Last week, celebrated Catalan DJ & producer Ivan Ramos, aka Coyu, who has been at the forefront of Spain’s house & techno scene was in India for his 5 city tour. The Sherp was lucky enough to have a quick chat with him prior to the tour where he talked about his music, his cats and his very prominent and successful label – Suara.
Hey Ivan, this will be the first time you’re touring India. How excited are you?
I’m extremely excited. I’ve played in more than 40 countries but I know India has something special and unique. I’m doing 5 shows in 5 days so i’m gonna meet a lot of Indian clubbers and electronic music lovers, from North to South, which is awesome. Cannot wait to start the tour.
You have a unique groovy-tech edge to your music, are there any particular sounds/genres that you would like to experiment with that you haven’t already?
Many people know me by my techie grooves and my eclecticism between house and techno. But I also like many other different styles. My background is very large. I always was a fan of IDM, drill n bass, trip hop, electronic pop… I’m working on my first album and hope to show all those styles there.
In your opinion, what’s the best track you have ever made? In terms of quality?
Difficult to say. Every single track is special. My most known track is “El Baile Aleman”. It was the biggest sold track of 2009 on Beatport. My remix for Fatboy Slim’s hymn “Right Here Right Now” was also very popular, one of the most popular tracks of 2013. Now “Y.E.A.H.” (alongside Ramiro Lopez) is getting fame because many big DJs are playing it, like Moby, Pete Tong… To be honest, I can’t say what my favourite track is, I would prefer you to tell me your favourite. Anyway, the best one is yet to come.
You first started producing music in Berlin, how does this music scene compare to your hometown Barcelona?
Berlin is the Mecca of the electronic music in Europe. You have everything you need there. It’s very different to any other city in the World. You can party 24/7. It’s totally insane. It’s very underground and I Love it. Barcelona has a very good club scene, you have more than 10 quality options for the weekend, always with interesting international acts. The best moment of the year is the Sonar Festival week in mid June. Barcelona becomes the place to be if you like electronic music. People around the World come to the city in a very happy mood. I love Barcelona during Sonar 🙂
Your label Suara touches on many genres and sounds with its artists and releases. If you could pinpoint the one style Suara belongs to, what would it be?
The style of Suara is the no-style. We release what we feel is quality music. We don’t think about styles or tags. We don’t think about if the artist is a star or is his first release ever. We only believe in quality music. House or techno, deep or hard, groovy or melo. Always quality stuff.
Spain has produced some incredible talent in the past, which artist would you pick as your stand out favourite and why?
Spain is in its best moment on electronic music. We have several artists doing well, not only in Spain but playing around the World like I do. Paco Osuna is the biggest Spanish artist in recent years. But we have many other artists doing big things like Edu Imbernon, Dosem, Uner, Los Suruba, Affkt, Ramiro Lopez, John Talabot, etc…
Also, Do you think that Spain appreciates its home grown talent as much as it could or are international DJs still more desired?
I don’t think so. Spanish people prefer foreign names just because it sounds cooler. We should learn from other countries like UK, Germany, Netherlands or Belgium, where the scene is better than in Spain thanks to the support they give to the local talent. Without local talent there is not scene.
On a lighter note, we noticed you are a bit obsessed with cats. How many do you have at moment? And are they keen listeners of your music?
4 cats at home. They spend a lot of time in my studio, so yeah, I guess they like it. I love cats and they love me. That’s all 😀
What music did you grow up around and is that still an influence on you now?
My mum was born in Brazil, so I listened to a lot of Samba and Bossanova when I was a child. I think that early music gave me some kind of identity. Nowadays you can feel those roots on my music. My tracks used to be very percussive… like the music from South America.
Lastly, name the one track you’d drop in each and every set you play across the globe. Your personal favourite?
Impossible to say a favourite. I never play the same music. Last weekend I played in Montpellier and Budapest. Both sets were over 2 hours and I playing around 30 tracks. I only played 8 tracks in Budapest that I also played in Montpellier. I change my sets all the time, even on the same weekend. Because every crowd is different, even if you are in the same country or city. You have to see to the eyes of the crowd and see what they want. It’s 50% you, 50% the crowd. If you don’t listen to the crowd, you’re lost. If I have to say an all-time favourite, I have a lot of favs, but today I would say Paul Kalkbrenner – Sky And Sand.