HR: Tell me a little bit about the mix. The file was titled "Nuthin' but Heaters, are these some of your go to's while playing out?
Charo: Yea I think all of these could work in the right context except the first and last ones. The first one is this Greek song I first heard in the movie The Lobster and I’ve used it as an intro a for a live set one time. But yea, everything in the middle is stuff that could work on the dancefloor. About half of the tracks are what me and the other VLSC guys have dubbed “Headcrack” which is the dance music that is a fusion of all these genres like techno, electro, and jungle/breakbeat type stuff that makes you bop your head so hard it cracks.
HR: Out of the bunch, if you had to pick two tracks from the mix as essential heaters, which tracks would they be and why?
Charo: Probably the XAN track and the Strahinja one. Those two are pure headcrack.
HR: We recently put out a tape together [Hope is Leaving the Club HR17]. Now that you're finished with the album, how do you feel about it?
Charo: I feel really good about it. It was a pretty long time in the making and I’m so glad I got to put it out through harsh. I started working on that material fall of 2017 and it came out really fast and I was just sitting on it for a while because I was pretty busy with the band at the time. Initially, it is was all fast but I reworked some of them to be a slower tempo which I think ultimately made for a more interesting collection of songs.
HR: How did you feel when you began the project?
Charo: The material came out pretty quickly. I tend to be really productive in these short sprints and then will have long periods where I’m not really able to come up with anything that I like or just don’t have the motivation. But at the time I really needed to channel some negative stuff I was dealing with into something productive, hense the harsher, darker sound of this one compared to my other releases.
HR: You also help run the label VLSC, who else is involved with the project? What do ya'll have coming up for the new year?
Charo: The primary members are me, Dylan Banks, Colin Mulligan, and Eric Reynolds. I can say our big goal is to continue to bring artists who would normally only do dates in NY or LA in an effort to make Atlanta a hub for the more obscure dance music artists. This year we brought this techno/electro/“headcrack” artist we’re all obsessed with named Jensen Interceptor and this amazing footwork artist named Cakedog. In a few weeks we’ll be bringing another awesome artist named Mor Elian who come from Berlin. She’ll play our next Pharmacy event which is a recurring dance party that we’ve been doing. That will be December 6 at the mammal gallery.
We also want to start a new release series. Essentially mini-comps that will feature multiple artists, a few original tracks and maybe one remix per release, with songs specifically for the club setting.
HR: Any other projects you'd like people to watch out for?
Charo: Im in the process of wrapping up a project with my close friend Howie Huntington that will be coming out at the end of January. We are in the process of figuring out how we want to do the live set right now. it’s something new and scary as it will be the first time I do something on older hardware without using my laptop for a live set but I’m really excited!
The other big thing that will come after that is this idea for a short film I had right when Hope dropped. Initially the idea was to have it coincide with the release of Hope but the timing was too tight and I decided it would be better not to rush it. It will still incorporate music from that release though and some newer stuff I’ve done more recently specifically for it. My close friend Louis Farinella has been helping me with it and we have pretty much the whole thing storyboarded. Now we just have to figure out what the hell we are doing with filming!
Charo: Yea I think all of these could work in the right context except the first and last ones. The first one is this Greek song I first heard in the movie The Lobster and I’ve used it as an intro a for a live set one time. But yea, everything in the middle is stuff that could work on the dancefloor. About half of the tracks are what me and the other VLSC guys have dubbed “Headcrack” which is the dance music that is a fusion of all these genres like techno, electro, and jungle/breakbeat type stuff that makes you bop your head so hard it cracks.
HR: Out of the bunch, if you had to pick two tracks from the mix as essential heaters, which tracks would they be and why?
Charo: Probably the XAN track and the Strahinja one. Those two are pure headcrack.
HR: We recently put out a tape together [Hope is Leaving the Club HR17]. Now that you're finished with the album, how do you feel about it?
Charo: I feel really good about it. It was a pretty long time in the making and I’m so glad I got to put it out through harsh. I started working on that material fall of 2017 and it came out really fast and I was just sitting on it for a while because I was pretty busy with the band at the time. Initially, it is was all fast but I reworked some of them to be a slower tempo which I think ultimately made for a more interesting collection of songs.
HR: How did you feel when you began the project?
Charo: The material came out pretty quickly. I tend to be really productive in these short sprints and then will have long periods where I’m not really able to come up with anything that I like or just don’t have the motivation. But at the time I really needed to channel some negative stuff I was dealing with into something productive, hense the harsher, darker sound of this one compared to my other releases.
HR: You also help run the label VLSC, who else is involved with the project? What do ya'll have coming up for the new year?
Charo: The primary members are me, Dylan Banks, Colin Mulligan, and Eric Reynolds. I can say our big goal is to continue to bring artists who would normally only do dates in NY or LA in an effort to make Atlanta a hub for the more obscure dance music artists. This year we brought this techno/electro/“headcrack” artist we’re all obsessed with named Jensen Interceptor and this amazing footwork artist named Cakedog. In a few weeks we’ll be bringing another awesome artist named Mor Elian who come from Berlin. She’ll play our next Pharmacy event which is a recurring dance party that we’ve been doing. That will be December 6 at the mammal gallery.
We also want to start a new release series. Essentially mini-comps that will feature multiple artists, a few original tracks and maybe one remix per release, with songs specifically for the club setting.
HR: Any other projects you'd like people to watch out for?
Charo: Im in the process of wrapping up a project with my close friend Howie Huntington that will be coming out at the end of January. We are in the process of figuring out how we want to do the live set right now. it’s something new and scary as it will be the first time I do something on older hardware without using my laptop for a live set but I’m really excited!
The other big thing that will come after that is this idea for a short film I had right when Hope dropped. Initially the idea was to have it coincide with the release of Hope but the timing was too tight and I decided it would be better not to rush it. It will still incorporate music from that release though and some newer stuff I’ve done more recently specifically for it. My close friend Louis Farinella has been helping me with it and we have pretty much the whole thing storyboarded. Now we just have to figure out what the hell we are doing with filming!
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