Label of the month: The Gods Planet

The Italian artist Ness shares in-depth about his imprint’s history, present and future  

As we are still in the peak of turmoil here in the Western part of Europe, I feel like one of the best things one can do is to keep themselves busy at all times. To me work in all its forms is something that gives me a lot of energy, purpose and somehow makes me feel alive. Of course, I love chilling too, but these days working is one of the few things that keeps me grounded. When my ‘office’ day is done, my other life begins and I start creating for you, my dear Nachtblumen.

I promised you a special program in the beginning of the year, and I am going to deliver on that promise. It’s been a while since I last featured a label, and it is my honour today to present you one that I’ve followed for years – The Gods Planet. I invited Andrea Deplano also known as Ness, who is one of the co-founders, for a chat where we talked about the history, present and future of the imprint, his vision, his studio, and the benefits of going out of your comfort zone. Stick around to find out more and as always discover new amazing music!

An insight into Ness

Andrea comes from Cagliari in Sardinia, where he lived for the most part of his life. He’s always had deep interest in music, which eventually led him to enrolling at a sound engineering course in his hometown in 2004, during which he learned a lot about sound, studio and live production. Through one of his teachers, he had the chance to work with bands and tour with them around Sardinia for 2 years. ‘’The bands I was working with were mostly jamming in the realm of pop, rock’n’roll and other similar genres, and that was not really my thing. I loved the experience and learning from my work on stage, because it was no longer just theory. Eventually, I decided to focus more on DJing and electronic music, as this was something I actually really loved.’’

Cool way to enter the music world! Fun fact, when I was younger, I actually loved these genres that Andrea mentioned, and I still do, but just like him after some time I realized that my passion belongs with something else. To this day it’s been 10 years, and I am still as in love with electronic music as I was on day 1. I wanted to know more about the road that led to The Gods Planet. ‘’I started DJing in 2006 and my first international gigs in Barcelona, Berlin and Hamburg came about two years later. It wasn’t until 2012, that I started seriously playing at international level regularly, but in the mean time I never stopped. I always played in Cagliari. In those first couple of years, I would not say that this was the sound that defined me as the artist that I am today. It was the beginning after all, so I did not consider myself a complete artist, but in the last 10 years I really managed to consolidate my vision and my sound more. Every piece of music I did has a reason behind it, no matter from which period of my artistic life it is.’’ It’s like a moment in time, a moment in our mind! I was so pleasantly surprised how much music culture and music education offering there is on a small island like Sardinia! Italy has always been in the spotlight especially within hypnotic techno, but what I am learning from Andrea about Sardinia is truly amazing. Hopefully, I will get to experience the magic of this place soon for myself. I wonder if those first years in music, were the time that he met Claudio PRC, with whom later he would create The Gods Planet?

Andrea, Ness

‘’Yes, it was in those first years, but it was not in the environment I was primarily working in. In 2007 I got to manage a record shop. It was one of the last standing music stores, and together with a friend at the time we decided to take the lead and manage it, so we did for about three years, and this is where I met Claudio. Cagliari is a small city of 200 000 people, and running a record shop there is challenging, so at some point I decided to sell my part of it.’’ I can feel the struggle. No matter how amazing it actually is to have and be running a record shop, nowadays even in big cities like Berlin, those establishments suffer losses regardless of the big comeback that the format has made in recent years. ‘’Absolutely. But in 2007 something else was happening, TRAKTOR was taking over.’’ Well, that makes even more sense! Surely the introduction of new digital technology influenced and changed the dynamic and structures of every aspect of the electronic music business. I got curious whether Andrea felt good about the introduction of this innovation on the market, from a DJ point of view? Was he excited to use it and explore the new possibilities?

‘’At the beginning I was not so much into it, because I knew it will destroy the vinyl sales as it actually did. As a DJ I started by playing vinyl first, then CDJs and eventually a few years later I did try TRAKTOR as well, and in fact I performed quite a lot with it. Nowadays I’m doing both CDJs and TRAKTOR and it depends on the venue, gig and myself really what I’d go for.’’ As sad as I am to hear about the way Andrea’s vinyl shop was affected, it’s great to be reminded once again what a long way we’ve come within our genre when it comes to innovation and technology. What artists can do today thanks to software is truly impressive.

