It’s time for another exclusive interview on SHA and today we have the french master of his trade, Master-H. With new releases on Soma and his own imprint Komplex De Deep, Master-H is on fire at the moment, SHA’s Craig ask’s the questions.

MASTER-H

Hello Hassen and welcome to SHA. How are you today?
Very good, just finished another EP last nite for a new project and I’m very happy with it

How did you first get involved with music, was it from a young age?
Oh yeah, very young. I was born in a extensive music loving family which gave me good opportunity to discover the taste of each of my uncles and aunts which offered me a rich and eclectic music base. Music was always around me from Soul, Jazz, Reggae, Funk, Rock, Blues, Afro and Caribbean.

It’s quite hard to pin you to an exact sub-genre. Over the years your tracks have been underground, deep house, tech house and techno. How would you describe your own style?
That’s the point! looking at all the different style of the labels I’ve had produced music over the past 10 years, Soma, FCom, Vega records etc, I’ve realised that my music panel was quite large so I thought that was the time for me to lauch my own imprint and KOMPLEX DE DEEP gave me the chance to express my personal vision of electronic music. So, I would say Electronic music with Soul.

Komplex De Deep releases all their music on vinyl as well as digital forms. Despite rising costs a lot of labels are taking the same approach as vinyl makes resurgence in popularity, is this something you plan to keep doing as the label continues to release new music?

I think I’ve started my label at the worst time ever if we talk about numbers!

But yes, I’m very proud that we’ve managed to release everything on Vinyl so far as I’m a vinyl junkie myself so it would have been very frustruating to have such a big vinyl collection and not have the vinyl of my own imprint. I play Vinyl and I recommend to all my brothers to do the same as it’s more fun and the only way for our business to survive!

The 19th release on Komplex De Deep was one of your own, the Do UR Thang EP. What influences you currently when making new music?

Since the beginning I’ve had the chance to release the music of others like Chymera, Matthias Vogt, Aubrey, Ian O’Donovan, M A N I K and Ifume; to collaborate with Francois Dubois aka Funk D’Void, Alice Orpheus, Greg Oreck (from Thugfucker) and Geoffrey Secco; to remix artists like Andree Lodemann on Room with A View, Christian Prommer and Barck on Derwin records, Alain Ho on Composite. Then I found some time for my own EP at last

This EP will be released on September 3rd on vinyl. The only thing I wanted to do with this EP was something dancefloor oriented with different kinds of tracks, it is a great example to describe my style actually.

I think that lot of things can influence the process of making new music; it could be an artist I’m releasing, the result of a collaboration, the music I’m playing in clubs, the music I’m listening to at home, my personal life, even movies I’ve watched. The list could go on!

You recently returned to Soma Records with track, Feel Tha Heat! and your track Magic K was picked to be remixed by Paul Ritch as part of the Soma 20 celebrations. You have previously described Soma as your family. How did you first get involved with the seminal label?

I was honored that Paul Ritch choose my track Magic K to remix from the whole amazing Soma records catalogue to mark their 20th birthday. We had to re-record some of the parts with Andy Gillespie (from Simple minds) on keyboard. We have worked before for my first album on Soma so we took the opportunity in my studio for a jam session and Feel Tha Heat! was born.

Being back on Soma means a lot for me after all those years. Things always happened naturally with Soma and always have since I first met them at the Miami Winter Conference back in the early days. I was the luckiest man to cross these guys on my path and I’ve learnt a lot with Soma; they gave me a Positive Education!

Having been dj-ing for around 20 years now and taking in parties and residencies at worldwide venues – inc REX club, Fabric, Cielo and the Arches – what have been the highlights for you?

I feel blessed that I can still go back and play in most of these places after all these years. We had a blast last December at Fabric for the Soma 20th birthday and I’ve always loved to play in Scotland when you have places like Pressure at The Arches, the Sub Club and also festival’s like Rockness and T In The Park.

Now that I’m in a Berliner Roster with Sweat Lodge agency, I was very happy to play at Tresor and Arena Club last year and look forward to playing Cookies on August the 28th.

The Parisian scene is also very exciting at the moment with The Rex Club, but also with parties I am playing soon like Sundae on August the 12th and Concrete on September the 9th.

Finally what else have you got going on at the moment personaly on for Komplex De Deep?
I’m very excited with what’s gonna happenned in tha future on KDD. Right now I’m remixing Aubrey for his new EP on KOMPLEX DE DEEP and I’m also remixing a track of his own upcoming Imprint DOT records.

I plan to release a Christian Prommer EP very soon plus another EP from myself – a collaboration project with Francois Dubois which should be finished anytime soon. And stay tuned for some very hot brand new signings, It’s a gonna be a crazy full time job but i love it!

RELATED LINKS

KOMPLEXDEDEEP.COM
SOUNDCLOUD
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
KDD FACEBOOK