Vince Watson Glasgow (Scotland)
Aka: Nico Awtsventin
http://www.vincewatson.co.uk

The Beginning

The disruptive age of 7 is where Vince Watson began his journey towards electronic music. After excelling at music in secondary school, Vince gradually opened up into hip hop and early house music before electronic and industrial elements finally caught his attention. His school needed a new DJ to play at the local weekend disco and this is where the story really started taking shape. With a selection of records unlike any other young DJ around, it wasn’t long before Vince realised he wanted a musical career. Just as the House scene broke large in 87 / 88’, the experimentation began with other styles and the stage was set for what was to be his introduction to Detroit Techno and Electronica, just in time for the summer of love, albeit too young at the time.

As the 90’s took shape, the build up of music equipment started. A course in Music Technology was attended, learning about a new technology called MIDI as well as regular trips for Piano Lesson’s to the Royal Academy for Art, Music and Drama in Glasgow. Vince graduated with an HNC in Music Technology in 1993 and the mission to release his own record was set in motion. It was two difficult years that past until he was able to buy the extra equipment he needed.

Finally, in 1995 Vince decided to send his rough first demos away, and to his delight none other than Dave Angel had offered him a contract with his label Rotation. Overjoyed, he realised it was the start of something he had always desired. The 1st Innovations EP was a great starting point and was to put Vince’s name on the techno map.

Focus

After releasing tracks on other various labels, Watson started Djing in The Arena, Glasgow and it was not long before the Rotation Monthly was set up with himself and Dave Angel as residents and some exclusive monthly guests. Shortly after it became a weekly event with top guests such as Jeff Mills, Miss Djax, Kenny Larkin and Luke Slater. Mr Mills loved it so much he came back another twice in the space of 9 months!

The Tech-House Years

Enter 1997, and with an emphasis on recording, Vince decided to branch out his music styles. Omid ‘16b’ Nourizadeh of Alola records introduced him self and another partnership was born. His debut LP ‘ Biologique ‘ was launched to the world in 1999 and was one of the catalyst’s for the cross TechnoHouse sound of the time. The track ‘Mystical Rhythm’ was a massive selling track and even today still has classic status attached to it from all corners of the electronic community.
2003 also saw the release of Vince’s 2nd Lp Moments in Time on The legendary New York House Label Ibadan. This was a joint release with UK label Alola Records. This allowed him to release many different styles of electronic music and gave the freedom to spread his music out to a larger worldwide audience. Widely received, the album sold many thousands and broke Vince into the Japanese market for the first time.

Bio Music

Year 2000 and a new millennium gave Vince the passion for his own label and created Bio Records and his company Bio Music Ltd. The first releases were launched under his moniker Nico Awtsventin, an anagram of his own name. In the 5 years that has passed since its inception, Bio has developed into one of the most stable and consistent techno labels on the circuit. Choosing to release quality rather than quantity, it has gained support with all top Dj’s spinning tracks and many high profile licensees secured such as the prolific Global by Carl Cox and most recently Laurent Garnier’s Excess Luggage Compilation. The label has released tracks from Ben Sims, Steve Rachmad, Joris Voorn, Deetron, Misstress Barbara, Joel Mull, Mark Broom, Paul Mac, Envoy, Jerome and 65d Mavericks.

The Next Step

2004 saw the launch of Bio’s sister label Subconscious Elements. A more sensual approach to electronic music will be the attention to detail, which is so badly missed in modern day club music. The label has released strong material with music from Carsten Fietz, Noah Pred, Audibelle and Paul Mac, which have been a great success. The Paul Mac release was a real Detroit fusion styled EP for the label, which has been hammered, by François K and Laurent Garnier.
2006 will see the label change name to Bio Elements. A whole host of superb releases has already been lined up from John Dahlback, cousin of Namesake Jesper of Svek fame, Joshua Collins from San Francisco, a new EP by Jerome and also releases by Djinxx from France, Holger Flinsch and Taho from Eona Records.

2004 was also a hugely successful year for his career as an Fcom artist. The 1st release called ‘Pure Innersense’ has been a massive selling release and has gained many licenses already. The 2nd release has just been launched in August 2005. A 3rd release is in development…

A View to the Past

As an attempt to breath new life into Electronica, Vince has also embarked on a series of releases focusing on the UK sounds of Black Dog and Germany’s Basic Channel. ‘Sublimina’ on Glasgow label Headspace was Vince’s 3rd Full length album and was his most accomplished to date gaining huge respect across all divides of the electronic movement, the prelude to which, ‘Lost Episodes Ep’ has already been spun heavily by Dave Clarke and Derrick May. An Ep for Ben Sims ‘Native’ imprint called ‘Fragments’ also experimented with this universally revered sound and a recent remix for Black Dog itself will further enhance the cause.

The Future : Bio Music

Projects in the pipeline include ‘Echoes from the Future : View to the Past’. A collage of lush rhythm and textures created using the whole back catalogue from the labels mixed and created using Ableton Live Software. 3 Album samplers will precede the project on Vinyl only with 6 new tracks being introduced.
Releases from Joel Mull and Sebastian Kramer will also follow in 2006.

Bio Elements will see an exciting line up of releases from Taho, DJinxx, Joshua Collins, Holger Flinsch, Arne Weinberg, Jerome and Amsterdam’s Estroe.

The Future : Vince Watson

Vince has recorded a double EP release for the legendary Detroit techno label Transmat, due for release now in 2006.

An album for electronica label Delsin and a Jazz Inspired Album for Laurent Garnier’s Fcom label.