Seville-born producer Hosse first became involved in music at the age of twelve, thanks to his musician/composer father. In 1999, influenced by jazz, soul, and funk, he began producing electronic music despite having very few technological resources to assist him in his early career. Among Hosse’s many productions, his standouts include collaborations with artists such as The Cube Guys, Rober Gaez, and David Penn, with whom he wrote one of his biggest successes to date, ‘Con Son’ which not only gained the support of some of dance music’s biggest names but also went on to become one of the most talked-about tracks of summer in 2014, heard in Ibiza’s prestigious clubs and climbing high on the Beatport and Traxsource sales charts. Since then, Hosse has appeared on labels such as Sony Music, Milk & Sugar Recordings, Cube Recordings, Toolroom, and Urbana Recordings to name a few.
Today, Hosse runs the newly founded Lowlita Records with Anna Tur and Gonçalo Miranda. We catch up with Hosse as he settles in his new home of Ibiza to talk about the imprint, the launch of Balearica Music, the release of his upcoming ‘Open Up’ EP, and much more.
EG: Hi Hosse! It’s a true pleasure to have you down for a chat with us. Thank you for your time. How have you been doing lately? What’s Ibiza looking like right now? Are you feeling optimistic?
Hosse: Hello everyone and thank you very much for having me here. The truth is that with everything we have been living for the last couple of years, many changes have emerged in my life. Some of them were forced and others wanted. Personal changes, changes in the way I think and approach life, and changes professionally. I feel renewed in these aspects that all have to do with my new stage in Ibiza.
As we all know, Ibiza has been suffering the difficulties that the whole world has gone through and continues to go through due to the global pandemic. But at the end of this summer, some events were able to happen, which was quite encouraging for the sector and I think has served as a reminder that Ibiza is more alive than ever and with a tremendous desire to offer the world what characterizes it the most: its culture. Ibiza is still my favorite place that I fell in love with the first time I visited in 2007. Since then I have come every year, sometimes for holidays and sometimes for work, but I have never missed my annual trip since then. For me, it is a place of inspiration, where every DJ or electronic music producer should experience what it is like to live here at some point in their life. This is something that I have wanted to do since then and that today has become a reality.
Among the reasons that have prompted me to redirect my life and have a change of scene, in addition to those personal changes that I mentioned before, I’m also developing in another of my facets as a sound engineer, which I have always done alongside DJing. My friend, who is like a brother to me, Gonçalo Miranda, told me that there was a really big project happening in Ibiza and that my profile could be a good fit for it. The person who heads this project is my good friend Anna Tur, who I met through Gonçalo. She has given me the opportunity to be part of the team that makes up the pillars of this great project which I am very excited about. Balearica Music is much more than radio, because it will offer a multitude of services related to the music industry, but you will discover that next April.
I am optimistic, I feel that the worst is over and that the situation can only normalize because we cannot stop living our lives freely forever. The pandemic and governments have conditioned us enough in all aspects, as well as taking away the basic right to create our own path in life.
EG: We’re very happy and excited to hear about all these new changes! You’ve got over 20 years of career under your soles. How did you first get started in the electronic music realm?
Hosse: Well, I started very young. Music came to me from my father, a drummer, composer, and music lover. But the link with electronic music arose as a result of a friend who I was staying with and we started to play, making songs with a program called Fasttracker that ran on MS-DOS. A fairly complex program to understand, but we ended up getting a lot out of it. But at that point it was just for fun, nothing serious. Then, I started passing some of the songs that I was making to friends and they started playing them at clubs and the public liked them. That was the turning point in which my life would change forever.
EG: Music-wise…was there an album or record that changed everything for you artistically?
Hosse: I went through several stages initially as far as musical aspects are concerned. At the time when I started, in Sevilla, where I’m from and in Andalucía, in general, there was a very strong musical style, which was breakbeat, they were the first songs I made. Then I discovered UK Garage music and 2step that hypnotized me, and finally, I discovered house music through a Christmas gift that my parents gave me, which then marked my way forward.
EG: And, now, after all these years, you’ve decided to launch Lowlita Records in partnership with Anna Tur & Gonçalo. What was it that drove you guys to have your own imprint? What roles does each one of you fulfill?
