Mixed by: Baby Rollén
Location: London, UK
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Hot on the heels of his latest EP “Kaleidoscope” on my label Echocentric Records Baby Rollén steps up for guest mix duties. The mix itself is a full length recording of his set at the release party at Bürro in Mainz, a wonderful showcase of his skills how to build and maintain energy throughout the night.
Leo’s also behind the superb Slump Recordings imprint which has released music by the likes of Gallegos, Duowe, mpeg and as of July 19th, High Priestess of the motherbeat, Eris Drew. As a DJ Baby Rollén’s been in the booth at established events such as Panorama Bar, Corsica Studios, Lux Fragil, The Cause, Gottwood Festival, Sisyphos, Kala, Night Tales & Badaboum to name just a few. But let’s find out what makes Leo tick.
Hi there Leo, how’s things? Can you introduce yourself briefly to our listeners?
Hej!! I’m Leo aka Baby Rollén. I’m a producer and DJ from south east London.
What’s been keeping you busy of late - you’re a DJ, producer and a label owner too?
Most of my free time this spring/summer has been spent building a new studio. It’s been a real labour of love, and a massive learning curve adapting to some building skills and understanding how soundproofing and spaces work in more detail.
I also have been working towards a release for my label from Eris Drew, with remixes from myself and label stalwart Gallegos. Coming in mid July on vinyl! Check HHV and Juno for availability.
What drove you to electronic music in the first place?
I would have to credit the drum and bass heads in the years above me at school who from which I became very obsessed with dnb, jungle, and hip hop. Most of my early years were spent buying dnb 12’s and learning to mix at house parties in London in the mid noughties.
Name a few records or songs that had a big impact on you in your early days and why?
An obvious record from this time that I’m always drawn back to is Alex Reece - Pulp Fiction. I really love those very musical and melodic records, the club records that end up looping in your head on the night bus on the way home from the club. With distinct melodies rather than being ‘big tunes’ for the sake of it. This one’s super spacious and every detail cuts through with precision.
Do you have any memorable experiences to share from your early days as a DJ?
My first years as a professional DJ, were touring with a duo I formed with my friend Benson Herbert at university called Voyeur. We toured Europe for a few years with US house legend Kerri Chandler.
It’s still a very surreal thing to know that I did. We’re still close friends and are always sharing music and stories. We found ourselves in the DJ booth with some house legends like Frankie Knuckles, Masters At Work, Dennis Ferrer. Still feels like a dream.
You are an avid vinyl fan and record collector. Tell us a little about your collection and how you go about finding records to buy?
I have always been a believer in that there are no bad genres, only bad records. Something my dad instilled in me; a lust to find music of all genres to enjoy and educate myself with.
This has definitely found its way into my DJing as I love mixing records in different genres. I spend a lot of time on Discos and trawling the Uk record shops online. I also love dipping into my local record shops for a surprise.
Sometimes I’ll come home with 20-30 new club records, sometimes just an album for the living room hifi. There’s no system, I just enjoy browsing a lot. Safe to say I’m always broke though.
When you select records for your sets, what’s your approach like?
I often centre the bag for my forthcoming gigs around a selection of recent purchases. I then have a few mixes at home and pull out some records from my existing collection to fill the bag. It’s an ever lasting process and I find it very therapeutic and often rediscovering records I’ve not played for a few years. Doesn’t always have to be the latest tracks in each set. However I do love to play promos and recent finds from Bandcamp off my usb as well!
What have been your most memorable record finds? Any good stories?
Most of the memorable ones are gems I’ve found in charity shops. I once bought an original pressing of Origin Unknown from a British Heart Foundation shop for a few quid.
I’ve also got lots of white labels of mashups and edits by unknown producers. One I’ve been playing a lot of recently is a mash up of Jaydee ‘Plastic Dreams’ vs Donna Summer ‘I Feel Love’. Works in the right silly festival environment and sounded great at Gottwood festival this year.
Do you have a comfort record, one you can put on that makes you feel good no matter what?
There are a few, most are attached with family memories. Very few are club singles. I grew up listening to a lot of Jazz and world music. A few picks would be:
Miles Davis - In A Silent Way
Portishead - Portishead
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman
John Scofield - A Go Go
Ali Farka Touré - In the heart of the Moon
I just need to ask, how’s your vinyl record collection organised?
Rough genres in each shelf, there’s no real organisation and I’ve learned to enjoy the chaos and go with the flow when digging at home.
Name five tracks or releases that are currently on heavy rotation?
ETH & Palmiz - Interstellar
Leftfield - Space Shanty
Gallegos - Slingshot
Eris Drew - I Can Move Move
Stressman - House the Party
Who are the artists and DJ’s you think deserve more attention than they get currently?
