It’s arrived! The next edition of our mix series is here. Fresh off the back of Selador remixer Nicolas Masseyeff, we’ve only gone and nabbed Selador’s head honcho, Steve Parry. A Liverpool man through and through, he has a wealth of experience and industry knowledge as vast as Man United’s trophy cabinet.. 😉

This legend lives for music. But as you’ll find out, it’s not only a mean mix he can put together, he can cook up a storm in the kitchen too! Turn up Steve’s mix for us and give our interview with the main man a read while it plays…A thoroughly enjoyable read. Enjoy!

• One interesting fact we mightn’t know about Steve Parry?

Erm, i actually can’t think of one.. i ran some by my lovely wife before, who just said they’re not very exciting are they.. doh!

Well heres a few random nuggets of parryness (the first two are the ones my wife said weren’t very good)

– i did my work experience at Brookside TV…

– I used to answer the phones for Pete Waterman when he did his ‘Hitman’ radio show..

– When i was on my way to DJ at John Digweeds Bedrock many moons ago, (bearing in mind Digweed was my hero).. i puked twice on the way to the club i was so nervous..!

– I have so much vinyl, i have to keep it in our house, my mums house and in my nans house…

I’ll stop now…

• So with Djing, Selador, your music management company SMP3 Promo and everything in between, music really is your life. Could you see yourself doing anything else if you hadn’t got involved?

When i was about 14, i wanted to be an architect.. but then i realised it was 7 years studying, so that put me right off!
I’ve worked for banks, selling loans, and i hated it, i lasted 18 months, earnt a lot of cash but really couldn’t stand it. apart from that its been pretty much all music for my working life.. and i don’t think i’d manage in a non music related job any more!

Luckily – i have so may things that keep me busy! Selador, SMP3 Music Promo working promoting labels to DJs, Working with a handful big named DJ’s sourcing music for them weekly, Luna (an event in Liverpool we put a few cool parties on each year), My Radio Show, DJ-ing, Guest mixes all keep me rather busy. I could do with cloning myself but haven’t worked it out as yet.

• I’m sure being so heavily involved in music I’m sure you must want to get away from it from time to time. How do u spend your spare time? Any hobbies?

I really enjoy spending time with my little family – wife and two kids (aged 2 and 6) so if any parents out there know, family life is quite time consuming – but also a great way to get away from everything and I can just be silly daddy… camping, city trips, theme parks – i love it all haha.

Apart from that, i love good food, as my ever expanding waistline shows! i love eating out, especially top restaurants, but i also love cooking too… I’m in ok cook.. i’d like to be better, and i think i’m probably better than i actually am, but i can knock us a decent meal i suppose. When I’m stressed cooking for me is great, i switch off from the world, put the radio on (not house.techno, something completely different to get away from everything) and I get cooking, its therapeutic for me, and my tea is made at the end of it.

• So you and Dave (Seaman) set up Selador. With so many labels out there nowadays, what was it that you wanted to bring to the table that other label owners couldn’t? New talent? Different management approach? Both?

We both like similar music. Which is quite odd, as our tastes are very broad. Chill out to nu-disco, techie stuff, vocal house, deep stuff, acid house, through to solid techno and all shades in-between, its quite odd how similar we are musically.. and so we wanted to start a label that reflected our tastes, but not to stick to one genre, and also we play different styles at different clubs/different times etc so we wanted to make releases that reflected that.. our only criteria is that we both love and would play a track.. if its a yes from both of us then thats all we need!
we are trying to develop a little family, some artists that keep coming back to work with us, but we will always incorporate others both old and new friends.

Were not trying to set the world on fire or say that we are doing things differently, we are just trying to put tracks out tat we love, with remixes by artists that we love. we try and get decent artwork, we try and socialise a lot on our social media pages, we try and get good PR, we both have radio shows and now the label podcast, and next year we are really trying to be pushing the selador club nights. we want to feature our artists from the label, as we have some great people that work with us, so it seems like the next step for us.

• You’ve a a pretty interesting selection of artists on the books at Selador. what do you look for when signing an EP?

Sometimes we chase people for tracks and sometimes they land on our doorstep, it deosnt matter if they are established or brand new to us, the music has to be right first and foremost. I suppose we are musically diverse to some people – from SEFF to Robert Babicz is quite different musically, but they are both artists we love and would play so it doesn’t seem strange to me at all.

• As a growing label, what are your goals for 2015 and how do you plan on reaching them?

We are increasing how often we release tracks,so we can get more music out. We are looking to get more music from Dave and also myself on the label, plus developing artists we are already working with to get them back on board. We also love approaching artists and remixes before they are huge and helping them along their exciting path, it feels good, and we get some great music out of it, its a win/win situation!

2015 for yourself, have you any plans/goals? Will you be business focused or take a more personal approach?

Ive been working hard at getting my DJ gigs back on track. I used to DJ a real lot, 2 or 3 gigs a week and 2 radio shows every week, while i worked in 3 Beat.. so its always been music all day every day and most nights for me! So over the years as times have changed, and i became a family man, my gigs slowly vanished bit by bit.. and so one of the reasons i wanted to start Selador is to get back in the studio and make tracks, which in turn should help with getting more gigs.. in theory!

I certainly want to be back in the studio more… i am my own worst enemy in the studio and so critical its silly. I’ve finally made 2 remixes the year and had them out, and i’m back in at the weekend to start another but next year, i want to do an ep and at least 5 remixes.

Buisness wise – i’m just pushing forward on everything – I’m so busy right now, i need some assistants to come on board, as it’s all quite manic right now – not complaining by any means, i have the best job in the world, i just need to thing long term.

• Finally, One exciting producer you’ve got upcoming on Selador.. and one exciting producer you’d like to sign to Selador?

We are awaiting the Joal EP for next year release. Ive liked him for a while, and he is making some great music, and just signed to Hot Since 82’s label (when HS82 heard his remix he made for us, he snapped him up), so thats certainly one to look forward to!

I love Christian Smith. he makes effortlessly great music. He doesn’t try to be over clever, he just does what really really works. Everytime. He is so consistent. And also is an extremely nice chap as well, which makes me like hime even more.

• Is this WWD mix something we could expect to hear you play in clubs or what approach did u take?

Its a twist on what i’d play in clubs. I find my radio show is a little different to my club sets, and so this is part radio show, part club set and a few curve balls thrown in that are a little bit crazy but cool.

Bonus Info

When we asked Steve about the upcoming Selador releases he could barely contain his excitement!