Beyond Noise Team
The label that kickstarted the careers of a legion of profile players including Avicii, Madison Avenue, Peking Duk and Dirty South, are celebrating a massive 30 years in the music industry.
Vicious Recordings has been going for 30 years but for those unaware, who are Vicious and what do they represent?
John Course: We started in Australia in 1992 and have been releasing club and dance music ever since. Back then a lot of music we released ended up getting released by Vicious first and then getting licensed to other labels around the world, however as downloading and streaming has evolved, we now release globally on Vicious. Early releases such as the Carl Cox collaboration “Eternal” by Eternal was signed to Vicious but released in the UK on ULR. Likewise the UK’s Phaze2 released the seminal “Dreams Of Heaven” by Ground Level which we signed and released prior.
Andy Van: Since those early years we have signed a stack of globally known artists such as Madison Avenue, Rogue Traders, Peking Duk, Dirty South, Sgt Slick and none other than Avicii who’s first 9 releases were signed globally by Vicious.
Vicious are set to release remixes of their biggest tracks over the next twelve weeks. What remix are you most excited for fans to hear?
John Course: It’s the first time we have remixed some of our Avicii related releases including the Cube Guys remixing “Malo”, Don Diablo Remix and also a Mark Knight Remix is coming from Avicii & Sebastien Drums hit “My Feelings For You” and Sgt Slick remixing Avicii’s “Street Dancer”. Madison Avenue’s massive hit “Don’t Call Me Baby” is being remixed by Joshwa is another high profile one and for the Australian fans Peking Duk’s huge hit “High” has been remixed by Mell Hall.
On an underground tip we also have Spencer Parker who has remixed “Well Strung” by 16th Element (an early underground hit). PAX has remixed Dirty South’s “The End” which is another highlight. There are over 20 remixes and we’re excited about every single one!
Andy Van : Yeah there’s so many great remixes, it’s hard to choose, John has mentioned a lot fo strong ones above, and I do love the Mind Electric Remix of Ground Level’s 90s’ club hit “Dreams Of Heaven”.
Names like Mark Knight and PAX have remixes that are part of the twelve week package. What was the thought process behind choosing these specific producers to do the remixes for Vicious?
John Course: We wanted to dig into artists that are making waves today and are globally known and also ensure they fitted the style of the original artist or offered a fresh take.. Our releases are from massive names so they deserve the respect of huge remixers working them.
For example, we really felt PAX would nail a remix of Dirty South and sure enough they smashed it. So it’s about combining the creative connection as well as looking at what new artists are on point and making great music themselves.
Andy Van : We spent a lot of time going over many possible remixers, and are super happy with the final list, and really feel like the remixes capture the key hooks of the original tracks.
With the Don Diablo remix of Avicii & Sebastien Drums’ song, ‘My Feelings For You’ garnering massive attention, what are your expectations (if any) for the other eleven releases?
John Course: Well there are over 20 other remixes of various Vicious back catalogue and they all have different expectations. Not all artists carry the profile of Avicii, nor of Don Diablo, but they are creatively and from a historic point of view, all significant to the history of the label. The underground remixes cannot possibly be expected to stream like the Don Diablo remix will, but they will be important within their own scenes as well.
Andy Van: This is not a purely commercial project and it’s about celebrating all aspects of what Vicious has previously done, from the hits, to the underground, so our expectations are simply for each remix to re-connect with its original audience in a cool way and to resonate with the new remixers audience as well.
With Vicious Recordings being responsible for over 800 releases, what is your favourite track to be released under the label?
John Course: Wow, that is a hard question to answer… for me (John), “Don’t Call Me Baby” is an amazing record and it achieved massive results for a tune that was made in our studio in Melbourne including hitting the Number 1 spot on the UK pop chart and winning a stack of ARIA awards, all while remaining a great house record, so that’s probably a highlight. But we love underground music as well and also many other great tracks we have put out.
From Extrovert Music to Be Rich, the Vicious Brand is very strong. Which division of the brand releases your favourite music?
Andy Van: The reason we have other sub labels is because we want different music to feel at home on different labels. Vicious is straight up club and house music, Vicious Black way more underground and Be Rich more diverse from bass house to electronica and even hip hop. Extrovert is a more pop edged sound. I feel they are all different so no one is a favourite… They are all like a family of brothers and sisters, so how can we play favourites?
If you could have any track over the past 30 years signed to Vicious, what would it be?
John Course: For me, “Finally” by Kings Of Tomorrow… It’s one of my all time favourite house music records… Well done to Defected for getting that one!
Andy Van : Great question, there’s hundreds of amazing tracks i love to put in here, but 2 that come to mind are : “Music Sounds Better WIth You” – Stardust or “Lady” – Modjo
What would you guys say has been Vicious Recording’s biggest achievement?
John Course: I think remaining relevant with the artists we sign for over 30 years is arguably our biggest achievement, including our commitment to breaking Australian artists internationally. As a label that is a long way from huge markets like the UK, Europe and the USA, we have managed to not only discover a huge list of Australian artists, but also sign an artist like Avicii before anybody else knew he existed and then introduce them to those markets.
Andy Van: We consider ourselves as a global label and we release and sign artists from anywhere in the world, but have had a significant impact with new Australian artists such as Dirty South, Ground Level, Madison Avenue, Rogue Traders and Sgt Slick all starting with us.
What is the next step for yourselves and Vicious Recordings?
John Course: Apart from getting all these new remixes of our biggest tracks out, we have new music from artists such as Sgt Slick, Super Disco Club, Mind Electric, De Saint, KPD, just to name a few, so it’s to continue to break great music like we have for the past 30 Years. Andy Van and myself are still very busy DJs and taking that club experience and applying it to what we sign and release is they key to keeping Vicious and the other labels we run on point.
Andy Van: At the end of the day we love dance music and simply want to release the best music we can find for another 30 years!!
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