Techno Soul: How SoulMatters Recordings Is Distilling The Essence Of Electronic Music
SoulMatters Recordings pushes the sounds of techno and house from its home base of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur (Credit: Courtesy of SoulMatters Recordings)
It’s when you get locked into the sway of a heady bassline. When you feel the sledgehammering pulse of a beat pounding through your veins. Or when you find yourself unified with unknowns on the dancefloor, bound together by an intangible sensation that stimulates and elates. Such is the soul that flows within electronic music, seeping into the inner anima of individuals who feed on it for emotional sustenance. If you’re privy to this passion, then you’ve definitely felt this invisible force. It’s an energy that’s uncontainable yet definable, and attempting to distil this phenomenon are three guys who know it far too well.
Like a guiding nudge, this shared adoration for the soul of dance music is what brought together the selector-producer triumvirate of Shawnn Lai, Gerald Ang and Amjad Shah (AKA Notion A). Their mutual devotion motivated them to start SoulMatters Recordings almost eight years ago. The DIY record label would go on to become more than just a platform for their original releases, but also a launchpad for other like-minded artistes such as homegrown acts like Ferng, Kaye and Browndwarf, as well as international names including K’Akexi Shelby, Ben Long and Shin Nishimura.
With about 25 releases in its catalogue so far, the label explores a sweeping spectrum of techno and house, dabbling in everything from progressive melodious anatomies and deep tribal textures, to more aggressive hard grooves and classic Detroitian flavours. This lack of genre rigidity is what gives the label room to be a multifarious entity, and a boon for listeners looking for surprising swerves with each release.
Now based in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, the SoulMatters Recordings team keeps pushing on to preserve the soul of dance music; a noble pursuit especially in the dark ages that we’re living in. They share more about their good fight and the story that keeps their soul alive.
The label was founded by Amjad Shah, Gerald Ang and Shawnn Lai (Credit: Kilo Lounge, kyō, Under9)
After all your years in the local electronic scene, do you think it still has soul? And if so, how is it being kept alive in these strange times?
There are many ways this scene has stayed alive during these trying times. Some are dishing out mixtapes, some pushing platforms for live-streams, while some are busy making plenty of tunes.
‘Soul’ can take on many meanings, but for us, it’s about the special feeling of positivity, unity and music that touches you. One thing for sure – the local electronic music scene definitely still has soul. Without it, the scene would definitely be completely dead by now. Shout-out to all the good people still pushing it year in year out, and holding tight. That said, we know that there are many more talents yet to be uncovered. We intend to keep it moving as long as we can by releasing tracks that matter.
How did the three of you first come together, and how did y’all decide to start a label?
The three of us met for the first time at the legendary Home Club some years ago. We were in the same lineup for a New Year party. Shout-out to Kelvin AKA loopinmotion. Without him, this gig wouldn’t have happened and we probably wouldn’t have met.
Shawnn was the only one who had been releasing tracks on and off through Plus Records and had the awesome opportunity to be mentored by K’Alexi Shelby. K’Alexi also introduced us to distributors and people who helped us. Shout-out to K’Alexi Shelby for the guidance. You have always been such an inspiration.
We kept in touch and started sharing music ideas. It became a regular thing and we thought why not start a label, put our stuff out and work with other artistes, both in Singapore and internationally? Apart from discovering new artistes, one of the reasons why we started the label was to have a clearer direction for our sound via the releases we put out. It was very important that we agreed on the sound we’d like to have on the label, even if it meant having different styles. The main point is to make sure that each track, each EP and each album has… SOUL.
The SoulMatters crew seen here with Jason Voon (Credit: Courtesy of SoulMatters Recordings)
What are your different roles in the team? Is it a well-oiled system?
We keep it simple because we do this purely for the music and the artistes we work with. We cover each other when one of us gets busy with work, kids or life. Amjad manages the A&R, PR and promotions side of the label. Shawnn oversees the branding and design ideas and also the more technical aspects like mastering of our releases. Gerald helps on the business and marketing side.
It’s never perfect and we are not always a well-oiled system, but we’ve somehow figured out how to work and support each other to get things done. We never let things come between us. It just happened naturally. No rocket science. Just love.
One thing that binds the three of you together is that you’re all producers. How would you describe your individual production styles, and how do you decide what type of tracks to craft for distribution via the label?
Amjad: The three of us are so different in terms of our production styles. My style has moved over the years from the deeper side to the harder side, and now I think I’m somewhere in between. I never really let myself stick to a certain style, and that's also the reason why I use a couple of monikers. I loved being able to grow that way over the years.
Since the three of us have been collaborating for years, we don’t even need to decide what type of tracks to put out. We know it fits. And we sign artistes and tracks that fit our idea – electronic music with soul. On a side note, we also have the XXX series where we put out something different from our usual releases.
