AMF chats to Magnier (House Of Disco)
All My Friends owner Liam Oliver was lucky enough to catch up with DJ Magnier & House Of Disco founder for our latest artist interview. Magnier is a DJ, blogger, and label owner responsible for the eponymous House Of Disco blog and newsletter. We’ve been fans of House of Disco for ages and highly recommend signing up to the mailing list, you’ll receive regular mail with free music hand selected by Magnier and available to download for free!
We’ve used many House Of Disco recommendations in many of our mixes and they always hit the spot. We were pretty excited to have a chat with him. You can check Liam’s interview below.
You can also pre-order House of Discos latest release, the Habibi EP, from COEO and Lauer now. Head to Juno Records to secure your copy.
Hey Magnier, thanks for taking the time to chat with us at AMF. We’ve been followers of House Of Disco for ages and always have an eye on our inbox to catch your latest track recommendations. When did you start DJing? What your musical story?
Thanks for involving me, it’s always nice to hear my emails aren’t getting routed to your spam folder. To answer your question on playing out: I guess I was a bit of a late bloomer to Djing really. I mean, I always liked dance music but never enough to really get my teeth into it. That was until I came across the housier side of disco, and that sort of led me down a path I’m still prancing along now. I learned to Dj bit by bit from a friend of mine Maz, we used to play back to back a lot and he’d stand there beside me in the booth rescuing me from every mixing train wreck (there were a lot). Everybody needs a Maz in their life.
It’s always nice to talk to a fellow blogger. Why did you decide to make a music blog?
I think music blogs were just something that were a bit more frequented when I started DJing. they are a great way for people to find new stuff. So I set up House of Disco as a way to sort of keep track of all these new tunes I was coming across. Ironically, my old hosting provider (A company that puts your website on the web) went bust and I lost the first 3 years of the blog posts. So yeah, that plan didn’t quite work out but it sort of evolved into something different over time anyway.
Have you got any tips for budding music bloggers? What are the best practices you should follow if you want a successful blog and what are the pitfalls you need to avoid?
I think the number one takeaway I have from the blog side of things is: if you put passion into it and make it personal, people really feel that and get on board what you are doing. It’s easy to be too serious or focussed on analytics and reach and all that fun stuff but it has to start as something you are excited about. It’s a time pit so you have to enjoy wallowing in your cozy little pit.
In the past 15 years, technology has become a great democratiser in dance music. Pirate radio, the internet, streaming, and more accessible hardware (As well as blogging) has opened up dance culture to people who might not have experienced it otherwise. How do you think technology has changed dance music? How has it helped you?
Wow, I mean I don’t think I can answer the first bit without getting bogged down in cliche’s but the second bit is easy. Without the technology and online communities sprouting from that technology I wouldn’t have found the music that got me all giddy about music in the first place, never mind sharing it with others on a blog.
When you’re not working on the House Of Disco blog you’re busy building its record label. What are some of the challenges you need to overcome to set up your own label?
Starting is the tough bit, especially if you wanna put out releases on vinyl. You won’t have enough of a reputation for a distributor to take a risk on a P&D (Pressing & Distribution) deal so you have to foot the bill yourself until you do. I did this for the first 5 releases, and let me tell you the cash flow is a disaster. You say goodbye to the money for 6 months at least (provided it sells), this makes putting out the second vinyl even harder as you are essentially doubling down on something you have no idea will work. But…….
DO IT! It’s great craic and it’s this first hurdle that stops most people. Once you’re over the panic running a label is heaps of fun and very satisfying. You join forces with so many people. Some of your ideas for the label will work and some won’t, but there’s never a dull moment. Also nothing beats the day you hold the first vinyl in your hand. I’m sure artists experience the same thing actually when they get their music pressed for the first time.
What are your tips for beginner label owners?
Top 5:
- Don’t be afraid to approach artists you like, no one is unapproachable, it’s all in your head.
- Find a distributor who can help get your release supported by stores, don’t just use an online aggregator, you’ll get lost in the noise.
- It’s a slow process so don’t rush the mastering, mixdowns & artwork.
- Don’t spam people with the release as soon as it’s out, send promos direct to artists you like, a personal touch is key.
- Commission more remixes. When you have an idea on a remixer and it works out, that’s the magic stuff that keeps you keen (Point 1 applies here too BTW)
It’s around here in an interview I’d normally ask for any upcoming gigs you’ve got in the diary but with everything on lockdown (This article was published at the hight of Corona), I thought I’d ask about your process for discovering new artists for your label.
What do you like to hear when a demo comes across your desk?
It got to the point where there were so many people sending totally unrelated productions that I had to shelf my best intentions of listening to every demo, it was just unworkable and frankly a little demoralising.
I’m gradually getting better at screening demos and my top thing that almost always guarantees a listen in a good mindset is a personal message from the artist. It shows they have put some time into deciding who to send it to and why this resonates.
Thanks for taking the time to chat with us today Magnier. What stuff have you got in the pipeline that you can tell us about?
My gigs have all been kicked down the road but I have a release about to come out from COEO with Lauer and Mix & Fairbanks remixes that I’m very jazzed about. Apart from that, I think maybe I’ll get fat, that sounds fun.
You can pre-order the COEO release now over on Juno Downloads. Click here to secure your copy
