Football’s loss was most certainly dance music’s gain. If it weren’t for a career-ending injury at the age of 17, Iván Ramos (aka Coyu) may never have entered the collective psyche of the dance music world. He threw himself head first into production and DJing and has the results to show it, not to mention the fact that he is head honcho of the most charted label on Resident Advisor in 2014. We sat down with the man himself to talk Suara, Sankeys, back-to-backs and tracks.
It is no wonder that Coyu has reached the heights that he sits at today. An extremely busy guy at the best of times, he finds time to gig, produce, run his label, said label’s online store, and help out with the Suara Foundation. I was almost out of breath listening to him recite his timetable; “one hour of interviews, two hours in the studio to finish a remix, four hours for Suara, and then one hour for the store”, all while sounding remarkably chirpy. It’s evident that this work ethic is how the man manages to run one of the most consistent labels on Beatport.
Speaking about the Suara imprint itself, I pondered how he manages to ensure top quality content with such a quantity of releases; one per week, for those wondering. While he admitted that “it’s not easy when you’re releasing one record per week, one top record per week”, he was quick to point to the diversity of its output; “while we release a lot of music, I think all the records that we release are really unique, very different… We are very eclectic, we release very different stuff, from deep house to techno… Sometimes more mellow, sometimes groovier stuff.” While some may question the wide variety in Suara’s releases, they cannot question even for a second the dedication of the man behind the label, as it is clear that his passion and commitment is beyond 100%.
The next logical step for a label as successful as Suara was to further explore the summer season on the White Isle. Suara’s first weekly residency launched last year in controversial venue Booom!, with characteristically wide-ranging and high quality lineups featuring the likes of Kevin Saunderson, Kenny Larkin, Tiefschwarz, Gui Boratto and Noir. Coyu is the first to admit the difficulties of finding ones feet in the ultra-competitive Ibiza calender; “last year was a big challenge for us because it was our first time working in Ibiza doing a weekly party. We didn’t have any experience, but I think it worked very very well for our first year”. Evidently, he wasn’t the only one who thought so, as he explains of the evolving partnership with Sankeys, with excitement in his voice, “It’s a big step for us, because Sankeys was one of the revelations of last year. It was one of the hottest clubs of last season, so it was great that Sankeys thought that Suara could be a good addition to their lineup.” He’s certainly not wrong there, as Sankeys caused such a stir last season that it managed to woo long-time Space brand We Love to it’s smaller-capacity venue, so there’s no doubt that the relationship with Sankeys was a real coup for the Barcelona-based label.
Unsurprisingly, Suara has once again secured marquee lineups for the season at Sankeys, but Coyu has a few that he has is eyes on; “I have a few back-to-backs, one is with Mark Knight, who is a very good guy. He did a very successful remix for us a few months back and next week [last week] is releasing a big, big hit [‘Second Story’] on Suara as well, so I’m very much looking forward to playing with Mark.”
Speaking of his back-to-backs, I asked him about several dates lined up with 1605 man UMEK, which all began in Slovenia back in February. Speaking frankly, Coyu admitted his initial trepidation about playing with UMEK, “I was a bit worried because UMEK is a bit more big room”. However, his anxiety turned out to be unfounded; “to be honest, he played even more underground than me. When we played together, he played super groovy, it was a great back-to-back, which is why we decided to do it again”. They both clearly enjoyed it, as did Carl Cox and his Music is Revolution team, sparking the idea for UMEK and Coyu to play a 5 hour set on the Terraza at the Music is Revolution Opening Party at Space last Tuesday. Reports back are saying that it was a stormer!
Before wrapping up so Coyu could continue on his strict schedule of interviews, I probed for any tracks that we should keep our eyes peeled for from Suara coming soon; he teased “we have a super big track from David Herrero, every time I play it, it’s like a storm! It’s a super old school house track with an amazing synth, and now we’re working on finding a remixer. Hopefully we will find it soon because it’s one of those tracks that will make a big boom on the scene!” If it’s like many other Suara releases, there’s no doubt that it has the potential to have the impact that Coyu hopes for.
Suara @ Sankeys opened on Friday June 26th and runs every Friday at Sankeys until Friday September 25th. If the excitement, passion and work-rate of the Big Cat translate into the vibe of the party every week, it’s worth checking out if you’re on the island this summer.
Words by David Gray