Hervé has made his career about making house music – specifically, jackin', bass and disco house music. He launched his label, Cheap Thrills, in 2008, at the height of the blog haus era, in a time when the internet's streaming capital was just emerging through online blogs and publications like this one.
Cheap Thrills has gone on to help propel many a career, including Jack Beats and Fake Blood. Now in 2018 the label celebrates a decade of existence, with a compilation showcasing some of its favorite artists – including a favorite collaborative duo of Hervé himself and Armand van Helden. Hervé joined us to give us a rundown of his favorite tracks from the release, with some notable moments throughout his label's development.
Herve – "Cheap Thrills" (Armand van Helden Remix)
Armand was a real inspiration for me – the way he used samples, multiple pseudonyms and made his own tunes from start to finish! I knew that if ever I got a chance I would ask him to remix something for me and when Ministry of Sound picked up the original I knew that was my chance. They say never meet your heroes, and I agree, but Armand was definitely an exception. Later on, I also got to make a track with him (how that came about is another story, involving lost then randomly found files and samples) also on Ministry, which was quite a trip to be producing a track with him.
Bloodline – "Tribute 6"
I started this moniker, as the title of the track suggest, as tributes to the old early nineties American house that we used pay a small fortune for in order to pick them up on US import! Mainly inspired by Todd Terry and Armand VH, I was just producing them for fun between Hervé stuff and before I knew it, I had 9 or 10 of them, so thought I may as well start releasing them as EPs.
Kill Frenzy – "54321" (Voodoo Chilli Edit)
I think this was one of his first releases, quite early on in the life of the label. I just remember getting the demo of the EP and it was really quirky (a couple of them were actually quite mental!) in a kind of Mr Oizo way, 54321 was the standout track. Ii did an edit of it under my Voodoo Chilli moniker to make it suited my DJ sets a bit more. I salute anyone who can put a sax break in their track and make it work.
Origin and Mella Dee – "Talkin Bout"
I first met Mella Dee 6/7 years ago through my friend (DJ) Martelo. They came over to my house and I signed an EP of his Mista Men stuff, UK garage vibes, for my Deeper Thrills label. This was a cool little collab with Origin that came soon after, a kind of hybrid garage/bass roller with some old school keyboard flourishes.
Machines Don't Care feat. Taiki Nulight – "Wreckage"
I’d just singed a record to Sony as Machines Don’t Care (another story that involves Little Mix, Mike Pickering and Simon Cowell’s record label!) and was in the process of reviving the alias further with some more underground collabs. I originally signed Taiki and Nulight as a duo and we did some releases, early UK bass vibes, then one of them left and become Secondcity… So this was me and Taiki going out under his re-modelled moniker, dropping the "and", to just Taiki Nulight.
Connect with Herve on Spotify here.