Shawnn: I would not want to define my style or put a style to my music. It must move me in some way or another. Either the riff or the groove has to make sense, otherwise it will go in the Untitled folder. Trust me, there are a lot of those that did not work. The happy accidents did not happen. It’s dance music, so it has to make me want to groove and move to it. But sometimes a remix project comes in and I try to make a gospel track sound, like what I did with Maurice Joshua’s “We Fall Down”. The remix sounds entirely different from the original track except the vocals. I’m still learning and experimenting so yeah… I would not want to stick to one style.
Gerald: While we all have a common thread of the techno sound, we also have different inspirations and backgrounds in music. One thing’s for sure, we all fell in love with Detroit techno. I take my inspiration from the emotions of experiences in life and put them into the music. It varies across house, tech-house, deep or harder techno, and beats or electronic sounds. As long as the sound has meaning to the emotion, I’m looking to share.
Can you tell us more about the A&R process of the label? How much balance do you give to local, regional and international acts?
Our focus from day one has always been the local artistes. But we do put out music from regional and international artistes too. We really would love to discover more hidden local talents. They are very elusive but we know they are out there.
I love how your releases don’t just stick to one genre, spanning everything from Detroit techno to deep house. If not genre, then what does the label usually look out for before signing tracks?
We mainly focus on techno and house. We sign those that fit the label's direction. We became stricter with our signings over the years. Bottom line: it needs to have ‘Soul’. Hence, the name of our label.
Could you list out some of the label’s milestones over these last seven years?
Rolando charting Shawnn’s track “Blink” on Resident Advisor.
Both Ben Long and Jamie Bissmire of Space Djz agreeing to release their music on our label (shout-out and love to both of you guys!).
Singapore’s Luke Chen AKA Browndwarf releasing on SoulMatters after a decade of laying low and Ferng for his kickass techno tracks.
And an exciting thing that’s most recent was having Colin Dale drop one of Browndwarf’s tracks, “Ath”, on his Abstrakt Dance show!
SoulMatters is unique in that it’s based in both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. How does this cross-border operation work, and what are the benefits of having your headquarters in two cities?
We never did plan any of this and just went with the flow. With everything being done online nowadays you could say we are part of the WORK FROM HOME (Studio) movement. We are pretty much self-sufficient and we learnt to do everything by ourselves. Having the label running in two cities gives us different views. We get to see what’s fresh in KL and at the same time, stay on the pulse with what’s happening in Singapore. That said, we live in a global world.
From your experience, has it been hard and gruelling to run an electronic label in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur?
You do need to put aside time to run a record label on top of your day jobs, families, kids, etc. It’s all for the love of music. It’s never been hard. Just the deadlines Amjad puts us through (wink). A labour of love from the start and it still is. Being heard is the only thing that is hard but we have been slowly getting a bit of attention.
We keep doing what we do, and with the support we have from our friends like K’Alexi Shelby, Rolando, Shin Nishimura, Colin Dale, Kelvin, Ecilo, Kavan and many more, we get to reach a wider audience. Mad props to these guys.
What can you tell us about some of your more recent releases, and can you tease what you’ve got in the pipeline?
Do check out Browndwarf’s The Light That Brings Warmth EP. This EP is a timely and refreshing work of art. We had to sign the tracks and Luke Chen onto our label. We had the EP close to a year before it was released. We wanted to make sure it was the right and best time for it.
We have recently made an offshoot to the SoulMatters Recordings brand. SoulMatters XXX releases more experimental stuff like Ferng’s Non-Essential Fun Pack and 2403R's False LP. We look forward to having more of these releases soon to give the label a bit more breadth and depth. Of course, we have a couple of releases lined up for 2022, including an EP from Amjad (Notion A).
You’ve soldiered on in the scene for quite a while now. How do all of you stay inspired personally? Does it ever feel unrewarding and demoralising sometimes?
We stay inspired because of the music and we are glad to have a circle of people around us who keep pushing us. When we feel demoralised, we circle back to why we started the label. On the music production side, we push each other and as our sound evolves, we also get inspired by each other’s evolution. That gives each of us new ideas. It’s not easy and some didn’t believe in us when we first started, but we kept at it and we strive to do better.
And lastly, how would you say SoulMatters Recordings has evolved over the years? What would you like to accomplish with the label moving forward?
We have become more organised over the years. We have reached more people and are humbled we’ve gotten the support we never expected. We would say we’ve evolved nicely and we look forward to many more years. Moving forward, we want to discover more local artistes and to get to our 50th release.
Lastly, we will continue to do our best to put Singapore and Malaysia on the map as two cities that have soul and good grooves worth giving attention to; to make music that was inspired by our heroes and those who have inspired us.
Listen to the catalogue of SoulMatters Recordings on their Bandcamp page. Follow their Facebook and Instagram pages to stay updated.
