This blog will be discontinued.
Check out our new blog http://blog.official.fm and our new website http://official.fm

Other than this one we recommend:
Stereogum
Gorillavsbear
Fuckingdance
amy-dover
Indiescreet

Fred on Twitter
Fred on Fairtilizer
Spun Dj’s on Myspace

Interview with Michael Fiebach, of DJShadow.com, below:

What was the original idea behind the contest ?

Shadow wanted to see what sort of response we would get if we started to engage the online remixers. We got so many submissions, and surprisingly, a lot of them were really good! We decided that a CD, free with physical purchases at the store at DJShadow.com, would be a cool, unique, and fair way to release the best remixes as a cohesive product. So far it has been extremely successful. Actually we are really close to being completely out of stock in the CD, so if you want one, act quick!

Were you surprised at the quality of the submissions ?

We were very surprised. I think it really inspired Shadow too, I mean he ended up using a lot of the remixes in his live set in his tour through Europe, which says a lot. Neither of us expected to have trouble choosing the best tracks because of how many good remixes there were. I think both of us assumed we would have trouble finding good mixes, which was not the case at all.

As a label manager, what are the biggest changes you saw happening the past few years ? And how did you respond to some of those changes ?

It is funny because I am not officially a label manager, but what I do is very similar to running an indie. I run Shadow’s online operation, his merchandising, and I do project management; but under all of this falls running an indie music operation that releases, promotes, and distributes music, so in many ways the fact that I am running DJShadow.com is much like running a label. The biggest change I have seen is the need to become very creative with music marketing. Creativity was a plus before, and now it is a must. The music marketplace is so over-saturated you need to come up with new and creative ways to release and market music, or else people will simply not care, and therefore won’t purchase. Shadow has always had innovative ways to market and release music, so we just had to take it to the next step and become even more creative! Which I think we have accomplished with this Remix Project, the relaunch of the site and store (which was Webby nominated in 2009), and the various Direct To Fan offerings we have come up with recently.

How do you see the future of the vinyl format ?

Vinyl will be viable for a long time. The market has expanded in the last 5 years. DJing and even vinyl collecting is VERY cool now! But vinyl sales is still a very niche market; I believe vinyl is like 3% of the entire music marketplace. Vinyl will never again be a main source of income, but it can continue to grow, and continue to be a useful revenue stream for labels and retailers. Vinyl has the potential to stick around longer than CDs, because they have that physical product aesthetic that will always be relevant for collectors. CDs don’t have as much tangibility. Also, you can pretty much get the sonic equivalent with a CD that you can get with a download; but vinyl is something that cannot be replicated sonically by playing it digitally. I don’t care what plug-ins you use, it isn’t the same.

Any new music from the bay area we should know about ?

Check out Z-Man’s FREE EP.
 Also, Lyrics Born has some new tracks out, and I believe Quannum is working on some new releases.
And of course Shadow’s new record will be coming in 2011….

Visit DJ Shadow website
Visit DJ Shadow Fairtilizer profile

I’ve seen your name pronounced a myriad of ways? What’s the correct pronunciation?
The way Booka Shade is pronounced, well it is (Boo-kuh Shayd). There have been different versions like (Boo-kuh Shah-day) to (Boo-kuh Shah-gee) in South America.

Where does the name originate from?
Where the name came from, well we made it up actually. In the beginning or early nineties we did loads and loads of productions for different kinds of labels; underground labels in Europe and also in the States. At that time we constant looked for project names. When we first started, Walter and I had a pop group Planet Claire and we had our first little pop success but we got really frustrated with the pop industry already at that time in the nineties, so we moved towards the underground and we found it very inspiring to be able to release all of these different records and different labels under different names each week. So, Booka Shade was only one of many project names of that time and as far as I remember we sat there and flipped through some magazines and at a certain point we read the name Booker T, the blues guitarist, and we changed it to into Booker with an “a” and shade, you know the shadow, it just sounded well. You have to hear it once or twice but then I think it sticks in your head and your mind pretty nicely.

