Interview: Neogoa

[Richpa]

Original article: http://goatrance.hu/en/neogoa-interju-richpaval-a-kiado-vezetojevel/

 

Neogoa netlabel started four years ago, concentrating on goatrance. They did a tremendous work promoting this style. Their releases are all high quality and distributed through Ektoplazm, all of them for free! Label-boss Richpa answered our questions.

 

1. Before we go deep into goa, please introduce your newest release from Neogoa! What are your personal thoughts of Out Of Body Experience by Lectro Spektral Daze? To whom do you recommend this release?

 

Yeah, OOBE is our latest digital EP release published on Ektoplazm and it’s a collection of three previously unreleased tracks from the very talented New Zealand based psytrance and Goa trance artist Danny Marshall, better known as Lectro Spektral Daze. It’s a little bit of a different breed of Goa trance music with a strong focus on groove and storytelling, but yet with enough interesting melodies. It’s hard to give a proper description (one of the reason why I hate writing promotional texts for our releases).

 

2. Please introduce yourself! Who is Richpa? Are you rich because of goa?

 

Richpa is Ivan Parić (Rić-pa; see what I did there?), a 28 years old freelance graphic designer, who (obviously) enjoys Goa trance music. Besides that I enjoy learning and reading about history and ancient cultures (especially Nordic and Slavic), watching sci-fi movies and listening to some underground death or black metal while having a cold beer (a lot!). I don’t consider myself to be rich especially not because of Goa trance music. To be clearer, I don’t connect money with my work at Neogoa, which is one of the reasons why our releases are available for free and legal download at Ektoplazm. Did I mention that I love long walks in nature and sunsets?

 

3. How did you get involved with the Goa scene? What are your favourite releases from the classic era of our beloved style?

 

Honestly I can’t remember the exact year when that happened, but I’m sure more than ten years passed since that moment. I was at my friend’s place and while he was doing something in the kitchen I decided to check his CD collection and I noticed the Pulse Vol.1 CD and I liked the artwork. Since we were into electronic music back then, I asked him about the CD and what kind of music it was. The “This is Psychedelic Trance” tagline was pretty much confusing to us even if we had enjoyed some trance music. He couldn’t give me an exact or correct answer so I decided to borrow that CD and listen to it. What can I say, baaaam – goodbye everything, hello Goa trance. Of course, a couple of weeks later I found the review of that CD on the old Psynews website and started to explore the genre itself. Speaking of favourite releases, well if I have to pick just one, then probably it would be Alien Protein by Etnica. But it’s always hard to choose, especially because there were so many great albums in the 90s.

 

4. And what do you think about this new-goa (new-school if you will) sound? How do you compare it to the classic sound? What do you think what are the differences and developments in the music?

 

I’m trying to avoid any analysis or comparisons, especially when it comes to ‘sound’ (between old-school Goa trance and new-school). There are differences but you have to be aware that some artists nowadays are producing some super interesting retro-sounding Goa trance music as well. But if we are going to talk about the difference in general, the first thing is that today production tools are more accessible and it’s easier to explore the possibilities and search for a preferable sound. An artist always wants to have his or her own (signature) sound and as a netlabel owner I’m trying to respect that and not to bother the artist or myself with technical details because I’m not an expert when it comes to sound. I leave all the technical details to be solved between the mastering studio and the artist and when both are happy we start the release process. If you’re referring to what’s trending in Goa nowadays, well the answer is obvious, the biggest thing is very melodic / morning sounding Goa music. You have a lot more artists who are producing that kind of Goa trance at the moment. On the other side, more acidic, darker and experimental Goa trance isn’t yet on the same level, but each label I know about is doing its best to promote and present that kind of modern Goa trance music. I’m sure that in the next decade of Goa trance music, less melodic and more experimental Goa music will get more recognition.

 

5. You started Neogoa net-label in 2010 if I am correct. Why? What was your main reason? Why goa? Why not gansta-rap, tech-house or Transylvanian raw black metal?

 

Sometime between 2008 and 2009 I got myself more involved in “new-wave Goa trance”, mostly with music that has been released by Suntrip, Phototropic and my favorite label back then – Metapsychic. I felt that I should write more about Goa trance music in general and try to cover and provide as much interesting information as possible about the dawn of Goa trance music and the new-school era. After all it’s the same genre and some kind of evolution, or even better, revolution happened, because enthusiastic people had the balls to release Goa music in an endless sea of generic full-on and progressive trance.

