![SBTRKT (‘Behind the Mask’)
Published: acclaimmag.com, August, 2011.
Aaron Jerome’s SBTRKT moniker is more than just clever, vowel-less text speak, it’s also a working ethos. Pushing against the notion that image and back-story are integral to music, the London producer has pursued a path of anonymity in order remove himself from the equation altogether. It’s hardly unprecedented, but Jerome, who plays in a mask, is intent on letting his music speak for itself. And by the strength of his eponymous debut, it’s in little need of trimmings. ACCLIAM caught up with the masked man who’s turned out one of the years finest electronic albums.
For me, there’s a real coherence to the album, when you set out to record it, was that an important consideration for you?
Yeah, definitely. It was kind of my main ambition in creating an album, even though I’ve used a few different vocalists and go between quite a few different genres of music as well. It doesn’t really blend in your traditional album way I suppose, in that all the tracks sound of a similar vein and similar tempo, but I think there’s a certain atmospheric kind of vibe or something; or something to do with the build up or melodics of the tunes, which sort of blends between them. But yeah, I definitely spent a long time on the ordering of the album as well, to try and make sure the sequencing would work from the beginning to end.
A lot of the genres you traverse and meld together on the album are singles-led for the most part. What’s the appeal of the album format?
I dunno, for me it’s about what excites me in creating songs. I don’t really ever pre-think about the type of genre or the style of track I’m going to make. A lot of that is made on the fly – one day I wanna make this, another day I wanna make that. By the end it was just picking out my strongest tunes, or the ones that’d work together in terms of a record, versus just having lots of massive songs in a row. All of the genres on there are inspired by contemporary music I guess, the dance/electronic stuff going around at the moment, all infused with influences from the past.
I was gonna say, sound-wise the album is a great snapshot of the range of influences prominent in UK bass music at the moment. But by the sound of things that wasn’t a conscious effort for you to try and bring all those influences together, it was just a result of you being immersed in London’s music scene.
Yeah, exactly. I didn’t really ever set out with a certain goal to make something that is going to be the definition of what that kind of dance music is right now. I think that essentially I’m someone that doesn’t really like to sit still in terms of what I write, I always just want to make bigger and better tunes in whatever style that is. So that’s kind of why I go between genres all the time and flip between ideas. I’d get so bored if I had to repeat the same synth line at the same tempo for my next tune, just like the previous one. For me it’s more exciting to do what I want.
In a more general sense, do you feel in there’s a genuine period of experimentation and originality in dance music in the UK at the moment?
Definitely. The music industry, I guess, has helped that. The fact that the Internet is strong and people don’t have to rely on big labels. So I think in that way, you can get away with different ideas and doing what you like. For me I think it’s an exciting time, there’s lots of sub-genres and weird things going on with different people appreciative of very different styles of music.
From my research you’ve been producing for around ten years, but it seems this last 18 months has been incredibly fruitful for you. Do you feel that’s the case and what do you put that down to?
I don’t know, I guess it’s just continually putting out records… and improvement maybe (laughs). For me I always feel that my next record is better than my previous one – that’s my aim anyway: development as an artist and not putting out more of the same really. I think since a few of my early releases, which were more instrumental stuff, collaborating with other artists [has helped] and I think there’s been a lot of response from other peers in the scene which helps things; early on with DJs like Sinden and Mary-Anne Hobbs in the UK, who were scene champions, then that moves on to the more worldwide thing like Modeselector and people that have been championing it. Now, with people like Drake who did a rap version of Wildfire, it’s kind of a continual stream of different people that seem to be feeling what I’m doing.
Even acknowledging all that global recognition, is it still an honour for you to play big nights in the UK like FWD or maybe play a DJ set on Rinse?
Oh yeah totally, it’s really nice to be able to do different scales of things anyway. To be honest, FWD was never the biggest influence for me, I guess, because I oversaw what was going on in the scene, but I was never really hanging out in that club or listening to every set that was going on in that kind of world. But to be able to play on [Rinse FM] and have the freedom to play what I want with my own angle on what goes on in that scene is great.
There are so many influences in UK bass music or post-dubstep, but everyone normally has a way in – whether that’s drum and bass, dubstep or garage – what was your way in?
I guess UK garage, in terms of tempo and the melodics and the skipping grooves of it all really. I was buying loads of records and experimenting production-wise as well. I was trying to copy people I respected a lot. From that I kind delved into everything from that kind of scene, there was a lot going on in sporadic genres which I was appreciative of, but that was my central focal point.
