Aney F gets Innocent

Innocent music is a record label and party based in the middle of a trade route between the Northern Adriatic Sea and the Danube region – Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Their crew consists of friends Aney F, Uno Taman and Miss Soulfly. For the past 3 years they have been pushing a truly unique and distinct sound based on a dissatisfaction with commercialism and a love of preserving quality, diverse underground music.

Striving to unearth some of Europe’s best young, unknown talents, Innocent music released a plethora of music over 2014 that was picked up by some of the biggest names in house and techno and was recently featured as one of Beatport’s labels to watch in 2015. Alongside this, the label continues to throw parties for the loyal, modest, Slovenian underground following by bringing in DJs from across the globe to play at their famous after hours parties located in between early-modern minimalist architecture and the emerald green Ljubljana river.

Being such a small country, I was intrigued by how Innocent has managed to gain such momentum in such a small space of time. Label chief Aney F kindly agreed to take some time out to talk to me about the different facets of the label, the Slovenian clubbing landscape and where he sees Innocent going in 2015.

Can you give us an overview into the Innocent Music sound? Do you think there is something that sets you apart from other labels?

It’s really hard to describe music with words, but we can say that we are somewhere between Tech House, Minimal and Deep House music. Yes I think we are different to other labels, or at least we’re trying to be. We are trying to keep constant quality with every release which is really hard, but I think we are managing it. We are building our own sound style which we want to present to the world slowly. We think that at this point people know exactly what they can expect from our releases.

How did you first get into the predominantly minimal/tech house sound that Innocent is famous for? 

At the beginning, we didn’t have a plan about what kind of sound we were going to push. It all comes from what we love and like to listen to. Mostly it consists a lot from my personal taste.

Do you think that bringing a wealth of artists to play at your Innocent Parties in Slovenia that you respect and admire has helped grow your brand and make ties that will take Innocent further across the world? You are good friends with the London based Act Natural label who seem to be pushing a similar sound in the UK.

Yes, we have hosted some pretty hot names at our showcases in Ljubljana, like tINI, Martin Buttrich, Enzo Siragusa, Livio & Roby, Steve Bug, Anja Schnedier, Tiefschwarz, Shlomi Aber and Hector. This has helped promote Innocent Music and has gave us some extra followers, but I think the main factor here is still our music. Our record label and its constant quality in music is what Innocent Music is known for and not just by the events we organize. We do events regularly because it’s fun and to express our feelings and music to our close followers here in Slovenia, not for any other reason. It’s cool to have a whole package when running a record label and having label nights where you can show to the people what you are actually doing with the whole project.

We collaborated with Act Natural last summer and I think we have a similar vision of music, but we still have a different style that matches together with theirs. Similarly to Fuse from London, Act Natural is one of the best labels from London releasing music, therefore I’m sure we will work together more in the future. I’m also preparing a vinyl release for them which will come out in the summer and I’m really looking forward to it!

What made you decide to start a record label?

I was sick and tired of sending my music to labels where nobody even listened to it, the music that I was producing was far from mainstream and therefore hard to sign with big labels. I released a lot of tracks on many labels before I opened my own. After that I slowly began to realise that it’s not all about releasing stuff on famous labels and decided to build my own sound and start releasing it on my own label. My vision was that the world would one day hear our music. I knew from the start it would be hard with all the digital labels on Beatport, but slowly we are getting more and more recognition. Also I wanted to build a platform for young and upcoming producers from all around the world, who the future of this music stands on. With a lot of help and hard work from my friends, I made that vision come true. It’s still a long way to go, but it’s definitely on the right path.

Who was the first “Big” DJ to pick up and start supporting Innocent music?

Two years ago Jamie Jones charted our release our track “The Living Glow” and dropped it at DC-10 Ibiza. He played that track for a whole year at his gigs. We also made it into top 10 Tech House and top 50 Overall Beatport charts with that track. I think that’s the first time that the world slowly began to hear the name Innocent Music and we really appreciate all the support from Jamie! Shortly after that we also got support from Marco Carola, Richie Hawtin, Paco Osuna and Guy Gerber.