 

After I finished writing “The History and the uprising of Goa trance” in Croatian and Mirza (Arronax) translated it to English, the logical next step was to create a small and simple website with that information presented there, including a database dedicated to modern Goa trance music with label profiles and list of artists (even today I have those HTML files somewhere), so people can be informed about everything on single page. That’s how the Neogoa website was born. A couple of months later in December 2010, after I spoke and negotiated with more than thirty artists, Dimensional Gateway (our first release) was published on the Ektoplazm website and its purpose was the promotion of our website and the genre itself.

 

Speaking about other genres, especially black metal, I had a similar idea/plan (as with Neogoa) but at this moment I’m just enjoying some atmospheric (3^rd wave) black metal from the US and one day maybe I will give a shot at promoting or working with some underground metal label, at least as a graphic designer. It’s not good to be limited to the same things in life!

 

6. Why did you go with a net-label rather than a normal label? Don’t you see the big bu$ine$$ opportunity in goa-trance?

 

There is a meme about being a Goa trance DJ in these hard times (with Johnny Depp and a little kid) which explains perfectly the situation about making money with Goa trance music. I can’t speak for others but after I spoke with some fellow label-owners and artists, CD sales are dropping each year (even in cases when you have already an established name and follower-base), and that is a fact. Digital music is getting more and more popular each year and it is one of the reasons why Neogoa found its place among even bigger labels who have a stronger financial background in such short period of time. I don’t consider Neogoa to be “different” from the others; we’re all doing the same thing, doing our best to promote quality Goa trance music, but through different ways and with different approaches.

 

7. What’s your main goal with Neogoa? For us, the fans, it’s an awesome way to find new artists and music and I am sure it’s a great opportunity for the artists as well to introduce themselves, do you agree?

 

Well, the main goal is to stay on the right path, to explore different influences, themes and motifs, to present them properly and correctly, to avoid fakery and be open towards people (our followers, fans) who are interested in our work and the ideas behind the music. Money doesn’t fuel people, honesty and straight-forward attitude does. It is the core reasons why so many people are doing great things for Neogoa voluntarily, from mastering studios, uploaders, reviewers, translators, and DJs who are promoting the music of our artists. Goa trance liberation is the Neogoa essence and main motto. People feel that and they know that this project is growing and building because of it.

I assume that artists on Neogoa recognized the opportunities of being exposed to a large amount of people in a quick and easy way, especially since Ektoplazm is probably the best source for legal Goa trance music. With good exposure and promotion, the possibilities of being noticed and booked for some gig are much bigger and, (sad but true), with gigs you can at least cover some expenses and earn some money. Great results in promotion through Neogoa are the main reason why label exists (and why I’m not releasing Transylvanian raw black metal (yet) as you said lol).

 

8. Setting up and running a net-label takes a lot of time and effort. What motivates and drives you to do this?

 

It does take some time indeed, but if you enjoy your every-day work then it’s not as hard as some people might think. Although Neogoa takes a couple of hours each day in my life, it’s not that easy to handle all the other activities while preparing a release. I’m trying to have some sort of balance between Neogoa and my other work, for example graphic design.

 

Regarding the motivation, as I said earlier, all the people involved in some way with Neogoa are the reason why this label still exists and the good feedback that we’re getting for our releases means that we’re doing the right thing. We’re living in hard times and people sometime need some small little good thing and if Neogoa is a reason for their happiness, our mission is done. A couple of months ago one nice guy (a disabled ex-fireman) sent me a heart-touching message about him being grateful for all the music that Neogoa released for free, because he can’t afford to buy music and I can’t explain you how I felt after I red that message. He’s not the only one, there are a lot more heroes out there who deserves a small piece of happiness and it is a privilege for me and for all artists (and I think I can speak in their name too) to make people happy with music!

 

9. In my opinion there is a “quality level” connected to Neogoa. If something comes you know that it’s not that bad. How do you choose the artist and releases? For example if I have a small bedroom goa project can I send you demos?

