the your social platforms look like? That’s all I want to know. Like if I if I’m struggling to push the track over the line, Those underlying, statistics might be the thing to get you to where it needs to get to. And again, in the way that I work with some more emerging artists on the label where we might put one of their tracks on a sampler. So a lot of people so very anti Vas or anti samplers.
(01:13:55)
Cash Only
So I just say to him, well it’s a track going to sound better on your hard drive in your studio where no one can listen to it but the dog, or is it going to sound better on a VA? And at least that introduces you to our label so that we can then introduce you, perhaps later on to some of our events, where then maybe we can work with you on the rest of the stuff that you’re doing to build you up as an artist on and some other platforms or define sounds, other platforms, and then we’re taking individual release from you at a later date because, you know, if you’re here for the long haul, we can wait. It’s better to wait for the perfect track and a perfect time than it is to rush now and just get. You just put a track out for the sake of it. So that’s, that’s a bit of behind the scenes kind of information for you on how and in how we deal with demos, how we deal with submissions, you know, look it just please everyone don’t get, don’t get frustrated or upset that the answers are not getting back.
(01:14:50)
Cash Only
It happens to me, even defective. Don’t email me back sometimes. And I that basically worked for them. You know, like everyone’s busy I get it. Everyone’s got, you know, everyone’s everyone’s hunting for that next big hit, you know. And where I’m looking around with 30 K monthly listeners and a couple of top ten chart positions and whatever, I’m knocking on people’s doors. I often think that people don’t really want you and until they want you. So I think, and this is why I say self releasing or releasing on some smaller labels is or starting your own label. It’s not a bad thing because you will build a community up that like what you do, and then you just need that one big edit to blow or just or just need to be consistent. Oh yeah, I know who he is. Let’s give his music a chance, you know? Yeah. But just people just don’t get upset or frustrated if it hasn’t, if it hasn’t happened to you in 12 months. I’ve been doing this for 25 years.
(01:15:40)
Cash Only
30 years. Okay, I had a ten year break, but I might. I’m only getting to where I’m getting to now from the people that I’m meeting. I don’t get me wrong, obviously it’s extremely helpful to have you have like your ride or die, you know, wife as your biggest fan and biggest supporter, but she’s not going to jeopardize her career by playing one of my tracks to like 10,000 people. You know what I mean? She’s only going to play it if it’s good. So it’s not like I got an unfair advantage, per se. I would say I’ve got an advantage myself, but I don’t think that that, you know, sometimes it’s a bit of a blessing and a curse as well, because obviously as a label manager for a record label of a record, labels might not want to take my music because there might be a conflict of interest or whatnot. And also they would say to me, okay, you’re a label manager for your label. Why are you sending me this tune? Why don’t you put it out on your record label? But obviously, as an artist, I feel that you need to have music on different labels to build up a bit of, you know, like my track on nervous.
Building Community Through Music
(01:16:41)
Cash Only
I mean, that’s such an iconic moment for me as a, as a DJ, you know, again, a record label. So, responsible for so many big tracks in the house seem to have a track on there was iconic and big up Andrew at at nervous. He came to Ibiza last week and we had a, we had a great time because his first thing would you believe there’s the vice president of Nervous Records. It was his first time in Ibiza. Wow. He said it was like Vegas on an island. yeah. So but, you know, it’s like to have to have releases an iconic labels is massive. But you know it’s not the be all and end all self-released your music if you’re getting nowhere and you’ve got a hard drive full of killer tracks that you believe in, put them out yourself, build up your community, and bit by bit you will get there.
(01:17:28)
Robert Simoes
Exceptional. I know that you’ve got to go, and I feel like I’ve just gotten a whole.
(01:17:33)
Cash Only
Yeah, I’ve got a little bit around, you know.
(01:17:35)
Robert Simoes
Yeah, but I do want to get to one segment, which I did pre briefed you a little bit on, but yeah. it’s three tracks. we’re looking for you from and in the categories of Under the radar on repeat and one of your guilty pleasures. so I’d love to hear what, what what do you got in store for us? Cash only?
(01:17:55)
Cash Only
Well, under the radar, I’m. If we’re talking about now, I mean, there’s a few that I feel that I’ve been a part of championing over the last couple of months. And I mean, again, who am I? I’m I’m just an emerging artists, like a lot of the people that would be listening to this. But, you know, I do like to feel that I had a part to play. You know, it’s always a vibe when you play someone’s track and you get a video of it and you send it to that artist like they get gassed, you know, it’s like, wow, you know, thank you so much.
