Page 23 - We Rave You Magazine | July 2022

COVER INTERVIEW > CARL COX AND CHRISTOPHER COE

Five years ago you created Awesome Soundwave (ASW),
a label focused exclusively on live artists. How did you
come up with this idea? Take us back to the moment of
the creation of this project.
COX: Well, back in 2017, we were at lunch in Melbourne (as
you do!) and Christopher was telling me about his new
album inspired by the mountains in Ireland and his plan to
perform it entirely live with a whole audio-visual element. I
was really inspired by this and decided then and there that
we should start a label to release this amazing work! And,
on top of that, we should make it a live-only label, focused
on releasing artists who perform live exclusively. Christo-
pher’s album set the bar really and was the starting fire for
this project! I felt this was a great new direction to go in as
things needed a shake-up!

COE: Yeah, I was telling Carl about the album ‘MNTNS of
SLNC’ which I had just been recording in the West of Ireland
(Inspired by the rugged landscape there) and how I had
been developing my live show around that. I was excited
about the project but didn’t expect it would suit Carl’s label
at the time Intec as it was a more atmospheric record. But
he just came out and said “Wow! We have to release this! In
fact, we need to start a new label for it!” I was blown away!
And then he said, “And, it’s a live label, live artists only!” Well,
of course, I jumped in! And next thing I know we have set up
a company and are now running a label!

The name Awesome Soundwave came from a whole load of
brainstorming and I was reading a Buddhist text about the
‘Awesome Sound King’ and thought that sounds cool, what
if it was Awesome Soundwave?! Out of a whole list of ideas,
Carl immediately picked that one out and said this is the
name! So, there you go.

Although you both come from techno, at ASW there are
no genre boundaries. How do you curate artists? What do
you look for?

Well, the first, and foremost element is that the artist is a
committed live electronic artist with a long-term vision
for their work. Preferably with an already established track
record of playing live. This doesn’t mean they have to be
well recognised, just that they are committed live artists
and their music is Awesome!

Doesn’t have to be techno no, for example, we have Digital
Afrika on the roster, they are a deep afro house unit! Really,
we don’t want to be pigeon-holed into one genre and
neither do we want to restrict our artists in this way either.

We want to find and introduce new artists and support
them on their journey where we can as well as work with
established live electronic artists.

22 we rave you.com PC: CARL & CHRIS AT STABLE MUSIC & ASW PRESENTS AWESOME SOUNDWAVE LIVE AT MELBOURNE MUSIC WEEK - DEC 2021 - JUAN CASTRO july 2022 23