Something Happening Somewhere, is a record label driven by the philosophy where anything can happen anywhere. Each record is treated as such a moment and gets its own special place in the universe, which gives the imprint a very distinct feel of adaptability.
In this day and age, where a abundance of record labels enter the realms of the musical spectrum with great determination, only to fade away into the vast quantity of it all, it takes a special kind of forward-striving mentality to stay relevant. This mentality lays deeply embedded into the core of Something Happening Somewhere head honcho Nuno Dos Santos. Operating out of deep correspondence to music, the label’s catalog is best described as a reflection of the Nuno’s personal interest, which adds a very welcome sight of personality.
With a strong hallmark on quality control, Something Happening Somewhere limits its releases to a few carefully handpicked records each year. Wrapped in a unique artwork cover, which would serve just as well as a painting on your living room wall, they all feature forward-thinking house music and their own little world to get lost in.
Since its installment, back in 2013, Nuno Dos Santos’ Something Happening Somewhere imprint quickly grew out into a force to be reckoned with. Working with a tight selection of like-minded artists, the label is home to the likes of Dutch maestro Love Over Entropy, Kiani & His Legion, Quince, and Presk, who regularly appear on the imprint, next to the label head himself.
After starting off strong with Love Over Entropy’s ‘Off The Grid’ EP, the label continues pushing out high quality music from its residents, while landing remixes by The Drifter, Fatima Yamaha and Innervisions’ own Dixon.
In honor of Something Happening Somewhere’s next compilation release, featuring the labels familiars and some special guests, we met up with Nuno in his hometown Utrecht for a little chat. After spending some time in his apartment checking his studio, record collection and a wall filled with the record labels’ catalog, we took a small stroll into the city and sat down at a local cafe.
During our chat, it became apparent that Nuno was not only a familiar face in the music scene, but a welcomed sight in his hometown as well, as he was greeted by locals. One of which, even shared an anecdote of how one of Nuno’s podcasts caused the police to drop by twice during a heavy listening session.
Welcome Nuno! How have you been, and what have you been up to recently?
I’ve been spending a lot of time in the studio recently, working on my own music and some remixes. Next to that, I’ve been busy with planning the upcoming releases for the Something Happening Somewhere catalogue, which is shaping up quite nicely, I must say. This month will see the release of ‘Somewhere III’, the label’s third compilation EP, and, with the festival season started, I’ll be doing a lot of gigs.
Tell us a little bit about the labels’ cultivation and the idea behind it.
The idea of starting my own imprint was already brewing for quite some time. When I was a resident of Trouw Amsterdam, I got the opportunity to run the club’s record label, together with Patrice Baumel, which was great fun. After that came to an end, the decision of starting my own label was a pretty easy one. Over the years, I had been receiving a lot of demos, among which ‘Groundswell’ by Love Over Entropy. When I asked him to make a second track, he send me ‘Off The Grid’, which blew me away. After hearing those tracks, the whole process of starting SoHaSo went very naturally. It was just was the right time. The idea of naming the label Something Happening Somewhere, came from a evening drinking wine with close friends and looking through some old pictures. The name grew on me over time, because it sounds very elusive and the possibilities are endless with it.
Tell us about the selection process for the records you decide to put out on the record label.
You can see the label as a reflection of the way I play my sets. Sometimes it’s deep, other times it’s tropical, african, trippy, or straight-up techno even, but most importantly, it’s music that I like. The same goes for SoHaSo. I don’t feel the need to stick to one particular sound, I just release music that speaks to me on a certain level.
This month will see the release of Something Happening Somewhere’s third compilation release. What can you tell us about the release?
The SOMEWHERE compilation series is a yearly compilation that we release with music from different SoHaSo artist and new names to our catalogue. We want to release unique pieces by artists known and less known and create a combination of different vibes and sounds that we normally aren’t able to express through individual releases. Sometimes we get tracks by artists that don’t fit their usual outlet but we believe are stories worth to be told, a compilation is a great way for this music to reach the world. This time we’ll have a host of familiar SoHaSo figures like Kiani & His Legion, Quince, Kurt Baggaley, Sigward, Love over Entropy but also provide a lot of space for new figures like Aril Brikha, Kaap, Ripperton in his collab with Love over Entropy, Equus, Tracey and Mulder. A funny anecdote about Aril’s track is that four years ago we did a b2b live / dj set at the legendary now defunct Trouw club in Amsterdam. Since then I’ve asked him a million times about this track and wanted to release it, now I’m very happy that we were finally able to make it happen for the SOMEWHERE III compilation!
