Simon Dunmore Interview

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Check out our exclusive Simon Dunmore interview!

Head boss at leading House label, Defected, Simon Dunmore is as passionate about music as he was 15 years ago, when he left the big corporate companies to start his own brand. Free to do what he wanted, Dunmore created a label that was a driving force for House music, bringing it to the forefront and entering the mainstream instantly with a debut UK number eight single. Since then, Defected has seen the likes of Bob Sinclair, Sam Divine, Marc Kinchin and Dennis Ferrer on its roster, thrown the biggest parties in the UK and completed eight seasons at Pacha Ibiza. Before Simon Dunmore brings Defected In The House to Pacha Sydney, and a following Australian tour, we sat down and had a chat about the unbelievable success of the label, its artists and what the future holds for House music in the ever-changing industry it belongs to.

Hi Simon! How’s life treating you?
Life’s treating me great!

Where’s music taken you to recently?
Mexico for the BPM Festival; I’ve played in Bali, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taipei and Jakarta. So I’ve travelled a bit recently.

For those that are yet to discover Defected, can you tell us a bit about the music and where it lies in the music business at the moment?
I started Defected in 1999; I had worked previously at major labels EMI and Universal. When you work for big companies like that you have to adhere to rules and regulations and I’ve always been a bit of a free spirit. It felt a little bit restricted so I felt the only way I could do what I really wanted to do was to start my own label, so when I did, I didn’t really know what I was letting myself in for because we’ve some good times and some difficult times to get through, but in the main it’s been great and being here after 15 years is something I’m pretty proud of. In terms of where we are in today’s market, I think we are probably one of the only House labels that has real heritage and that is still contemporary and working in all the current markets. It’s a very good position to be in.

What would you say played a part in the label’s longevity?
I’m still very much young at heart, I still enjoy going to clubs and discovering new music and Djing. It keeps me out there and on top of the scene evolving. It’s ever-evolving, and if you stand still and get complacent, then sometimes you get left behind. I think I’m one of those people that is driven by the sense that I never want to fail. I’m always hungry not to fail, which if you read a lot of interviews with sportsmen and artists, they’re not driven by success, they’re driven by not wanting to fail, and I think there’s that in me.

So would you say that you’re the Usain Bolt of House music?
[Laughs] Most definitely not! Whoever the world champion shot putter is is probably more like me! I’m not that nimble on my toes these days.

Did you see it becoming the dominant brand that it is today?
No, it’s just evolved, which I think is mainly the best way to be, it gives you really solid foundations. It’s a record label, but it has to function as a business as well; we employ people, we have obligations to our artists and we learn from our successes, but more importantly we learn from our mistakes. It’s just grown in the right way, and I think that now, Dance music and particularly House music is enjoying a real renaissance in the UK and we’re able to put 15 years of experience to great use. You never really look at it, it’s just something to do when you get up every day, going to work and I wanna make it happen.

You launched on 1st January 1999, so New Year’s Day 2014 would have been your 15th birthday. We heard about the huge expectations of the celebrations; how did it all go off?
It went extremely well. We just enjoyed having a crossover number one Pop record with Storm Queen and Marc Kinchin provided the remix that eventually got radio, so he was playing. It was a really good moment because when you put out a record like that, there’s an enormous amount of work that goes into it so the company was really driven in that respect. We didn’t really have the time to enjoy the moment at the particular time, so we presented Mark with his silver disk for selling 200,000 downloads in the UK and we had a trophy for being a number one record. We celebrated it being a great year, and 2014 we’re looking forward to that, and it was our 15th birthday, so we popped a few bottles of champagne and there were a few sore heads for a few days after.

And what is there to look forward to in 2014?
We have a really diverse, well-balanced and strong release schedule. I’m excited about the music we’ve got coming out. We’re putting out Henrik Schwarz House Masters which is an amazing project to be involved with; we’ve got a record by an act called Gotsome called ‘Bassline’, which we hope is going to get some radio in the UK and sells decent numbers; we’re working with producers like Sonny Federa alongside your Dennis Ferrers and Marc Kinchins so the balance of our released schedule and our music is right, and just because House music has become so popular in Europe, we’ve gone from doing four festivals 2013 to 12 in 2014, so we’re playing on a much bigger stage and I think House music is finally becoming a genre. We’re at that period now where kids have grown up where their parents were listening to House music, it’s been around for 25 years now. We’re getting that generation where kids have grown up listening to Dance music all of their lives, and it’s part of why House music is so popular.

Do you think then that it’s the audience that drive the music forward?
Obviously you need a community to be into it, they can large or small and that determines the popularity of any music, but now we’re living in a musical democracy. You know, radio and TV used to dictate what you could actually hear, and the Internet has totally deconstructed that, you know, you’ve got your streaming, playlists, YouTube, discovering music, recommended music on blogs and Twitter. The ability to discover new music has been blown wide open. That has been the reason for Dance music becoming so popular. I believe more than any other genre, it’s the most social, because every weekend, most people go out to a club to dance. Obviously the Internet is a massive social meeting ground, and Dance music has flourished because of that.

And then on a whole other level, to showcase your artists and DJs and producers you have live shows.
Absolutely. It’s an experience that you can’t download. You’re there, in the moment, the euphoria, you’re meeting new people and it’s a social experience. It’s a massive part of our culture.

Well, it’s good news for Australia, because you’re bringing Defected In The House with the first event at Pacha Sydney at ivy on 15th February with MK and yourself; what can ticket-holders expect?
We have a very defined sound, we believe in House music and normally it has a Soul element to it, and it’s song-based so we’re hoping to bring that to Sydney. We’ve previously done it there, but it’s been several years. We’re really looking forward to it. Sometimes House music forgets the fact that, although we do take it seriously, it’s meant to be fun and enjoyable, so we hope to put a lot of smiles on people’s faces.

