Home Interviews INTERVIEW with the dj, producer and label manager Ville Lope
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INTERVIEW with the dj, producer and label manager Ville Lope

Ville Lope spent more than a decade an the very epicentre of clubbing, exploring the fine art of production and the magic of DJ’ing. As a DJ, he's crafted a style which is both sophisticated and dance floor-friendly; Ville Lope's sound blends different flavours of progressive trance: from deeper tracks through to full-on melodic scorchers. You'll find driving, solid basslines, throughout his sets and productions. He was A&R for Finnish label Finity and now he is the manager of Subtraxx recordings, which is part of the historic and very influential record company, Banshee Worx in Belgium, with its 3 sub-labels Subtraxx, Nemesis and Camouflage.

His most recent production called ‘Strings of Sorrow’ which can be characterised as a magical trance ride upon bouncy tribal techy beats, along with ethereal atmospheres and melancholic melodies. Last year he answered our Best Of mini interview and our readers were very impressed by his answers, so he is back by popular demand for a longer interview that it took him quite a long time to answer. If you read his interview you will understand that was worth the wait for it. Let’s talk about our common love and passion, let’s talk about trance music that still has soul, depth and sacred inner meanings with Ville Lope who is about to blow big time in the centre stage of the scene so better watch out for his next moves through his social media pages.

Interview was written and conducted by Dimitri Kechagias, Radio/Club DJ and Music Journalist

 Dimitri: First of all I would like to thank you for accepting our invitation to conduct this interview, and I would like to ask you about your family background. Do you come from a family environment that was characterised by it’s love for music and other arts, and were you are influenced by this in your decision to get involved with EDM?

Ville Lope: Thanks for having me.
My parents aren't what people call “musical”. Neither one ever played an instrument, or can sing. On the other hand my granddad is highly musical, and is still singing in a choir in his early 80's. My mum is laughing at this, saying that the musical gene must have leapt over her.





When I was growing up, and still when I go to visit my parents, there's always music playing on the background – a radio or some record. That must have affected me as a child, and that has to be one of the reasons I started keyboard lessons when in elementary school.

There's no pressure of any sort from my parents, and there's nothing hinting towards EDM – apart from Jarre's vinyl album my sister had as a teen.

Dimitri: Your decisions to get involved with music; do you believe this was the result of a particular situation or a particular track or maybe a club event that you may have attended and which really inspired you to get into EDM?


Ville Lope: Music has always been there, and still in my late teens I was listening to pop/rock/hop/dance – whatever was playing in clubs and on radio. I actually had a huge Brit pop, alternative rock, period around that time. When I was 18 I was a driver for my uncle who was (and still is) a commercial DJ. I joined him at the booth when the club opened and he showed me how a mixer and CD-players work (this was back in 1999). I actually managed to beat match the first ever transition I did, and I was hooked instantly.

After that I learned DJ’ing more, and got more and more experience on DJ’ing – the natural move was to play commercial gigs – I really had no further interest in EDM or trance events back then. Slowly I found more interest in dance music, like Ian Van Dahl, Lasgo, Darude, JS16 – Mauro Picotto's early trancey stuff, which later on evolved towards uplifting trance. Releases from Perfecto, Anjunabeats, Black Hole and Bonzai really blow my mind. Eventually I decided to quit commercial gigs in order to make music a serious hobby – now it's closer than ever to being full time job, but this time the direction and approach to music is something that I really like.

Dimitri: Please list for us the most influential people in your career in music. Those can be DJ’s, producers, composers, poets and of course people that inspired you and support your decision to get into the EDM scene.


Ville Lope: The list of influential trance-producers around 1999-2006 is long list – and everybody knows the names.In the personal contacts I had when I picked up producing in early 2006, those are the names I bow to. Beetseekers was a huge influence and asset when starting. The hours spent online on MSN and asking about all the possible questions about producing alone. I'm very grateful for his input. Introvert was really helpful and taught me the basics of Ableton Live back in the day. Matti Kotala & Joonas Hahmo let me to their studios to peek over their shoulders. Hakon Lofthus, or Hawk as many of us knows him, was one of the first international contacts I had – he might have loads of early clips of mine on his HD's.


Dimitri: Have you attended formal music training and music engineering courses or are you totally self taught as many do nowadays, with training videos from YouTube? Do you believe that formal music education reduces spontaneity, originality and creativity that EDM requires?