The beginning of The Gods Planet and what happened next

 It’s time we took a deep and long look into The Gods Planet. ‘’Claudio was coming to my shop often to buy records. We developed a friendship, and at some point, we started living together. Our flat is where the label was born. Of course, we had a very similar taste, so making music together was a natural thing.’’ I bet that none of them could have imagined back then that 11 years later, people will be writing articles about their crazy youthful adventure, which turned out to be so successful. They were pioneers in this sound, and their concept turned into a benchmark for quality when it comes to hypnotic techno. It was interesting to me to hear what was the experience like running a label with a partner, and what kind of challenges they faced throughout the years? ‘’It was great, but challenging. Claudio was a part of The Gods Planet until 2019, and since then it is just me running it. Looking back on the years prior to that point, the main challenges that kept us busy were finding the right mastering engineer that would really satisfy us, or dealing with distribution. Finding a balance in the sound that represents you the best is a process too. Of course, agreeing on what to release is also something that takes time when you are working with a partner. It happened sometimes that we postponed or rescheduled releases in order to reach the right agreement.’’

‘‘The main challenges that kept us busy were finding the right mastering engineer that would really satisfy us, or dealing with distribution. Finding a balance in the sound that represents you the best is a process too.’’

Impressive. So far, I’ve had the chance to talk to individual label owners, rather than multiple people, and that indeed is a completely different story. The decision making, the workflow, everything is different, but I am glad to hear that despite the challenges Andrea and Claudio managed to find the best approach in collaborating, which led them to having such an extensive and impressive label catalogue! Like I mentioned earlier, I sometimes feel like they actually are some of the creators of this sub-genre. Perhaps my knowledge is limited, and I might be missing a lot, but hypnotic techno in the way that The Gods Planet presents it, I did not hear before. I wanted to know what did Andrea think about that and what his inspirations of this sound were before venturing into producing this kind of techno? ‘’It’s not up to me to say whether we really ‘created’ this sub-genre, but I am okay to acknowledge it. As much as we have been influenced by other artists, I think there has always been a continuous flow of influencing each other. It’s hard to explain how I created my music, but my influences are very wide. One of the biggest is actually trance music.’’

‘‘With TGP, I am indeed trying to find that crossing point between trance and techno, while keeping the hypnotism.’’

I instantly react and share that I have been feeling that ‘’trancey’’ shift in sound at The Gods Planet in the past two years, where it sometimes feels like there is a slight crossover between the two genres. ‘’Yes! That’s actually my intention. In addition to that, I actually created an alias to explore a faster bpm and more trance-oriented sound. This is certainly not about the label, but rather a personal exploration. With TGP, I am indeed trying to find that crossing point between trance and techno, while keeping the hypnotism.’’ I think that’s an interesting development for the label and look forward to what will come in the future! I want to take a turn towards the curation of the catalogue. Historically speaking, I was interested to know how did the process of inviting external artists go? ‘’If you look at the early releases, it was mainly me and Claudio. Slowly, the people that were closest to us like Deepbass, Marcus Henriksson, Blazej Malinowski, and many more started to appear on the label too. We involved artists that we found the same affinity to sound with. During the last 2 years, under my direction, I have been receiving a lot of demos. I wanted to find a place, where I would release the music that I like, so I created this series ‘The Radio Universe’, which consists of digital only releases. Right now, with vinyl, the production times are so much longer, and I wanted to somehow shorten the time between releases. Back in the day we would release 2 records per year.’’ That is definitely a much wider span, but I do love the idea of ‘The Radio Universe’. There is some great music to be discovered on there, the latest release features the Belgian artist Pattrn. That and so much more awaits you on The Radio Universe. It sounds like the first part of The Gods Planet was like a different lifetime. Now, there is a new vision and a lot more individual output by Andrea. He is giving a chance to artists outside of his closest circle to contribute, which ultimately brings the imprint into its next lifetime in my eyes. I wonder If the artist feels the same?