You’d already had a few releases under your own name prior to your success with SBTRKT, but it seems you’ve gone to some lengths to distance yourself from that. Is that in an effort for people to judge SBTRKT simply on the music and not anything else? Almost de-contextualise it in a way?
Well that’s the essential idea; SBTRKT is about removing myself from it all really. I’ve never really felt that side was important to making music or creating it, and I don’t think any producer sits there writing music in the vein that they’re themselves creating songs, generally you imagine some otherworldly place or some kind of crazy atmospheric thing or a different mood that makes you create what you do I think. That for me has become part and parcel of what putting records out is; apparently telling your whole life story with it, which I don’t think is ever really relevant to the kind of music I create or other people in electronic genre’s either. I think it’s more of an imaginary world in a way.
So that obviously ties into the anonymity associated with wearing a tribal mask?
Yeah. And kind of just giving another face to it all really, which is just as creative as the music I suppose.
What have you got planned musically for the immediate future?
Mainly at the moment I’m doing quite a lot of live shows, you know. It’s kind of steadily developing, it’s basically myself on drums and most of the synth parts then Sampha on vocals. We’re essentially taking the album out and playing it in a very different way while we do live shows, experimenting within it and sometimes it works really well, sometimes it doesn’t (laughs). But we’re just really enjoying playing it out live. Other than that, a couple of remixes. I’ve just done one for Radiohead, which is one of the few production things I’m doing at the moment and that’s about it really. Touring seems to take up a lot of my time at the moment.
SBTRKT’s debut album is out now. For more, follow the link here.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrceuf6Lk51qdr1lko1_500.jpg)
SBTRKT (‘Behind the Mask’)
Published: acclaimmag.com, August, 2011.
Aaron Jerome’s SBTRKT moniker is more than just clever, vowel-less text speak, it’s also a working ethos. Pushing against the notion that image and back-story are integral to music, the London producer has pursued a path of anonymity in order remove himself from the equation altogether. It’s hardly unprecedented, but Jerome, who plays in a mask, is intent on letting his music speak for itself. And by the strength of his eponymous debut, it’s in little need of trimmings. ACCLIAM caught up with the masked man who’s turned out one of the years finest electronic albums.
For me, there’s a real coherence to the album, when you set out to record it, was that an important consideration for you?
Yeah, definitely. It was kind of my main ambition in creating an album, even though I’ve used a few different vocalists and go between quite a few different genres of music as well. It doesn’t really blend in your traditional album way I suppose, in that all the tracks sound of a similar vein and similar tempo, but I think there’s a certain atmospheric kind of vibe or something; or something to do with the build up or melodics of the tunes, which sort of blends between them. But yeah, I definitely spent a long time on the ordering of the album as well, to try and make sure the sequencing would work from the beginning to end.
A lot of the genres you traverse and meld together on the album are singles-led for the most part. What’s the appeal of the album format?
I dunno, for me it’s about what excites me in creating songs. I don’t really ever pre-think about the type of genre or the style of track I’m going to make. A lot of that is made on the fly – one day I wanna make this, another day I wanna make that. By the end it was just picking out my strongest tunes, or the ones that’d work together in terms of a record, versus just having lots of massive songs in a row. All of the genres on there are inspired by contemporary music I guess, the dance/electronic stuff going around at the moment, all infused with influences from the past.
I was gonna say, sound-wise the album is a great snapshot of the range of influences prominent in UK bass music at the moment. But by the sound of things that wasn’t a conscious effort for you to try and bring all those influences together, it was just a result of you being immersed in London’s music scene.
Yeah, exactly. I didn’t really ever set out with a certain goal to make something that is going to be the definition of what that kind of dance music is right now. I think that essentially I’m someone that doesn’t really like to sit still in terms of what I write, I always just want to make bigger and better tunes in whatever style that is. So that’s kind of why I go between genres all the time and flip between ideas. I’d get so bored if I had to repeat the same synth line at the same tempo for my next tune, just like the previous one. For me it’s more exciting to do what I want.
In a more general sense, do you feel in there’s a genuine period of experimentation and originality in dance music in the UK at the moment?
Definitely. The music industry, I guess, has helped that. The fact that the Internet is strong and people don’t have to rely on big labels. So I think in that way, you can get away with different ideas and doing what you like. For me I think it’s an exciting time, there’s lots of sub-genres and weird things going on with different people appreciative of very different styles of music.
From my research you’ve been producing for around ten years, but it seems this last 18 months has been incredibly fruitful for you. Do you feel that’s the case and what do you put that down to?
