Cormac McMahon DJs under the name Welfare and, together with Rob Flynn, now runs Ireland’s newest bass music label Rua Sound. Originally from Monaghan, he lived in Dublin for ten years before moving to Galway five years ago. He works three days a week with university students with disabilities and spends the rest of his time as a promoter, soundsystem operator, producer and DJ. McMahon explains how he got started: “I got decks when I was twenty-three and spent two years pricking around, playing at house parties. I was playing techno but was also into breakbeat.” In 2007, McMahon co-founded a music crew made up of leftist radicals: Electronic Resistance: “We ran nights in alternative spaces and the money we raised we’d give to various leftist groups. We’d do squat parties, we used to have our own small soundsystem and generator and we’d rock up to protests and do street parties.” McMahon then got involved in Ireland’s first Dubstep label, DubCulture. He expands: “the label was ran by a friend of mine Stephen Concannon, who’s since passed away. He was releasing music by Irish and British artists and putting on nights in Galway.” After Dubstep began to fizzle out around 2010, McMahon switched his focus to Jungle, “that’s when we started Jungle Boogie which is just basically a crew of five DJs based in different cities in Ireland, each member putting on a party in their city, we’d do a tour each year.”

McMahon met label co-owner Rob Flynn when Rob booked him to play in Cork in early 2009. “We have slightly different tastes in music but we share the same vision. We have enough experience to take on a project like this, which is on the business end. If you’re selling records, you’ve got to be able to know what DJs are going to buy.” Elucidating on the experience which has equipped him for setting up a label McMahon says, “I’ve made some really good contacts in the UK over the years and this is vital because to start a label you need to have the right music. To get that music you need trust and to know people who can vouch for you. I’d brought enough guys over for shows that I had a good reputation. You’ve just got to be prepared to put up with a lot of emails and time spent trawling through music looking for new producers.” McMahon touches on some of the difficulties of running an Irish bass music label: “you’re disconnected physically from the scene [in the UK], because let’s face it, it’s UK dance music, influenced strongly by it’s Caribbean roots”, but he adds, “now with social media and the like, the barriers are becoming smaller, once you’ve got some get up and go.” The debut release on the label features Sully, a producer who is very low-key but at the cutting edge of bass music. Sully’s two tracks on the EP are a sublime mixture of rolling jungle beats and sharp synths; the third track on the record is a Sam Binga remix. McMahon explains how the release came about, “I brought Sully over and we did two shows, one in Belfast and the other in Dublin. He had a really good time and a couple of weeks later I pitched the idea of releasing some music on the label to him and he said yes.”

He goes on to expand on the process of getting the music to the point where it has been pressed on vinyl saying, “A lot of times you’ll get tracks which aren’t finished and you as a label have to know what you want your sound to be, you listen to those and give a little feedback to the artist. After you get the tracks finished, then there’s long process of getting the record manufactured because there is a lot of demand for vinyl production at the moment and not much supply.” Rua Sound have a press and distribution contract with Kudos, “a major player in underground distribution”, and the records themselves are pressed in France by a company called MPO. McMahon continues, “once the tunes are ready to go , it’s about getting them mastered, getting test-presses done to make sure there’s no problems with the press – in all you’re talking about up to three months lead-time.” McMahon cautions that distributors will not even talk to you unless you have a clear plan that shows that they are going to make something from the project. Since the release of the EP almost three weeks ago, the record has sold out and McMahon is quick to praise the artists involved, “It’s a great start, Sully made it and getting Sam Binga on the remix, all these things count.”  When asked about the type of music that Rua Sound are going to release McMahon explains that “it’s about releasing music that you like, but while I like techno, it’s not something we’re focusing on because we don’t have a strong knowledge of it. Broken-beat bass music is the area in which we know what’s coming, who’s doing what and you kind of have to know this – you need to be well informed.”

Building on this success he talks about the plans for Rua Sound going forward, “our plan is to release a record every three months and initially we plan on having a launch party for each one, but maybe pull back on those once we’re more established,” later adding, “although we’re starting with established names, we want to dig deep and see what going on [in the music scene].” McMahon is tight-lipped about the specifics of their future releases but does say that, “obviously the first release was jungle-y but the Sam Binga remix was a nod to the fact that we’re interested in half-time manipulations and weird time signatures at 160 BPM. The next release will be from that 160/170 uptempo melting pot […] it’s just what excites us at the moment.” It’s always good to see Irish record labels being set up but Rua Sound are especially exciting because of their enthusiasm for more experimental higher tempo bass music and the success of their debut EP surely shows that there is an appetite for this music as well. 2016 has already started in a big way from them, but with three more releases due this year, it will be a frantic and hopefully successful freshman year for Rua Sound.

Like the Rua Sound Facebook page to keep informed about future releases.

Photos courtesy of D.I.E. monthly student night, Limerick.