Given the legacy that comes with New York’s cultural impact in the electronic underground, the stakes are pretty high for a record label based in the Big Apple to become established. Take Strictly Rhythm with its garage grooves; Nervous Records, King Street or Eightball where legends like Kerri Chandler, Todd Terry, DJ Sneak and Mood II Swing blended deep, soulful, garage sounds to cement what we call today NYC House.
Taking a slightly different path, while bringing the early 90s roots into modern times, we found Onysia Records, a young record label born in 2019 and focused on exploring the deeper territories of house music, with a tad bit of minimal accents . Already with 10 releases under its belt, Onysia is the soul project of J Gabriel, who is running most of its business while also releasing his own studio work under Onysia and Convent labels.With guest appearances by Bruno Pronsato, Dorian Paic, Tom Ellis or Tommy Vicari jnr, Onysia’s sound is intriguing to say the least so we needed to explore a bit the creative force behind the label, as well as creating an X ray photo of how does the NYC’s underground sounds like today. With no further introduction, here’s Onysia’s story on the New York backdrop!
Do you remember how the Onysia project was born in the first place?
My friend Kev O’Brien has run several successful labels over the years (most recently launched Hypnodose) and noticed the amount of output from my J Gabriel project and suggested it ! As things started taking off in the studio I needed an outlet, it made easy sense to do it especially with Kev as a mentor. And then pretty quickly launched Convent for those edgier twilight hour sounds to keep Onysia on the more daytime friendly tip.
What’s the story behind the Onysia name?
Love this question. I’m a big fan of The Doors, have read all the books on them and there was one that kept talking about Jim Morrison’s fascination with all things Dionysian. In Greek Mythology this is the god of wine and revelry, they would throw festivals with ecstatic dance and other activities of interest… There’s a sensual and intoxicating connotation with the word, so yeah it’s a shortened version of Dionysia .
Is there a bigger team behind the Onysia / Convent labels?
I consider our mix and mastering engineers indispensable parts of the team, also PR people we work with… And now doing some label parties of course we’re collaborating with folks. But behind the labels it’s mostly just me.
One might say that Onysia dives into the deeper territories of house music. After almost 10 releases, is this still true?
Yeah I don’t anticipate the approach or sound to shift too radically, ever, really. It’s a certain timelessness that can exist in deep house, that’s what I’m always looking for. Maybe we’re not pushing the most popular sound at any given moment, but it will hold up and still be interesting to listen to in 10 years, 20 years, is the goal. We are expanding a bit to encompass a wider range of sounds, but plan is to keep most of the techy/dubby type of material for release on Convent, the sister label.
Define the Onysia sound in 3 words. Daytime Deep House
A&R for Onysia: most of the featured artists are established ones: from Dorian Paic or Akufen to Tom Ellis? Are you open to accept demos also or is it just a closed circuit affair?
A bit of both I suppose, the main thing is really good music with a certain quality in the production…that tends to be most easily found in established artists who have spent quite a bit of time developing their craft into something noteworthy and special. Generally people have stood out and made a name for themselves for this very reason, right? We have had success in securing the right material from those folks, so it’s pretty ideal as far as the label’s mission and goals. For the most part I find a pretty direct correlation between how long somebody has been at it and the quality of their output. Nearly all of my favorite producers (making what is to me the best sounding stuff) are a half generation older than myself…In any case of course I’m always hoping to receive some amazing demos and discover new up and coming artists! And indeed have been sent some good things.
How does the underground scene in NYC look like, compared to how it was before the pandemic?
Hmm well that’s a bit ways back to try and recall some hazy memories haha, I mean I can say right now the scene is firing on all cylinders. We have some world class clubs with consistent solid programming like Holo, Public Records, and now Signal which is walking distance from my studio so quite convenient and amazing bookings. Maybe there are less exciting DIY and warehouse parties, the scene feels a bit more playing it safe these days? And most everything underground has moved to Brooklyn, which has it’s perks but I miss the days of great parties in Manhattan. I dare say the Brooklyn scene is now more popular so maybe a bit more commercialized. But that’s true of House music in general. We see what happens… no real complains about NYC these days thats for sure.
Can we say that Onysia breathes the specific NYC house music air through its releases?
Yeah I think so, somehow does feel like a NYC label in the sound we’ve woven, although it’s mostly through artists from around the world – Connie and I are the only New Yorkers on the roster (so far). Even if it’s not easily put into words, there is a certain aesthetic here…you know it when you hear it.