I don’t know, I guess it’s just continually putting out records… and improvement maybe (laughs). For me I always feel that my next record is better than my previous one – that’s my aim anyway: development as an artist and not putting out more of the same really. I think since a few of my early releases, which were more instrumental stuff, collaborating with other artists [has helped] and I think there’s been a lot of response from other peers in the scene which helps things; early on with DJs like Sinden and Mary-Anne Hobbs in the UK, who were scene champions, then that moves on to the more worldwide thing like Modeselector and people that have been championing it. Now, with people like Drake who did a rap version of Wildfire, it’s kind of a continual stream of different people that seem to be feeling what I’m doing.
Even acknowledging all that global recognition, is it still an honour for you to play big nights in the UK like FWD or maybe play a DJ set on Rinse?
Oh yeah totally, it’s really nice to be able to do different scales of things anyway. To be honest, FWD was never the biggest influence for me, I guess, because I oversaw what was going on in the scene, but I was never really hanging out in that club or listening to every set that was going on in that kind of world. But to be able to play on [Rinse FM] and have the freedom to play what I want with my own angle on what goes on in that scene is great.
There are so many influences in UK bass music or post-dubstep, but everyone normally has a way in – whether that’s drum and bass, dubstep or garage – what was your way in?
I guess UK garage, in terms of tempo and the melodics and the skipping grooves of it all really. I was buying loads of records and experimenting production-wise as well. I was trying to copy people I respected a lot. From that I kind delved into everything from that kind of scene, there was a lot going on in sporadic genres which I was appreciative of, but that was my central focal point.
You’d already had a few releases under your own name prior to your success with SBTRKT, but it seems you’ve gone to some lengths to distance yourself from that. Is that in an effort for people to judge SBTRKT simply on the music and not anything else? Almost de-contextualise it in a way?
Well that’s the essential idea; SBTRKT is about removing myself from it all really. I’ve never really felt that side was important to making music or creating it, and I don’t think any producer sits there writing music in the vein that they’re themselves creating songs, generally you imagine some otherworldly place or some kind of crazy atmospheric thing or a different mood that makes you create what you do I think. That for me has become part and parcel of what putting records out is; apparently telling your whole life story with it, which I don’t think is ever really relevant to the kind of music I create or other people in electronic genre’s either. I think it’s more of an imaginary world in a way.
So that obviously ties into the anonymity associated with wearing a tribal mask?
Yeah. And kind of just giving another face to it all really, which is just as creative as the music I suppose.
What have you got planned musically for the immediate future?
Mainly at the moment I’m doing quite a lot of live shows, you know. It’s kind of steadily developing, it’s basically myself on drums and most of the synth parts then Sampha on vocals. We’re essentially taking the album out and playing it in a very different way while we do live shows, experimenting within it and sometimes it works really well, sometimes it doesn’t (laughs). But we’re just really enjoying playing it out live. Other than that, a couple of remixes. I’ve just done one for Radiohead, which is one of the few production things I’m doing at the moment and that’s about it really. Touring seems to take up a lot of my time at the moment.
SBTRKT’s debut album is out now. For more, follow the link here.
3:20 pm • 11 September 2011 • 3 notes
African Apparel (‘A Sense of the Absurd’)
Published: acclaimmag.com, August, 2011.
Weezy out of his brain on DMT syrup, Homer Simpson sprouting weed leaves out of his fingers, and a dual tribute to Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures and a morning wank. Bristol based label African Apparel have conceived a small line of tees that are as hilarious as they are subversive, flipping pop culture figures on their head and smearing them with a healthy dose of sarcasm. Like, seriously, who wouldn’t want to wear a Freddy Mercury tee with cocks artfully reflected in his shades? ACCLAIM caught up with label founder Cedric Barada to talk the labels origins, ethos and future.
Could you briefly touch on the origins of African Apparel? How the label started and the impetus behind starting the label?
The label started a bit by accident. African Apparel actually started as a conceptual band in the summer 2008. We did something like three or four gigs all in all; we were sort of a weird jam band where nobody could actually play an instrument. Early psychedelic vibes, but nothing serious of course…an attempt to link comedy with something a bit more spiritual and spontaneous. I think you can still hear some of our tracks on an ancient Internet device called MySpace.
