It is always a great pleasure for me to hear something fresh and original. So it was when some months ago I've noticed this guy from Glasgow, who's mixing funky- and soul-like sound in his own producer works, he instantly became one of my favourites. Now he finally released his brand new album: "Night and Day", which is probably one of the best compilations this year so far. The album's free and easy style, and specific sounding will definitely win support of those listeners who thought electronic music is a messy noise till now.

You have been producing music for a long time, but you made your first own album only now. Why did you wait until now? I guess it could have been born earlier.

Yes, my first release was actually back in 2001 and I’ve had over 50 releases since then so it’s taken a while.  There’s been a few offers from labels to put out an album over the years but I was willing to wait I felt I had earned the right to do one, and had a strong creative urge to do it. An album is a big undertaking so I wanted to be sure I had enough ideas and inspiration to come up with a full album of strong tracks.  Perhaps it could have happened a bit sooner but now seems as good a time as any.

I think it’s a perfect time for the album release, as it has a real summer feeling, the tracks are enjoyable anywhere and anytime. From how many tracks did you choose these ones?

The album definitely seems to have a summer feel about it although when I started out that wasn’t my intention.  ’Sounds Like Summer’ was one of the first tracks I wrote for the LP and I think that had an influence on the direction I took from then on. 

As for the number of tracks, there was at least 15 to 20 ideas that I originally came up with.  Actually I was going through my music files just the other day and was finding a few other ideas that I had forgotten about so there’s probably more like 20+ in total.

Are there any tracks that were rejected just because of not fitting on one album?

Yes, I wanted to make sure that the album would fit on a CD so that restricted the number of tracks I could put on it.  In the end that meant there was room for 12 tracks.  I didn’t make the final decision on which tracks would make it onto the album until a few days before it was due to be uploaded to the stores. 

What are you gonna do with those tracks? Can we listen them somehow later?

There’s a couple that won’t see the light of day, but I believe most will get a release at some stage.  Just because they didn’t make it onto the album doesn’t mean they aren’t good – some either just didn’t fit in style wise or simply weren’t finished on time, etc.  I’m thinking of  releasing a few of them next on Body Rhythm as a sort of ’Deleted Scenes EP’ like you would get on a movie DVD so that people can hear the tracks that nearly made it on to the album.

Deep house has been going through a big change during the last few years. Almost every genre from minimal to prog contains deep elements. What’s your opinion on this?

There does seem to be a deep influence in a number of genres these days.  In some ways it’s good although I’d like to see a movement towards the more soulful, melodic and emotive side of ’deep’.  I often have a feeling that the music these days is missing something...it’s somewhat ironic that the music that gets classified as ’deep’ sometimes seems to lack real depth, to my ears at least.  This is generally speaking though of course as there is good music to be found and some very talented producers out there but I’d always wish for there to be more.

Do you like the 70’s-80’s American disco music? Just asking, beacuse the marks of that music style can be heard on the album.

To a certain extent yes, though perhaps more the soul, funk & jazz style of the early to mid 70’s more than the height of the disco era.  The more commercial the disco scene got the less I liked it...I think that’s probably true of many styles of music!

What kind of music and artists do you prefer to listen in your freetime?

Due to the nature of what I do dance music seems to follow me around no matter what i do, even in my spare time.  For instance, when I have free time to listen to make I usually end up listening to demos,  promos and DJ mixes I’ve been sent since often there’s not enough time to check them out at other times as I’m busy making music.  I do spend some time in the studio just listening to different kinds of music looking for things I can sample though...it’s particularly fun to listen to the really old jazz music from the 1920’s-1950’s.  Also as I mentioned earlier, in recent times I have spent more time listening to old soul, jazz and funk albums from the 70’s. I find that quite inspiring - Donald Byrd is a favourite of mine from that period.

Your tracks are usually released at your own label (Body Rhythm). What’s the reason? Don’t you want to give out your productiosn other labels?

I used to release my music exclusively on other labels for a number of years before launching Body Rhythm in mid 2007.  By that stage I was ready to take more control over my music, and with the digital download age arriving it seemed like the perfect time to do so.  It has a lot of benefits, not least being that I am now keeping a larger percentage of the profits since I’m releasing on my own label.  There’s more to it than that though.  I now have the freedom to release exactly what I want to, when I want to which has been a good move for me creatively.  I also now have real-time access to my sales stats, have good contacts with the stores I’m selling on and have no troubles getting paid on time – something that wasn’t always the case when I was putting out music on other labels! 

I haven’t completely ruled out releasing on other labels though.  If a label I really respected asked, or I received a great offer then I would consider it but right now my labels are my main priority.   I do however work on remixes for other labels, that’s something I’ve been involved with quite a bit of recently since I finished off the album.

What’s the difference between the Body Rhythm and Body Rhythm Black labels?

