We recently caught up with our label artist Betoko .

Where do you come from, and how did you end up in London?

I was born and raised in Guadalajara, Mexico and moved to london in 2002, actually I just came to visit my brother who was living here at the time and while I was here I was working on a couple of projects, my brother introduced me to some people here and i got a publishing offer from AMI/SONY/ATV so i took it and stayed , he he..

When did you start producing music? What has been your musical journey, did you play in bands, go to music school?what instruments do you play?

I guess I’ve been producing since i was a kid, I used to have 2 cassette decks so i would record a drum part and then play back that drum part from onde deck and play a bass part and so on until I had the whole parts layeyer, I guess it was my form of multitracking, and by the end of all the parts being recorded you could hear a bit of music in the background and a horrendous load of hiss and hum…great!
I played in lots of bands years and years ago, I played bass and sung, drums, keys… I’ve done it all!

What other music projects are you working on?

I’m always writing and producing artists at the famous Red Bus Studios, I try to have at least 2 days of writting with different top line writers and the rest of days I work on my personal stuff, I’m working with LOPAZZ on a follow up to our release on Get Physical, I’m also working on a new EP with Mar-T and a few other new cool collaborations.

Tell us about this Madonna release you were involved with, whats the full story.?

well this was a lucky one… some years ago i was working with Dino Lenny quite often, and one of the tracks we made “Feels like Home” was quite succesful as it entered the sales charts in Europe and the US. it was out on Yoshitoshi and in the US it reached number 3 at the Billboard TV and Radio Airplay. One day out of the blue we got contacted by Madge’s lawyers in LA saying that she loved the track and she wanted to use it on her Live tour to Mash it up with her song “Like a prayer” and so she did!
after the tour was over she released a DVD and CD of the tour, and now I have a very happy bank manager

The release is called Lamento Azteka what does it mean? And why did you choice this name?what instruments did you use in the track?

Lamento Azteka means an Aztek Lament or mourn, when I hear the Ocarina and the way it’s played I can imagine an Aztek man in his time on the top of a hill letting everyone know he is mourning someone he’s just lost…

Tell us about your label Oko recordings any exiting new releases we should look out for?

OKO has been running for 2 years now I’m quite happy the way it’s turned out, i think I found the sound for it
there’s a few things in line, an Al Zhimer Release also a Betoko Release and some new collaborations.