Label bosses of UV Records, Paul Thomas and Das Pharaoh, are key figures in the progressive house community. With a revival of the scene happening right now, Das and Paul have captured the zeitgeist with an incredible new podcast, Underground Live Forever. We sat down with them to discuss the concept, special guests, UV’s early beginnings, and more!
WWD: Hi Guys! Welcome to When We Dip! Where are you right now?
Paul: Hey guys. I’m in my office at home in London, preparing for Christmas by getting all the label and podcast work out of the way
Fadi: I’m in Cairo, working on new music for 2026.
WWD: You’ve obviously known each other for a while. What’s the story behind UV records?
Paul: Me and Fadi bumped into each other backstage at a festival in India, completely by chance. Fadi told me he wanted to launch a progressive label. He’s always had a passion for music and I thought that would be perfect for me to work on too as I was looking to work on a new project at that time.
Fadi: Paul sent me some of his latest music and it was a perfect fit for what I wanted to do with the new label. We met again in Amsterdam a couple of months later and worked out a plan to launch the label, which was launched later that year.
WWD: We’ve seen the first two ULF video podcasts and they are brilliant. What made you decide to start a podcast?
Fadi: We really wanted to bring something new to our UV brand beyond just releasing music and doing events, something that other people weren’t necessarily doing, something a little more unique but also something that could help the scene.
Paul: It’s something that we think is missing within the progressive sphere. There’s a few shows for trance, but nothing really for progressive on this tip. We also see it as a platform for everyone within the scene to use as a tool to promote themselves. Whether that be record labels and artists sending us music to play, DJ’s coming into the studio to play mixes, or artists, promoters, label owners or anything else within our sphere discussing their ideas and concepts in an interview.
WWD: The format is great – more like a ‘Later…with Paul and Das’ than a traditional podcast, where guests do a 3-4 track mix with some very natural chat in between. Have either of you done anything like this before?
Paul: No – in fact I hate this kind of stuff usually! I have always disliked doing video greetings and things like that, but to do something different, you have to step out of your comfort zone and test yourself.
Fadi: To relax ourselves more about it, we look at it as just playing music and having a chat with friends. That way we can be ourselves and kind of forget the cameras are running.
WWD: The series started off strong with Ruben Karaptyan, Mir Omar, and Blake Jarrel as your guests. Who else have you got coming up?
Paul: That was a really cool episode. I was super nervous at the very beginning. But as soon as Ruben started talking about how great this project was, I just relaxed. The next one we have Alex O’Rion, GMJ and Matter in the studio for a Meanwhile X SOLIS takeover.
Fadi: We also have Roger Martinez, Juan Buitrago, Greta Meier, Paul James Nolan coming up, plus loads more great artists planned.
WWD: You shot the first few episodes at Armada’s Studio in Amsterdam. What’s the plan going forward and will you be taking the ULF podcast on the road?
Paul: We are going to regularly record from the Armada studios. They have been really great with their help, we can’t thank them enough!
Fadi: We are also looking at recording some episodes from various destinations around the world. Paul and I are touring together in January so we are looking to record some episodes live from some venues also.
WWD: Who would be one of your dream guests to have on the ULF podcast?
Paul: Probably Sasha. Although we would probably end up talking more about football than we would about music!
WWD: With a surge in popularity right now, how do you see progressive house evolving over the next two years?
Paul: However it evolves, I just hope it keeps its uniqueness and originality. What I really love about the progressive house scene is noone is making music to fit a brand or copying style and techniques like they do in some other genres. They are just making music because that’s what they love. As long as that continues, the evolution will be great.
WWD: With the festive season right around the corner, can you suggest three great house tracks we could play while opening presents or spending time with our families?
WWD: Amazing choices! Thanks for the chat, guys 🙂
Subscribe to the UV’s Youtube channel here