Ville Lope: I went to keyboard lessons as a kid; I learned the basics of playing, chords, harmonies. I DJ'd actively, which taught me structure, sounds, feeling. When starting producing it was quite easy to pick up from there as I didn't have to learn “the music”, but just the technique of producing.






Composing a track came pretty naturally when I started in 2006, and it took around two years to get my first solo track released.

I'm still checking out some production videos I come across in social media, but most of them are aimed at beginners and there's no new stuff for me – but I know there's good content out there which I still haven't found.

Formal music education doesn't reduce spontaneity in EDM, what does is the copycat effect that is running wild at the moment. There are always people trying to sound like Deadmau5, Swedish House Mafia, Avicii or every other Anjunabeats release. Music education isn't the reason why that is happening.

Dimitri: It would be great to recall for us your first times as a DJ in front of a large crowd and how you felt when you looked at them. Can you also tell us about your first ever production, and on which label it was released?



Ville Lope: The first club gig I had, the crowd were mostly friends from the university. Slowly things started to progress and I've played in venues that hold around 1000 people. Playing just in front of crowd in intimate club is a bit different than being on stage in a large hall.






Playing for a crowd is always a buzz, regardless of the size. I'm still a bit nervous before the set, but now the reason has changed. I don't worry about the technique or skills anymore, but selection and how the new tracks & productions work. I'm constantly testing upcoming Subtraxx material and own productions.


It's always a bit nerve wrecking, but when the new track really goes off... the feeling is just something that I can't let go of.


My first production release was a collab under my and my friends Con-Science alias in Neuroscience. ‘Eternal Sunshine’ actually got a spin from Sied Van Riel – I believe it was Dance Parade where he played it. My first solo single was ‘Those Mellow Moments’, which was released on Finity Recordings.

Dimitri: Can you please take us on a virtual tour in your current studio and choose for us your favourite software and hardware that you constantly use and you would like to recommend to the people who will read this interview?

Ville Lope: I'm using only soft synths like Sylenth1 and Omnisphere on Ableton Live 8, which I run on a MacBook Pro. The little extra comes from the studio room, Genelec near field monitors and midi keyboard. Only recently I bought NI's Massive, and I'm now trying to get my head around it - that seems to be quite a synth when I figure it out. One thing that is commonly miss-used is the place the music is made. After starting producing in a studio specially treated to be used to use to make electronic music, my production quality improved dramatically. The room actually affects more than the speakers/monitors used.


Dimitri: You have done some great productions for various record labels and remixes for great artists as well. Can you choose from your back-catalogue your absolute favourite originals and remixes which you have produced, and you believe are the best, and those that will pass the test of time and will be considered as classics?


Ville Lope: I've been still playing Tiesto – The Tube (Ville Lope Remix) at my club gigs. It has drive and a modern sound that I've haven't got right after that release. From original tracks “It's In Her Eyes”, it will always have a special place in my heart; the name indicates when it was composed ;)

Dimitri: Nowadays you are manager and A&R of the Subtraxx family of labels. Please present for us the labels that you take care of, and if possible tell us the most important artists that characterise the sound of the particular labels, and for each label can you choose the most successful releases that been successful in the scene and had good sales too.

Ville Lope: Subtraxx consists of three labels I manage myself. Nemesis is the home for more laid back progressive – it can be high quality progressive house or trance. Camouflage is for uplifting, techy and driving, upbeat trance.Subtraxx Recordings is the main label, which has really distinctive Finnish sound. A lot of our artists are Finns though.





Camouflage has a long history, as it's been a part of Bonzai since 1999. I remember having Camouflage vinyl on my shelf in the past. One of my all time favourites is ‘Lolo – Why?’, which was also in PVD's ‘The Politics Of Dancing 2’ compilation. There are also releases by Fire & Ice, Svenson & Gielen, Coast 2 Coast, Cape Town, Ferry Tayle, the list is extensive.

On Subtraxx, the label has been running around Miika Kuisma releases for quite a while, and he has been a huge influence on the label even to this day. If there's still someone that isn't familiar with his work, I strongly suggest you take a closer listen. His latest material is perfect for home listening. Tokyo Boulevard is also an artist that is widely played at home on Sundays.