There’s going to be a pool party simultaneously; will you be bringing your trunks?
Only if they want me to terrify people! If girls wish to bring their bikinis and the guys wanna dive in, fantastic, but you won’t catch me in there.

What do each of the artists bring to the party individually?
I think as a label when we do our events, we only program the artists that make music for the label, that’s a key thing. There are other labels that do showcases and hire guys from others labels if they think it’s gonna sell tickets. Obviously that’s a consideration for us, but we want to support artists that release music on the label, so that dictates the line-up that we put into the clubs. We’re fortunate that we work with people from Kenny Dope, from Masters At Work, to Dennis Ferrer, MK, to Tensnake, to Noir, to Flashmob, and I think we can tailor a well-programmed night for almost any occasion in club land. We’ve got a lot of interest and hopefully we’ll follow up this date in February with tours further down the line. We just want to keep the line-ups diverse and interesting, and in that way we can have some longevity.

You’ve spoken before about a “new” Defected. Has that been put into effect with these live shows?
Yeah, well MK is a funny one because he made House music 15 or 18 years ago and then he decided he wanted to create music in other areas and he had a lot of success making Pop and R&B in the States, so he took a 15-year hiatus from House music and he’s only recently come back. So, even though he’s old school, he’s almost a brand new producer as far as the kids are concerned. He’s playing but I view him as a contemporary artist now, alongside me and I have deep associations with the label. The next tour is Kenny Dope, who again is still very relevant but also has heritage, and he will be supported by Sam Divine, who’s an extremely popular DJ in the UK and Ibiza, and the dates after that are looking likely to be Noir and Flashmob, who are very much new artists. I think it’s all about balance.

Would you say they represent the new Defected?
I think they’re absolutely a key part of it, and it’s important for us to keep moving our musical philosophy forward, but also remember where we come from. There’s some great records that still work on the dance floor today, but to keep moving it forward you have to have new blood and keep things interesting. Sometimes you go to an event and people just want to hear the big records, they want the hits. They don’t want a musical education and walk away only knowing one song the whole night, the DJ thinking he’s cool, they want to have a great time, so occasionally you get a sense that people want to hear ‘Finally’ or ‘Fish Go Deep’ or Soulsearcher ‘Can’t Get Enough’; they’re big moments in people’s lives. It’s a celebration of all the things you like about that artist or label, so we have to remember where we come from, and I think that’s a tough thing to achieve.

Besides founder and owner of Defected, you’re also a highly respected DJ; what’s your opinion on Dance music today?
The technology has made the process of making music and DJing much simpler, so you don’t necessarily have to invest the time and money, or have the skills that people have previously had to have to survive, and to me that’s a good thing and a bad thing. More people are allowed to get involved and have the opportunity, which is never a bad thing, but it also means there’s a huge layer of mediocrity that you have to get through. I see DJs and when they play they don’t even look up from the decks of their laptop and there’s no real connection with the crowd. It’s really easy to turn up to a full club, everyone’s waiting, you play your records and everyone goes crazy. Sometimes it doesn’t quite work out like that, and that’s when you really discover who are the great DJs – those that can adapt and make it work. They’re the DJs I get excited about, where they can go into any situation, read the room, and adapt accordingly. Or, if they’ve got a room, everyone in the palm of their hands, and just take them somewhere they never thought they were gonna go and then bring them back. There are a few DJs that can do that, and then those that just go through the motions. In terms of Dance music, I do wish people would invest more time in making music; it’s a cornerstone of everything that we do and just because you can make a track on your laptop in an afternoon, you shouldn’t be so easily satisfied with that. Bring in musicality, see if you can work with vocalists, and make the records have a little bit more depth and meaning. People are too frivolous with the music that they put out.

Do you think the quality suffers?
Undoubtedly. You don’t even need to read or understand music to make a record because the computer does it for you. Music should come from people’s souls, it’s an emotional thing and it can take you on a journey to make you sad, make you cry and make you happy. Those are human emotions, you don’t get that from a computer, so I just think that, you can absolutely use technology, but put a bit of yourself and uniqueness into the music that you’re making.

Obviously Dance music is synonymous with clubs, and you’ve spoken before about being of a certain age and in a club until 3am. Have the late nights started getting to you yet?
It depends. If the music is amazing, it’s a breeze, I can stay until six or eight in the morning, but if the music is on a train, flatlining and going nowhere, then I will hit walls really easy. And I think that’s true of punters. If the DJ’s great and taking the audience somewhere, they’ll all stay, but if they know what they’re gonna get after a period of time, they’ll have their fill and leave quickly. It’s all about the experience on the night. What invariably happens if I do stay up until six in the morning, I suffer for a few days after.

You’re not thinking of stopping any time soon?
No, because I’m still having a great time. If I stop having a great time then I’ll call it a day. I have three children, a family, absolute consideration to them and they’re super supportive, but the price that comes is that I spend too much time away from them. When I stop working for a bit then I owe it to them to spend time with them.

Have your children expressed any interest in working in the music business?
Not yet, my eldest is 15, they’re still deciding what they want to do and there’s certainly no pressure from me. If they decide they want to, I’ll support them. If they don’t, I’ll support them equally. The music industry and House music has been very good to me, but it’s a funny thing. I’m able to hear records really early in a good way and know what they will mean to people. The whole A&R, and working in a record store, you have to know what the people want and what they’re gonna buy, and I have to know what the people in our community are gonna like. So, if I lose that, then that’s the moment to decide. And if my children don’t have that, then it’s going to be difficult for them to get involved, but it is a great thing.

By Charlotte Mellor

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