For our next ‘Behind The Scenes‘ interview, we caught up with Ki Creighton to talk about his mega imprint Under No Illusion! One of our favourite record labels so super happy to feature this one!

Hi Ki, nice to catch up with you, how are you doing today?

Doing great thanks, I have just finished a demo listening session and am now onto artwork design ideas for our forthcoming releases with our designer Russ.

Let’s start by asking, how did the birth of Under No Illusion originally happen and how long has it been running?

We are this year celebrating our 10th anniversary, the birth of the label was something I had been contemplating since 2010 and took my time in getting things set up right to launch in 2013. Funnily enough, the name came about during a phone call with Yousef, where during the call I said I was ‘under no illusion’ it would be a lot of hard work to get things moving and that was my eureka moment I was like, well there’s the label name right there!!!

Where is the label/party based?

We are based in Annan on the Scottish Borders, near Dumfries & Carlisle. The parties we do are based all around the UK and Europe. 

Do you have any upcoming releases we can talk about that are planned in the pipeline?

We have just released out 10 year EP from myself and Shyam P and our next release seems to be flying around the work from the Deltech lads, one track from the EP ‘The Plug’ has been one of Marco Carolas Music On anthems and Danny Howard’s been hammering it too. I’ve just today been sent a video from Elrow where Dennis Ferrer dropped it

For the rest of the year, we have big EP’s coming from Pirate Copy, Will Taylor, Kevin York, Sanchez, Arado and a huge Ibiza VA . We gonna be busy!!!

Do you have any recently released tracks/EPs you’d like to tell us about?

We released a wicked ep recently from Chinonegro called ‘Tequilon‘ and it’s still getting hammered from the likes of The Martinez Bros, Bibi, Yousef, Jamie Jones & Melanie Ribbe. We also released a very cool EP from Caravaca as well as a banger from Dom James called ‘Summer Of Love‘ (which I remixed) and an EP from a producer who I’m now working with on new music Called Aldo Cadiz Called ‘Just Try‘ which is dope!!

What new producers that have gone onto big things did the label support at the start of their journey?

We kinda pride ourselves on breaking new artists and watching them flourish with big careers. We released music from the likes of George Smeddles Cloonee, Iglesias, Murphys Law, Alisha, Jay De Lys, Matrefakt, Late Replies, Beth, Marcellus and many more, we are like Benfica or Dortmund of house music. 

Do you have any upcoming parties in the pipeline?

We have just hosted the Saturday at Highest Point Festival in Lancaster which was superb, our stage was so well supported with Danny Howard, Arielle Free, Pirate Copy, Murphys Law, Matrefakt, Beth, Nico Balducci & Eldon all representing.

We have taken on ‘UNI micro sessions‘ at Rialto in Falkirk starting in July and In September we host in Jersey at their Weekender festival and then Borderlands Festival with Patrick Topping, Eats Everything, Kink, Sarah Story & Beth where we will host the afterparties.

We are also talking about doing one in Cologne with my friends at Livingroom over there as well as with Eldon at his new club ‘The Spray Shop’ in Liverpool, so we got plenty to go at.

How would you describe the sound of Under No Illusion to someone who hasn’t heard before?

Our sound I would say covers the whole spectrum of ‘House’ in its many sub-genres whether that be Deep, Tech, Driving or Melodic.

How far ahead is your record labels release schedule looking?

We are now completely full for the rest of 2023 so as of today 6 months.

What are your record label plans for the next 5 years?

To keep releasing current and forward-thinking music as well as branching out more with our rapidly growing label shows. 

To sign music with Under No Illusion, what is the process?

I’m open to all ways to get demos. Emails, social media, WhatsApp’s, USB’s. 

What big names have been supporting your label’s releases?

The label is supported amazingly by all the big players like Marco Carola, Carl Cox, Jamie Jones, Joseph Capriati, Yousef, The Martinez Bros, Joris Voorn, Nic Fanciulli, Franky Rizardo, Bibi, Fisher, Paco Osuna and the likes of Danny Howard, Sarah Story and Pete Tong regularly support on Radio One.

July 3, 2023