On a Saturday night, you might find yourself in a dark, smoky club, dancing until your clothes are soaking wet, but somewhere else in the world someone is cutting down a tree in a rainforest at the same time. A red car crashes into a lamppost and a girl with curly hair falls deeply in love with a Japanese mailman. SoHaSo or Something Happening Somewhere is the label of Nuno Dos Santos. As the former Trouw resident, he has long championed a variety of sounds from deeper techno cuts to groovier house beats. However, SoHaSo was created as a place to release musical material from befriended producers, new talent and of course his own work. Since its incarnation in 2013, it has gone on to boast releases from the likes of The Drifter, Polynation and Mathias Schober with the latest release due out on April 24 via the SoHaSo Bandcamp. As such we invited Nuno Dos Santos to share the secrets behind the label as part of our Label Watch Series.
People love to dive deeper into the meaning of things. In some cases, things are as simple as they appear. In others, there is a hidden meaning or story. Something Happening Somewhere is quite a profound. It makes me think of the concept of ‘The Butterfly Effect.’ Does, SoHaSo have a deeper meaning or is just a thought-provoking title?
It’s a little bit of both. When I started the label I wanted it to be the full spectrum of music. It could be anything. So Something Happening Somewhere says it all. Leaves a lot for your own imagination. The name was found when I was with 2 friends and we were brainstorming about a name, browsing photo blogs and we saw this weird picture. It was a bit blurry and hazy and the title said Something Happening Somewhere.
How would you describe the sound of SoHaSo?
For me, there’s no particular sound. Honestly, anything I like. The deeper sides of the electronic spectrum but we also release more banging stuff. From trippy techno to electro, wave to house to broken beats to more ambient electronica. I am a big fan of labels like Warp that just release anything, but with a clear stamp of quality.
When you are signing music to the label do you have a process you follow before committing or is it based on pure emotion and you sign a track there and then?
I just feel it immediately, and even then I let it sit for a while. Sometimes after a few weeks, your mood is different. Also, I try to listen to it on various systems. It feels different in a car or your living room. But the main thing for me is it has to have some form of timelessness.
As a label boss, what do you foresee as the biggest challenges ahead for small independent labels?
I think the coming year will be difficult for this new reality. But I believe quality stuff will always persevere. Also because of this, it’s a good time to rethink certain processes in the vinyl industry that are harming the environment. Its the elephant in the room, but we have to think of a greener way to make vinyl. I know the guys from Deepgrooves in Groningen are already doing a great job as one of the greenest vinyl plants in the world. There is a good article on this by The Guardian. I know they are trying to make green vinyl in the US, but it doesn’t have great sound yet. I could certainly see it disappearing for my label if there isn’t more development in that field.
Do you think the ease at which new labels can be set up has increased or reduced the quality of music?
It’s reduced the quality a bit but it doesn’t matter that much. It is good to have record stores or platforms that already do the filtering of quality music for you. What is more troubling is the shelf life of a record. It is now as short as one week later and there are already 100 other new releases.
Good records can be snowed under within weeks by the waves of new releases. Sometimes a great record can be sold out in a store and the label still has copies, but a record store won’t buy them again as there are so many other new releases. Our friends at Indigo Area (label from Amsterdam) saw that too and had the great idea of reselling these eps from befriended labels on a curated Bandcamp page.
Is there a release on the label that stands out more than any other?
I’m super proud of every release, but number 002 for me is a special one. I was in love with this track for a long time. It was on an album by Mayaku from 2001. Wanted to give it a second life as a lot of people didn’t know it. Its this vibey house track that’s quite uptempo, but I remember some DJs playing it back then and changing the whole vibe of a room. It is very elegant and has a killer groove.
Is it the role of labels to nurture the next generation of artists?
Yes. I’m always on the lookout for new talent. I’m excited by some artists from The Netherlands that are on the rise. We’ll release an ep from a big talent, Ineffekt, very soon. Keep an eye on him.
Finally, what should we look forward to in the coming months on SoHaSo?
We now have our NOWHERE02 compilation that is coming out on April 24. Vinyl is out now. Then we have a debut ep by Freek Fabricius coming up. Will be a special collab between SoHaSo and Marguerita recordings. A Utrecht label run by Cosmic Force. But we decided to postpone it to September. Then we also have a new ep by Luca del’Orso coming up on our sublabel OOSSHA. And a single + album by Far Out Radio Systems. But when it will come out exactly? That depends on how this all will play out worldwide.