Did the new leadership in the US affect the clubscene?
Well I always say New York City is sort of a country in itself, at least it feels that way when you’re living here full time. Also I’m careful about tuning into media too much, really not good for mental health and interferes with maintaining an optimistic mindstate. I would say that the political climate in NYC has shifted to be a bit more nightlife friendly, it feels like the city is finally waking up from a long cold streak and there are concrete things happening which support progress for our scene.
Owning an electronic music record label: does it have the slightest profit margin or is it just for the love of house music?
It’s definitely for the love of house music, but that doesn’t mean a label can’t be profitable. Especially if it’s promoting events, or ends up with a popular vinyl collecting following… I feel somewhat conflicted when I see people who are too successful on the profit side, even if there is plenty of love in the equation – because inevitably pursuit of money will cause some problems where art is concerned, one way or another. But on the other hand there isn’t really any good antidote to this age old problem haha. Maybe someday we will evolve into a society that supports artistic communities properly, so events don’t rely on alcohol sales to turn a profit and producers can get easier access to professional tools and engineers to help elevate the art form even further.
In a world where instant gratification and social media mirrors are invading the underground, is there still a place for a vinyl record label in the undergrounds?
Yeah maybe more so than ever, I mean there was a wave of everyone embracing digital, DJs rocking Traktor and Serato, and now there’s a bit of a backlash to digital and people wanting to return to vinyl roots. And everybody knows vinyl sounds better! Haha. But ultimately, to me what matters more is high quality music coming from producers – I think that’s a bigger issue actually. If there is enough incredible music that people are willing to pay for on wax, we are all good. But it feels even when there is an upsurge in vinyl popularity, is the music quality really matching the trend? I don’t know, but whether it’s coming out one wax or digitally, I just want better quality in the scene, across the board. It’s tricky because sales are so slumped and profits so low in digital, producers don’t have the same budgets to work out of pro studios, to work with trained mix engineers, to upgrade gear… and even worse- now technology lets people master their own work too, it really is a bad idea in my view. I’m a big proponent of analog sound, of pro mixdowns, and at minimum pro mastering. It’s a bit saddening when a great musical idea is executed just so-so on the technical side… This is something I’m always endeavoring to improve in my own work, as well. And the more you dig into how that is achieved by the artists we hold dear, a picture comes into play which is not an individual in their bedroom just doing everything themselves – even if there are rare super talents who can pull that off.. So yea I feel the vinyl vs digital conversation is just the tip of the iceberg. Don’t get me wrong there are a ton of great ideas coming out, but timeless records? Not so much… why is that? And that’s where production quality really matters. My view.
Tommy Vicari’s jnr’s Needs Of You: a more laid back trip than the rest of Onysia’s back catalog: is this a new sound direction for the label?
Well I’m not sure, because we have quite a bit of laid back style house music in the catalog. Actually the label has been putting out progressively a bit more higher octane stuff, the past few releases… Ideally any given release reflects both some contemplative deep house and some dancefloor focused friendly minimal type vibes far as Onysia goes.
What’s cooking for the next couple of years?
Well we just dropped a music video for our latest single J Gabriel & Connie Yin – The Rusty Slide which is a milestone, that’s out on Convent. And the first Convent Records pop up party in celebration of the video release, which was awesome. That included the debut of my J Gabriel (Live) show which is a whole new thing. We will continue to develop an event series and feature label artists and add to the roster. The pipeline is real strong for both Onysia and Convent, so plenty of great releases in store! Really dope material from Jay Tripwire, Bruno Pronsato, Thomas Melchior, Dorian Paic, Tommy Vicari Jnr, Ibiza up and comer Bruno Roth, and more…
A clubhead New York City weekend: pick up one record shop, one small venue for a nice electronic music weekend and one breakfast spot in NY.
Ah I’m never good at picking just 1! And not much of a breakfast person to be honest, like i don’t really eat breakfast is that weird? Haha. But the simplest answer, I say go to Public Records and do it all ! Amazing food, space, music, everything. And they do epic Sunday funday daytime playtime style parties, my personal favorite. I mean there are a few record shops worth checking out, depending on the type of digging you are in the mood for… Best brunch I’ve had is at Nura which sits on the northern edge of McCarren park in Greenpoint but maybe get a reservation for peak hours. If you’re a real club head you must check out Holo and Signal, along with Public Records, those are the best underground clubs in NYC right now.