The next lifetime of The Gods Planet, the visual identity, and long-term plans

‘’Definitely. There are quite some changes. Before for example, we didn’t accept demos. Now, I also changed the logo, because I wanted to give a fresh start to the label and to show that indeed it will be a different place. As I am now fully behind it myself, I wanted to personalize it more, but without losing that subtle feeling of continuity.’’ To me that makes absolute sense given the circumstances, and I congratulate Andrea on a job well done! From an outsider’s point of view, I can confirm that this felt like a smooth transition into the new Gods Planet. Despite opening up the imprint, I feel like he kept most of the values intact. ‘’Yeah! It’s not so much about deep friendships with everyone that comes to release, but it is important to me that I create some sort of relationship with that person and get to know them in the process of working together. Sometimes people are rough. They just send you an empty link and just text ‘Hi, this is my demo.’, which is certainly not something that I appreciate or support.’’ I can relate. Most of my work with Nachtblumen is built not only on shared strong passion for the music and the culture, but actual human relationship that goes a little bit beyond just a nice conversation on the topic. The more I get to know the people I work with, the better our work is at the end. ‘’I agree! In that sense it’s quite important! Building new relationships is like building bridges. I don’t necessarily have a long-term vision at the moment. I’m just making, playing and releasing the music that I like, without looking too much into the future. I am focusing on the present moments, and letting myself see how it all evolves step by step. If I would make a more distant plan, maybe that suggests an end at some point, and I don’t want this to happen.’’

‘‘Building new relationships is like building bridges. I don’t necessarily have a long-term vision at the moment. I’m just making, playing and releasing the music that I like, without looking too much into the future. I am focusing on the present moments, and letting myself see how it all evolves step by step. If I would make a more distant plan, maybe that suggests an end at some point, and I don’t want this to happen.’’

I never thought about that actually. As a true Capricorn, planning is like breathing for me. I cannot without it and it actually brings me a lot of pleasure doing that, and in fact I already have the next half year planned out not just for Nachtblumen, but in general too. ‘’In the case of the label I feel it’s different. These days, things are changing so fast, and music that fits in a certain moment, doesn’t fit later on for example. How I feel and my mental state in a given moment also influence my choice for releases of course, therefore I don’t make big plans for the years ahead and rather focus on the now. When I have good music, I put it out. If there is nothing, then I do nothing. If I would put all that in a strict schedule, it might also feel a little bit too business-oriented. It is a business after all, but the music is the main thing always and that can’t be forced.’’ I see Andrea’s point and I agree – music cannot be forced and it should always remain front and centre priority of any label. Speaking of business, I was curious if he is dedicated entirely to music or has another occupation next to it? ‘’Since the last 10 years it has been only music. Obviously with the pandemic it wasn’t easy, and I try to keep myself motivated, but in the end, I have accepted the situation as it is.’’ I am glad to hear that Andrea has gotten the recognition he deserves for all his hard work and contribution to the scene in the past years. Having mentioned the partial rebrand earlier, I wanted to know what his plans were about the upcoming releases purely in aesthetic terms and if in general visual representation is important to him? ‘’I like a lot of abstract art. The artworks of the last couple of releases have been made by my partner Nina, and it’s all hand made. I like her work and I think it matches with what I am doing soundwise. Sometimes there are artists that maybe have a different opinion on this, and I am okay with finding an agreement together. After all, it is their release, as much as it is my label. I like finding the middle ground in such situations, that will best represent the label. Having said that, in my eyes, most importantly the art will fit with the concept of the label somehow. ‘’