 

Thank you. Well, it’s not piece of cake to pick certain number of tracks and release them just like that. If you want to establish a decent level of quality you have to reject some material, but usually I reject music that really doesn’t have anything with the style we’re promoting. If there is potential in the music, I like to send some sort of feedback to artist with some suggestion and if he manages to deliver the product, than we talk about release slots. The communication is the crucial part, many artists are craving quality feedback and suggestions/ideas, and I’m trying as much as I can to deliver some interesting ones. In the last two years I tended to promote new names as much as possible, because when you give them a fair chance and when they get good feedback, their self-confidence grows and they will be more involved into music making, hopefully exploring different themes through their music. Being innovative in any kind of way is something that I like to push when I see it in someone’s work.

 

Regarding the demo submission, all information can be found here (http://neogoanetlabel.tumblr.com/demo), so if you decide to send us your bedroom Goa project, just don’t forget to follow the rules hehe.

 

10. Your first release was the Dimensional Gateway compilation. What are your memories of it? Which track is your favourite of that compilation and why?

 

Dimensional Gateway was a great experience. I met a lot of great people online while working on it and I felt proud when it finally came out on Ektoplazm. I can’t say that I have favorite track on it, since all of them are there for a reason. If you want to experience the idea and the story, you have to listen to it from the start to finish.

 

11. Which are your favourite three Neogoa releases and why? Which is your all-time favourite track from the Neogoa catalog?

 

Man you’re asking tough questions haha. Okay, my favorite Neogoa release(s) always change since I’m not always in the mood for Goa trance only (blasphemy!) and you know that we’re releasing downtempo music as well, so in recent times I really enjoyed Shamanizm Parallelii’s latest album, The World in a Drop of Rain – http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/shamanizm-parallelii-the-world-in-a-drop-of-rain. Regarding the uptempo stuff, Arronax and his Crossing The Rubicon album is a perfect pick for cold autumn nights – http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/arronax-crossing-the-rubicon

 

12. Your most successful release on Ektoplazm is PharaOm’s Under The Sun Of Goa. What do you think is the main reason for that success?

 

Because we put Ganesh on the artwork and word ‘Goa’ in the album name. J Seriously, it’s because Oswald is a very talented and skilled musician and his work has left a strong mark on the Goa trance scene. He’s currently working on his other non-Goa trance side project but he will release a downtempo track on our next compilation – Celestial Transvibrations. We’re also talking about some other releases as well, so maybe he will get back to making Goa trance music again. Regarding the high number of downloads, I think some server-crash happened on Ektoplazm and some numbers changed, but no matter the number of downloads, it’s great album and people should check it if they haven’t yet.

 

13. If somebody asks you “What is goa-trance?” what would you say? Which Neogoa release would you recommend to introduce this style?

 

When I worked on the Dimensional Gateway 3 compilation, I asked the good people on Psynews and on Facebook to send us one word that describes what Goa trance means to them and we collected a lot of words and put them on the inlay artwork. For me it’s a wonderful genre that has been under the radar for many years (when you compare it to other more exposed genres in EDM), but maybe it’s better to have that underground vibe on the scene. People are more honest, more open and it’s easier to communicate and plan things together. I see Goa trance as a little kid, growing each day and getting better and better, so it would be a shame to spoil it with fame and money. Don’t get me wrong here, I still think that many artists and DJs are not paid enough for their work, and many labels are losing money, but in those situations you have to push even harder and better, because only with hard work you can achieve good things in life. If that’s money, well people interested in money will find the way sooner or later.

 

14. Your releases are mostly goa-trance style. Why didn’t you release other forms of psy-trance? Don’t you like them?

 

Well it’s hard to say that we release only Goa trance. A lot of our releases are not 100% Goa trance and why should they be? For example if you look at the PsiloCybian or BlackStarrFinale albums on Neogoa, both artists are dance-floor friendly, with a lot of psytrance and even full-on influences. The exact definition isn’t important here, the quality of music is. They succeeded in blending Goa trance music with other styles and a lot of people liked that. Someone will like the more straight-forward Goa trance sound like Alienoma or Morphic Resonance. It’s a matter of taste and it would be totally unacceptable for me to focus only on Goa trance music. I said earlier that we also promote and release downtempo and psychedelic chillout music. Anything that I find good enough will get a slot on Neogoa. Speaking about other genres, there are plans to expand our musical ideas through a sub-label, but more about that later. I don’t like to say that I like one certain genre, because each genre has something good to offer.