What influences led you into becoming where you find yourself today?

Most definitely love for the music I was listening to and visiting parties when I was younger. I took up DJing early and music quickly became my life. I just cannot imagine living without it. I’ve been DJing for 9 years now. Innocent Music was launched 2 and a half years ago when I also decided to work more professionally with music and make it my full time job, instead of just a hobby.

Is there such thing as a Slovenian sound? Has Slovenia always had an underground electronic music scene? With such a small population it must feel like quite a tight family? 

Unfortunately there is no Slovenian sound. Like you mentioned, we are a really small country, with a population of around 2 million, so it’s really hard to work with underground sound. There are maybe around 1000 people in the whole country who listen to this kind of music. You can imagine how hard it is for us to bring the artists that I mentioned before to our showcases, especially with this new wave of sound which is far from main stream, commercial music. People don’t always give themselves a chance to hear something fresh and new. Our underground scene is stuck a couple of years behind others. But like I said, if you are doing it for the love of music and for your followers, it’s worth it and we are like a small family, we all know each other. We are still happy that we can bring such big names to our events every month, despite Slovenia being really small and having a bit of a lower standard than the other central European countries. For example, in Italy big names can earn 3 times more money and the problem is also that they have so many other offers it’s really hard to book them. I must say that for now, I’m really glad we managed to get all those artists. I’m just afraid of what will happen in the years to come, because artist fees are going up and it might be that we will not be able to afford artists who would actually fill the clubs here. On the other hand, I would love to do events with just the young and upcoming artists who have released music on our label. The market is just too small for that here, but I still hope we could someday manage to build Innocent Music on such a level that this will be possible. Let’s see what happens.

Is there something similar in all these label friends across the world that connects you all?

Of course, it’s simple – we all love the same style of music and we all love to party!

You have three digital labels: Innocent Music, Deep, Limited and one vinyl only label. How do they differ in sound? What keeps them all Innocent?

At the beginning it was just Innocent Music and vinyl-only, but shortly after that I received more and more music every day – all with our style but different shades. The tracks were just so good that in May last year I decided to open a sub-label named Innocent Music Limited. Some months ago we also gave birth to Innocent Music Deep. I wanted people to know exactly what they are looking for when they search for music on our label. The Innocent Music main label sound is Minimal – Tech House oriented, while Innocent Limited is more like what I’m playing at the moment  – deeper, slower and experimental. Innocent Deep is clearly focused on the Deep House genre. It’s more organic and with a more housey synths and pads. Vinyl only releases are mostly those from our best artists and we think they really deserve to be on vinyl. There are a lot of people who still only play vinyl records, so we decided to release some music for those special kind of followers. All in all, the sublabels still sound similar to our “mother label” Innocent Music.

Your music seems to be constantly reaching high numbers in the Beatport chart and you have been named by them as label to watch in 2015, do you think that having such a diverse sound with the separate labels contributes to your success?

Yes, I am really surprised that so many people are constantly buying our tracks. I really didn’t expect that and I didn’t expect that Beatport would choose Innocent Music for that title, when there are thousands of other digital labels to choose from, all around the World. It was a great pleasure for me and finally I got some proper confirmation that we are moving in the right way.  Beatport charts are not all that is important, of course, but it gives you some confirmation and exposure if you are in the charts and featured all the time. It’s also nice to see that people are still supporting and buying music legally these days.

Give us a background on some of the artists and close friends of the Innocent label?

We have a lot of friends and we are all like a small family. One of them is Shaf Huse, who has made a big influence on me since I opened innocent Music. He is a really good artist and he is also our mastering engineer for all Innocent Music releases. Besides him I would also like to mention Mr. Deka, Sven Jaeger, Jamahr, Proudly People, Kuo Climax, Diwex, Mene and Reelow. These are all young names that are definitely worth watching in the future and I’m happy to have them all on board!

