Matthew Hoag

Being anonymous music aficionado, music professional or a sexy Pacha girl, there are two things you really should know about Matthew Hoag: meeting him in person is always fun - but joining him for the night clubbing could be a life changing experience. This vivid, warm, cheerful, friendly bon vivant isn’t just one of those guys who want to play music. He’s spent years to explore the technical and business aspect of it and he’s always intrigued with the combinations of different art forms that full it. Recently he has came to the conclusion, that no matter what, club life is nothing if not expression of artistic mind made in sincere human interactions, so he’ll be focusing on that with his new initiative Dice Man in the years to come.

Matthew’s creativity provides the best results in the sun, salty water and all year long summer environment. Or in his own words: "I am Mediterranean by breed and Latino by soul. I am a passionate guy." He experienced his first club night as a 12 years old boy and instantly fell in love with the concept of spreading the positive vibe among people with the music. His passion for warm tech-house has taken him to a non-stop around the globe journey, performing in countries such as Brazil (Experience Festival), Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Serbia, Greece, Austria, Germany, Belgium (I Love Techno) Luxembourg, USA (WMC), UK, France Poland, Czech Republic, Croatia, Italy, Macedonia as well as his favourite place to be - Ibiza.

“I was born and raised in a pocket sized Slovenia and lived for a while in a cosmopolitan New York, but nothing beats Ibiza. Here it really feels like home. Everything’s perfect: I like the language, food, the warmth of this open minded people, beautiful nature, rich nightlife, here’s no taboos in sex or the way people live and act. Ibiza is the greatest club culture Mecca in the World. And it’s the only place where, no matter how big the whole industry, music as an art form still matters. Here, people really appreciate creativity and artists and all hedonism aside they still share the right values.

Matthew spent the last two years on road with his fellow countryman Umek as his tour manager and warm up deejay. "It was a once in a lifetime experience. I’ve learnt a lot, especially about the business aspect of music and club culture, got to know many interesting people and seen some amazing places. But on this account I’ve neglected the art in my music, especially the production." So he returned into the studio, got back to the drawing board and started working on the fresh output that already shows some results. "In the music I’m looking for the peace and tranquility. In the past I’ve allowed to myself too many compromises as an artist. Although I’m a tech-house deejay and I can adapt to both genres, techno or house, I’ve neglected the warm, organic, vocal sound. At some point my sets became too aggressive, so I decided to step of the train, gather my thoughts and start all over again."

Being less and less intrigued by the business aspect of the music Matthew focuses on art and people. His Dice Man project is a unique open source organization, which includes a label of the same name but is mainly operating as an inter-artists networking platform. "I don’t want to constrain the collaborating artists in any way, artists need freedom to express themselves, but especially less experienced ones need a little bit of help or a small push along the way and that’s what the Dice Man is all about - socializing and sharing ideas. I don’t want be a #1 DJ, I don’t even want to be a no. 1 DJ in Slovenia, I just want to share positive vibe with my music. And people will decide if they want to join me."