One of Scotland’s Best Record Labels reads the sub headline on Soma’s website and that’s a massive geographic underestimation.

The label started in 1991, and based in Glasgow, have brought the music of Daft Punk, Funk D Void, Andrew Weatherall and Slam to the world.

Founder Dave Clarke answered a few questions for us.

Itamar Sagi - One Million Oaks

How did it all begin?

Stuart and I went to school together and we met Orde when we all worked in the same bar/restaurant in the late 80s. Orde and Stu used to fight over whose tape went on all the time and they started to DJ at the same time. They would blag on for a few records at the club we went to which was Lucifer’s – the venue that became the Sub Club 20 years ago.

In 1988 we started an acid house night together called "Slam" and within a few months we were doing four nights a weekend – two of which were in the sub (Fridays and Sundays) – by 1990 we were doing all night parties for 4 thousand people as well as the club nights and Slam had played outside Scotland for the first time at the Hacienda in 1989.

We were putting on people like the Orb, Derrick May, Jon Dasilva, Alfredo, Inner City, 808 State, Baby Ford and Adamski. In 1991 we started Soma to give us something to get up for during daylight hours and also as the vehicle to release Slam's music. We pressed 1000 12 inches of Eterna, sent them out to record shops and exporters ourselves and got the money in to press some more up. David Holmes and Robert Linnie (the Chemical Brother’s manager) both ran record shops back then and both folded while still owing us for Soma records!

How many times have you thought it’s all going to go belly up?

The last four years have been the hardest with much fewer people buying records and only recently paying for downloads – its tough when you know ten people have a track for each person that’s paid for it, but this is what we do.

This year especially we have released more new artists than any other year and it is hard to break through with new names – guys like Mark-Henning, Harvey McKay, Mr. Copy and Jandroide are making great records for us as well as the established Soma artists like Slam, Silicone Soul and Funk D Void coming up with great singles – Master H has just done a new version of Magic K with a Christian Prommer remix and Itamar Sagi has done us an amazing single too so we get inspired to keep releasing.

We have always had Slam’s touring, our own publishing, the club nights and events we run (including the Slam tent at T in the Park and Pressure at the Arches) so we have not needed to make much of a profit from Soma in order for the label to survive

If you could go back ten years in time and sign any act, who’d it be and why?

That’s a hard one- maybe Vitalic – just because we love the attitude, the people and the music.

Who do you consider to be your biggest success story?

With our kind of music there are not many (or any) household names – if you measure success in terms of the breadth of their appeal it has to be Daft Punk – my father in law has loved them for years, my four-year-old daughter and my twelve-year-old love them and so do I. There is even a chance that the taxi driver asking if he may have heard of any Soma acts might even know them – they worked with us for the first three singles and the first tour and afterwards gave us a great remix of Mothership Reconnection and we remain close friends.

Anyone who has made a living out of making music is a success in our eyes, so Silicone Soul, Funk D Void, Alex Smoke and Slam have to be the other four big Soma success stories

Silicone Soul - The Call of The Wild

Which producers/artists are really catching your attention at the moment?

Stimming, Prompt, Johnny D and Joris Voorn,

What direction do you see electronic music moving in 2009?

House is obviously coming back into vogue – organic and electronic sounds combined. And I think emotive techno is too, DJs want emotion and music in the mix.

How is running a label now different to say twenty years ago?

Well it was 17 years ago we started Soma and we learned what to do by trial and error. There weren’t any other indie house labels so it must have been easier to get noticed. Now one of the problems producers and labels find is being noticed as there are so many releases – even making great music you can be overlooked, at least for a while. It’s great that it’s democratic and everyone can make a track but the quality control has to be there – in saying that there are so many great tracks being released we can’t complain – the DJ’s job is harder than ever as they are the selectors

We run a regular article on the best clubs in the World called 'Not if you were the last club on Earth', what’s your favourite club in the world?

It’s got to be Fabric at the moment. Slam play there every two months and I try to go a couple of times a year. It’s different for me to have nothing to worry about and just have a good night out I always hear DJs I like all three rooms. The people who run it are lovely and the vibe is great on the dancefloor.

How many demos do you have to deal with every week?

If anything we have been releasing too much lately on Soma so I don’t listen to everything that comes in because I don’t have time and I know we can’t release it even if it’s good. We get sent too many things of course and most of the time I get Slam or Glenn who runs the A&R side to listen to have a quick check at most stuff and I just check out a few things that I think might be all right.

And what makes one stand out above the others?

Usually music and sounds that we don’t hear in lots of other tracks – individuality.

What projects/artists have you got in the pipeline and we should be getting ready to buy?

We are releasing a compilation called Soma Beta which includes tracks from a lot of newer and emerging artists who we work with including Jandroide and Let’s Go Outside – also our annual Soma compilation which collects the best of the vinyl releases of 2008 on one CD – this can give you a good idea what we have been doing this year.

Three words on illegal downloading?

Painful but fact.

In another life what career path would you have chosen?

I said to my gran when I was three that I wanted to be a lollipop man so I wouldn’t have to start work til I was sixty-five!

Go to Soma Records.

Harvey McKay - 69

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