Jive Talk - I’m biased because I know them but they bring a silly level of energy to every dance floor
a.s.o - Tornado Wallace’s trip hop project, I can’t stop playing that album. It's unreal.
Scarlett O’Malley - superb producer and I’ve seen her tear a crowd up with a box of 7” soul records or house jams alike!
You have formal education in music - what’s your biggest takeaway from it?
The biggest takeaway I found over the last 10 years of making electronic music, is that you can be great at playing an instrument and understanding skills often is completely useless when trying to make a functional dance record. Having a good ear for tonality is super useful and being able to listen and sample records well is a game changer.
Personally, I love incorporating melodic ideas into almost all of my tracks, and having an understanding of musical theory is definitely useful for this, but not essential. If you can work your way around the keyboard, then I’m sure you’ll come up with some good ideas if you listen to enough music.
Are there any new tools or musicians or artists who have recently inspired you?
I would highly recommend anyone using Ableton to deep dive into the free plugins available from Max for live. Things like MDD Snake and New Path have been really fantastic tools for creating ideas out of the blue for me.
Out of your own releases, which do you have the strongest bond with and why is that?
This has to be Love Potion EP for me. It was a release I was very nervous to put out - as it was my first solo EP, and I was self releasing it as well as the first record on slump recordings.
It quickly picked up steam and support from some of my favourite DJs and was the inception point of me and Eris, starting our friendship. I will never forget when she played it at GALA festival, I couldn’t quite believe my ears. That moment gave me a lot of confidence that I had lacked for a very long time.
Slump Recordings is your label - tell us about your vision for the label and what’s in the pipeline?
Slump Recordings started as an outlet for my own music, and quickly became somewhere to release the great music my friends were making too. There has become a central focus of paying homage to classic club sounds, rather than releasing the most polished, glossy futuristic music.
Eris Drew is up next with her I Can Move Move release, plus remixes from myself and Gallegos. She said to me that she thought of my label for releasing it, because the track sounded quite cheeky and old school. I guess subconsciously I have been putting out quite cheeky records.
Let’s talk London and the UK in general. You have been involved in various aspects of the local scene from promoting to performing. Can you talk about your beginnings?
My life as a DJ started in Leeds, not London. I found myself going to house and techno parties every night I could. This quickly became an obsession and soon I formed Voyeur with my fiend Benson and we ended up with a residency at the former Mint Club - a firm favourite for us to party in too, with its kaleidoscopic light rig in the ceiling. It was a wild time, with some poignant memories - but most of it is a blur.
What part of the UK scene do you appreciate the most?
What I really love about the music scene from the UK, is its diversity and influence from such a huge wealth of different cultures and backgrounds. The direct influences of African and West Indian music into the founding dance genres like Jungle, Hardcore and garage have played a big role in the UKs sound. Without migration and integration we would not be such a pivotal nation in terms of club music or popular music in general.
So the mix is a bit special, a live recording from the Echocentric label night at Bürro in Mainz, can you tell us a little something about that?
What can I say!? It was a real treat to play for the EP release party at such a beautiful club. The team behind the venue are amazing, crowd were so open minded, and the club setting itself is everything I love about these spaces. Re-using an old post office for Bürro has been done so well. Thanks for having me down, best launch party I’ve done so far!
DJ profile
Baby Rollén
Location: London, UK
Instagram | Soundcloud
Emanating from a rich cultural mix of English and Swedish heritage, south-London based DJ and record producer Baby Rollén; founder of the Slump Recordings imprint - has been carving out a unique sonic footprint since his projects inception in 2018. A rising star amongst London’s underground scene, taking experiences from a ten year career as a touring house DJ and fusing them with inspiration from the nooks of the UKs sonic sub-cultures.
Alongside releases on his own label, the last few years have brought a string of records landing on labels including Futureboogie, Magic Carpet, Feelings Worldwide, Gestalt, Holding Hands, Nick Höppner’s Touch From A Distance, Semi Delicious and most recently - a Mixmag ‘Pick Of The Year’ EP on Jive Talk’s Not For You.
Having dished up his signature sound at a spread of venues across Europe, including a recent appearance at Berlin’s legendary Panorama Bar - his DJing abilities stem from a decade long career under other aliases. Having supported greats including Kerri Chandler, Eris Drew, Paranoid London, Andrew Weatherall, Terry Francis, Masters At Work and Dan Shake to name just a few.
Support for Baby Rollén’s sound is constantly growing and a newfound love is emerging for his diverse DJ sets - that consistently span genres and eras through a multitude of grooves and feelings.
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