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Nick Miamis is the man behind the scenes of the powerhouse CUT label group and the cutting edge artist Side Liner. A man with a plate that always seems to have room for more, Nick has been carefully planning and nurturing his music for 10 years and the 3 label juggernaut for half a decade. He was courteous enough to make room on that massive plate for an interview with me.

Greetings to all Chillbase readers, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Nick Miamis, I was born in Athens Greece. I have always felt connected with the mountains and sea since I was a child, even more now with my move up into the city of Kineta. As a kid I would listen to the radio all the time, recording on tape my favorite songs. I discovered electronic music in 1993 on one of the first local Greek radio stations to play that kind of music. My interests began with groups like The Prodigy, Komakino and moved into Acid Trance, mainly DJ Misjah from the label X-Trax. I then started listening to Trance, primarily Platipus Records and continued down that path with Goa Trance and artists such as Transwave, Astral Projection, Chakra and more. My music collection started as tapes; either purchased or recorded from the radio; then to vinyl any way I could get my hands on it. I am also a CD lover and as of late, a digital download freak. Music will continue flow through my veins for all the days of my life.

CUT label group, formed in 2005, is comprised of Cosmicleaf, Unicorn and Tempest Recordings. We joined all these labels under the CUT alliance to allow us to be more flexible in deals, promotion and to help secure our future in music business. After half a decade of success we are proud of the decision we made. I am the label manager for Cosmicleaf and Unicorn and the assistant manager of CUT Music label group.

CUT this year has matured her catalogue greatly, with fresh artists in her roster and a wider variety of styles. Tempest just released a fantastic Nu Jazz Downtempo album from Audiosauce, also in the works is the debut album from Red Eye Express. Unicorn Music continues with dance EP's from Aviron, Myproduct and a recently released electro EP with Geedel remixes (A.K.A. Cydelix) on C.O.D.E. Music. Cosmicleaf; after the 2009 release, my own (Side Liner) “Missing Piece of A Puzzle”; starts this year with the fresh album from Easily Embarrassed, “Planet Discovery” and continues in 2010 with the debut album from Cydelix (22 January) and the new blood in our roster, Valdi Sabev (22 February) and Zen Garden (12 March).

We will continue our original vision for the group: a tight roster of artists that we will support in every way possible to help deliver high quality albums as quickly as creativity will allow to their audience. We dream of the day that all our artists will be able to release a full album every year.

I have been in the music business since 1999, when I signed my first exclusive contract with Discobole Records. For 5 years, I released melodic Trance as Mendark and Naga (with George Katsimpris). During that period we sold over 5.000 CD’s in our first month in Greece and we could easily draw to events we played 3.000 people with 1 or 2 names and DJ support. I still remember a great gig with Yahel back in 2001 when he was playing a different style of music also. Naga disbanded in 2001 and Mendark’s last production was the collaboration with Radical Distortion on their debut album “Regenesis”. These alter egos were a big chapter of my music life as a producer and in total different genre than my new musical direction as Side Liner.

I hope to be able to deliver “Human Recycle” before summer 2010. I have one track left; a collaborative effort with Sunhize; but these damn obligations over the last few months have been stealing my production time. The concept of this album speaks to a time when human kind in our current form will reach its end as a result of our stupidity, and Mother Nature; that we have hurt so much and continue to do so; will give us a second chance be with her, helping us “somehow” to survive.

I’m mainly using a soundcard synthesizer, Creamware Pulsar. I am a software freak with live instruments occasionally used in collaborations like guitars with Arcane Trickster and Red Eye Express. I used Yamaha and Roland hardware in my early productions of my alter ego's.

Surely my past listening experiences have influenced me a lot in how my production style has evolved. As a listener I enjoy a lot of music: Max Melvin, Conjure One, Ballomingo, Schiller, Lemongrass; our artists D. Batistatos and Audiosauce; as always Aural Planet and Solar Fields. Hard to say who has influenced me more but I can say who taught me to produce music, and that is Cydelix. Exploration is always an integral part of each new project concept, “Human Recycle” will reach the end of one journey and the next adventure will start as soon as possible.

A big hello from Greece.

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Nick Miamis

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Side Liner

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Cosmicleaf

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