As any respectable band, we needed a band t-shirt. This is where the John Marley design came to birth. I think it represents the band angle well. It’s a ridiculous design, but also a clever one, as loads of people don’t get it at first and fall into the trap of thinking you are actually wearing a Bob Marley t-shirt. So this is how everything started: I got a few tees printed out for our band and they sold out in a day or two, so I reprinted them. Soon the band wasn’t performing anymore but loads of people kept asking me where they could buy the John Marley tee. So I morphed the band into a clothing label – we were already called African Apparel after all – and asked a few different artists I loved if they were up to do a design for us. And there you go, that is basically how the t-shirt label started.
Where are you based? And how many people do you have working alongside you?
We’re based in Bristol, England. We’ve got an office/studio on Stokes Croft. Essentially, I run African Apparel on my own, but with the help of friends. I choose the artists we work with and the designs we produce. I deal with the every day tasks like taking orders, sending the tees, dealing with customers and stockists, etc. Rob and Paul who print our tees have got their workshop on the other side of the road from us. I share the studio with my good pal Christopher, who did the Known Pleasures design. He inevitably has his weight behind some of the decisions – we see each other for hours every day, so we predictably influence and help each other. It’s good in that way.
How would you describe the aesthetic that underpins the label?
African Apparel is about creativity and fun. We try not to be constrained to one special thing, and do stuff as long as we enjoy it. There is constant discovery and interest in both new and old music, art and design. Things that touch our collective mind. But more than anything, African Apparel is a way to express ourselves. The tees are used as blank canvases for our daydreams. The result of our daily lives – hanging out with friends and talking shit, stuff that we want to put out there, a celebration of our individuality and of the artists.
Who wears African Apparel?
People with good taste and a sense of the absurd.
How do you differentiate African Apparel from other labels?
We’re not even trying to differentiate ourselves. All we’re doing is creating the tees we’d like to wear and that represent us.
What defines a good streetwear label?
I don’t know if you can define African Apparel as a streetwear label… What I see is far too many copycat labels on the market. It would be good to see more labels that are not just directly inspired by hip-hop, graffiti or skateboarding. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I personally think there is a saturation of labels doing a poor job. A good label should be adventurous, have their own original approach and be honest with themselves and with the people they want to reach. And, of course, there are the obvious criteria of quality and details of manufacturing.
Are there any specific themes that run through your collections?
Again, things that touch us. It actually could be anything we’ve got on our minds at the time and want to put out there. Music and art are obviously a big part of our lives, that’s why they’re recurrent themes in our designs, but it could just as well be a completely different spectrum of themes.
There’s a real (and refreshing) strain of humour running through your current line of tees. Is that something you were aiming for? And why is taking a humourous approach important and appealing?
Yes, I think humour is one of the most profound demonstrations of human intelligence, even in its most light-hearted version. It’s a way to bend realities and shift them to an all-new thing. Of course, everybody is different and might not always have the cultural keys to get the joke. The old saying is true, you can laugh about everything but not with everybody. I think we’ve upset a few Joy Division and Bob Marley fans.
A lot of your prints are quite subversive too, in the way they undermine or add a healthy dose of irony and sarcasm to the images of ‘idols’ or pop culture figures. How does that reflect the philosophy of the label?
Irony and sarcasm are intimately linked to humor – at least here in the UK. Icons and idols are symbols, they represent a certain history and set of ideals. They’ve got power. Their image might even have more power than the actual individual. For example, you can see pictures of Bob Marley or Jimi Hendrix on any kind of product, everywhere on earth. You want it or not, they are there. Most of the time side-by-side, sold cheaply on a market stall between a bong and a beach towel. They’re inked in our collective subconscious. That’s the idea behind our John Marley design. It can work on different levels, but more than anything it’s a faux-hippy kick in the teeth.
For your collaborations, how much input does each party have to the specific project?
It depends, sometimes the design is already done and we just have to say, ‘Yeah, we really like this, let’s put it out there!’ Other times we ask an artist if they want to collaborate. Usually they come up with the overall design, but we follow closely how it’s done from the ideas to sketches and finals, and give our input here and there. Then you can say it’s more a mix between a commission and a collaboration.
Could you tell us about your Rap tee, designed by LL Cool Jo? How did that collaboration come about?
Jo has been a close friend for more than 10 years. Unfortunately he lives in Bordeaux so I only see him once or twice a year. The Rap design is actually a tattoo he has on his forearm. Jo has always had some sort of lo-fi rap project since I’ve known him. I was even in one of them at some point. That’s probably why his Rap design has got the frown down. But it can also have a lot of different meanings, like a comment on what loads of modern rap is etc….
If you had a chance, is there a company or individual in particular you’d like to collaborate with?
