Label Profile: Permanent Vacation

Label Profile: Permanent Vacation

28 October, 2010 | 2.33AM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News: permanent vacation, tensnake

The days are rapidly getting shorter and colder here in Germany, but escape is possible, thanks to Permanent Vacation. Thanks to the Münich label’s commitment to keeping the spirit of cosmic and Balearic disco alive, you can imagine oceanside dancing by moonlight pretty much every time one of their records comes on.

Founded in 2006, Permanent Vacation has racked up an impressively deep catalog over its relatively short run—Kathy Diamond, Todd Terje, Joakim, Holy Ghost!, Aeroplane, Junior Boys, Superpitcher, Sally Shapiro, Invisible Conga People, Azari & III, Snuff Crew, John Talabot, and Mock & Toof are just some of the names to turn up on the label so far—but its profile got a major boost this year thanks to a little record called “Coma Cat,” by Tensnake.

With Tensnake going global, snapped up by none other than Defected for the single and his Tensnake in the House mix, we figured it was the perfect time to check in with the label and find out where they plan to venture next. Grab your towel and flip-flops, and check out the interview below.

To start us off: What’s the history of the label? Who’s running it, what was the original idea behind it? If Discogs is correct, your first release was the Permanent Vacation mix CD. What made you decide to begin with a mix CD featuring mostly music from other sources?

The label is run by Tom Bioly and Benjamin Fröhlich, and exists since the tropical summer of 2006.

The first time Tom and I were in contact was when Tom was working at Compost Records and I was compiling a compilation for them, which Tom was taking care of. After that, Tom became a regular customer at the record shop I used to run back then. Soon we realized we have the exact same taste in music, and since we both individually had had the idea of running a label, it felt natural to do it together. After a longer period of musical frustration we both were extremely hooked on the new rising of cosmic, Balearic, and disco music.

Cosmic was very popular in Munich at the end of the ‘80s and even throughout ‘90s, so it felt very natural to start off with a compilation which had the same kind of vibe as the tapes we used to listen to back then. The compilation gave us the opportunity to present our vision of things and point into the direction we wanted to head with the label.

How would you define PV’s sound and aesthetic? Obviously, disco and classic house seem key, as does electronic pop. Are there other styles of music you’d like to move into? Do you ever worry about getting pigeonholed as a nu-disco label, or a retro-house label, etc.?

I guess we would describe the Permanent Vacation sound as warm, somehow organic, lots of melodies, poppy elements, and oh yes, we really like good vocals. These are the coordinates we are mostly moving in, but within them the musical range is diverse. We really like all kinds of different music. (Oh god, I hate this phrase! Everybody is saying this, and then you listen to the music and it sounds the same all the way.) We really try not to repeat ourselves constantly, but to keep things interesting for everybody and especially for us. Otherwise it’s getting boring! Brandings like nu disco or cosmic or however you want to call it are a tricky thing: in the beginning it’s sometimes very useful to have them to get press attention, but it also can become a burden.

When nobody wants to listen to disco music any longer and you have been labeled as “nu disco” then you probably have a problem. Let’s hope that day will never come!

How has Münich’s musical culture influenced Permanent Vacation’s direction? Would you say that being from Münich is partly responsible for your disco orientation?

Hhmmm… hard to say. Munich is our hometown and therefore it’s of course special to us. It is always hard to tell if we would be doing things differently if we would have grown up in another city. Munich is a city with a long disco tradition, with Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder; Freddy Mercury and the Rolling Stones used to party here, so it definitely had an impact on us, either consciously or subconsciously.

You’ve had a pretty diverse roster over the years, from Sally Shapiro to DMX Krew to John Talabot to Tensnake. How do most artists find their way to the label? (With Talabot, for instance, I understand that you contacted him after someone directed you to his SoundCloud page.)

Yes that is right, we have a great variety of artists. Sometimes they contact us, but we also ask people we like if they would be interested to work with us. Somehow people who like the same music always come together!

It’s true about John Talabot. Our friend Bostro Pesopeo said we should listen to Talabot’s music and that’s how we hooked up with him.

What makes you decide that a track is right for PV?

We have to like it. Haha… It’s really more of a feeling than a rational decision. When you listen to it the first time, then most of the time you can hear if it’s got the that little extra something-something.

If someone sends you a demo, what do you absolutely NOT want to hear?

Boring music.

Speaking of Tensnake… He’s almost certainly the breakout story of the year. How did you hook up with him? Did you have any idea that the track was going to be so huge? And how did the Defected deal come about?

We met Marco the first time in 2007, I guess, in Hamburg, where we played together at a party. He just had made the remix for Sally Shapiro for us and we talked about doing more stuff together, which we finally realized with the “Coma Cat” EP. After we played it the first time in a club we knew it was something special, but honestly we didn’t guess what would happen…

When will see more material from Permanent Vacation, the artist?

Hopefully very soon. Whenever we have the time we try to come up with new material. We are also working on a couple of remixes right now.

What tricks do you have up your sleeve for the coming year?

Besides a lot of music (expect some new goodies from Black Van, Prommer & Barck, Tevo Howard, Pollyester, John Talabot, Tensnake, Argy under a new moniker, Parallel Dance Ensemble…) we want to go crazy on merchandise like beach wear, bikinis, speedos, towels and stuff like that. Hope we have the time to get to it someday.

Nice one. Coincidentally enough, I just got my Permanent Vacation “cruise collection” t-shirt in the mail, and it looks awesome. Now I just need to take a cruise. What’s the strangest thing, funniest rumor, etc., that you’ve ever heard someone say about your label?

Hey, I’ve heard Permanent Vacation will soon launch a sublabel, which is supposed to be called Spermanent Penetration. Wonder what kind of music they will be releasing there?

If you have time, would you mind selecting 10 key PV tracks and writing a sentence or two about why you picked each one?

Ah can’t really answer that one. Too difficult. All our tracks are special to us, but I think the track we played out the most over past few years was the Holy Ghost! remix for our track ”Spectacle Wins.” It just fits everywhere!

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