 

15. It looks like that the “normal” music business is dying. Although there are still some successful psytrance labels, most people (goa people included) don’t buy music anymore. What is your opinion on this? Do you think this is good because it helps or it makes things worse?

 

If someone doesn’t buy music that doesn’t mean he or she doesn’t support the scene in some way. I know a lot of people who are not buying music but they support the scene by going to parties, making visuals and decorations for artists, writing reviews, promoting music on social networks, posting about different projects on their blogs, promoting artists on YouTube (some artists don’t like that type of promotion, but in recent years more and more artists are aware how important YouTube promotion has become), etc. However, I respect all people who keep buying music, especially on CDs and for sure they’re one of the biggest reasons why some labels still exists.

 

16. You design your releases and work for other artists as well. Is that a hobby or your job? Which is your favourite picture?

 

Besides Neogoa artwork, I make designs (under Neogoa Design) for other Goa and ambient labels as well, including Sita Records, Suntrip Records, Timewarp Records, Goa Madness Records, Phototropic Records, UAF Records, DAT Mafia Records, Random Records, etc. It’s not only a hobby since I have to pay bills as well, but whenever someone needs a graphic design for a charity release or any worthy cause, I’m doing it pro-bono. Besides that I also design flyers and logos. I’m trying to have my own style when it comes to graphic design but sometime a label or artist wants something different and it’s always cool to explore different styles than the usual things that I’m working on. I don’t have a favorite piece of art, but the most fun was a collaboration work with Dejan and Goran at Adamantite Studios for the latest Goasia album on Suntrip Records.

 

17. This year Suntrip released a best-of compilation of Neogoa. Where did this cooperation come from? Whose idea was the release? Who chose the tracks? Which one is your favourite track?

 

Yeah, we released Epoch Of The Terrans through Suntrip and it was a great collaboration project between Neogoa and Suntrip. Honestly it wasn’t hard to work with them since I designed some artwork for them and we have really great communication. The idea came from my side after some people asked about the possibility of having Neogoa material released on a CD, and I said that I’m willing to do so if any label shows some interest in this project. I received a couple of offers but Suntrip was the best option. I asked people to send us their favorite tracks from Neogoa on Psynews and on Facebook and we received great suggestions. After that I spoke with Jos and he gave some of his suggestions and I gave some of mine and in the end the complete project was done. It was fun to work on it and I hope sometime in the future we will do something similar again, not only with Suntrip, but with other labels as well.

18. What is your opinion about the current hyped style of psytrance (off-beat)? I heard a new release is coming from Neelix on Neogoa, is that true? Do you think that there will be a goa-trance revival sometime in the future?

 

I don’t have any special opinion; I’m sure it has its audience and that people enjoy it. Two years ago or even more I heard a track by Neelix and I liked it but after I heard couple more tracks by him I found out that they sound “samey” and I decided not to involve myself anymore into his production and music. But if he respects our demo submission rules, I will listen to his promo if in some crazy scenario he sends something to Neogoa hahaha.

 

Speaking about revival, I think it’s happening now, but sometimes people don’t know how to appreciate the moment we’re living in, and when those things are gone we start to be nostalgic. I enjoy each day when I wake up, drink a coffee and check my Soundcloud stream while listening to new music. There is a lot of quality Goa trance nowadays and a lot of great artists; let’s appreciate that for a moment.

 

19. Goa isn’t just about the music. What about the goa parties? Are you a big partier? Do you plan to organize a Neogoa showcase party sometime? That would be awesome!

 

Parties play an important role in music promotion, but I’m not a guy who goes to parties or festivals since my work is based on promotion through social networks and internet and I’m not that much into psytrance parties in general. But slowly people are starting to organize more and more Goa-trance based gatherings and events which is a great thing and it’s always great to see a Goa trance artist playing for a big festival. I hope people who are involved in organizing parties and festivals will give more opportunities to a less well-known artists because if they don’t do, who will?

I’m not planning to host any Neogoa showcase party since all our music (after I get it from mastering) goes to fellow Goa trance DJs and radio hosts, and if they find something suitable for their mixes/shows, they’re promoting it.