There are loads of amazing individuals and artists we’d like to collaborate with. It’s difficult to say. As for a company, I personally like what Perks and Mini do.
What’s your vision for the label? Do you see yourself expanding its scope?
African Apparel is about expressing ourselves in any way we find interesting. Anything is possible. We’re moving into a broader range of clothing with a series of crew necks this fall, and some other surprises. Next step is putting on nights and art events. But it’s all part of the same thing, just another way of doing things our way. Doing what we want.
6:22 pm • 5 September 2011 • 1 note
![Scattermusic – Mixed Frequencies
Published: acclaimmag.com, July 22, 2011.
While an exponential increase in badly written, poorly maintained blogs seems to be a given in the digital age, there’s also a string of passionate individuals providing insightful and consistent online coverage of things that matter to them, and Melbourne’s revered Scatterblog is one such group. Initially started as means to expose exciting, under-represented party music from around the world, it’s grown to encompass a label and a series of idiosyncratic events. To coincide with their fifth birthday, ACCLAIM caught up with Mat Cant, Scattermish and Lewis CanCut of Scattermusic to talk the labels origins, motivations and future.
The music you cover and release, from digital cumbia, through moombahton and all manner of tropical sounds, is significantly under-represented in Australia. How did the group of you come together over what is, essentially, some fairly niche music?
The fact that these sounds are so under-represented meant we all found each other very quickly. Basically Hamish [aka Scattermish] started writing a blog five years ago and we all gravitated towards that because we understood the sound he was trying to push online. At the time it was a combination of hip-hop, bass music, house and world music which over time all combined into the guise that we now aim for with each release on the label.
Being a Melbourne-based collective, how do you think the city’s music scene has influenced Scattermusic?
It’s helped us remain really eclectic as a label. We all DJ, and in order to do that in Melbourne you’ve really got to be quite diverse, in one night you might play a dancehall set, a hip-hop set and then a straight up club set. A legendary Melbourne DJ once said, “Hip-Hop and house are both culturally irrelevant in Australia so we’re free to do whatever we want,” which can definitely apply to how we work.
There seems to be quite an international network of artists, blogs and labels all with a stake in – to steal a term from the Generation Bass blog – ‘trans-national bass’ music. Do you think tightly bound geographic scenes are a thing of the past in the digital age? And are we seeing a shift towards dispersed ‘online’ scenes?
Music has definitely become more global and less geographical recently, some new genres such as moombahton seem to originate from within the internet itself. Having said that though, people would be foolish to think that the ‘net now encompasses everything, there’s still so much out there that can’t be represented online. Going to a rave in Mexico is definitely going to be a far richer experience than hearing it on a podcast; the music itself would be experienced very differently.
How do you differentiate Scattermusic from other labels/blogs like Dutty Artz or Generation Bass? Or do you see them as part of the same community?
I would say we would be part of the same community, but obviously we have our differences from them. The great thing about starting our label as a blog first is that we have really good relationships with other bloggers and labels and they always support our releases just like we support theirs. When it comes to such niche music I think it’s good to help others out trying to push the same thing as you, it all helps everyone out in the long-run.
What was the initial aim behind starting the blog?
It really was fuelled by a lack of representation of the music Hamish was into at the time. There weren’t many places around Melbourne where you could get away with playing an hour-long set of funk farioca/baile funk. The time the blog formed is considered to be the ‘second generation’ of music blogs and it was at the beginning of easy accessibility to rare international music genres. Hamish has a DJ mentality at heart, and with that much music in his sights it was going to get wasted if it just sat on his hard drive.
Is there a philosophy that guides Scattermusic?
We’ve always been about new and exciting underground music. We love finding it, unearthing it, sharing it and watching people get as excited about it as we do. We are always on the look out for innovative thinkers in music, and try to help foster and develop artists so they can reach their full potential. We do it all for the love – we fund most of the label expenses from our Scattermusic Soundsystem live shows and push everything ourselves, with the help of some very talented friends.
Since starting it, how have your goals and priorities shifted over the last five years?
We’re more relaxed about it all now, having seen so many acts be touted as the next big thing only to be completely irrelevant 12 months later has definitely shifted our priorities to focusing more on local acts and music that will sound good for years to come. The most satisfying thing though is seeing those who release on the label grow, seeing their sound develop and providing them with a wider audience for the music to be received.
From the outset, was it always the intention to expand beyond the blog and move into the realm of a digital label as well? How have the two complimented each other?
