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Sean Brosnan
Needwant label boss
2012-02-20
Sean Brosnan set up label Needwant to ensure his Future Disco series of compilations would get into the ears of disco lovers, but he never expected to be notching up the release of his fifth edition at the end of February. We caught up with him to find out why he thinks disco is still getting dancefloors moving.
First off, can you tell us a bit about how you got into DJing? Was there a partiuclar scene or tunes that got you started?
I grew up as a teenager in the 90’s when just about everyone had bought some decks. I just took it a bit more seriously than my friends. My serious love affair with it all came from Garage music, both UK and US variety. At the age of eighteen I used to go to a club called the Manor near Bournemouth where the residents Si & Seth played amazing deep house. I eventually started to cover them doing warm-ups when they did gigs elsewhere in the country and that was when I got really serious about being a DJ. It’s probably the period of my life that had the most influence on me musically.
How would you position yourself in the music industry?
Mainly I think of myself as a label owner but like lots of people do a bit of everything.
How did you set up Needwant? What were the challenges involved?
I set Needwant up in the summer of 2009. I wanted to do another Future Disco album and needed a label to release it on so that was my very first intention but I always knew I wanted to do singles.
The main challenges were distribution, once I had that all set up it was manufacturing. In fact I would say challenges are pretty constant running a record label!
What’s your guiding ethos for the label?
My main ethos is to release music that I will be proud to listen back to in five years time. Also to be as artistic as possible with the signings and artwork but still have a common theme. I think we are following that.
Disco seems to be in and out of fashion, but I think anyone who is into Disco music won’t be following the trends too much.
Disco seems to be making a huge comeback over the last couple of years making it highly fashionable yet still entrenched in underground sounds. What’s your take on the disco scene right now?
Disco seems to be in and out of fashion, but I think anyone who is into Disco music won’t be following the trends too much; it’s much more of a passion. I’m not sure what we have is Disco or can be called disco exactly, but if we can group all these producers like Todd Terje, PBR Streetgang, Mario Basanov and others as Disco then it’s definitely healthy right now.
If you were to pick out three acts pushing the disco scene forward, who would you choose?
Mario Basanov would be my number one, he’s got such talent and really understands soulful music and how to work with vocals, but comes at it from all angles. Benoit & Sergio are really interesting producers, I wish they would make more records but I’m sure they have some amazing music in the wings. Maxxi Soundsystem, I’m not sure if he’s in the disco camp exactly but he takes the influences fused with more bass heavy music and the results are really interesting.
How did the Future Disco series come about?
One day someone said to me why don’t I do a compilation of the music I was playing. It was just emerging at the time after people playing a lot of re-edits, producers were starting to make original productions with a disco vibe. I had always played house, but I was playing quite a lot bars and second rooms and playing lots of Disco edits and slower jams.
There really wasn’t any masterplan to it becoming a series, but the first one worked and I’ve kept going ever since.
How has the series evolved – did you expect it to do so well?
I really never thought it would go so well. I knew the music was good though and that people of all ages liked it watching the reactions. The biggest surprise was probably the second one, when it was named iTunes dance album that year. It was a massive boost personally and to the series.
I like to think the evolution has been to capture the sounds of the last few years of what I call Future Disco.
Mario Basanov would be my number one, he’s got such talent and really understands soulful music and how to work with vocals.
The latest Future Disco is called “Downtown Express”. Can you tell us why? What’s the theme?
This one I wanted to be a bit more late night, take the tempos up a little and reflect more where the Disco scene is heading and I would say the main room, no longer the back room. Downtown Express and the artwork was all trying to give that impression of a bit more intensity, faster moving, late night and gritty Downtown.
What have been your favourite tunes in the series so far?
That’s a hard one, I just went back to the albums to pick some out and I still enjoy most the tracks on them all. I listen to each track at least one hundred times and if I like after all that then I think it has to be worth including so they’ve all gone through the test and all my favourite.
Do you think disco is back for good?
I’m not sure it ever went away, just the spotlight moved elsewhere or younger people hadn’t yet discovered it this time round. I think there will always be disco or disco influenced music.
Do you think there’s any danger of disco getting hijacked by more commerical, mainstream-minded music producers looking for chart success?
I think some of the best ever disco records were commercial hits so I don’t think there is a fear of hijack. I’m one of those people who doesn’t think mainstream is bad, there is just simply good and bad music, Disco or any other genre. It would be great for some of the producers who have been making great music to have crossover success.
What’s next for the Future Disco series and yourself?
The brand new album is just about to drop and I’m excited to hear the feedback on that. I’m busy personally with the record label Needwant which is going strong and I’m attempting to make a FETE album with my production partner Julian. Also bigger plans for Ibiza this summer, which is great as I love the island.
Read our review of Future Disco Volume 5 here.
by Mike Barnard
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