The current releases are getting plays from the big jocks all around; it's a matter of time and luck which of the in-house artists breaks out big next.


Dimitri: How many demos do you receive every day, and how many are suitable for release? Can you give any advice to young hopefuls that would like to send a demo to a record label? Is it only about the music and how well produced it is or does it require additional elements, such as good presence in the social networks?

Ville Lope: A big portion of the demos coming in are still sent to Bonzai demo addresses. Fly, my colleague at the Belgium office, does the dirty work and filters down the gabba and hip hop demos that get sent (and I'm not joking), he also is the first one to here the Subtraxx delivered demos. From that track load he filters the ones that get sent to me. I have around 100 demos in my iTunes playlist monthly. Most of those are from our in-house artists, but there's delightful amount of new talent each month.





My advice to demo senders is to pay attention to the message you send your demo with. Add links to your social media channels. If we like the track, we want to know your background a bit more. We want an artist that is “ready” and has the skills and ability to work with us. Though we love what we do, it's still a business. The next demo you send, make sure the message isn't like “this is my new demo, listen to it. LOL”. Add ID3 tags to the 320 kbps mp3 file; don't forget to add your email address there. Make sure that the file name has the same name; there should be your artist name, the track name. Preferably a mention that it is a demo. Do not send the track to 20+ labels at the same time. We do see where it's been sent and everyone is seeking for exclusive high quality music.

Dimitri: I wonder if it happened in the past that you received a demo that you didn’t like and you returned it to its sender, and then you saw it released on another label with great success.

Ville Lope:On monthly basis. We do get a lot of demos in and not everything fits the sound we are looking for our labels. Also we have restricted the amount of releases on our labels so that makes quality control even tighter.

Sometimes I might have been too late with my answer and sometimes a great track has been picked up by a bigger or smaller label.

Dimitri: Is it possible to choose your absolute favourite artists at the moment, those that release music on other labels that you would love to have on your label even for just one release?

Ville Lope: That’s too many to list. I’ve always been looking for new talent, even before I was working for a label. It’s been great to see some friends make it big along the way. Marcus Schossow, Cressida, Tenishia, Dennis Sheperd. These guys have skyrocketed during our friendship.

Dimitri: Do you have in mind as Subtraxx, plans to expand to more record labels in the future? Do you see that maybe there is still some space for new labels to come along and flourish within this hard competitive environment?

Ville Lope: Subtraxx is now three labels. There are still some areas of different sound within trance and progressive that aren’t covered within those three labels. The fourth, perhaps even fifth label could pop out quite soon.


Dimitri: Which is your favourite download shop and do you find the way that download shops are designed today convenient for the user to buy his favourite music quickly and efficiently? For instance there is a lot of discussion that the download shops should device additional genres in order to keep things clear and not confuse the buyers. e.g. within the same category David Guetta releases with more underground prog house labels.


Ville Lope: I used to use Audiojelly exclusively for ages, but then I gradually changed back to Beatport as some potential material was missing from Audiojelly. Also the user interface of Audiojelly wasn’t up to modern requirements, it started to feel laggy and unresponsive - that’s why I switched back to Beatport.





To be honest, I haven’t been logging in to any stores lately. All the work has sucked out the free time to use on stores, so I’m relying mostly on Subtraxx material and promos sent to me by labels and friends.


Dimitri: Is it hard work to be a manager and A&R for a record label? Would you like to describe for us what kind of tasks you have to go through each day in order to keep the labels running smoothly and easily?


Ville Lope:I’m lucky to have such a great team behind me. Bonzai/Banshee taking care of all “boring” stuff like agreements, distribution, statements and all that stuff. That is all the stuff that most new digital labels just can’t get right these days.





My work for Subtraxx consists of admin and A&R stuff, the amount of work is pretty even. Preparing releases, setting up remixes, taking care of contracts.


What I enjoy the most is finding new talent, kicking my artists in the right direction and finding the “next big track/producer”. I get the best buzz when a producer in our stables is sending me a track I know will make it big. That’s why I keep doing this stuff.

I’m not doing Subtraxx as a full day job, so I can’t say there’s ever a normal day, but if I had more time to put into the label, I’d go searching for new talent more actively.

Dimitri: Do you consider the presence of an artist and a label in the social networks as absolutely vital? Do you use Facebook, Twitter or YouTube videos yourself and for your labels? Have you noticed any considerable progress in your career when you are actively participating with them?