Hosse: Well, the main reason behind the creation of our label is that we believe in our music and in our way of doing things. Union is strength and the musical identity of each of us, which despite being different, are closely related to each other. That’s why we have created a solid conglomerate that delivers lovingly crafted content for the underground audience we target. From this, the need to create a channel to spread our sound arose.
The role of each one of us is not strictly defined, as we all get involved in every aspect of running a record label, although Anna and Gonçalo are more focused on the contact with external artists and I am more focused on the more technical part and the filtering of demos. Although we are the visible heads, the most important figure is our label manager Jordi Marí, a totally indispensable person for this project to work.
“For me, Ibiza is a place of inspiration, where every DJ or electronic music producer should experience what it is like to live here at some point in their life”
EG: Sonically speaking…what can followers expect? How is Lowlita different from the rest of the labels out there?
Hosse: Honestly, I think fans expect quality music, without going into too many labels. Nothing could be further from the current reality that each of us who make up Lowlita Records offers in our sets. Perhaps one of the factors that make us stand out from the rest of the labels is the dedication to exhibiting art in two ways, both musically and visually. For each release, we have an artist design the artwork. Among these artists are painters, tattooists, sculptors, designers, and illustrators, who are inspired by the sound of the release to produce an exclusive and adapted piece of art. On this occasion, I have had the pleasure of working with a very talented and special friend, Fossi.
EG: Congratulations on your first Lowlita release by the way! Can you tell us what this one’s all about? Has ‘Open Up’ been in the making for a long time?
Hosse: Thanks! Yes, now it’s my time. This release is made up of two tracks, one of them is called ‘Open Up’ which is the one that gives the EP its title and the other is ‘Ibiza’s Calling’.
The track ‘Open Up’ is a song I created in lockdown, but the version I did initially, even though everyone I showed it to loved it, I was never quite convinced. It had a very nice melodic development, but for me, it was just a song to listen to because I could never play it since it was quite out of my style. After giving that version a lot of thought, I decided to start over and I did it in an afternoon in the studio in Ibiza, it was a matter of extracting the clean vocal tracks and putting together a new project concentrating on the result being something that I could DJ with. The second song called ‘Ibiza’s Calling’ was born precisely when I was visiting Ibiza for a few weeks before deciding to move there. I really wanted to create something like that and due to the moment and the place that I was in, the track and its name came about.
EG: And there’s a great remix by your partners in Lowlita, Anna Tur & Goncalo as well. How was the experience? What do they bring to the release?
Hosse: As always, it is very easy to work with them. I showed them the track ‘Open Up’ and they quickly knew where to go with the remix. Their musical style is very much marked and in this case, they have made a techno remix with great force for rush hours at night or to make the dance floor go wild.
EG: Was it hard to find inspiration in these times? What kind of things usually move your music? Do you write with a story in mind, or the dancefloor?
Hosse: Well at least for me, it has not been complicated. In these times when the world is so revolutionized, the sensations and experiences are many and the feelings are on the surface. The reality is that for me it has been the perfect time to find inspiration and unleash creativity. It is true that all these changes in my life that I mentioned at the beginning of the interview have been drastic changes, with all that these entail, but they have helped me find more inspiration, as well as motivation. I think that when expressing any art, several factors come into play, but there is one that has something to tell. So you have to have lived experiences, which will later transform into stories, in my case musicals.
“Perhaps one of the factors that make us stand out from the rest of the labels is the dedication to exhibiting art in two ways, both musically and visually. For each release, we have an artist design the artwork”
EG: We know there’s a lot coming in the next few months for you. What else is in store for Hosse this 2022? Any new milestones to look forward to?
Hosse: I hope and wish for a quiet year personally since I think I have found my place and I am surrounded by beautiful people who I love and I am very grateful for, who care about supporting me and helping me, making my day to day much easier.
And professionally, I don’t find it interesting to talk about gigs, although there are confirmed dates, I think it is something quite volatile in these times, which can change from one day to the next. But without a doubt for me, it is worth highlighting the great opening of Balearica Music, where all the work of so many months and the superhuman effort of the entire team will finally see the light of day.
EG: Thank you for sitting down with us Hosse! We wish you a great year!
Hosse: Thanks so much to you for having me. My best wishes to you all in this new year!
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