We had a chat with a name who is rising up the techno rankings daily. Phutek has also been heavily supported by Carl Cox with both his own productions and the releases from his record label, Layer 909.

We had an in depth conversation with Phutek to speak about how Carl Cox has been supporting his productions, we spoke about his record label Layer 909 as well as talking about his love for Techno music…

Let’s start with talking about your love for Techno music… Why techno? 

A lot of older heads in the scene comment regularly that Techno is where they believe many artists and dance music enthusiasts end up over time as they climb to the top of their musical ladder. I am one that tends to also agree with this notion. It’s an intelligent, open-minded, futuristic sound that has so much scope.

I have been involved in dance music almost from the very start and changed with all the different music twists and turns so many times in 23 years or so as an artist; but always carried a Techno edge in my production and DJin. I suppose my influences before the dance music scene started while growing up was always going to point me towards ending up solidly grounded in Techno, like I am right now.

Carl Cox has supported numerous of your tracks, which is amazing! What tracks has he been supporting? 

I’m so lucky and very grateful for Carl’s Support in the last 2 years, especially being one of my main influences throughout my career. There have been so many tracks he has supported, probably 80 % of what I have produced!. Going back to when he first supported my track ‘They Will Use Your Mind‘ at The Burning Man, Nevada, Las Vegas in 2014.

Last year the biggest support from Carl was definitely, ‘Timerunner‘, ‘Acid Bath‘, ‘From The Dust’ & ‘Assembly Souls‘ which he played at all the main places my sound is designed for… Big Rooms and Festivals! Awakenings, Time Warp, Burning Man, Ultra WMC, Tomorrowland all had a splash of these tracks.

It really is crazy and I am still taken back from how much presence my music has in Carl’s set’s sometimes. Only when witnessing it in person at his gigs, is the only when in sinks in.

When was the first time Carl Cox played one of your tracks and how did you find out?!

A crazy Friday night it turned out to be in 2014. I was sat down watching TV with my partner and my kids… Out of no where a message appeared on my phone which read, ‘Have you seen who is supporting your track’…

I discovered Carl Cox had done a piece for Mixmag titled ‘10 Tracks to burn The Nevada Desert‘. Featured in this was my track ‘They Will Use Your Mind‘

It was a massive 20-year collective moment that left me feeling a lot of persistent passion and hard work was all worthwhile right there in that moment.

Tell us about your record label… 

Layer 909 is my own Techno base camp. ‘Nothing too serious’ I said when I first launched it at the start of 2015.

I just wanted to create a familiar place to try and land my own personal tracks that represent my production sound and me as an artist. There were also a handful of artists I wanted on the label that I admired and wanted to work with, as they were also producing the style of Techno similar to my initial vision for the label.

I also had a good few of my own tracks stacking up (All tracks Carl Cox had heavily supported towards the end of 2014), exciting, driving; big room Techno with a difference.

I chose instead of spreading them about on other labels, felt they all suited being under one umbrella, my own umbrella. Straight away it seemed a good move, as for a brand new label the first few tracks gained fantastic support from the from a lot of Techno’s big guns.

Another big part of Layer 909 it was important I really tried to give new breed producers a chance, go and hunt some fresh producers out and give them the buzz of them getting their tracks signed and in some cases add some great supporting remixes. I do get a kick out of this side of running a label, it’s harder than ever out there to even get your music listened to let alone signed, I know that first hand over the years.

Artists like Halvy, Silhouett3 and Nico Luss are all good examples of this. Talented artists that have had great success with tracks that landed on Layer 909. And definitely becoming some of the ‘up and coming’ producers I recommend to look out for.

To book Phutek, please contact – [email protected]