Simon Morell first earned his stripes playing at clubs like The End in London; these days he's DJing around the globe besides growing his FINA Records label. Concentrating on quality over quantity and launched under the guise and expertise of Ralph Lawson's 2020Vision imprint, the sky's the limit for this staple of quality house music. Read on as Simon gives a rare interview to Pulse and also delivers a mix that goes outside of the box, blending the tough tones of techno rather than his usual, emotive house strains.
Fina always seem to focus on quality over quantity.. what's the general focus and ethos for the output? It's important for us to not just churn out tracks for the sake of it. we don't like to rush release's but i'm also aware your easily forgotten about if you don't have regular music being released. we'll be concentrating on increasing our releases this year but making sure we don't lose any quality or piss anybody off by forcing it down their throats.
What's planned for the label in 2013? You've focused on artists such as mic newman and Francis Inferno Orchestra... can we expect more global, underground names? As I mentioned above we want to get more tracks out this year so we have been really busy on the A&R front. We've had a really good response so far which we are really happy about. and yeah definitely some more global names We've just signed an artist called DFRNT who's from the exotic climbs of Edinburgh.
How does Ralph (2020Vision) and Matt (mono_cult) help the label? Do you all bring something fresh to the table? FINA is run by myself and Matt so we run and A&R the label between us. Ralph is on hand should we need him for advice or if we need an extra set of A&R ears.
Would it be fair to say that you're fairly eclectic, considering your experience as a professional DJ? Ha, I never really thought about it but I suppose so. I've played in all kinds of environments wether it's in big clubs or small bars and i think form those experiences you learn to adapt, if you don't your not going to get very in far expecting to play the perfect gig every-time.
You've played some of the most popular parties and clubs available - is it fairly easy to adapt styles between different parties? It depends on where I'm playing, I generally have an idea of what i'll be playing before i get to the gig but it never pans out like that but that's what's exciting about DJ'ing.
Whats your DJ diary looking like for the coming months? We've got some FINA parties coming up in London and Leeds and we'll be at Sonar, Garden party and I also think i'm playing at the Eastern Electrics in the summer.
You've slaved over an exclusive mix for us.. what can we expect? Any surprises? I did this mix after my first Berlin trip recently, I think you can really here where my head was after spending a night in Panorama bar there's not many exclusives I'm afraid but there's a few oldies that could be classed as exclusive along with some deeper techno.
As a professional who's worked hard at his craft, what sort of obstacles have you faced on your journey so far? These days you get gigs off the back of productions in the past it was mainly about being a good DJ working hard and getting a residency and building a reputation that way so now you need to have hits out before you get gigs which can be frustrating as some producers are shat at DJ'ing.
With the new generation of young and talented names, do you think the dynamics of the industry have changes? Or do they face just as many challenges as you did? It's completely changed; it seems every man and his dog wants to be a DJ and to do that you need tracks out which anybody can do relatively cheaply these days and this is why we have a totally saturated market. but I'm still a firm believer that the people who are generally shit won't be around to long and quality always prevails, right ?
What can we expect from you in 2013? I'm busy in the studio with Tom Taylor who's doing our next FINA release, we had a release on Dessous last year and plan to get something out on FINA as well as some other labels.
As a DJ in the UK the renaissance in house music is clear - how do you feel about this increase in popularity for the scene? It's a great time for house music again what I classed as underground house 10 years ago is now in the charts which is mental!! I think it's cool and I'm down with it as long as the good house music get's the props it deserves and not that EDM shat.
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