Paranoid Funk
As an artist and also as a private person I always set myself targets. The first one was to create a remix that was releasable, the next one was to be signed to a label and release my own single… and then, yes an album! Creating a reflection of my skills, knowledge, talent and creativity is something that I feel separates me from being just a DJ or one of many artists releasing EPs. I wanted to go bigger and create a milestone. As so often in my life, things snowballed. I asked Phonique to undertake a remix for one of my projects and we agreed on a swap, meaning I had to do a remix for him as well. So I completed a remix for his album which was about to be released on Dessous Recordings, the deeper sister-label of Steve Bug’s Poker Flat Recordings. Steve Bug was always someone I looked up to and so after the release of my remix I sent him some original tracks of myself – which he immediately signed to be released on his label, so I became part of the Poker Flat family early in 2011. One day I met Steve in Miami for lunch during the Winter Music Conference at which we spoke about some upcoming projects and I told him that a wish of mine is to produce an album. He asked me “so why don’t you do it?” I had never really had concrete thoughts about it until this as I also didn’t want to release it on some random label. He offered me to release my album on Poker Flat if I decided to do one. From this moment on it was clear for me that I needed to start this project immediately because there are things in life you only get offered once and chances like this should not be missed. Poker Flat is a big, experienced and established label, with many great people working there and there was no better timing and platform to release an album. The baby took me 9 long months, but I was and still am more than happy with the result.
Becoming a label owner
Founding my own label has always been a dream that I’ve had. Creating a platform for artists I like and releasing music I’m 100% behind.
To run a label and release music is one thing but to release stuff with a certain quality that you personally like and would buy yourself is another thing. Becoming a label owner was another interesting and challenging experience in my life. I created my labels to become platforms for a crew of talented artists, who share the same thoughts and feelings about House Music and its way of life as I do. Everyone involved has to want to create a platform to release music that stands for quality. Now 3 years after my first label Soulfooled was born, I look back and it’s so nice and interesting to see how this shaped up to great things – starting in 2010 with almost no experience in A&R work, label management, PR and no idea about distribution and all other necessary things, I’m now more than happy and proud to see where we are today. Soulfooled was kind of a training horse for me, patient and sympathetic, growing with me step by step. Of course there are a lot of things that I would and actually am doing differently today but all in all I am happy with how everything developed. In addition to Soulfooled, I founded AEON, my second label earlier this year. After having a few years experience in being a label owner, it was nice to being able to start this new imprint in a more professional way from the very outset. I’m also working with lots of great people who are as professional and experienced in the field as I am. Now, about 6 months after my 2nd label was born, I can say that both of them are doing super well and contrasting perfectly with each other. Soulfooled is for softer, melodic housey, dreamy tunes which touch your heart immediately, AEON characterizes the early “rave culture”, classic and timeless House/Techno combined with the technical possibilities and influences of today. Think “mid 90s”, “Chicago”, “Detroit” and “Techno-House”.
Besides this, another important factor was to build up my labels not only as a platform to release music but also as a brand and home for the artists I like and want to push. In my opinion there’s much more behind running a label than just releasing one EP after another, like many labels do nowadays. It’s important to build a team, that’s what a label lives from. Of course I can be successful very quickly by releasing the right names and go with the hype and chase trends but the question is how long this type of success remains. In the past it has always been proven in my opinion that things which are built up slowly but constantly with the right decisions at the right time – in the end give you a better and longer-range success. I want to give newcomers a shelter and be someone for whom they can always ask for advice, I’d like to share my experiences with them, help them to develop themselves, save them from doing the same mistakes that I did when I was younger, give them support and help them grow bigger in this constantly enlarging music-industry-jungle both inside and outside of AEON and Soulfooled.