We’re hosting the premiere of Love Over Entropy and Ripperton’s collaboration track ‘Saints De Glace’, in a couple of days. Talk us through the track.
The track comes forward out of a jam session between Love Over Entropy and Ripperton, when he visited him in Switzerland. When Michel (aka Love Over Entropy) came back home, he used the recordings of that jam session to make this track. When I asked him for a track to put on the compilation, he send me ‘Saints De Glace’. After hearing it, I thought it would fit perfectly on the compilation. It’s trippy, nice and slow, and sucks you right into it.
The compilation also features a remix by you and Quince of Dutch singer-songwriter Eefje de Visser. A Dutch band that you’ve been supporting quite a lot in recent mixes. Where did the connection to the band come from
I dig all sorts of music, so I really enjoy going to see bands from time to time. It’s nice to take a break from electronic music and broaden the horizon a bit. I visited one of Eefje’s gigs, just before the release of her first album, and the whole performance stuck with me. Her voice sounds pretty mesmerizing and alluring. Afterwards, we kept in contact and the idea of doing a remix EP of her album came up. The remix EP is set on hold for now, but when I asked her if we could release this remix on the SoHaSo compilation, she was up for it. The fact that the lyrics are in Dutch brings something new to the table. I tested the remix a couple of times when playing gigs abroad, and the reactions to it were really positive, although people don’t understand the lyrics.
The majority of artists appearing on SoHaSo are Dutch, this compilation no different. Is this something you specifically aim for – to push the sound of local producers?
It just happens to be that way. There is some much talent roaming around here, so it would be strange to not work with those guys. The majority of artists releasing on SoHaSo are longtime friends, or became good friends over time. I really like the fact of working with friends, it adds intimacy and a whole lot of fun to the whole process. In the end of the day, it’s all about the music, so we’re always looking for new talent to work with, no matter where it comes from. You’ll see a whole lot of new names appearing on SoHaSo, the coming months.
What can you tell us about the idea behind SoHaSo’s artwork? Most record labels choose to work with one graphic designer per year. However, SoHaSo features artwork by different artist almost every release.
It’s different because every release is treated differently. I had my own graphic design studio for 10 years, so the artwork for Something Happening Somewhere is as important to me as the releases the label puts out. I think the artwork should harness the feeling you get when listening to a certain record. When you look at SoHaSo’s artwork, you can see elements of the music being transformed into physical art. Next to that, I really enjoy the whole process of working with different designers, although it can cause some problems when you’re not on the same pace. There are some designers, which you will see returning on SoHaSo, one of them being my father. We worked together on the artwork for my recent ‘Trigonometry Of Love’ EP, which was a really nice experience.
Which SoHaSo moments have stayed with you the most, over the years?
It’s too many things to mention as it’s also feels like a fluid process and every time there are new things that we’re exploring and excited about. But to name one, the first release was a very special moment for me. It may sound cliché but it was the moment where something clicked and it felt right to go through with starting my own label. As stated previously, I received this great music by Love Over Entropy which blew me away. To start the label with such a strong and distinctive release with the beautiful artwork cover by Dietwee was one of those moments that still gives me goose bumps.
I’m very proud of where we are at the moment and it seems like there’s only more exciting stuff happening and I’m working together with a great team. A few weeks back we did an amazing label night at Überhaus in Beirut (Libanon) and before that one that was just as good in New York. It’s feels a blessing to be able to do it and meet all these wonderful people through music. Last but not least the 3-year anniversary last December at TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht was also a very special moment. It truly felt like a family, seeing a lot of the SoHaSo artist together at dinner and sharing this connection was a beautiful experience.
Upcoming in the world of Nuno Dos Santos and Something Happening Somewhere..
Like I said, the releases for SoHaSo are set till the beginning of 2018. After the release of the third compilation, this month, you’ll see a remix EP of my ‘Trigonometry Of Love’ EP. Next to that, we will release a second collaboration EP with the lovely Lossless guys, featuring some new remixes of King Britt’s track ‘Uzoamaka’. With the festival season started, I have quite a lot of gigs lined-up, which I’m really looking forward to. And I will be spending a lot of time in the studio, working on my own stuff. Finally, we’re also hosting a SoHaSo stage at Paradigm festival in August and have more label nights coming up.
Can you provide us with some of your latest inspirations, in the form of five tracks?
Always a hard one, but here are some tracks that have been floating my boat lately:
01. Clashing Egos – Love Sweet Love (Sterac Electronics Dub)
02. Interstellar Funk – Efx Harmonix
03. Quantic – Que Me Duele?
04. Nadia Struiwigh – Trip In Fiction
05. Kurt Baggaley – This System