PRIME chats with Liquid Ritual on its much-anticipated compilation release, the direction of the label and what’s to come for the label in the near future

What started as humble beginnings for Oskar Barczak, Guy Barlow and Jude Leigh-Kaufman has slowly turned into a premier record label for wave music. Bringing talent such as Skeler, Dyzphoria, Deadcrow and many more into the Liquid Ritual family, Liquid Ritual are barely touching the surface. Putting on various shows throughout Europe, Liquid Ritual are making it their mission to spread wave music all across the continent. 

With the release of "Liquid Ritual: Vol. 01" Liquid Ritual lays the foundation for continued success, branching out in various countries in Europe and collecting talent from the United States. The compilation features various artists, some you may know, some you may just be hearing for the first time. Either way it's a compilation worth listening to over and over again. 

Interview

PRIME: Hey Liquid Ritual, let’s dive right in and talk about Liquid Ritual Vol. 1. How did this compilation come about? What was the process like getting this finished? 

Liquid Ritual: We have recently collaborated with some of our favorite producers to introduce a collective called the ‘Liquid Ritual: Family,’ a platform we’re going to use to support and grow some of the most forward-thinking producers in the scene who we see massive potential in. 

The compilation was essentially inspired by that, we wanted a big project to introduce some of the talent from the Family producers plus some other friends that we believe in and thought the best way to do that would be to create one big release that we could get support on. Another reason is that we always get a lot of great tracks sent to us, and if we were to release them all as singles we would be neglecting some of the fresher stuff sent to us due to our schedule being fully booked up. 

Getting the entire compilation put together was a really tough but rewarding process as we haven’t taken on a project of this scale before. It allowed us to get out of our comfort zone and try something new. We’re really excited for the project as every track deserves to be a single in its own right. 

PRIME: With the release of different compilations lately, what can listeners expect from Liquid Ritual’s first ever compilation? Any particular favorites from the compilation?

Liquid Ritual: Every single track on the compilation is worthy of being a single by itself, in our opinion. Everyone we have sent the compilation to has picked completely different favorites, which is exciting to us as we’ve always found compilations normally have a couple of favorites with the other tracks not receiving the attention they deserve. 

Definitely expect something fresh that will push the boundaries of the genre. 

PRIME: The boundaries have certainly been pushed for wave music, for Liquid Ritual as a whole, what does this compilation mean to you as a group and as individuals?

Liquid Ritual: We feel like the compilation is the next step for us to grow as a label and push the boundaries of the scene even further. We’ve noticed with every great Wave compilation it inspires the next generation of up and coming producers, and we feel that the variety displayed within Liquid Ritual Vol. 01 can do the same. With the recent influx of shows being put on around the world, we believe that Wave has evolved from its roots as a bedroom sound into something that’s more polished and club friendly; we feel that this compilation reflects that evolution. 

PRIME: With the wave community being welcoming and always a tight knit group, do you feel as though Liquid Ritual as a whole tries to bring that feeling towards the artists that are now a part of the Liquid Ritual family? What makes your label so different from others?

Liquid Ritual: With the Family, we wanted to bring together a team of forward thinking producers that we can work with and assist with developing their careers so that they are able to live off of music. Looking back on it, it loosely resembles an artist management company but without any strings attached. 

We believe Liquid Ritual differs from other labels as we aren’t just a label, we hope that one day it can become a lifestyle thing rather than just one aspect. We’re trying to do this by branching out into things like our radio show, collective (through the Family), club nights, and in the future a fashion line through our merchandise.

We definitely would not be able to do everything if it was just one person running it all, by having a dedicated team we can split the heavy load of day-to-day operations. We believe that the Liquid Ritual Family has a lot of potential and we’re really excited to see everything develop in 2018. 

PRIME: For the artists/producers what was the process like for you and being able to be apart of Liquid Rituals first ever compilation and how does it feel to be apart of Liquid Ritual? How did it feel getting that message? 

Deadcrow (Liquid Ritual): Well, me and Jude became friends pretty quick after I did my first EP with Terrorhythm, and it basically stayed that way. I think because of that it made sense to have me in there, and for the same reason I think it feels like it was supposed to happen. When Jude told me I just said yes right away, again because it just made sense.

Dyzphoria (Liquid Ritual): For me, the process was easy. I continued to make new songs as I normally do, and my track "Worth" was something the LR boys really liked, so we decided to include it in the compilation. Being a part of Liquid Ritual is great! It feels like a big extended family and it's a great feeling knowing they've always got my back. I had already been friends with a lot of the guys from LR prior to joining, so it just felt natural.

PRIME: Concerning the artists, what is something the fans can look forward to from each of you this year? 

Dyzphoria (Liquid Ritual): I'm going super saiyan this year. I'm trying my best to work as hard as possible to continue growing as an artist, and I will continue pumping out new singles as often as possible. I want to release songs a lot more often than last year, but I will make sure everything is quality. Somewhere down the line I want to put out an EP; perhaps late 2018, not sure yet. Above all, though, I want to keep improving and growing as an artist. I feel like this is going to be a big year for me as well as the rest of the LR fam. A new EP (finally), some other releases, and, I’m also going to try to set up my own website to sell clothing through and do other cool things like wallpapers and maybe video’s and what not.

PRIME: You guys have a crazy amount of things going on as a label, what can fans look forward to from Liquid Ritual this upcoming year and continuing? 

Liquid Ritual: We’ve got a lot of ideas that we want to implement On the label side of things, we have some amazing releases forthcoming including an EP from Skeler and new music from artists we haven’t worked with before such as Glacci, OutsidR, Peter Xan and many more. Also you should expect more regular releases from everyone on the Liquid Ritual Family. We’re also really excited to be working with vocalists to widen the reach of Wave to a more commercial audience, benefitting the scene as a whole. We want to do some more fun things as well, like a podcast similar to the Breakfast Show to give you all a more personal insight into the lives and personalities of people within the Family and other artists in the scene. We’re going to be hosting more club nights within London and Europe with the hopes of organizing Liquid Ritual shows in other continents in the future.

Liquid Ritual

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Contributed by: Matthew Almaraz