| Seladorian: So first and foremost I hear there’s some big event news to announce? A little birdie told me there was a special Seladoria party being prepared? C’mon spill the beans... DS: Yes, we are delighted to be returning to London to celebrate our 13th birthday at the truly incredible new 77 club, located centrally in the capital with a mighty fine line up of artists joining Steve & I for the event. Not only will we have label stalwart, Anthony Pappa with us again, we’re thrilled to have three Seladoria debuts from Tim Engelhardt (Scenarios), Cioz (Stil Vor Talent) and Carina Lawrence (Mobilee). All three are artists we particularly love and admire and can’t wait to share the decks with them as we commemorate the considerable milestone of 13 years in the trenches. We think it’s going to be a very special night so hope to see a veritable army of Seladorians on the dance floor. | | | Seladorian: And first up release wise for ’26, it’s what back in the proverbial was known as a double A side. Two tracks, equal billing – one from each of your good selves. Please talk us through the creation of your respective masterworks. SP: Yes we've DJed back to back plenty of times but never done a 'back to back' release before, so thought we’d give it a go and start off the year with one track each together on a single EP. Not sure if it's just a bit of friendly rivalry or the 'prog' equivalent of Blur v Oasis. Never mind the battle of Brit Pop, this is the battle of Brit-Prog (sorry.. I'll get my coat..). 'Freeze' is a bit different for me. I've been trying to make each track that I make sound a bit different, so my sound is constantly evolving. It would be a lot easier to make a track similar to the last, but where’s the fun in that? And if anyone knows me as a DJ, they'll know I rarely play any breakbeats, so what do I go and do on this track? I stick a big breakbeat in the middle to push myself out of my comfort zone. I was having a lot of internal conversations during and after making this about the breakbeat, but once I played it out, I knew it was meant to be! It's also a nod to my friend and promoter Rob Casson, who sadly left us last year unexpectedly. He was the promoter for 'Freeze' in Liverpool, whom I played for many times. DS: For my part, my contribution is called ‘Ego Savvy’ which has been a staple in my sets for the best part of a year now. If I do say so myself, it’s a rather filthy, chunky slab of Electronic House with a brooding bassline, meaty muscular synths and funky fly perc all urging you to “clap your hands” and “come on in” which frankly, is an invitation t’would be rude to refuse! Get it down ya! | | | Seladorian: ...and what treats are up next on the small but perfectly formed release schedule? SP: We’ve got some really great music lined up (but then I would say that wouldn't I?!). Next up we welcome UnbrokenOne, a producer from the North East of England whose work we've been admiring for a while and that will be followed by an amazing collaboration from two of our faves, Danny Howells and Dilby! Plus, there’s another release from the mighty D-Nox & Beckers on the way too! I think there may also be something tasty coming from Dave if my memory serves me well? Isn’t that right David? (Cough!) | | | Seladorian: Yes Dave, did we hear someone whisper the words ‘long player’? DS: So rumour has it! Yes, doing my own artist album has been something that’s been on the cards for a while now and finally, 2026 is going to be the year I stopped talking about it and made it happen. It’s going to be released in April coinciding with the label’s 13th birthday under the title ‘If Memory Serves’, and will be a bit of a ‘Best Of’ collection of sorts, with especially tweaked and revised special album versions of some of my personal highlights from the many tracks I’ve released on Selador over the past 13 years. I didn’t want it to just be a collection of individual club tracks though, so have tried to focus on it as a listening experience that you can play from start to finish. There will be an accompanying vinyl sampler too for all you record collectors. So watch this space as they say. Seladorian: Steve, 2025 was an especially prolific studio year for you, more of the same in ’26? SP: Yes, I was on a bit of a mission in the studio last year, and I loved making so much music so I'm planning that this year sees more of the same! I've already got a few tracks in the metaphorical oven, both solo and collaborations that I need to finish, and I've also got a secret stash of remixes that haven't been released as yet. So prepare to be Parried! | | Seladorian: Can we expect more of those tasty, value for money Showcases, or what?! SP: You bet! They’re a great way to introduce new artists to the