Music without innovation can be a good track for a night on the dance floor, but if you want your music to live forever, you have to innovate!
Passion can only do so much to survive in the international dance music scene-- it takes innovation and forward-thinking to overcome piracy and to topple-down competition in the industry. The man of the hour is a perfect example of someone who embodies the above-mentioned qualities: Dima Worcestershire Jr. also known as DJ Generous.
Aside from DJing and producing music, DJ Generous is also known as the driving-force behind one of the successful Russian dance music labels, Green Mono Music Studio. Outside the studio or off the decks, Dima Worcestershire Jr., is currently studying two vital fields of study that aid him in the day-to-day endeavors in the music industry-- law and economics.
What does it take to make it in the globally-competitive dance music scene? Read through the interview to find out!
The Official Website of Green Mono Music Studio
Samples and FREE downloads of GMMS releases on Soundcloud!
Copyright © 2011 Miguel Libre
Good day sir! How has everything been so far?
Hello Miguel! Hi to all the readers of Soundscapes. It’s nice to be here communicating with you about music while drinking my cup of tea.
What is the sound of DJ Generous?
It’s quite a long story, Migs. Around 15 years ago, I met guys who composed tracks here using “Fast Tracker”. HAHAHA The guys I met were huge drum-n-bass producers and like a school boy, they taught me to make big sound. It was incredible, that simple software could turn my home PC into one dance machine! From there I started tweaking stuff, choosing music styles, and recording samples.
Experimenting with sound brought me house music with positive vibe—it was like the sound from a major chord. Well, the world, “Generous” appeared almost immediately that I needed not to have other alternatives. For the word “DJ”, it was from my name “Dima Jr.”
I go mad whenever I revisit my old tracks in my archive. Every time I hear them, I go “How the hell did I make this kind of sound!?” I couldn't believe what I was able to come up in my early days as a producer. Now I spend even up to a month to produce a single track (around a week for some instruments). For me it’s okay because music is my life!
Aside from producing music and running the label, what other things do you do?
As most of you guys know, I’m a huge music aficionado, but I have more to life than music. In my serious side of life, I’m into Economics and Law. These fields help me in my business most especially in the design and marketing aspect of it. From time to time, Western corporations invite me to analyze and help them cut down on expenses or costs and make their businesses more efficient in the market. That’s just for one side of the coin. And the other, it’s traveling. At least once a month, I go somewhere to see new sights and have fun, of course, some time to relax too and get spend some time away from the stress of work! HAHAHA When I travel, I get new ideas for my tunes, and usually after my travel I would get back to my studio and work on new tracks with my new-found ideas.
What inspired you to create Green Mono Music Studio?
The plan of putting up an electronic music label was something I had in mind years before GMMS even started. I first brought the project to life with the idea, and then the logo, then the website, and the overall sound of the label. I spent many sleepless nights of listening to music from other labels! Also, I was able to meet new people because of the business, and we talked about music and other things related to the venture. And then one day in February 2009, Green Mono Music Studio came to life. . .
What makes Green Mono Music Studio unique from all the thousands of labels out there?
Melodic House Music. This is the sound I’ve been perfecting for years, and will continue to! Most people who release stuff on my label also listen to jazz music like I do, but they still find a way to incorporate melody to their productions…and that positive vibe!
The sound of Green Mono is not only for the dance-floor. It’s everyday music— people can listen to it in the car, in the subway, or even at home just to relax. There’s more to club music when it comes to the releases of the label.
What is your stance on the controversial issue of pirated music or illegal downloading?
In the early days of Green Mono, we could say that music piracy was one indicator that there’s a huge demand for our tunes. For illegal downloads, I can say that free music is good, and it’s nice to see people being happy with free music, but on the other hand, it’s very bad for our sales. In the short-run, piracy was clearly killing the music. If one day everyone would just pirate music, there will be nothing left. Labels would stop releasing, and the music will stop playing.
How do you cope up with music piracy and technology?
Here in Russia we have an appropriate proverb: “One guy is not yet a
warrior”, we understands there is no way to kill the piracy around of our label
by ourself only. There was a huge discussion inside of a label which has been
realized in a short resolution: “Free chunks”.
Now Green Mono publishing the chunks of each release is for Free on a
numbers of websites. It means you can listen and even download a few minutes
of the release right from Green Mono and decide about buying the whole release
with remixes and different editions.
That way helps us to increase the listeners and fans. The pirates now
downloading the same chunks and even helps us to go up.
We Russians have an appropriate proverb that kind of goes “Not everyone is a warrior.” We know that there is no immediate way to eliminate piracy by ourselves, and we have had huge discussions regarding this in our label and what we did is that we now offer free chunks of music for download. We now upload edits for people to download for free, and when one is interested with the other versions and with the full version of the release, then that’s when they have to option to purchase the whole package. This allows our sound to spread more efficiently around the internet without having to worry of huge losses due to music piracy.
Can you name us your current favorite five tracks?
[Click the links to view the review]
• Orbital – Halcyon
• Camy – Perfectamente Imperfecto (Ryan Sullivan Remix)
What advise can you give to aspiring producers?
Innovate! This is my only advice to all aspiring producers out there. I listen to hundreds of tracks each month and even if most of them are great, they don’t have innovation. Music without innovation can be a good track for a night on the dance floor, but if you want your music to live forever, you have to innovate! Here’s one of my most favorite tunes, and I keep on going back to this track because of its creativity and originality: Orbital- Halcyon.
What can we expect from you and your label in the near future?
In the near future you can expect something new from us. As we cope up with the rise of smart phones, we will be launching a smart phone-friendly website where you can conveniently access our website through your phone as easy as surfing the net on normal computers.
Aside from that, we’re trying to reach new limits when it comes to our promotions. We want to tap more markets out there so that they’ll be able to listen to our sound.
We have forthcoming releases! The teasers of these tunes can be found on our website and all other portals online. We have filled the release schedule until September so for producers who want to debut on Green Mono by this year, make it fast!
I, Migs Libre, from Soundscapes by Motionmigs
(www.motionmigs.com) would like to personally thank you for your
time and effort in making this interview possible. Good luck in all of
your endeavors!