The Bulgarian chapter and personal challenges out of the comfort zone

There has been a question on my mind that I really wanted to ask Andrea for a while now and it is linked to where he is based at the moment. For the past few years Andrea has been living in Sofia, Bulgaria, and as I myself am coming from this country, I was very curious to hear what led him to this choice? ‘’The first reason is love. There was a short period in which me and my partner lived in Barcelona, but eventually we came back to Sofia. In fact, we recently moved to the mountains here.’’ I am really impressed with the choice that Andrea has made. Obviously, love is truly the best reason for everything, but coming from a dreamy place like Italy to a post-Soviet brutalist country that has not developed much since those times is wild. I for myself made the choice to leave and search for my happiness elsewhere, but of course that does not mean that any other choice is wrong. I will always support and contrite to the Bulgarian scene there and to all amazing individuals that are working hard to build something and to express themselves. After so long in Bulgaria I wondered if Andrea can already speak the language? ‘’No, not yet. That’s my only shame. Everyone around me speaks English. I also made connections with other foreigners, for example Philip from Sweden, who is specialized in wood work and building stages at festivals, with whom I worked on my studio. I must say that initially when I came here, I shared your vision partly, and was frustrated at times for certain things, but there is a new wave of many people that are coming. It’s happening and people are working towards it.’’

I actually agree on that one. In the past 2-3 years I have been making valuable connections with really genuine people, who have great intentions and work very hard to contribute positively. I am proud to witness this development. Having said that, it becomes clear to me that Andrea is also involved with the locals and I couldn’t help but wonder if he had any plans or ideas how to bring the hypnotic sound to the foreground in Bulgaria? ‘’I don’t know if this sound will get more popular as a subgenre. It’s a thin line between the raw and more hypnotic techno. To be honest, in my DJ sets I mix both styles and don’t strictly play deep and atmospheric. I like to be raw and trancier as well. There are different crews, and it’s all a bit more mainstream oriented. Right now, the faster techno is more appealing to the younger generation and sometimes it’s good stuff, and other times it sounds a little too obvious. It’s important also to keep the diversity. It’s not a competition, it’s vital to have a space where different people can express themselves.’’ I agree with Andrea, but I wanted to go a step further and emphasize that in other parts of Europe hypnotic is actually on the rise. Looking at Poland for example or even Berghain, we get the chance for such bookings more often than before, which means that more people are exposed to this music and have the chance to discover it and fall in love with it. In my eyes, by being there on the grounds, and considering the fact that Andrea is an established and respected artist, he is actually in a position to perhaps stimulate the local talent to pursue this sound or simply make it more heard. I can imagine that a small local hypnotic community would also inspire him in turn.

‘‘It’s important also to keep the diversity. It’s not a competition, it’s vital to have a space where different people can express themselves.’’

‘’There are some artists that are busy with it. I try to not get too influenced by that though. If there aren’t many people coming to my events or showing interest, I have established a way to kind of protect myself against being very bothered. I continue on my path and I cannot force people to like something.’’ That’s a great position to have honestly. At the end of the day, all we can do is put our work and the word out there, and what happens next is not within our reach. Since Andrea mentioned events, I got interested to hear what was he up to. ‘’When I came back here in 2017, I started a series of events called ‘’Tranceference’’, which is a term in psychology. In total I had six and I brought artists like Primal Code, Feral, Viels, Backdrop.. so I actually really tried. It was a small audience, but in the end still great experiences.’’ Wauw! What great guests Andrea invited to Bulgaria! I feel a little sad I was not around to experience that, but surely if he takes such initiatives again, I will make time for it! ‘’There have been some other events as well, for example this summer I played at Aymon Festival which was nice, and in general I’d rather stay positive about the outlook of the scene over here.’’

‘‘To me it is more about the everyday challenge, or changing your lifestyle. Not being too repetitive in the choices you make. This might reflect on your approach to music-making, like being able to experiment with different sounds.’’

