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COYU'S LUCKY SEVEN

We ask Coyu seven important questions...

It’s just a 40-minute flight that takes Coyu from his home city of Barcelona directly into the hurly burly of Ibiza.

Which is pretty handy really, because this summer the Suara label owner, also known as Ivan Ramos, will be holding a weekly party on Wednesdays at Booom! on the island. 

“It’s our first time doing something regular, so we’re quite excited, it’s a lot of work finishing the line-ups but we’re quite close now,” he tells DJ Mag.

Prior to this debut he’s also been working on his first album release, but he’s taking his time and it probably won’t see the light of day till early next year. Sooner than that though, will be his remix of Green Velvet’s ‘Bigger Than Prince’; and he’s also working on a collaboration with the Chicagoan house head.

“The summer’s going to be nice,” he beams. With over 3000 records and a built-in studio in his apartment, Coyu’s time is spent surrounded by music, which is exactly how we like our Lucky 7 candidates to roll...

What’s the track that reminds you of your childhood?
“Do you remember 2 Unlimited, a Belgian group? They made some Euro techno, dance music, it was in the early '90s. It was a quite popular track in Spain called ‘No Limit’. I think that’s the first track that I remember in a dance way.

I went to a mall with my father when I was six-years-old and he bought me a cassette with some dance tracks, 2 Unlimited, Technotronic. To be honest I don’t know why I chose that cassette, because I’d never been involved in electronic music, my father never liked electronic music, he liked Pink Floyd, rock and pop music.”

What’s the first record you ever bought?
“Even before I bought my first turntables I went to a record shop and I bought two vinyls, one from Kompakt, from Michael Mayer’s label, that was Justus Kohncke. And the second one from an Italian label that released Italo disco.

Italo disco was quite popular in Barcelona 10 or 12 years ago when I started to become involved in electronic music. So they were the two vinyls that I bought at that time.

In July 2004 I had my first gig in Barcelona, it was a psy trance party, I never played that, but they had a terrace that played chill-out, and I played there for the first time. I tried to play the most minimal techno tracks of that moment.”

What’s the cheesiest record in your collection?
“I’m a big vinyl junkie. I think the cheesiest record I have is [Indeep] ‘Last Night A DJ Saved My Life’. A friend of mine gave it to me for my birthday.”

What’s the track that’s guaranteed to make you cry?
“There are a lot of tracks that give me goosebumps. About 10 years ago I was very into Border Community and Nathan Fake, so maybe ‘The Sky Was Pink’. I think it will be one of the most emotional tracks I’ve ever heard.”

 

What’s an album that you’re currently into?
“To be honest I don’t listen very much to albums. It’s quite hard because I don’t have time for everything with working on Suara and working in the studio, and actually, I’m working on my first album now.

It’s going great, it’s a lot of work, it’s the very first one, it’s going to be quite hard because probably the people will not understand it. Because I have a background that some people don’t know — that I like drum & bass, I like trip-hop.

I wanna put all that background there and it’s not going to be too techy or too clubby. I’m not sure the fans are going to understand it too much, but albums are for making something different, something special. I will keep doing techno and house on my singles. It’s going to be interesting.”

What is the record in your collection that you most treasure?
“Well it’s a very difficult question because I have some records that for me are quite special, like some Kraftwerk records, also I was very, very into the very early Plastikman. It’s hard to say, maybe the album of Aphex Twin, ‘Classics’ on R&S Records, it’s a double vinyl, no I think it’s four vinyls. For me Aphex Twin is probably the best producer. I love his stuff.”

What’s your all-time favourite track of all-time?
“I have a few ones like ‘Idioteque’ from Radiohead for example, but probably my favourite is ‘Natural Blues’ from Moby. Moby for me is a bit of an inspiration. ‘Natural Blues’ will be in the soundtrack of my life for sure, but I like all the tracks from Moby.”