Body Rhythm is my main label and the home to my ’Ross Couch’ tracks.  The style is my own blend of house – at times soulful, jazzy, deep, funky and occasionally techy.  When I first started Body Rhythm Black the intention was to go darker and head more towards the tech house end of things.  As I started writing tracks for it under the alias ’System Check’ it transformed into a more deep/tech label with an emphasis on electronic sounds. 

Whilst both labels were initially supposed to be primarily a platform for my own music, Body Rhythm Black in particular is now evolving to take on-board other artists.  So far I’ve been able to give rising star Fabien Kamb his debut release late last year on the label and he’s since released on a host of other labels including the high-flying Neurotraxx label, DeepClass, Onethirty and Acryl as well as a 2nd release for me which has just been released called the ’Standpoints EP’.  I’ve also just signed up two quality singles from Spin Science (Urban Torque, Global Underground, Plastic City) and I’m actively seeking more quality music at the moment.

What kind of promotion did you for the album release? Who did you present it or whose opinion did you listen to?

I kept the album under wraps until it was completely finished. No one heard a sneak preview as I didn’t want to be influenced by what other people thought, I wanted it to be a true reflection of myself and where I’m at right now.  As for promotion - of course the LP was sent out to a host of DJ’s, press, etc as you would expect but I wanted the album to speak for itself so I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary promotion wise.

I believe that people go clubbing to listen to good music, spend the time with other good people and after an all-night-long dancing they go home whistling the tracks of the night. This is not so usual nowadays, but completely true for your album. What do you think about it?

Yes, I agree – it’s a shame that these days that isn’t always the case.  A lot of dance music these days seems to be groove orientated – tracks designed for the DJ to get people dancing . There’s definitely a place for that, but I feel that dance music can be about so much more.  I’ve always been amazed at how powerful music can be in it’s ability to make you feel so many different emotions with just a simple melody or a chord change.  When you combine that with a danceable groove then I think you have something really special.  That’s what I always aspire too and I’d love it if that became more of a trend in dance music as a whole.

I don’t know if you do any gigs, I mean if you are also a DJ or only spend your time producing.

I do both, but it’s the producing side of things that I’ve invested most of my time in over the years.  Making music comes very naturally to me, I could do it every day for the rest of my life and not get bored.  I feel lucky to have found that as I tend to have a short attention span for most things.  At times DJing frustrates me more if i’m finding it difficult to get my hands on enough good music to make the kind of sets I want to.  As with producing I feel that DJing can be a very powerful artform that’s about more than just making people dance, but sometimes I feel restricted by the quality and style of music that’s being released. I’m pretty fussy about what I like – I’m one of those guys that can listen to hundreds of tracks in a week and end up buying 1 or 2 if i’m lucky.  When there’s a ready suppy of good music being released though I have real enthusiasm and passion for DJing.

How can you get inspiration? What artists influence your style?

It’s hard to pinpoint who’s influenced my style since I’ve been at this a long time now and I’m sure there’s lots of different tracks and artists that have played a part.  Having said that I don’t think I’m inspired so much by the music that’s out right now.  I do like the Knee Deep & Lovebirds stuff – the common link there ofcourse being Sebastian Doering who’s very talented and maintains a consistent level of quality to his work that’s quite rare these days.  I always pay attention to Jimpster and his Freerange label, although for me that label’s golden years were around 2004-2005 when they seemed to have hit upon a perfect balance between the deep and tech genres that I still find inspiring.  I’m still influenced by 90’s house – labels of the quality of Paper Recordings and Glasgow Underground are sorely missed these days.  Plastic City back in the day were certainly an influence on me too – the main guys like Terry Lee Brown Jr and The Timewriter.  Also as I mentioned earlier there’s a lot of music from the 70’s that inspires me as much as anything these days. 

How are the feedbacks so far? As I saw some comments on your Myspace site, your music got a lot of people. Well, I’m not surprised, because the album is really fantastic.

Thanks!  I’ve been very happy with the feedback for the album, I couldn’t really have asked for much more.  The DJ reactions were great right across the board.  One of the nicest things has been when people who’ve bought the album take the time to get in touch via my website or myspace page to tell me how much they’ve enjoyed the LP, that means a lot.   I’ve been happy with the reactions from the download sites themselves too as they don’t have to say anything but several have been in touch and been very complimentary about it which is flattering. 

Now that the album is out, what’s coming next? Are you going for a holiday or are you continuing to work on?

I did take a week or so off after the album was done to recharge my batteries a little which was great. It’s not often that I take a complete break from the music so I enjoyed that – I wish it could have been  a bit longer!  I couldnt’ stay away for too long though as I have remix work for various labels piling up so for the last couple of weeks I’ve been busy working on that.  I’ve also been working to get some producers on-board to do remixes of some of the album tracks, so look out for that coming out in a few months time.

web: http://www.myspace.com/rosscouch
http://www.rosscouch.com/