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We interviewed Rich Kirby, head of the Ivy Wall label.
Can you tell us a little about your experience? Where are you from / how did you get into music?
I'm originally from a small town outside Peterborough in the UK, I moved to London for the music scene, then down to Brighton which i've called home for ten years. I moved to South Australia two years ago.
I can’t remember a time when I wasn't into music! I was drawn towards electronic music when I first heard a Pete Tong Essential Selection CD in 1998. It blew my mind, i’d never heard music like that before.
A few years later Trance music was huge and really became a way of life for me! I guess from there I discovered Progressive House and Deeper sounding stuff that really floated my boat.
What labels are you currently interested in?
I really respect WOLF MUSIC, I love their vibe and passion and just keeping things legit! “AUS” sound wise is right up my street too.
How do you feel the music on your label impacts your listeners?
I like to think they are getting a little slice of the underground. I hope it’s something DJs want to add to their sets and fire up the dancefloor or people could put on their headphones and drift off to a different place!
What projects are you working on right now? What can you tell us about your last job?
Right now we are working on our second release, which will be a collaboration between two really talented local artists here in South Australia. It’s a little different to the first release, a little harder to say pigeon hole its genre.
We are also working on LEY’s follow up track which is sounding amazing.
You have your first release out on your new label "IVY WALL", LEY's 'You've Got a Lot to learn'. Can you tell us a bit about the track?"
Ley is an artist that’s emerging from the Liverpool underground scene. He’s a bit of a machine at making tracks and he’s not short of new ideas! This track really stood out to me as it just completely represents the sound I wanted IVY WALL to portray. Its deep, driving, a little dark and is pretty versatile. You could imagine this going off peak time in a club or working just as well on a Sunday afternoon at the beach!
Where are you and what have you been doing now?
I'm currently sitting in my garden in Adelaide, South Australia! Beautiful blue sky! Today is just an admin day but im lucky this is my office!
Has the sound of your label changed a lot in recent years? What is your musical criteria?
We are only one release deep so far so the sound hasn't changed, but over the last year as the label was created the look and feel has changed slightly, it's all been an amazing learning experience.
Music criteria is pretty simple… Deep, Upfront, Forward thinking House Music!
Where do you think the label's sound is headed?
I Like the idea of pushing boundaries within genres. Like when Marshall Jefferson used piano in house music they told him it wasn't House! I'm not really that interested in releasing samey outdated stuff with vocals about house music being spiritual! It needs to be innovative and forward thinking! House music can become so stagnant if we don’t evolve.
We all know that the digital revolution has affected sales, but has it affected creativity?
It's certainly allowed more people to get their music out there which cant be a bad thing! The creativity will be there in terms of producers. I can't say the same for DJs. I'm worried that now DJs can have access to unlimited tracks through streaming services, the overall product will suffer because they simply won’t know the tracks like a DJ with a bag or USB of 100 of his favorite records.