 

20. How is the goa trance scene nowadays in your country? Which artist do you recommend worth checking out (not just goa, any style)?

 

The scene is growing and getting better. There are a lot of amazing artist coming from Croatia, but the party scene isn’t on the same level as it is in other countries (Belgium, Israel, Brazil to name a few). However, some great people are doing their best to change those things. Besides the Lost Theory festival, a lot of smaller organizations are hosting parties and even festivals (remember Goa Fanatics?), which is a cool thing for Goa trance music.

 

Speaking of artists, well let’s see: PsiloCybian/Screw Loose, Lunar Dawn, Nova Fractal, Omnivox (ex. Vox), Hotep, ½ of Goasia, M-Run/Adrenalin Run, Perfect Blind, Liquid Flow, Project Shidartha, Deimos, Atom Based, Decadent Sympozium and many others.

 

Without any doubt, Croatia and the Balkan Peninsula in general have the strongest Goa trance artists roster in the last couple of years and I’m sure it will grow more and more. For more about our artists you can check our Croatian compilation published on Ektoplazm entitled ‘Entities’ compiled by PsiloCybian, Deimos and Richpa, or my Croatian Goa mix on YouTube.

 

21. What can we expect from Neogoa in the future? What are your plans for the rest of the year?

 

In the next couple of weeks we’re releasing two (more darker/experimental) releases by Dragon Twins (a great project from Belgium) – Only For The Wicked EP, and our 2^nd compilation in 2014 – Celestial Transvibrations, which will feature a lot newcomers including Protorai from Hungary J , as well as Neuropa, Ankrosado, Veasna, Proxeeus, What Lies Beneath and good old Arronax and PharaOm.

For 2015 we will release full length albums by Lunar Dawn, GoaTree, Lectro Spektral Daze and Proxeeus, a remix album of collaboration work between Nova Fractal and Arronax, and a bunch of joint releases between Neogoa and our new sub-label – Ae Records (https://www.facebook.com/aehorde), featuring music by Jagoa, JaraLuca, Twisted Nature and many others.

 

There are also two compilations in the making, one similar in style to the Dimensional Gateways series called “The World Beyond” which will be the most challenging project so far on Neogoa with an amazing lineup, and a new (as yet untitled) Sky Technology compilation on Neogoa.

Besides music, recently we launched localized versions (non-English) of our page at Facebook, so from now on Neogoa is available in Dutch (https://www.facebook.com/neogoabelgium), Croatian (https://www.facebook.com/neogoacroatia), French (https://www.facebook.com/neogoafrance) and Russian (https://www.facebook.com/neogoarussia) and hopefully in the upcoming months we will have even more localized versions of our page, but for all people who want to get their latest Neogoa feed on English, they can follow Neogoa here: https://www.facebook.com/neogoa.netlabel

 

Thank you again I hope it wasn’t that boring at all.

 

It wasn’t boring at all and I hope next time there will be at least forty questions haha (joking). Thank you and best of luck with your website!

 

[oldschoolgoa]

yea man good luck with this shit bro i wish all the best to you as i wish for me and all of us involved in this shit you know??

i will spend some time when im the mood and read your interview with more attention.

thanks for this.

 

other day i read nervasystem stuff was cool. now not in a mood to read but hope i will but anyways i know you we worked togheter so... man lets do this and all da best

 

you have good standards and you really do put a lot of effort into this so man... respect!

 

not much else i can say . take care , well you know we talk here its cool we are all together in this forum . be cool be well smile enjoy life , make what you love im happy

 

all the best to you and Neogoa looking forward to your new projects , i think we all should be more open to each others stuff and cut the individualist thing a bit thats all , im not up for competitions i think thats just silly and facebook likes dont mean squat mate...

 

good night Richpa be cool , do what you love dont overthink things and if peeps dont like tough shit mate... dont hide yourself man be yourself!

one love peace out

 

by the way thanks for your help and remember , sharing is caring , life isnt all about money!

 

im away now i got shit to do man , gonna try n cheer myself up , some things in our scene that kinda de-motivate me but sure im not jealous of anybody why should I?

but sure i know facebook means squat to me , labels can have million likes to me doesnt mean shit anymore i dont care. thats all i know and i made my own choices.

I love what i love and thats just it.

peace .