END TRAIN
5 questions to get to know…
For the second episode of our interview series on Unmasked Magazine, we are happy to have End Train, DJ, producer and label owner based in London.
We had the pleasure of chatting with him about the sound of our beloved city and its ever-growing party scene, an “incredibly supportive network” not easy to find elsewhere.
We asked End Train about Metempsychosis Records, the label he co-owns with fellow Londoner Flaminia and their projects for the near future.
Preparing for us a mix reflecting “how he sees life in general”, he told us about his passion for investigating the connection between body and mind and how music is helping him finding purpose in life. Discover more in the interview below.
Q: Hi Joseph and thanks for taking the time out to do this interview with us.
A: Thank you for thinking of me!
Q: I would like to start with a question about the London techno scene, that you live and know very well. If you had to describe it to someone who’s never partied in London, how would you do it?
A: I always describe the London techno scene to people who are not part of it, as an incredibly supportive network where the first coming and the last leaving your gigs, are the ones supposed to be your “competitors”. I love that we all inspire and support each other, in our scene. I feel home when I go to parties and spend over 45 minutes just hugging people that I see every weekend. If you need help, there are tons of people around, ready to back you up. Not sure if this happens anywhere else!
Q: You recently launched a playlist on Spotify in collaboration with other London artists, called “Techno Sound of London”. Do you think that there is a sound of London? How would you describe that one?
A: I am not sure that there is ‘one’ sound of London, with so many parties (techno and beyond). The idea of the playlist was to take online what you hear in the club at the weekend, so you can listen to it, during your entire week. I am curating it with Burden and Tapefeed, as we are out pretty much every weekend (often too much!) and we felt that we wanted to capture what it’s in London’s mind.
We have a weekly rotation and each of us picks four tracks that we had either heard in a club the weekend before or that we are about to play in a club the weekend after.
If you are interested, you can check it out here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3C61kswnI0hEwKXV2qBBHM
Q: You are co-head of Metempsychosis Records, together with Flaminia. Can you tell us more about how the project started, what is Metempsychosis about and the future of the label?
A: Sure! Flaminia and I had the idea of this EP in 2015, during Atonal. We start talking about how inspiring it was to be able to show our art and being able to inspire someone else, somewhere in the world. Struggling to release on other labels at that time, we set to create our own utopia, to put out there exactly what we believed in. It’s freedom and it’s allowing us to work with other artists who inspire us.
We just released Flaminia’s EP with remixes by Sam KDC and Kwartz and have another 3 or 4 planned for 2019. Plus, we are organising an invitation-only experience in London on April 28th, where the aim is getting the audience to feel something close to lucid dreaming… Let’s see!
Q: You have a very strong presence on socials, where another side of yours emerges. You seem to be interested in wellbeing, psychology and investigating the connection between body and mind, more in general. You also write a blog about this with Frank, one half of Ossa di Mare. Do you think that this side of yours influences your music and the other way around?
A: This is a great question and something that I ask myself too. The more I progress in life, the more I realise that the deep purpose that drives all my committed actions is the same. And it’s to help people connecting with themselves and take actions toward their own paths. I fulfil that when I play music that hopefully connect people, when I talk with others in real life and socials and when I write on the blog.
Interestingly, it sometimes seems that for the current techno scene, the music side and the spiritual, psychological and wellbeing-oriented one are not compatible. Or at least they appear like dichotomies! For me techno and music are something that unite people, free them up and support them in their life journeys, thus very spiritual and connected with wellbeing.
Q: Tell us something about the mix that you prepared for Unmasked.
A: I wanted to create a journey that evolves in an eclectic way, mixings calmer with less quiet moments, with both upbeat and dark stuff, in a constant progression of energy. That’s how I see life in general, what I try to bring to my sets and I selected a variety of tracks to represent this. I hope you will enjoy it!
Interview by / Stefania Trinchero.
Published / 11.04.2019