You seem to release a lot of music. What is the process for releasing music on Innocent? Do you get lots of music sent to you or do you try to seek out music that you think is right for the label? Do you focus on unearthing lots of local talent? You also seem to have supported a lot of underground artists across Europe.

At the beginning I was looking for artists by myself, but now I don’t need to do that as we are receiving a lot of tracks and I really mean a lot! We have already finished signing all our releases for 2015. The schedule is just full and it’s not possible to release any more music this year. I had to say no to a lot of goodies, because as you said, we are already releasing a lot of music and for now that is more than enough. We do not intend to open any more sub-labels because we want to maintain the quality and not get ahead of ourselves.

Innocent Music is built on upcoming talents. We grew up like that and we do not want to change that. Getting superstars to release tracks on Innocent Music is not our thing, because I think there are enough unheard, young DJs that deserve to be heard.

Can you share any plans about exciting releases for the label in 2015?

There is the upcoming vinyl only V/A release with me, Sven Jaeger, Reelow, Shaf Huse, Lower & OSp and Kuo Climax. I’m also preparing my first solo, coloured Vinyl Only EP for 3 years of Innocent Music that we’re going to celebrate at the end of May. There will be a lot of great music coming out on digital also. Other than that we don’t have any special plans, we will do what we do best; trying to release some quality music that we think deserves to come out on our label and show it all around the globe! 

You have been pioneering the way for events in Slovenia over the last 3 years. Could you give us an insight into the Slovenian scene and landscape? Is it different to a lot of other countries in Europe?

It’s really hard to work here. Slovenia is really small and the market for our style of music is even smaller, ridiculously small. When I’m playing around my country I cannot expect any professional scouts to say “He is good. Let’s book him!”, because there simply isn’t anyone. We have no real promoters in Slovenia and the party scene is too small. We, the event managers practically all know all each other, so you just do it with the love for the music. There is no other way here. When it comes to artists we have hosted, they all really enjoyed their stay at our events and some of them even missed flights home because of that. Of course a lot big artists and their agents know each other and the rumours must have spread that the Innocent parties are good, so that may also be the reason we can get these good artists every month. All our guests are always surprised and they all want to come back to our city of Ljubljana! Our underground scene may be small but it’s a crazy one.

Describe your favourite venue in Slovenia and the reason why? Am I right in saying you have designed warehouse spaces in the past ? Are there good after hours venues in your city?

Innocent Music was built on secret location open air parties and old warehouses. They were limited strictly to 300 people and tickets were sold out in presale a lot of  the time. We later decided to go to the clubs to show our music to more people. The best clubs in Slovenia are: Ambasada Gavioli, Klub K4 and F Club. I must also mention that Ambasada Gavioli is the biggest club in Slovenia. It is also known as architecturally one of the most beautiful clubs in the whole world. We all started to party there years ago. The Slovenian scene was built there back in the day by Valentino Kanzyani and Umek, so it is for sure one of the clubs that you simply must visit!

We love after parties and I don’t think there has been one Innocent music event without one. It’s definitely a must! Usually we do afterhours in the same club as the main event. A lot of Slovenian people love to go to after parties.

What has been your best party to date?

That is a hard question, but if I must pick one it should be our 2nd anniversary with tINI and the showcase with Martin Buttrich last year at Klub K4.

Do you think you will take Innocent Music showcases further to across Europe/Festivals/Ibiza any time soon?

Yes, I hope so because I really want to showcase our sound around the world. We already achieved our goals here in Slovenia and there is nothing more to accomplish here, so are working hard on it. We’ve actually already hosted two showcases at the famous Sankeys club in Ibiza, where we spent the summer two years ago. We also did some showcases in Italy, Austria and Croatia. We are still a very young label and we are not in a rush. It will all come with time.

Finally, tell us a bit about the exclusive mix you have put together?

I’ve put together some of my latest work, some tracks from Innocent Music, my friends and of course most importantly – what I dig and play out at the moment! I would really like to thank you for inviting me for this interview, to all who support me and also special thanks to my close friends who help me with this project. Keep following our Innocence.