Local Talk (with Mad Mats) and Omena Records founder Tooli takes us behind the curtain at two of our favourite labels, divulging all the details of his work, the process behind the release of the highly anticipated HNNY album and lots more. Moreover, to accompany our chat he has provided a splendid exclusive recording, which includes lots of unreleased music from Omena!
WWD: Thanks for joining us Tooli! The Summer is well and truly underway, how has it been for you so far? Any notable highlights to date?
Hello there! Yes, it’s been alright. I’m currently enjoying my last days off before it’s back to work, have had a great time so far. Working on some upcoming releases, doing some remix work and doing a bit of traveling.
The highlight was probably the release party for the HNNY album. A club was turned into a café where the album was playing from start to finish while the guests where served sundaes and coffee. After that HNNY went on the decks and played for the whole night. There atmosphere was great, and I could see everyone smiling the whole night. Truly a night to remember.
WWD: You’re a key component behind the scenes at Local Talk & Omena Records. How do you split your time between the two and how do your roles differ?
With Local Talk we’re two persons, it’s me and Mad Mats taking care of the work together. I have everything planned in terms of things I have to take care of on a daily basis which makes things fairly easy for me (I like structure)…and we’re released our 62nd release recently so something must be going ok since we’ve managed this far.
As far as Omena goes it’s me doing the a&r, paperwork, keeping in touch with the distributors and pressing plant and all the rest – I not sure where I find the time to be honest but I do have the help of some really good friends like Ivo Kiusalaas who does the label art and of course the artists providing the music. And it’s good fun, I really like my work.
WWD: There’s seems to be a tightly knew crew operating between the two labels. That must be a nice work atmosphere? When did you guys come together?
yeah, we do get along 😉 Me and Mats started what would become Local Talk late 2010 and then early 2011 we had our first Local Talk office space. June the same year the first release was out and from there you could say it’s been pretty much full speed ahead. We’ve had some really nice gigs, travelled a bit together and been able to release some quality house music, if I may say so.
Omena was something I’d been thinking about for a long time, the name is something that came up with many years ago but I didn’t have a clue how to run a label so you could say the first years with Local Talk was a good learning experience. Everything seems to fall into place more or less as I go along, there’s been some odd ideas that I’ve managed to stop myself from doing but I really want to try out some different ideas in terms of running the label. As long as I get along with myself I’ll probably be working with Omena.
WWD: What do Local Talk & Omena look for in an artist and their productions making making a decision to sign a release? Is there a particular philosophy behind the labels?
For Local Talk it’s nothing complicated really, we’re a house label and we release house music. If we like it, it’s signed. We’ve been fortunate enough to get a lot of great music sent to us which is amazing. In the beginning we more or less sat and browsed the web, talked to friends if they had any tracks etc. If you listen to the first 10 releases or even more you’ll hear a wide variety of house music. We’re still aiming to do that.
With Omena I do keep things open, it can be anything really. So far it’s been both music for the dance floor and home listening. The Omena LTD stuff that came earlier this year was described as ”Avalanches, meets Dilla via Brian Eno Norwegian mid-tempo beatwork & electronics” which to me sounds like something I’d listen to all day.
WWD: The HNNY album is obviously a huge release for you guys. What kind of work have you been putting behind that in recent weeks? Any background information you can give us on that release?
It’s a DIY thing from day one. Johan (HNNY) did an amazing job with the tracks, I actually got to hear it before I even knew I’d release it. We were having coffee one day and he played me the opening track and I remember liking it a lot, really a lot. I tried to keep it cool and said something like ”so, who’s releasing this. Are you doing it on Yummy? ”(his own label)
Fast forward a couple of months and he called me up and said ”I’ve been thinking about the release and wanted to ask if you want to release it on Omena?”. I had to pinch myself and then said yes.
It’s been taking a little bit longer than we thought, as it usually does when you think you have everything planned but it’s nothing we haven’t been able to sort out without some hard work.
Both Richard and Johan designed the sleeve which looks amazing (it’s a gate fold sleeve) and Ivo did the art for the inner sleeve.
My work in all this have been sending countless of emails, texts and calling everyone involved, trying to keep calm when things have been delayed at the pressing plant. There haven’t been any PR firm involved or any expensive promo service which I’ve payed for sending out the album. We more or less decided together that this album is something people should be able to get themselves if they want. At the end of the day it’s all about the music.

WWD: 3 Reasons Stockholm is great for electronic music?
Abba, polar bears and pickled herring.
WWD: On a personal note, what goals are you driving towards right now? Any new Tooli productions in the pipeline?
I’m going to keep on doing what I do really – and hopefully get a driving license too.
… and a few original productions and remixes is coming, yes. Next up is a remix of my friend Henry Rodrick which is out on Omena in a few weeks, it’s called ”Daybreak” and turned out pretty neat. I have tracks ready for an EP, I’m working on a few remixes that will be out during the next couple of months and a few other projects.
WWD: Before we let you go! You’ve very kindly put a little mix together for us, can you tell us a bit about what one will find in there?
Besides the sloppy mixing it’s all Omena tracks. A few released, others will be out later this year. I realized I haven’t done a mix focused on Omena so I figured it was time to do one.
Buy HNNY – Sunday here.
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