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Features
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| Introducing NEM3SI$’s new label Infinite Resistance! | | Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! | | Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! | | Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! | | Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. | | Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! | | Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! | | NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! | | Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! | | Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! | | Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! | | SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! | | The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! | | NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! | | Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project | | The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! | | A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden | | Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma | | Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino | | New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! | | PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records! | | Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters! |
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Get Kooler with Marc Vedo
Reported by Adam Symbiosis
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Submitted 25-07-07 20:18
Is this possibly the biggest brand you’ve never heard of? The worldwide Koolwaters and it’s globetrotting founder and resident Marc Vedo have made their mark on nearly every continent and feature very heavily in this years Ibiza season. Even closer to home you’ll find the brand up and down the country ripping it up for some very satisfied customers but how have they grown so big without touching the London market? Maybe that’s the kool-est thing!
The brand, 7 years old in August, was started in Taunton and while this may be the county capital of Somerset it certainly isn’t the clubbing capital of the south west! But despite regular DJ appearances in London, Marc’s brand more or less never visits the capital. It’s all about operation it seems, a different business model and one that seems to work well. “I don’t invest directly into putting on nights myself. We put together the ideas, the concepts, book the people but we work with investors. We get paid for it and everyone else gets paid but because there hasn’t been someone to work with to put together an event like that in London, we won’t be looking to bring the brand in.”
With putting in the work on advertising, décor and musical direction, it’s true to say you can make thousands, but as Marc confirms you can lose thousands as well. “I think this is the best way, you always make something, whether it’s full or not. When it’s 4000 people sometimes you wish you were taking a cut on the door but then when 50 people turn up and there should have been 1000, you’re glad you haven’t taken that hit. The key is I suppose is to do enough events so you’re turning over enough to keep the business running.” So that’s then why you’ll see the Koolwaters brand popping up all over the UK and the world as unlike more traditional promoters the business model allows for that kind of expansion. “If I was blinkered into one sound, it wouldn’t be possible or it would be harder.”
Seeing Marc playing twice in one weekend shouldn’t be a problem but you’d better expect to hear him play completely different sounds. There’s also a new sound on the horizon as well, developed with his studio partner Mike Koglin, so keep your eyes peeled and your ears open for “Phat electro, tribal trance.” Just on telling me this I’m interested and he explains more about fusing old school trance and piano riffs with melodies and electro basslines, “If it gels, it’ll sound great,” he says. I think I’ll have to dust off my white gloves as the partners are looking to recreate a certain vibe and buzz again in the music. Of course there’s also the usual trance and tech sounds that he’s working on to go along with the various sounds he plays out across the globe. “I always say to people if you look at the UK as you market place that’s great but you are going to be limited. If you look at your market place as the world no matter where there are peaks and troughs there’s always enough clubs and enough events. You could never touch foot in England and still be one of the biggest DJs in the world.”
Certainly an interesting thought and along the same lines as other British DJs like Tom Harding, or bands like Beck, who have made a bigger name for themselves abroad. Marc tells me that people might not perceive him the same way back home as they might do in Canada or China but I wonder. There’s still of course the fact of a number of high profile residencies at Sundissential, Miss Moneypennies and Slinky to name a few but the key thing is that he hasn’t just stuck to building his name here. “I’ve been building my career all over the world for the last nine years, specifically so that I can get the variety of gigs and be big everywhere. I mean take the other weekend in Jakata. 4000 people in a club! The people were different, the club was different, the city was different, everything was different.” It made me think about the constant bleating of naysayers telling us the club scene is over, that dance is dead, when in fact you only have to jump onto a plane and you can find people having it everywhere. In a way these globe spanning DJs act as modern day dance Marco Polo’s returning every so often with tales of energy and excitement. Maybe dance isn’t dead, maybe it’s just on holiday.
Talking about holidays, this year sees Koolwaters make their way out to the White Isle for not one, but two parties every week, on top of their hectic worldwide schedule, thank god for Air Miles! With parties on Thursday at Diva in Playa Den Bossa, then parties Friday at Eden in San Antonio, even more people will get a chance to experience the Koolwaters house vibe, maybe reflecting the global reach of the party as opposed to playing their British trance sound, but why two parties? “It was a bit of luck. The guys who own Eden own Diva as well and they wanted something to go in so I proposed to them.”
Making his own luck in a way it seems, though with Koolwaters decidedly trance based here in the UK what will our clubbers think if they head over there following the brand and what about new entrants? “I think for some of the house heads going to Ibiza, they might have heard of the brand but maybe not have gone to one of the nights, so I think this’ll be a way to start a new relationship with them. Our clubbers over here will know that we are a trance based night but we’ve always done house as well. I’m hoping that it will crossover though there is the elitism that I can’t control but I just want people to turn up and have a party.”
But where is this all leading? A step back from the brand is coming, with Tom Costello on board to look after the events and the people, so there’ll be more time to spend in the studio. “Essentially I’m a brand as well. Like Tiesto who’s made his name into a brand, with 30,000 people coming to his concert, one DJ like a rock star. That’s one person I’d love to emulate, knowing that you’ve produced so many tracks, that so many people have been exposed to your music and your name that they want to go and see what your music is all about, that to me is where you want to be I think.” Is this the return of the rock star DJ, just this time playing his own tracks rather than everyone else’s?
That doesn’t sound like such a bad idea and with collaborations coming up with not only Koglin but Richard Durrand, Mark Sherry, Gareth Emery Mac & Mac, Ali Wilson and Scot Project there’s certainly a breadth in his musical tastes to entertain a worldwide audience. It just goes to show really if you want something and you’re prepared to go out and get it then the sky really is the limit and Marc Vedo is proof. The biggest DJ you’ve never heard of? Well maybe it’s about time you went and found out what Vedo’s all about.
Adam Symbiosis 
Photos courtesy of Koolwaters. Not to be reproduced without permission.
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Other Features By Adam Symbiosis:
Godskitchen Xmas Party: Reviewed
The Big Chill: Reviewed
Tiësto at Victoria Park: Reviewed
Lilly Allen: Reviewed
Digital Society May 2009: Reviewed
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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