Ville Lope:Social media is vital these days for an artist. Sadly too many good artist are even over-looking the power of social media, don’t “get it”, or just don’t bother being online for these activities. On the other hand, there are so many artists that don’t have a chance of pushing their material to other media. Interviews, magazines, blogs... there’s a lot of channels to push the knowledge of the artist themselves.

I’m using social media myself, but as I’m doing a lot stuff for the label and one other artist, I usually don’t remember to push myself as an artist as much as I should. That way I categorise myself as pretty passive artist on social media, although I’m a power user of social media as a person.


Dimitri: Your previous releases before ‘Strings of Sorrow’, which is just released, were ‘Day Before Tomorrow’ and ‘Trocadors feat Quillroader’. Would you like to tell us where you got the inspiration to produce those great tracks from and why you decided to work with Quillroader. Are you happy with the final result and the feedback that you have received so far?





Ville Lope: The Day Before Tomorrow got inspired by that Ferrycorsten-esque lead sound that I’m using sort of arpeggio-like lead. That sound inspired me to make sort of good-old-trance track in the style of early 2000‘s when I started playing more and more trancey material. The track is pretty straight forward, like the early Anjunabeats release were, for instance.





Trocadors was actually originally a track by Quillroader, but there was something that didn’t make the track sound right. After several guidance emails it came quite naturally that I would produce the track from their parts. In a way you could say it’s my remix of Quillroaders track.

The track ended up as the digital “b-side” of ‘The Day Before Tomorrow’, so the name was changed to Ville Lope feat Quillroader.

The feedback has been pretty good and it’s been fun seeing my name around the internet a bit more than a year ago.

Dimitri: Can you share with us any funny incident that happened while you were producing a track or while you were DJ’ing at an event that you always remember and you laugh at yourself?

Ville Lope: Being active person in Finnish scene for the past few years has brought many funny situations, most of which have happened outside the club/venue or studio. It’s always fun to have international DJ visiting Finland for the first time, and just start fooling them with complete bullshit like penguins and polar bears. Sean Tyas for instance, was quite disappointed when he heard that there aren’t reindeers in central Tampere.


Dimitri: What other tracks are you going to release soon. Can you offer us an exclusive preview on what goodies are hidden within your computer’s hard drive, and will be available for the public soon?

Ville Lope: My latest single, called “Strings of Sorrow” is now released on Subtraxx. It’s available at every web store imaginable, and there’s full length clips at Subtraxx’s Soundcloud account.

Lately I’ve been producing with Subtraxx artist Marko Kantola, which some might remember from tracks like ‘Anywhere’, ‘Black City’ and ‘Like a Wind’. After two years of complete silence we finally got him back on working on music, and the material he’s coming up with solo and produced together with me is just plain amazing. 2012 will be the best year for Subtraxx so far, the music we have already aligned to be released is so great. I’m so proud of all the artists working with us.

Ville Lope - Strings of Sorrow [Subtraxx] by Subtraxx Recordings



Dimitri: One of my favourite questions to all the DJ’s is that one about self-reflection and self-criticism. Out of 10 with what score and give us a small comment as well you rate the various elements of your DJ performances and why?

a) you’re mixing skills:
b) Your ability to choose the right track for the right occasion:
i) Your friendly attitude towards the fans that come to shake your hand when you perform and after?

Ville Lope: I used to work as a commercial club as a DJ so I’m pretty used to being nice to people in loads of situations like when DJ’ing. Also I’m experienced in sales, so that makes me sort of a people’s person. But that’s only when I’m not making the transition to other track - I want to / need to concentrate to the mixing as I’m really pedantic about my mixing.





I’d give myself a solid 8/10 from a to c.

Dimitri: Please choose for us your best ever DJ gig and are there any clubs or festivals that you would like to perform at in the near future even without fee?

Ville Lope: That’s impossible to answer. There are two gigs that are more memorable than others, but I can’t say which one is best.





The biggest production I have played was an indoor water park in Vaasa, Finland. I was opening the event with my set. It was really challenging to start playing to an empty spa from the stage built on top of the deep end of the swimming pool.

The opening DJ slot is often overlooked, but at the same time its the hardest one. He sets up the mood for the evening, he has to be careful not to make the next DJ to look bad by playing too big tunes or too fast tempo or too hard music before the next one. The night was a success as the event was described later on as the best party of the year of that district.