I see eye to eye with Andrea so much. Now more than ever we need positivity to keep us going through the hard times that our culture is facing. Well, this is no news to anyone, and we are all kind of going through the same roller-coaster of hope and despair and hope again. In the face of this dynamic, I think one of the things that helps is to constantly try and challenge oneself. As I have followed Ness closely throughout the last years, I have noticed that one of the best piece of advice he has given to his audience is to go out of their comfort zone and do exactly that – challenge themselves. I was really curious if Andrea had any examples how he himself got out of his comfort zone, which has resulted in something great or brought him or the label further? ‘’For the label I don’t really think so. I don’t necessarily go out of my comfort zone with the idea to evolve, especially because there is no such thing as a comfort zone with a label. Every release has unpredictable results, and additionally when releasing newcomers, it is a challenging path. To me it is more about the everyday challenge, or changing your lifestyle. Not being too repetitive in the choices you make. This might reflect on your approach to music-making, like being able to experiment with different sounds for example. I guess a good example is the second alias that I created recently, my trance project L-3P. I am differentiating the aliases by bpm speed. With Ness I couldn’t go faster, but I really felt that I wanted to go faster, which in my opinion is ‘going out of my comfort zone’. I'm aware this might be interpreted as a move influenced by the hype of this moment, but honestly personally I'm looking at this as a necessary step for my musical growth. It's an aesthetic I loved way before getting into DJing and productions, considering that from my perspective as a producer is a natural evolution (there were unsatisfying attempts before). I created L-3P on purpose to differentiate the styles, but despite that a common background is there.‘’ That’s a very good example I think, and come to think of it with a label this is harder to do, because a lot is at stake and risks not always pay off. I wanted to hear some examples of L-3P, so I asked when and where can we expect some new material coming out? ‘’One track is part of a VA compilation, but then I have a full-length EP coming out on Space Trax, a label from Berlin. One more track will come out on another VA on the Norwegian label UTE records.’’

Studio setup, gear and upcoming TGP releases

After these exciting news, I wanted to find out more technical details surrounding the music we all love. For years The Gods Planet has had a certain signature sound and I was curious what kind of gear did Andrea predominantly use in that time, and what are some new pieces that he is experimenting with for the new direction of the label? ‘’My studio is constantly evolving. Ever since The Gods Planet’s first record which were done entirely digital. With time I started to integrate some gear like a Monomachine, and other items like Yamaha rmx1 and Nella Drive. Only the first ever TGP was digital, but ever since it has been evolving. Nowadays I have more equipment. One of the main things that I am using, a central part to the setup, is the Octatrack – a sampler from Elektron. Next to that I have the Analog 4 and RYTM, and with these three pieces already you can do so much. At some point, I was performing live and I was using just these three machines. The recording from Fuse is done entirely on them.’’ It’s always great to hear what artists have found to fit them best for achieving their goals. It is not to say that if one buys these same machines, they will get identical results, but it’s a good direction to start your research, especially if you are a young producer aspiring to release music, but still very much lost in the plateau of choice out there.

Ness in his studio

As we are coming to an end of our conversation, I was wondering what is 2022 going to bring for The Gods Planet and all of its fans? ‘’I realized that I did not release on my label as Ness for some time, so I have 2 upcoming records. One will be remixed by a couple of artists - Takaaki Itoh, Blazej Malinowski, Primal Code and Ruhig.’’ I got instantly excited, what a line up! A solo Ness record, and in addition one with remixes! Quite excited to hear the sound direction that he will be taking with this release. ‘’There is another plan in the making, a collaborative record but I cannot share much at this point. Additionally, I will release a couple more episodes of The Radio Universe. I am still not sure if I will continue permanently with this project, but for now another EP is coming up. At some point I thought about making a sub-label about the different sound that I release, like ambient for example. In the end I am actually moving everything more towards predominantly danceable music, because it is what I like to play.’’ While I understand the motivation behind Andrea’s decision, I shared with him that in fact I do appreciate the ambient expression, and it grew on me a lot in the past couple of years. ‘’I am thinking out loud, and still unsure whether to create a sub-label only for that, but time will tell!’’ I support the idea with two hands, and indeed whenever it is time, we will see how things will fall into place for the experimental / ambient expression of Ness.

At the end of a very pleasant conversation with Andrea I was wondering if he had anything else he wanted to share with my readers? ‘’I want to wish everyone to stay true to themselves as much as possible, and continue to make music from the heart. Think less about business, which is part of it of course, but make the music from the heart.’’ I think that is a beautiful message that never gets old, and people that try to live by that in the end have very authentic output. With that we concluded our conversation on a very positive note. I am proud that we got to talk about such an incredible label, with a lot of history, but also with great future ahead. Above all it was a pleasure to get to know Andrea a little better, and meet the person behind the music.

To complete this feature, Ness recorded a podcast for Nachtblumen, where he showcases his solid signature hypnotic sound together with some of his latest trance influences that we talked about. Enjoy this gorgeous hour of music!