It was a really natural thing that seemed to happen without us realising. As the blog became bigger, more and more people began submitting music for us to post, plenty of which was of a really high standard and way more interesting than a lot of stuff out there on established labels. And really, that’s what the blog has always been about, finding new sounds and musicians and breaking them. So really it was a logical step to become a label.
What defines a successful blog?
Hard to say, but the fact that we get thousands upon thousands of visitors every month listening to us talk crap and share relatively unknown music, and then support us through our 12 releases as well as playing live, means we can be pretty proud of ourselves.
What does a label need to do in order to succeed and keep ahead of an industry that is rapidly changing? And how are you putting that into action?
The music industry thrives on the idea of ‘the next big thing’, which as an idea really drove us hard in the beginning. But now we’re more of the opinion that a great record is one that’ll still be great in 12 months. It’s nice when the hipsters like what you do, but aiming to solely please them is a fairly vain exercise. The best thing about Scattermusic for us is that it’s run by three music nerds, if we want to put out a record that we believe is totally amazing but know won’t sell, then we can just do it anyway. That’s the beauty of being a completely independent label.
You’ve opted to release all your own music, along with other artists on the Scattermusic label, for free. What’s the reasoning behind that?
Our first ten releases were all free. At the time we felt it was relevant to the industry, because it felt like no one was paying for music anyway. No one had tried running a label releasing all the music for free and the whole business model worked its purpose for us – that was to get us and our artists known. We’ve now switched to priced releases because we feel there’s something philosophically good about applying a value to music. It forces us to treat our own product with grater respect, as well as our listeners because we hope they’ll hand over some of their hard earned money in support of our artists. If people really want to avoid paying a tiny amount for something that took hours of work to create then they’ll be able to find it somewhere online anyway. We’re not too fussed but it’s definitely a philosophical decision rather than a financial one.
Is that an acknowledgment on your behalf that the old model of disseminating music – the one major label’s seem so bent on holding on to – is flawed and in desperate need of a rethink?
Yeah, the whole music industry business model was in desperate need of a rethink, it just wasn’t really looking out for the most important people of the whole process – the listeners and the artists. The music industry seems to be taking a shift for the better in a lot of ways, there’s heaps of music out there getting support and recognition that just wouldn’t have been possible 20 years ago. This whole new era is still definitely in an exciting developmental stage though.
Outside of your own music, what are you looking for in a prospective release on the label? Or a track or artist you feature on the blog?
We really just love people who are on their own thing. Music production software and the internet has made it that anyone can squeeze out a track and distribute it online. So many tracks we hear just sound like a particular sample library, but it’s those people whose music is instantly recognisable that stands out and makes for an interesting release.
Is there a Scattermusic ‘sound’?
Most of our records are very percussive, it wasn’t a conscious thing but looking back over our past 12 releases there’s definitely a particular sound that’s emerged. Also there’s usually a playfulness or at least a very slight element of humour involved. Maybe that’s all that’s keeping us sane at midnight before a distributer deadline.
Obviously the label and blog has been an important outlet for your own music. How important is artistic control and freedom to you guys?
It’s definitely an important one for us as we hate the idea of an executive producer sitting in a room thinking a tune needs more cowbell to speak to teens. We’re signing people because we love their music and what they do, and it’s really fun seeing what they’ll come up with when they have your label in mind. That being said, we definitely won’t release anything we’re not happy with, and don’t believe in releasing filler music or stuff just because it’s from a big-name artist. We’re very picky about a release, we make sure it will fit on our label.
There’s a fair few of you involved with Scattermusic. How much of what you do is a collaborative effort?
There’s definitely a great understanding between the three of us [Lewis CanCut, Mat Cant, Scattermish]. We’ve been working together for a while and have a lot of trust and faith in each other’s abilities. We all have our own jobs and titles, but most of our creative decisions – definitely what to release – needs the tick of approval from each of us.
Is it hard to accommodate everyone’s viewpoints and ideas?
We’d be lying if we said there was never a disagreement on ideas, but that’s half the fun and all part of the process isn’t it?
Looking into the future what’s your vision for Scattermusic?
We’ve got heaps in store for Scattermusic in the future. We’re re-launching the blog with a whole heap of new writers and contributors, really turning the blog into a music entertainment hub. That includes a brand new store pushing our own stuff and heaps of favourite stuff from our awesome friends. It also includes a new forum, which we hope will be an epicentre of discussion for everything we’re into. We’re really focusing on harvesting a local scene and developing our sound and the great sound that’s rising in the Melbourne club music and producer circles. And we’re just gonna keep at doing what we’re doing – pushing young, talented and unknown artists and getting their music out to as wide an audience as possible. And of course we’re gonna keep throwing hectic and amazing parties!
