Arjaus. Music from Argentina to the world - by Tomás Oddone

Arjaus. Music from Argentina to the world - by Tomás Oddone

29 September, 2009 | 8.31AM

• Written by: LuliFaletty
• Filed under: Music News : arjaus, joko, jonas kopp, okain, trocca

Interview with Mariano Trocca. Active DJ, producer, promoter and label manager from Argentina.

- Hi Mariano, thank you for the inverview. Finally, Arjaus started…

Yes, finally. After a lot of work, we did it. It took me some time to take the decision of starting a label, even when I received lots of promos from Argentinean producers, I wanted to be ready.

- Are you ready?

haha, I don’t know. What I know is that I am directing a lot of energy to this project.

- How did you start  directing this energy?

I had started Arjaus as a personal project in my mind. I used to have a radio show powered by beatport. The idea came out in a  kind of natural way, I’ve been Djing for quite a long time now, I receive a lot of unreleased tracks to play. I wanted to give something back to the Argentinean fresh talent.

- What’s the meaning of Arjaus?

Well, there are so many labels and most of the words related to music are already used. So, we decided to create a word that doesn’t exist. If you pronounce “our house” with spanish accent, it sounds arjaus. I like the concept of our house. I work and produce in my house since ever, and now we are managing the label from our homes, in some way the concept fits.
I can imagine why you use a key on the logo, but you tell us…

The key is a way to invite you to Arjaus (our house). I think that giving someone a key is a synonym of trust. Every arjaus release is going to come with a key, on the logo, a musical key, and the list of meanings keeps going.

- Who “lives” in Arjaus?

I spend a lot of time and trips with Tato Piatti, he is  an awesome DJ and we always think that it’s easy to share this kind of ventures. We unified our ideas and created Arjaus. We started  talking to our friends about the project and Jonas Kopp proposed us to remix one of my productions under his new alias: Joko. I wanted to include an international producer. I asked Okain and he immediately accepted to be part of the Arjaus family.

With the music getting ready I started to investigate on how to manage a label. In the middle of the research my wife Luli, who was working on bookings and organizing events, decided to be part of Arjaus and manage the booking of Arjaus artists. She is now Arjaus label manager.

- Tell me a little more about the track Jonas and Okain remixed.

The track´s name is Hoch en Baires. I started it when my friend Tom Hoch came to Baires to be part of the panels at SAMC (South American Music Conference). As a favor, he brought me a studio sound card, and I promised him: “I will name the first track I produce with this card with something related to this trip”. And I did it.

- You had the release done… what was next?

After Tim Xavier finished the mastering, we’ve sent the promo to our favorite producers and DJs. The promo list was really short, We picked certain artists from different styles to test their reaction. The feedback was amazing. We received mails from: Marco Carola, Markus Fix, D’Julz, Robert Dietz, Shonky, Martin Eyerer, Gabriel Ananda, Joseph Capriati, Thomas Muller, Hugo, Luca Doobie, Carlo Lio and the list goes on. Browsing the web we’ve seen that Gorge played Okain remix on a Plastic City Radio show. The truth is that I was really surprised and honoured with the reaction.

I started to check on youtube trying to see Hoch en Baires being played. One morning I was watching a video of Marco Carola playing on a party in Manheim, Germany. Suddenly Marco started to mix and I listened to my track on his hands. It was a powerful experience. I did the track inspired on a night we played together in Buenos Aires, while Hoch was on the dancefloor. I thought, he inspires the track and after that, he plays it. This is good.

- Wow! what a great story. 

It really was. That episode gives me the energy to focus on Arjaus. That was before Sonar, I was about to travel to Spain and Denver. In Denver I played at Beatport Lounge - Beta Club and had the chance to meet the beatport family. They gave me advice and ideas to put Arjaus on the road. It was an amazing experience not only on the professional way.

I came back to Buenos Aires full of ideas and we started  implementing some of them. I knew that Nick Curly was about to come to South America and I asked him to play on the first Arjaus showcase. Nick’s visit to Argentina was like a phd. Not only because he is a great DJ, producer and label director. He is such a great guy. We spent 3 days hanging out with him. He blew our minds with his way of life and experiences.

- Looks like you are living an intense year. Finally it is September and Arjaus is online.

I am experiencing a great moment and receiving a lot of energy and love from a lot of people. You always expect that from your friends and family, but when the net starts to get huge and global it’s a unique feeling and I am so thankful.

- What’s next in your life?

I just finished another edition of South American Music Conference. I am always trying to support the whole Argentinean scene and all the South American labels have a place to promote themselves during the conference days. We are about to start a road tour around the north of the country with the Arjaus crew. A mix between parties, conferences about music, design and art. A little bit of tourism and life experience. A great opportunity to share, learn and have fun.

Regarding Arjaus, we are finishing the second release. It’s from a fresh argentinean artist called Bodeler. The name of the EP is: Ride the Rhythm. We have two more releases this year and a lot of music to release on 2010.

- Sounds like you have everything planed

Well, at least till August 2010 when I will go back to Europe.

- Congratulations on the new label and good luck

Thank you for the interview and thank you for reading. Have fun

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