With a busy tour schedule and releases lined up on Lost&Found, Anjunabeats, Sudbeat and Microcastle – it looks set to be an amazing year for Cid Inc.  

Henri, last year saw you touring most of the world with gigs in India, the UK, Argentina, Mexico and North America. You’re back on tour again in May and also running Cid Inc. Mastering services – working alongside some of the biggest labels in the business. How are you managing to handle the workload?

I work pretty much from 9am until 9pm or even longer with mastering, productions and all that when I’m not traveling.  I’m in a lucky position to be able to work with music and everything involved in it, it’s been a hobby for so many years after all and I still see it that way even if I’m getting paid for the work.

What are some of the biggest projects you’ve mastered this year?

From the recent ones definitely the upcoming Sound Garden mix CD by Nick Warren , Deepfunk’s Album and various VA’s for labels such as Tronic, Agile etc.

What equipment are you using in the mastering studio? Can you share a photo with us?

It’s pretty simple actually, a high quality converter and speakers, API-2500 compressor, SPL passeq and a bunch of plugins that gets used depending on the material. Works really well actually, but I’m looking for adding additional hardware compressor and EQ to the setup at some point in not too far future.

What is the piece of kit or vst you could never live without?

I love the API-2500 compressor, it’s very versatile and works very well for the type of stuff I work on. What comes to plugins, I suppose Native Instrument’s FM8 is what I tend to turn to most of the time when producing music.

Bit of a random one; but how are you managing to check and download promos whilst on tour? Are you ever checking stuff on your mobile? In your opinion, what’s the best promo platform to use?

Haven’t been using the mobile as of yet (nor ipad or similar), still using laptop to do that when I have access to internet. What comes to promo services FATDROP, Promo Push and Release Promo is what I find the easiest and most convenient to use.

Your sound has always been hypnotic and you’re mainly known for progressive music but times are changing. What new stuff are you getting in to these days? Plus how is your sound evolving?

I’ve noticed that I’m drawn to some more groovy stuff now days as well. It’s not only techonish progressive sound any more, but even more to the house side of things.

http://youtu.be/gElXAoUfzsc

Which artists/releases are really influencing you right now and why?

Not any one particular really as there’s so much good music and many producers out there. Israel is worth mentioning though, some great music coming from there at the moment from the likes of Guy J, Sahar Z, Guy Mantzur, Khen and all those.

You’re regularly coming in to contact with the best talent in the business and are receiving tonnes of demos from up and coming artists all over the world. Last year you tipped Tommi Oskari as one to watch and were absolutely right about that. Any tips for who we should be keeping our eyes on in 2014?

Yes Tommi is great, and he gets better and better all the time. Also nice to see some one else from Finland working on the same type of stuff as I do there’s not too many around here. There’s countless of good upcoming producers, Navar, Tommi Oskari and MUUI are the first ones that pop up in my mind.

You’re really old school in terms of the way you engage with your fans: you’re never sharing details of your personal life, your likes, interests etc… fans just know you’re all about the music and they love you for that. In fact, you can see how much people respect your music with the frenzy on social networks whenever you post a post a new mix or track sample. But at the same time, it’s really tough out there for people who are just starting out.  Even if new guys are making the greatest music in the world, it’s really hard for them to get noticed. What tips can you give artists who are looking to move up? What are the do’s and don’ts?

I think the main thing is to let the music speak for itself and keep it that way =)  It’s hard to get noticed these days as there’s so many producers out there trying to surface. Best thing I suppose is to just keep on pushing and trying to reach as many people as possible (without spamming) on different social networks, forums etc. If the music appeals people then they will follow and notice one. Also, don’t give up as it can take quite some time to build a decent fan base, be passionate and ambitious of what you do.

How can people get a release on Replug? What do they need to do? Are they any specific qualities (other than musical ability) that you’re looking for in an artist? What pisses you off?

As long as it’s music that I really enjoy I don’t care what genre it is..I suppose an easy way is to for example check my recent mixes and see what I kind of stuff i play to get a hint.  But, be sure to send your best work and if it’s something that rocks my sock I’ll definitely want to hear more. The best way is to send links to demos to info@replugrecords.com, don’t attach mp3 files to the Email – this is what pisses me off a lot! 🙂

There were rumours of you making a sample CD last year. Is that still on the horizon? Will you ever get around to doing an album?

Well, I’ve not finished the sample cd as of yet due to mastering work taking so much of my time and in between there I usually produce music as much as I can. I’ve had lots of thoughts lately doing an album so maybe there will be one eventually;)

Where are you most looking forward to heading back to on tour this year?

Argentina is always something special so can’t wait to be back there again this year.

What’s happening next beyond the releases you’ve already announced. What would you like to do next?

I’m working on a bunch of tracks atm plus have a few finished, so just need to decide what to do with them. There’s also a few collabs in the works. I tend to not to plan too much ahead.  Just take everything one day at a time =)