Curious? You can find Scatterblog here.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lotq05pdMQ1qdr1lko1_500.jpg)
Scattermusic – Mixed Frequencies
Published: acclaimmag.com, July 22, 2011.
While an exponential increase in badly written, poorly maintained blogs seems to be a given in the digital age, there’s also a string of passionate individuals providing insightful and consistent online coverage of things that matter to them, and Melbourne’s revered Scatterblog is one such group. Initially started as means to expose exciting, under-represented party music from around the world, it’s grown to encompass a label and a series of idiosyncratic events. To coincide with their fifth birthday, ACCLAIM caught up with Mat Cant, Scattermish and Lewis CanCut of Scattermusic to talk the labels origins, motivations and future.
The music you cover and release, from digital cumbia, through moombahton and all manner of tropical sounds, is significantly under-represented in Australia. How did the group of you come together over what is, essentially, some fairly niche music?
The fact that these sounds are so under-represented meant we all found each other very quickly. Basically Hamish [aka Scattermish] started writing a blog five years ago and we all gravitated towards that because we understood the sound he was trying to push online. At the time it was a combination of hip-hop, bass music, house and world music which over time all combined into the guise that we now aim for with each release on the label.
Being a Melbourne-based collective, how do you think the city’s music scene has influenced Scattermusic?
It’s helped us remain really eclectic as a label. We all DJ, and in order to do that in Melbourne you’ve really got to be quite diverse, in one night you might play a dancehall set, a hip-hop set and then a straight up club set. A legendary Melbourne DJ once said, “Hip-Hop and house are both culturally irrelevant in Australia so we’re free to do whatever we want,” which can definitely apply to how we work.
There seems to be quite an international network of artists, blogs and labels all with a stake in – to steal a term from the Generation Bass blog – ‘trans-national bass’ music. Do you think tightly bound geographic scenes are a thing of the past in the digital age? And are we seeing a shift towards dispersed ‘online’ scenes?
Music has definitely become more global and less geographical recently, some new genres such as moombahton seem to originate from within the internet itself. Having said that though, people would be foolish to think that the ‘net now encompasses everything, there’s still so much out there that can’t be represented online. Going to a rave in Mexico is definitely going to be a far richer experience than hearing it on a podcast; the music itself would be experienced very differently.
How do you differentiate Scattermusic from other labels/blogs like Dutty Artz or Generation Bass? Or do you see them as part of the same community?
I would say we would be part of the same community, but obviously we have our differences from them. The great thing about starting our label as a blog first is that we have really good relationships with other bloggers and labels and they always support our releases just like we support theirs. When it comes to such niche music I think it’s good to help others out trying to push the same thing as you, it all helps everyone out in the long-run.
What was the initial aim behind starting the blog?
It really was fuelled by a lack of representation of the music Hamish was into at the time. There weren’t many places around Melbourne where you could get away with playing an hour-long set of funk farioca/baile funk. The time the blog formed is considered to be the ‘second generation’ of music blogs and it was at the beginning of easy accessibility to rare international music genres. Hamish has a DJ mentality at heart, and with that much music in his sights it was going to get wasted if it just sat on his hard drive.
Is there a philosophy that guides Scattermusic?
We’ve always been about new and exciting underground music. We love finding it, unearthing it, sharing it and watching people get as excited about it as we do. We are always on the look out for innovative thinkers in music, and try to help foster and develop artists so they can reach their full potential. We do it all for the love – we fund most of the label expenses from our Scattermusic Soundsystem live shows and push everything ourselves, with the help of some very talented friends.
Since starting it, how have your goals and priorities shifted over the last five years?
We’re more relaxed about it all now, having seen so many acts be touted as the next big thing only to be completely irrelevant 12 months later has definitely shifted our priorities to focusing more on local acts and music that will sound good for years to come. The most satisfying thing though is seeing those who release on the label grow, seeing their sound develop and providing them with a wider audience for the music to be received.
From the outset, was it always the intention to expand beyond the blog and move into the realm of a digital label as well? How have the two complimented each other?
It was a really natural thing that seemed to happen without us realising. As the blog became bigger, more and more people began submitting music for us to post, plenty of which was of a really high standard and way more interesting than a lot of stuff out there on established labels. And really, that’s what the blog has always been about, finding new sounds and musicians and breaking them. So really it was a logical step to become a label.
What defines a successful blog?
