The Sundowner. Mix #19 comes from Spanish DJ Sultra. Born and based in Valencia, Sultra has become a pillar of the underground music scene in the city, and he is also a resident of the legendary Oven Club. Enjoy one hour of his exquisite deep sound and check out the interview we had with him.
Inés: Hi Alber, how are you?
Alber: I’m good, I’m answering the interview from the CBD shop where I work, while smoking a joint under the sun at the door of the store 8)
Inés: Can you tell us why you chose that name for the mix? Who is Nacho?
Alber: Nacho Vidal is a porn actor friend of ours who bought a record store in 2005 and let us enter and take everything we wanted. I carried about 3 suitcases, which he did not ask for anything in exchange. The store since it closed never went through discogs, I found many things that to this day I still use in my sets. So I named it like this as a way of gratitude for the records that he gave me as a gift.
Inés: Where did you grow up and how did that influence your sound?
Alber: I was born in Valencia, but for some years I moved and lived in London and Berlin. Basically I grew up in Valencia which has had a very strong subculture in the 90’s with all the DESTROY ROUTE which has influenced me a lot in the musical environment, besides having a very music lover father who has always had a record player at home and a super varied collection of records.
Inés: Where does your DJ name come from? What was the idea behind it?
Alber: It’s because a friend told me one day that I was “sultragrande”, and I am actually a very tall guy, so the name just stayed like that, to be honest is something that I have never paid much attention to, just came out one day between laughs.
Inés: How do you prepare your record bag before playing a gig?
Alber: The truth is that I’m renewing my record bag a lot, I always try to see what time I play, and depending on the time I load some records or others, usually I always try to put the records I’ve bought lately, but I don’t prepare the sessions 100%. I think it depends on the vibe and the environment then I decide what records to play, so I don’t usually think much about it before at home.
Inés: Can you tell us a little bit about some of the music you’ve included in the podcast, perhaps about some of the labels or artists featured?
Alber: As I told you before, the selection has been a bit based on the records I found in my friend’s store, they are all records between the 90’s and 2005 which is when the store closed, I didn’t want to put anything current because well, I think it has more magic to find things that don’t belong to your era but still fit you today, this time I wanted to do something a little deeper than I normally do in a club.
Inés: Can you tell us more about Ritme Records, apart from being a record label, it is also a party? Who is involved in the project and what’s the idea behind it? How did it start?
Alber: I always got together with Pau Melgar to make music at home, and we had been thinking for a long time about starting something, starting a project in which we could release our own stuff and of our friends, I think basically how everyone starts, we just needed to find a name and that’s where Blanch came in, he is also a DJ from Valencia, but he also had a multidisciplinary project already created as a promoter called ritme, it was a work he did for the end of his degree in design and Pau and I really loved it. At first we just wanted to release music but we did a party to present the label that was awesome, and from there we started to do parties a little bigger each time.
Inés: How does the future of the electronic music scene look like for you?
Alber: The future is always uncertain but more in the times we live in, I think we are going through a very bad period for clubbing but I hope we will come out of this stronger.
Inés: Do you have any plans in the short term or plans for the future?
Alber: No plans right now, but just to try to enjoy the small moments, continue collecting music and try to make sure this situation that we are going through has little effects on my mental health.
Inés: What is one thing that you can’t live without?
Alber: Sausages with cheese inside!
Thank you for your time Alber and we hope to see you soon on the dancefloor!
Follow Sultra: