Edu Imbernon is no stranger to South Africa, having played here numerous times over the past 4 years he has built up a strong following and it is growing even as you read this. Pulse Radio's Ryan Eyden caught up with the 24 year old Spanish whizz kid at The Fire & Ice Hotel in Cape Town shortly before the Cape Town leg of his recent tour. Here are 10 things about Edu that might interest you.
Did you know?
1) His favorite venue to play, in the entire world is.... Truth Nightclub, Johannesburg, South Africa, saying “The upstairs dance floor is small and intimate and quite honestly one of, if not the best venue I have played at, it is always a privilege”
2) His girlfriend is South African, he met her on the first night he played at Truth almost 4 years ago. A few months later she was living in a villa on the coast of Spain.
3) He receives more than 5 mixes/demo's a day from various aspiring artists around the world who are trying to crack it in an already saturated industry. (Read his 3 things to remember when submitting a demo to a label below)
4) He is, in his own opinion a workaholic and is embarrassed that he is never without his mobile phone and finds that he is constantly checking in to keep up to date with the runnings of his company/brand and to make sure he is on top of everything. He is a hands-on kind of guy and firmly believes that “if you want something done properly, you do it yourself”.
5) He handles all of his own social media, so basically if you write to him on FB or MySpace you are guaranteed to a get a reply from the man himself as he undertakes to reply to every comment or question that he is posed online, and believes that a personal approach to social media is imperative in garnering new support.
6) He now lives back in Valencia with his girlfriend after spending a brief stint in Berlin, and being an avid football fan he tries to attend as many games as he can with his father and brothers but he admits that he does not find nearly enough time to do so with his hectic touring schedule. Saying that, he spends 70% of his time out of town.
7) He wholeheartedly believes that certain nationalities tend to be more successful than others. He believes that as with South Africa, his Spanish fans are more interested in foreign performers and producers than they are with the local talent coming out of their very own country. Sadly, I can’t help but agree. According to him the only countries where the locals prefer their own local artists are Germany, North America and the UK.
8) He uses Logic 9 and an array of analogue synths to create his signature sounds and is adamant that whether you have a software or hardware synth it comes down to product knowledge as both can reproduce the exact same sounds if used correctly. “some guys in the industry want to go back to analogue synths saying that the sound is better but I am just like, whatever, software does the same thing if you know how to use it”
9) He believes that it is very difficult for a South African artist to make it in the international arena without relocating for at a least a few months, to either Europe or North America in order to build a bigger fan base and expose themselves to a market that they are unfortunately miles away from geographically. “It is very hard for a South African artist to make it big as South Africa is located in the middle of nowhere, with Europe and the America's being so far away and thus making it very difficult to subsidise travel expenses with the distances being so great. Being European means you are never more than a few hundred km's from another country and thus another market to sell your music to”
10) His favorite South African artists are Sound Sensible and Diggin4Dodge
The one thing you definitely did not know...
Edu Imbernon is not fond of nightclubs if he is not playing. Yip, in his personal capacity he says that when he is not playing, there is absolutely no chance you will find him in a club and would much rather be at home or on the beach, or both in his case as his home is on the beach. I have to admit I would also much rather be on the Spanish coastline sipping a mojito.
3 things to remember when submitting your artist demo to a label
1) Make it personal. Do not spam mail. This infuriates producers and label bosses as firstly, it clogs up their inbox and secondly because it shows that the applicant has done little research on the label etc and thus is not deserving of the label doing research into the aspiring artist. Makes sense to me, in fact in my opinion that is just good business practice. Take heed.
2) Do your homework. Read up and research the label you are approaching. He says that it does wonders for a person’s chances of actually getting heard, if there is a brief foreword congratulating or at least commenting on some of the previous work the label has done and the reason for the submission to this label in particular.
3) Submit the mix only once per label. If for whatever reason your submission lands up in the trash folder then so be it, sending a mix more than once runs the risk of getting blocked from the mailbox, thus making it impossible to submit future mixes or demo's. Understand that if your mix is good enough, it will find its way to the desk of the person that matters. If not, keep trying and when it is...it will.
Listen to Edu Imbernon on Pulse Radio