Belgian DJ, producer and label head-honcho Kolombo (aka Olivier Grégoire) heads to Brixton on March 1stfor the launch of Reset:Divide; a new all-nighter hosted by ProBTechRecords and CitySeven. We caught up with him to find out why he loves London, who he’s tipping at the moment and how he comes up with his pseudonyms.
You’ve been touring the world, how are you feeling about this London show?
KOLOMBO: The Techno scene in the UK is generally very hard because you’ve got guys with an excellent underground musical education like Techno, Drum&bass, Dub and a very special kind of House music sound different from anywhere else, so I do my stuff and try to feel what the people want
What else do you do when you are in London?
KOLOMBO: Definitely shopping, I really love London for that!
What can we expect from your set on March 1st?
KOLOMBO: let me surprise you!
What makes a perfect Saturday night for you?
KOLOMBO: the same as all djs want: having good times, meeting nice people and party time of course!
You recently collaborated with Dave Davis for Skint and have had numerous more in the past year or two. Who else would you like to get in studio with…?
KOLOMBO: Yeah Dave is a real old friend and it’s nice to share time together in studio, I really love collaboration; sharing ideas and spending time with friends all around machines as I’ve already done with Loulou Players, Sharam Jey, Miguel Campbell, Sion, Compuphonic… We’ve had a great time with our music.
You’re on a lot of different labels and remixing for a lot of other artists, who are you loving the sound of at the moment?
KOLOMBO: I really love some quite unknown artists and new talents like Nikitin, Vintage Culture, The Beatangers, just to name a few of them.
Who else from Belgium should we look out for?
KOLOMBO: MMhhh honestly its more than 1 year since I last played in Belgium, I really don’t know what has happened in my own country, ha ha. But of course there are such nice talents like The Magician, Aeroplane, Compuphonic,…
What makes your sound unique…?
KOLOMBO: maybe it is because I only use Analogue Machines…
You have made music under various names… where did Kolombo come from and will any of your other monkiers be making a return soon?
KOLOMBO: Kolombo is just a funny and stupid name I trademarked, but at the end, I said …OK, it’s not bad actually! And about the others names: we did Loulou Players with my partner Jerome, but now he represents on his own, but we still continue our label LOULOU RECORDS.
What does 2014 hold for you in terms of your own releases and your label?
KOLOMBO: Honestly, I don’t know, I just make music as good as possible and deal with the track when it’s over, I really don’t know about 2014, I don’t know what I’m doing next week:)
Catch Kolombo’s set at Reset:Divide at Electric Social on March 1st. For tickets go to http://www.residentadvisor.