The other memorable gig was on Halloween 2009. That was the first event I took my girlfriend to. That was also the first EDM event she ever attended. The organization I played for is known of going a bit “over the top” with technique and decorations. You should have seen her face when she saw the bloody torsos, gigantic spider webs and all: D I was really nervous about how she would take the music I was playing, but it didn’t take even 4 tracks into my set when she found her way to the dance floor, and stayed there for the rest of the set!


Needless to say: she’s the one ;)

Dimitri: Do you fancy the idea of producing your podcast on a regular basis or to have a regular radio show? Do you think that is essential for a DJ and producer to have his own regular radio show, or is this whole idea is over hyped without real importance?

Ville Lope: I’ve been playing around with the idea of doing a podcast ever since Gareth Emery started doing his own. Somehow I’ve been postponing it all the way and still it hasn’t been “the right time” to start doing the podcast. Doing consistent DJ mixes is actually a good way to do DJ promo, keep up with the fan base, and even gradually build the crowd. Podcasting the content is a good way to make the music distributed. Most DJ’s have their regular internet radio show’s which are later on distributed as Podcasts. This is a natural way to do it, but I’m not too fond of doing a monthly or weekly radio show. I did that for three years with Finity. When starting the sets again I’d go full on Podcasting.

Dimitri: Everyone is wondering where the music is heading too. Progressive house seems to be the dominant EDM genre and trance seems to stay on the back seat waiting for its big boom again. Can you predict for us which styles will be the most successful within the coming months, and is there hope for trance to strike back?

Ville Lope: Now it seems to be all about dubstep. When there’s dubstep in a Britney Spears song, you know it’s a trend. :D






The current definition of progressive house is the complete opposite what progressive house sound was all about 10 years ago. How you can have tracks from Sasha and Digweed charted in the same genre as Swedish House Mafia, David Guetta and Afrojack. Only thing that is the same is the tempo. Sort of. I actually like what’s going on at the moment in the pop scene. It’s all about Britney’s, pitbulls and god-knows-who’s making dance music. If you go to a commercial club these days you’ll notice that there isn’t much R&B, pop rock or gangsta rap around. Why is it good? Because people will get bored to it. The next trend will come (which most likely is rock), take the pop oriented trend seekers away - but the ones that get really enthusiastic about electronic sounds start to dig deeper. I’m not ashamed to tell you that I was brought to this scene by Darude, Ian Van Dahl and what ever was playing on the radio in late 1990‘ies.

Now it’s time for the next generation to come onto the scene.

Dimitri: What other things you are enjoying doing except listening, DJ’ing and producing music?

Ville Lope: I’m playing recreational ice hockey once a week. I was playing hockey quite seriously during my teen years, it’s good that I’ve succeeded to keep it as a hobby in my “older years”. It’s still great fun!





Aside that, most of my awakening hours after office work are spinning around music in it’s every form. I try to spend as much time as possible with my girlfriend and friends. My parents and family live 1.5 hour drive away from my home and we don’t own a car, so I’m seeing them only occasionally. I try to embrace those moments.

Dimitri: Please give us your message to those who read this interview and they would like to get a piece of advice about how to get into the scene and win the interest of record labels and club promoters.

Ville Lope: Promoters seem to be seeking for the next “Arty” or “Avicii” at the moment. Forget what others are doing and concentrate on being the best possible You. That has worked in my case quite well. I never wanted to be the next Armin, Ferry or Tiesto. I want to be the best Ville Lope.

Promoters are interested in artists, something that they can sell. Usually it’s the producers whose tracks are played by other DJ’s that get the gigs. If you don’t produce on your own, you can always have some other quality that makes you stand out. Is it mashups, your performance, the unique selection of tracks or the way you drop the right track at right time?

To gain the interest of a record label I strongly suggest people to find their own sound. Tweak the sound so far that it doesn’t get stuck in the crowd. Be unique. That’s what I’m about.

Thanks to Ville Lope for his great answers to this long autobiography style interview.

Many thanks to Marnik & Fly at Banshee Worx offices for their amazing support through the years. As they state in their record company mission: Our mission is to make people party to quality club music! It happens to be the same mission for me to expose in my shows, reviews and interviews quality club music to make people party.