Why did you start producing? I mean, in the early 90s you had to be a pioneer in Portugal.
Yes. I was actually one of the pioneers because there was nobody doing dance music in Portugal. I did my first white labels, some promos, went to London, sold a few records and came back. Then I got in touch with dj Vibe who was one of the pioneers on the scene as well. We end up forming Underground Sound Of Lisbon, which got a lot of success in the early 90s in New York and all around the world.
Yes, but what encouraged you to go into dance music?
I've always been into music and I've always been into sound engineering. Then dance music came along in the end of the 80s. There was this new thing coming from England and I really enjoyed the fact that it was only about the sound not anything else.
How's the scene in Portugal doing at the moment?
It's doing very well. I go there quite often but I don't live there anymore. But every time I go there it's always a great time. There's lots of dance labels, lots of djs, producers. Many of them gained recognition all around the world so I'm quite happy with that. I feel that the success of "Touch Me" influenced Portugal the way Daft Punk did to the dance scene in France. "Touch Me" helped a lot of the portuguese artists to believe that they can do it and they've been really working hard.
Why did you decide to set up a new label in 2000? Did you just want to have a label of your own, or maybe there was something wrong with Kaos?
I funded Kaos and when I moved to the UK, I decided to sell my shares. I needed a label to put my music out in England so I set up Kismet.
At the beginning of your carrier you were mostly a producer. After the success of "Touch Me" you went into dj'ing as well. What's it look like right now? What takes most of your time? Producing, dj'ing or label management?
It's been a lot of the time dj'ing for the last two years. Sometimes I would prefer to stay in the studio but it's difficult these days. It's because of the transition period from buying vinyls and cds to downloading mp3s. It's a hard time for everybody. That's why I've been dj'ing. But also because people wanted to see what my music is about and just I decided to go and show them.
What can you tell me about the 100 thousand punds fine for sampling "chant no.1" for "Touch Me"? How do you feel about this?
It was not a fine. I was sued by BMG and I had to pay legal costs and give share of the song away, because of the sample.
Didn't you object to that?
No. I was not impressed with how things went but unfortunatelly if you incorporate someone else's song into your song it's still considered a crime. In music it is considered a crime, whereas in painting it's not considered a crime. Andy Warhol used to do that with the Campbell's soup and Marylin Monroe's images and never got sued. It was actually considered art. But in music it's just a different story. It's definitely art but it's more behind in terms of creativity and cutting edge because it's controled by big record companies.
Could you describe in two words the music that you produce under different names. What did you want to accomplish by each project? I'll say the name... you tell the story: Rui Da Silva?
It's me solo and it's mainly more vocal friendly and mainstream music. It's not so deep and emotional.
Doctor J
Doctor J is someone else that doesn't exist anymore (laugh). And seriously it was the name that I used when I was recording in Portugal. When I went to London I decided to kill Doctor J and create Rui Da Silva.
Teimoso
Teimoso is a different name. It's for more driving tracks. It was a name that I came up with when I did a track for Hooj Choons.
Saffron
Saffron was the first mix I did when I got into London. That was my first remix. I chose the name because my dog is called Saffron, the street where I got my studio is called Saffron and Saffron is one of the main parts of my life.
The Four Elements
I've created "Earth" in Portugal quite a few years ago and then I lost the track. When I moved to London I found "Earth" and I decided to create "Water" at the same time which end up being the third release on Kismet. Then last year I created "Fire" and "Fifth Element". And this week I was working on "Air" which I played tonight. It was one of the first mixes, some kind of demo mix. It's not finished yet but it worked very well tonight.
Time for collaborations: Underground Sound Of Lisbon?
That's what kicked everything off. That was the collaboration I did with Dj Vibe. We did lots of big records: "So Get Up", "Dance Wit Me", "Are You Looking For Me" or "The Lights". It doesn't exist anymore but it was a very great collaboration.
Why did you break up?
Just the way life goes. He's living in Portugal, working in Portugal, I'm living in the UK, working in the UK. The incompatibilty of times and places doesn't allow us to record together.
CocoDaSilva
It's a collaboration I've got with Chris Coco who is a very good friend of mine. It's just the side project and we've just done a new track now called "The Shiva Chant" which is Kismet release number 17.
Do you often perform with Chris?
We haven't performed live recently but we did a few performances.
You mess with the effects? I'd like to see that.
I usually work with external machines but I didn't bring them this time.
Next project: The Obeah Men
It's a different collaboration I've got with Terry Farley and we did a track for Junior and probably there will be more tunes in the future.
HyperDaSilva - is it gonna be a one time project?
No. We've already done a second track. It's a collaboration I got with dj Hyper and I'm really really enjoying a lot of breaks that are being made at the moment. It's a more exciting scene than the house scene. And it just happened that "Future Music" - the technology magazine in the UK wanted to hook us up together to do a track. It worked very well and now we're going to do a few more.
I've noticed that your style is getting a lot of Middle East vibe. It seems that this region influences you a lot. Kismet in turkish means fullfilment of destiny which also fits my thesis. What do you see in Middle East?
It's a cradle of western civilisation what I find fascinating and that's why it plays a big role in my life. I've just been to Israel, went to Jerusalem and it was a very spiritual experience.
Are you a religious person?
Not really. I like everything that has got to do with the civilisation and the progress of human race. I think Jerusalem is a cradle of so many religions - it's such a spacious place. I'm more into spiritual things than religious.
And I left the hottest production for the end. Tell me about the effect of your collaboration with Mo Shic - "Gibberish". You played it tonight and I have to say that I was very impressed.
"Gibberish" is gonna come out in Semptember or maybe in August. It comes out on Kismet and I'm looking forward to it. There's another track already but we only did one side so far. It's gonna end up coming out later in the year, probably close to Christmas.
What can we expect from you in the future? Any new projects and colaborations coming up? What about your album?
I'm finishing the album which has been taking a long time because of dj'ing and developing my website (www.kismetrecords.com) where people can log in and download my music for an euro each. And that is like one of my main focus. Everybody is going into internet because the records get there before they even go on the promo. So it's the best place to go and get music.
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