label, as well as a great vehicle for established label stalwarts delivering one-off tracks, and when we bring them to the boil in our musical melting pot, a showcase is born. They’re always hugely popular, and as you say, are a lot of bang for your buck. Our next one will be out in March and features new music from Just Her & AmyElle, another monster from Kelsey Valentine and a collab between Nick Stoynoff & Gai Barone amongst many more.. DS: Yeah, we have quite a few things signed now so might need to split Showcase 22 up into a two-part release to make it easier for people to digest. These days when I see a release that has 10+ tracks on it, it usually gets put to the bottom of the pile until I have more time, which invariably I never seem to find! The amount of music that lands in our inboxes these days is just out of control! So from now on, we’re just going to drop our carefully curated bitesized Showcases with no more than 4 tracks at a time. Small in size, huge in stature! | | Seladorian: What’s floating your cultural boats right now? SP: I’ve been watching the Netflix series ‘His & Hers’ which is a bonkers, psychological thriller, about two estranged spouses, who believe the other to be the prime suspect in a murder trial. One is a news reporter and one is a detective. Heavy! And I'm just about to feed my ongoing Beatles / McCartney obsession and start reading 'Wings - The Story Of Band On The Run'. Can’t wait to get stuck into that. DS: It’s always a good time of year for movies as the awards season approaches. Two recent stand outs for me being Marty Supreme & Song Sung Blue. Both highly recommended. And I’ve also been enjoying my good friend Chad Jackson’s ‘Journey Through My Record Collection’ podcasts and Nick Callaghan’s ‘Surface Noise’ shows on Love Will Save The Day FM. Two wise and masterful tune selectors with particularly good taste. DS: What about you? The one they call The Seladorian? Do you have any cultural highlights to share? TS: Ahh, so glad you asked. Movie-wise, ‘No Other Choice’ was more than worthy of all the hype, praise and award nominations and I’ve also been listening to and very much enjoying hearing Sleaford Mods and Dry Cleaning expanding their sonic horizons on their respective new albums. | | Seladorian: A hoodie, a hoodie, my kingdom for a hoodie. You each have max 20 words to give us a Selador merch sales pitch. SP: This is not just your average record label merchandise, this is Selador merch. Strictly for our discerning, fashion conscious Seladorians. DS: Yes, as our many satisfied customers will testify, we only deal in the finest premium quality merch. Top notch clobber! | | Seladorian: I see you’ve also been busy Bandcamp bees. The shape of things to come? SP: Yes, Bandcamp seems to be doing all of the right things, when so many other platforms are doing the opposite. It really is an artist and label’s friend. We deal with them directly and they pay a much bigger percentage than anybody else. So it's a really good way for you to get the music you love, while also sharing the love with artists and labels, without most of the money getting swallowed up by big tech platforms. So this year ahead you’re going to see us really forging our relationship with Bandcamp, as we do exclusive compilations, and releases, and of course our merchandise and even some DJ mixes too. We already have our series of superb album concepts on there including Vocal Delights, Sleazy Beats, Melodic Wonk and more. Go and check them out. They really are fantastic! | | | Seladorian: Right, well it’s been very nice chatting with you boss men, you got anything else you’d like to add before I put some wax on the trax and slide on outta here? DS: Well, I suppose we shouldn’t send out a newsletter without a little reminder of all the lovely mixes we’ve had recently on our weekly radio show-cum-podcast, the Selador Sessions. It’s a little hard to believe we’re up to episode 352 already having never missed a week since we launched the series almost 7 years ago, but indeed, that’s where we are, and the guest mixes just keep on coming. Since the turn of the year, we’ve already had exclusive sets from Nick Stoynoff, UnbrokenOne and Igor Marijuan, plus a couple of Radio Therapy’s from myself and we have more lined up in the coming weeks from the likes of Kamilo Sanclemente, Danny Howells, Just Her and some chancer by the name of Parry, so be sure to to tune in every Thursday via our Mixcloud or Soundcloud channels, or via your podcast provider of choice. And if you’re new to the Sessions, all previous episodes are still available at our website, which by my reckoning is about 15 solid days of music! That should keep you busy. Enjoy! | |
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