Label Focus – Ocha Records

WHAT’S THE NAME OF YOUR LABEL, AND WHO RUNS IT?

Our label is called Ocha Records, and I – Carlos Mena aka Casamena – am the President and CEO. Day-to-day operations and A&R are managed by Coflo.

.WHEN & WHY DID THE LABEL START?

Ocha Records was born in Miami during WMC in 2007. Osunlade and I wanted to start a new label together to focus on styles of house that were just emerging. Ocha is short for Orisha and a nod to Osunlade’s Yoruba Records imprint.

GIVE US A BRIEF SUMMARY OF WHAT YOU’VE RELEASED SINCE THEN….

We have been blessed to have been able to release some amazing music over the years. We have had releases with music from Black Coffee, Ron Trent, Osunlade, Deetron, Black Motion, Paul Johnson, Timmy Regisford, Quentin Harris and Danny Krivit to name a few. We also launched a South African imprint, Ocha Mzansi, that really focuses on shining a spotlight on the amazing talents coming out of South Africa.

WHAT QUALITIES ARE YOU LOOKING FOR IN THE MUSIC YOU RELEASE?

We are always looking for originality, interesting sound design, high-quality production, sounds that make us move and, most of all, soul.

WHAT KIND OF VISUAL IDENTITY DOES THE LABEL HAVE (ARTWORK, VIDEOS ETC)?

Our artwork over the years has primarily focused on variations of the color wheel in our logo. We make exceptions when the artist wants something unique or more representative of the music. As for videos, when budgets allow, we treat each project as its own entity and count on the artist to share their vision and provide their input when we are making a video.

WHAT’S BEEN YOUR BIGGEST SELLING RELEASE TO DATE? TELL US A BIT ABOUT IT AND WHY YOU THINK IT WAS SO POPULAR. 

We have been lucky to have several of our tunes take off. One that I will mention is ‘Mahuwelele’ by Mzee. This South African tune was remixed by legendary French producer Manoo and was quickly embraced by the likes of Black Coffee, DJ Spinna, Ron Trent, and Franck Roger.

Another tune that really did well for us is Velani by Lemon & Herb (Soulful Mix). The energy of the song made it a mainstay for many DJs including again, Black Coffee and the legend Louie Vega.

NAME ONE RELEASE THAT YOU THINK DESERVED TO GET MORE ATTENTION THAN IT DID

The Lemon & Herb album Tomorrow in Detail. It has several terrific vocal house songs that I love.

IF YOU COULD SIGN ANY ARTIST, ALIVE OR DEAD, WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?

Georgia Anne Muldrow. She is an amazing vocalist and a very talented music producer. I would love to see what she can create in the dance music world.

WHICH OTHER LABELS DO YOU ADMIRE AND WHY?

Defected for their ferocious marketing and promotion machine. Yoruba Records and Atjazz Record Company for their quality releases and, lastly, Stay True Sounds, out of South Africa, for focus on representing Deep House and consistently breaking new artists.

WHAT CAN WE LOOK TO FROM YOUR LABEL NEXT?

Just before Christmas we released ‘One More Time’ by Vick Lavender featuring Amma What, which had two mixes from Vick and two from myself.

We have so many cool things coming. We have a release coming on vinyl from Robert Matos featuring Ron Trent called ‘Midnight Jazz Journey’, featuring remixes from myself (Casamena) and Coflo.

We also have a super talented up-and-coming producer named Tomahawk Bang, with a couple of releases, including one with vocalist Nicholas Ryan Gant.

To celebrate our 16-year anniversary, we have recruited Bay Area legend David Harness to create a mix and compilation from our catalog, which includes a few new remixes of some classic Ocha Records tunes.

Ocha artist Evar After also returns with another tune called ‘Operator’, remixed by Coflo, which will drop with a music video in February. And much, much more!

Ben Willmott