(01:18:21)
Cash Only
And I love doing that. You know, we all love giving people good news. And there’s nothing better than good news to give to an artist and to give them a radio play or to or to give them a video of it just going off to their tune at the drop. so there was a few over the years. I mean, last year was probably Guy Burns Kick it Up, which, is probably never going to come out. It’s it uses a moose t original track. And, yeah, I don’t think they’re willing to let it go out yet. it’s told you it’s basically the trap. Hold your head up high. I think it was Boris Douglas. Or however you pronounce that. and moose t, so. Yeah, that’s, that’s a track that I actually wanted to do an edit of, and I did one and it was rubbish. And then all of a sudden I heard Danny Howard play it, and, I was like, wait, what is that tune? Give me that.
(01:19:07)
Cash Only
And then, yeah, I was hammering it also last summer. and I’ve been trying to get it out, but it’s not going to get over the line. So the current under the radar track for me track down playing every set. And I absolutely love and the guy’s amazing is, from a producer from Spain, Barcelona, called PM. we actually signed a track from him, last year on DVINE Sounds. which did. Okay. but this track, it’s coming out of Ministry, it’s called Boy Don’t. vocalist Natalie Gray. I think it comes out in the next couple of months, and he’s such a good lad. Like, he’ll WhatsApp me is like, oh, here’s some new tunes for you. I was like, yeah, nice one. And then I just, I want them weapons, you know? I want them ones that no one’s got. you know, I did a radio show the other week and it was just like. Yeah. And I just felt like a bit of a dick, really, because I was like, yeah, exclusive from low stepper exclusive, some terminology.
(01:19:53)
Cash Only
And I’m just thinking, like, you know, this, like guys playing this like radio stations, like, where’s he got all these music? But I’m just like, you know, I’m on the road all the time. I bump into these people wherever I’m on tour with Sam, just in the background, drinking a rider or whatever. I’m playing out myself. You know, I bump into these people and it’s, you know, again, we’re all like, you know, we’re all trying to support one another. But yeah, PM Boy Don’t, I’m looking forward to that coming out. At the moment, not a lot of people have got it. I feel like that’s going to be a big track. so on repeat, I just I’m just like, totally in love with this whole Afro house movement right now. you know, I feel that there’s a lot of similarities to the kind of groove that UK garage had, and I feel that the journey to each track takes you on is is amazing.
(01:20:36)
Cash Only
There’s a couple of people that that stand out for me on that scene. Obviously we’ve got the whole kind of kind music, kind of thing that’s just like, is it big over there? Kind music?
(01:20:47)
Robert Simoes
Yeah, I mean, it’s it’s, it’s definitely become its own. I think they had a Forbes article about them, their whole, you know, interpretation of Afro House and their take on on that. And they have their own kind of sound, with, with, you know, that, that, that sort of direction. But, yeah, it’s pretty big. Yeah.
(01:21:05)
Cash Only
So, so the whole kind of. So yeah, there’s Kid Funk as well. He’s, he’s, A&R director at Defected. So it’s interesting that they’ve got the South African guy there in such a role overseeing the whole way. And are there and, but, you know, probably Atmos Blaq, he’s one of my favourite producers right now. I had a pleasure of meeting him, at defected in Malta. And, what’s really cool about Atmos Blaq and a producer that he works with a lot called Sio, who’s an amazing vocalist, is my 14 year old who’s just started DJing.
(01:21:34)
Cash Only
She’s, she’s really in love with all of his music. So we have a streaming room with like, a void cyclone sound system in the house. There must be five dining rooms. We’ve basically got a mini nightclub with, with a free camera streaming. You know, we can press a button and we just go live. It’s just mad. and. Yeah, so I just I’m like, who’s playing that? It’s like, are you in the streaming room again? So, yeah. Big up. Sookie. She’s, Yeah. So she said it’s. How amazing is it that this, like, white British 14 year old is, like, fall in love with, like, this kind of Afro tech Afro house sound? But yeah, if I was to pick a track on repeat, it would be land of the dreamers from, Atlas Black and Co. yeah. It’s just an amazing, amazing track. Guilty pleasure. There’s an artist that, is not he’s not in any way, shape or form house, but he’s called CASSISDEAD and.
(01:22:25)
Cash Only
Yeah, look him up. He’s created this the way he’s created this real kind of crazy community. but it basically, he’s an artist that is very secretive. He wears a mask. So, you know, it’s cool. You know, when you go and see Moody man, and he’s wearing, like, a pair of tights over his head or something weird like that, or. Or what’s the other guy called? Boris. Something that he wears this big crazy mask. There’s a there’s a few artists out.
(01:22:48)
Robert Simoes
There or something.
(01:22:48)
Cash Only
Like that. Yeah. And obviously Dead Mouse was the, was the original, but that whole wearing a mask thing, I think does give an air in a sense of mystery. But a weird thing about CASSISDEAD is he’s evolved his masks over time. So he has this, like, plastic mask that just looks like his face. And unless you’re really up close, you can’t tell. You just think so? I mean, there is, there is. And again, the way that like, I’ve spent hours online trying to find out who he is and where he’s come from.