Hard to say, but the fact that we get thousands upon thousands of visitors every month listening to us talk crap and share relatively unknown music, and then support us through our 12 releases as well as playing live, means we can be pretty proud of ourselves.
What does a label need to do in order to succeed and keep ahead of an industry that is rapidly changing? And how are you putting that into action?
The music industry thrives on the idea of ‘the next big thing’, which as an idea really drove us hard in the beginning. But now we’re more of the opinion that a great record is one that’ll still be great in 12 months. It’s nice when the hipsters like what you do, but aiming to solely please them is a fairly vain exercise. The best thing about Scattermusic for us is that it’s run by three music nerds, if we want to put out a record that we believe is totally amazing but know won’t sell, then we can just do it anyway. That’s the beauty of being a completely independent label.
You’ve opted to release all your own music, along with other artists on the Scattermusic label, for free. What’s the reasoning behind that?
Our first ten releases were all free. At the time we felt it was relevant to the industry, because it felt like no one was paying for music anyway. No one had tried running a label releasing all the music for free and the whole business model worked its purpose for us – that was to get us and our artists known. We’ve now switched to priced releases because we feel there’s something philosophically good about applying a value to music. It forces us to treat our own product with grater respect, as well as our listeners because we hope they’ll hand over some of their hard earned money in support of our artists. If people really want to avoid paying a tiny amount for something that took hours of work to create then they’ll be able to find it somewhere online anyway. We’re not too fussed but it’s definitely a philosophical decision rather than a financial one.
Is that an acknowledgment on your behalf that the old model of disseminating music – the one major label’s seem so bent on holding on to – is flawed and in desperate need of a rethink?
Yeah, the whole music industry business model was in desperate need of a rethink, it just wasn’t really looking out for the most important people of the whole process – the listeners and the artists. The music industry seems to be taking a shift for the better in a lot of ways, there’s heaps of music out there getting support and recognition that just wouldn’t have been possible 20 years ago. This whole new era is still definitely in an exciting developmental stage though.
Outside of your own music, what are you looking for in a prospective release on the label? Or a track or artist you feature on the blog?
We really just love people who are on their own thing. Music production software and the internet has made it that anyone can squeeze out a track and distribute it online. So many tracks we hear just sound like a particular sample library, but it’s those people whose music is instantly recognisable that stands out and makes for an interesting release.
Is there a Scattermusic ‘sound’?
Most of our records are very percussive, it wasn’t a conscious thing but looking back over our past 12 releases there’s definitely a particular sound that’s emerged. Also there’s usually a playfulness or at least a very slight element of humour involved. Maybe that’s all that’s keeping us sane at midnight before a distributer deadline.
Obviously the label and blog has been an important outlet for your own music. How important is artistic control and freedom to you guys?
It’s definitely an important one for us as we hate the idea of an executive producer sitting in a room thinking a tune needs more cowbell to speak to teens. We’re signing people because we love their music and what they do, and it’s really fun seeing what they’ll come up with when they have your label in mind. That being said, we definitely won’t release anything we’re not happy with, and don’t believe in releasing filler music or stuff just because it’s from a big-name artist. We’re very picky about a release, we make sure it will fit on our label.
There’s a fair few of you involved with Scattermusic. How much of what you do is a collaborative effort?
There’s definitely a great understanding between the three of us [Lewis CanCut, Mat Cant, Scattermish]. We’ve been working together for a while and have a lot of trust and faith in each other’s abilities. We all have our own jobs and titles, but most of our creative decisions – definitely what to release – needs the tick of approval from each of us.
Is it hard to accommodate everyone’s viewpoints and ideas?
We’d be lying if we said there was never a disagreement on ideas, but that’s half the fun and all part of the process isn’t it?
Looking into the future what’s your vision for Scattermusic?
We’ve got heaps in store for Scattermusic in the future. We’re re-launching the blog with a whole heap of new writers and contributors, really turning the blog into a music entertainment hub. That includes a brand new store pushing our own stuff and heaps of favourite stuff from our awesome friends. It also includes a new forum, which we hope will be an epicentre of discussion for everything we’re into. We’re really focusing on harvesting a local scene and developing our sound and the great sound that’s rising in the Melbourne club music and producer circles. And we’re just gonna keep at doing what we’re doing – pushing young, talented and unknown artists and getting their music out to as wide an audience as possible. And of course we’re gonna keep throwing hectic and amazing parties!
Curious? You can find Scatterblog here.
4:00 pm • 24 July 2011 • 4 notes
