by: Rachel Narozniak
Feb 26, 2021
The idiom goes “when one door closes, another opens,” but in Maximono‘s case, it can be rescripted to state when one imprint closes, another initiates. The name “Maximono” is synonymous with stamina; after earning his sonic street creds in the late ’90s, the German innovator well-known for his marriage of facets of R&B, hip-hop, soul, funk, and drum ‘n’ bass became a fixture at labels such as Confession, Sweat It Out, Dirtybird, and This Ain’t Bristol, among others. After years spent garnering the experience necessary to be a discerning label head in a saturated musical space, Maximono is answering the retirement of the This Ain’t Bristol label with the conceptualization of Parasoul Music, an imprint that will mold to his own musical visions while providing a platform for likeminded talents who’d like their original issues to stand under Maximono’s ‘Parasoul.’
On February 26, Maximono gave shape to the sound that will define Parasoul with “Tremblin,” a label-instituting single that sits at the intersection of soul- and R&B-infused house music. “Tremblin” notably sources its vocals from Los Angeles’ own Saígo, of whom Maximono said,
“When I came up with the unstrumental idea of ‘Tremblin,’ I started looking for a male singer with a certain warmth and clarity in his voice. When I stumbled across Saígo, I knew he was the one I was looking for and he absolutely nailed the vocals.”
Dancing Astronaut connected with Maximono ahead of this career-defining development to discuss the future of Parasoul Music, near and distant, and “Tremblin’s” significance as its installing number. The full interview is available below.
Parasoul Music is heralded as “the latest musical chapter” for you. Let’s get a little more granular: what does this new “chapter” specifically entail, and what were your motivations for turning the page now in your career?
Maximono: “It was always clear to me that after the success of This Ain’t Bristol, I’d have to come up with a new label one day. I didn’t put any pressure on it, but after working on tons of new music during the pandemic, the picture became clearer and clearer. My love for soulful electronic music has always been there and it kept growing over the past 12 months. I worked on my Maximono productions a lot and all the new music that came out was something new that didn’t really fit with any existing labels. So, I decided to create my own outlet and start surrounding myself with likeminded artists that are working on the same style of music. The influence of urban music like R&B, funk, soul and hip-hop has always been super present in my career, so it really felt like a natural step to launch this label.”
How does “Tremblin” embody what is to come from Parasoul Music, and what were your motivations for selecting this single as the debut?
Maximono: “‘Tremblin’ stands for the new me and for how both Maximono and Parasoul will sound in the future. Therefore, it only made sense to use it as the debut single in order to lead into that new direction. I’ve used the time in lockdown to work on my production skills a lot, especially in terms of songwriting and working with vocalists, and ‘Tremblin” was probably my favorite one from the latest productions, so it was a no-brainer for me to use it as a statement for the start of Parasoul.”
You’ve stated your aims to make Parasoul Music a hub for cross-genre diversity and a place for “other likeminded artists.” Are you able to specify some of the artists who will be working with Parasoul in the immediate future?
Maximono: “As people know, Maximono always stood for genre diversity and included many different influences. Combining urban music with electronic club music is something that moves me a lot and so the label is set to become a hub for all different sorts of electronic music that has a good amount of soul and punch for the dance floor at the same time. No matter if its house, garage, drum ‘n’ bass, lo-fi beats etc., as long as you can feel the artist putting soul and character into the song, it’s a potential Parasoul release. I’m just starting to build the new label roster so besides Maximono, I cannot announce any names yet, but you’ll be surprised of some names where you didn’t expect them to go into that direction.”
How developed is Parasoul Music’s roster of new music to be distributed this year; can you tell us about any of the projects that the newly minted label will host?
Maximono: “I’ve got the first three records ready to go and I’ve just started signing more music and filling the release schedule for 2021. Release number two will be the ‘Tremblin Remix EP’ featuring some super exciting artists that all represent the diversity of music to come on Parasoul. I’m looking forward to hear a lot more demos over the next weeks, so please send in your SoundCloud links: demos@parasoulmusic.com“
On a personal level, musically, what does 2021 hold for Maximono?
Maximono: “It’s a super exciting time for me and I’ve never been more productive than I have over the past couple of months. I feel like this whole situation around the pandemic has opened my eyes to rethink what I’m doing in the studio and what I’m putting out. Not writing music to get bookings but to actually get people to listen is a perspective that got a little bit lost for me. Bringing more soul and R&B influences back into my music is something that feels very right and I cannot wait to share more of that with my fans. Most of it will come on Parasoul, but let’s see where the new direction takes me.”
Featured image: Maximono/Instagram
Tags: MAXIMONO, Tremblin
Categories: Features, Music