(01:23:15)
Cash Only
And and I’ve had all these conspiracy theories that he’s through it. Yeah, because his lyrics are really like, if you listen to his lyrics to a very off key, they’re a bit wild. so I just think, oh, is he is he like a famous actor? That’s like exploring his, like, creativity through music. And he doesn’t want people to hear these mad things about. Yeah, I just I don’t even want to say it on his podcast. Go and check him out. CASSISDEAD But, but I think I think the most truthful rumor is that he had some sort of cancer. Or because, again, these lyrics, he talks about this. So I’m not sure if there’s, there’s something that’s affected him. there. So he wears this mask or it might just be that he’s up to no good and he’s wearing a mask and he or maybe he doesn’t pay tax and he just. Who knows? But yeah, CASSISDEAD There’s too many tracks to to. But what’s really cool about CASSISDEAD is he’s a very, very, very underground artist.
(01:24:04)
Cash Only
But he. I think it might be Excel Recordings, or Ninja Cube, one of them that picked him up and he managed to break into the mainstream. He had to tone down his lyrics somewhat, but he’s had he’s had stuff in the in the main charts in the UK. You know, he tours thousands of people. You know, he’s just very he’s just very iconic. And for me, here’s my guilty pleasure. CASSISDEAD Go check him out, guys. And don’t think I’m weird because I like him.
(01:24:33)
Robert Simoes
Exceptional. Exceptional. Well, Matt, I feel like we’ve been around the world. And I just even wanted just to say thank you so much, given. I know, like you said during May, till September is, like, one of the busiest times. We’re recording this, I guess in the peak July, between, I think what was a visa you were in and going to tomorrow?
(01:24:55)
Cash Only
Yeah, yeah, literally, literally here. I’ve literally got run and get a haircut and then, tidy up a few other loose ends and then pack.
(01:25:03)
Cash Only
Sam says you’re packing tonight, aren’t you? Because I normally leave it to the morning and I forget stuff shows. Babe, you need to pack tonight. I’m like, all right, I’ll pack tonight. I’ll pack tonight. So, yeah, we got back tonight and then tomorrow land and then in all over the shop. So yeah. Yeah no drama. It’s been, it’s been amazing talking to you. And you know anyone who wants to find out a little bit more about me, find me on my socials at cash only. No cards. and yeah, if you just slide into the DMs, any other questions that anyone’s got? also, obviously you can find me on Spotify. Beatport track source. Got lots of music coming out, got another track coming out and DVINE Sounds on the 16th of August. It’s actually a Lenny Fontana track called spirit of the sun. So obviously a lot of house guys know who’s Lenny Fontana is. He made a record that a record label called Public Demand signed 20, 30 years ago, and it didn’t do so well as a house vinyl.
(01:25:55)
Cash Only
So they’ve done a UK garage remix of it, and for me it was one of the most iconic tracks there. And Jimmy, bless him from public demand, he gave me the the opportunity to remix this record with an exciting young producer called Shiloh. So we did it. We gave it to Sam. Sam played it to defected, in a city called Leeds in England. 4000 people. Everyone went mental. So that’s the acid test. It went off. We’re signing that track. Then the negotiations with Jimmy about how that works with Lenny Fontana and Public Demand original record label. And yeah, it’s coming out on the 16th of August and we’re doing a music video for it actually on in Croatia defected. And it’s going to be kind of. Yeah, I won’t give you the story, but we’ve got a cool little story to integrate. We don’t want it just to be another party. Video in the sun. there’s a little bit of a story behind it, so, yeah, we’re shooting that next week.
(01:26:43)
Cash Only
and then. Yeah. But yeah, it’s been great. And yeah, you’ve been a great interviewer as well. So well done and keep doing your thing. And if there’s anything that again I’m like so anti gatekeeping if there’s anything I can do to help you, if there’s any other artists that you’d really like to interview that you think that I might know, then let me talk to them and, and you know. Yeah. Keep doing your thing and yeah, everyone out there that’s, that’s trying hard to make it in the industry, you know, don’t give up. Stay strong, have patience, keep working hard and good music will will see through.
(01:27:11)
Robert Simoes
Incredible incredible. And I’ll be including the show in the show notes. All those different links that you mentioned. for everybody who’s listening to this, this podcast, thank you so much for tuning in. And be sure to subscribe, like on all the different platforms, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, what have you. So thank you so much, Matt.
(01:27:28)
Robert Simoes
And, yeah, we’ll catch you. We’ll catch you later. And I hope you have a great rest of your touring schedule. Thank you.
(01:27:35)
Cash Only
Cheers, mate. Big up. Cheers.