How would you guys describe the evolution of your production style since the release of your first full-length, Memento?
It’s quite funny — Memento, the first album was produced pretty much at nighttime. At that time we had just founded the Get Physical label and we produced all of the first records on this label. Everything for DJ T., for the M.AN.D.Y. guys, for Chelonus R. Jones, the first dozen or fifteen records that came out on Get Physical were all produced by us and it was in the night when all these productions were done that we just used to sit down and do stuff on our own outside of this Get Physical Stuff. And then after a couple of songs were finished, we said well yeah this could actually be an album, so let’s bring it out. And the Memento album is pretty introverted. I think you can realize that it was all done in the night. It was wintertime, very almost we say claustrophobic. Then when we thought about how we can promote this album, of course the idea of playing live came up, because we’re not DJ’s. We do DJ shows now — we started last year. But, initially and essentially we’re musicians and producers. So, doing the live show was basically the only realistic way for us to promote our music. Then when we went on tour and where we started the first concerts, we realized that the sound was too introverted and too, kind of, small for what we wanted to do with the live show. We are pretty energetic persons and this personality wants some energy on stage. We want to give this energy to the audience. So, we basically recreated, reproduced all the songs for the live show and added some other songs. This is when “Body Language” and “Mandarine Girl” first came up it was for the live shows because we wanted this more euphoric feel for the shows. Ever since it developed in the way Movements, the second album, had a lot of this euphoria I believe. It’s a very positive album. The Sun & The Neon Light was a reaction to this because we were on a long tour and we traveled the world. It was all very exhausting. But, The Sun & The Neon Light was a more downtempo, downbeat, moodier album. Now, More! is again a more up album because we felt very positive in the studio. So, the way the evolution basically it shows what we do with the live show, especially on the new album, it brings a lot of the energy of the live show onto this CD format. This is something we wanted to achieve with this album.

How has the reaction to your music changed in the United States over the years?
Well, with the States it’s quite interesting. Before we first went to the States we were always told that electronic music is really difficult over there. Of course it’s a niche compared to R&B probably and Rock, but in this niche when we first came there we found it very interesting that the people somehow clicked with the audience. Because, I believe in America it’s all about performance people like. You have to be a really good performer to achieve something in the States. If you’re a guitarist, you better be a real good guitarist. Or a singer, you have to sing really well. People appreciate when people give their very best. When you see us perform live in a concert situation, you see two people working really hard. Walter plays keyboards and has a mixing desk and tweaks all of these sounds and I have the drum kit (electronic) and there’s all this energy that we give from the stage to the audience and I think this is what’s really appreciated. So, we always have growing audiences. More and more people come to the show because it’s also word-of-mouth that spread and people know that if you want to listen to electronic music in a live surrounding, then Booka Shade is probably the best thing to do or best show to see, if you want to go crazy also.

What piece of gear (studio or live) can’t you live without?
I think live, speaking for Walter on the keyboard side, the Moog that we know bring with us is really great. It has a great sound. This is the good thing that we can bring a bigger and bigger production to the stages. We don’t have to concentrate anymore on putting everything into the smallest case that we can carry on the airplane. Nowadays, it more taken on a bus or whatever. We can bring the huge Moogs and everything, so this gives nice sound. On my side, well it’s the Roland Drum Kit. I believe it’s very reliable. I’ve had it since day one. It’s also growing but that’s a very reliable piece of gear.

What is the most unusual venue you’ve played a live gig at?
We’ve played a lot of interesting places like — when I think about the States only recently, the recent tour we played Red Rocks which was amazing for us. Red Rocks, Colorado close to Denver is one of the venues where practically everybody who means something in music has played. Of course, that’s also the Country and Western stars and the pop stars you can imagine from Coldplay to Depeche Mode, The Cure, Bruce Springsteen, everybody has played there. We were the first Germans to actually play there, which was quite interesting. It wasn’t Rammstein, it wasn’t Kraftwerk, it wasn’t Scorpions, it was Booka Shade. So, we’re very proud of that actually. And then we played a festival outside of Seattle, it was called Sasquatch and that was also nice because there was this real canyon, so it was a really nice nature venue. Then we also played on the beach at the Meditteranean Sea. We played in the mountains. The first Sonar we played, which was a real kick-off for our career was in some kind of a church. It was actually a museum but it was all stones like in a church. So, we’re very privileged actually I have to say to be invited to all of these wonderful places. A festival in Singapore, for example, where you could see all these tankers — the big ships — that are in the harbor of Singapore. Many amazing places.

What’s it like being sampled by a Black Eyed Pea?
That’s actually a funny story. First thing I should say is that “Body Language”, which is the sample you talk about here it is a really big track and it was the song off 2005 in Ibiza. So, it first started in Ibiza in Spain and from there on it went to the UK and basically all over the world. Now, the Black Eyed Peas played their finished album to the record companies and a good friend of mine happens to be in the international segment of Universal, so he was invited to the presentation of the album and this one song came and this friend said “Oh wow, this is a great idea and did you clear the samples?” and will.i.am said “This is some dodgy Ibiza underground track nobody knows so I just got the bassline.” And then the guy from the record company said “Oh, no, no, no, this is actually very well known. You better clear the sample.” And then came the point where we were approached for the clearance. Everything’s fine now. I think it’s an ok version and it’s great that the music has spread to a completely different crowd that would probably never have heard of Booka Shade or would’ve taken a long time for them to hear about Booka Shade.

What inspires you guys to create?
The traveling is very inspiring. Meeting people. Being at places. Nowadays, because you asked about the production style that has developed over the years. The last couple of albums have basically all been written and mainly produced on the road traveling. We have a studio — a portable studio with us that Walter can set up in a hotel room or in a backstage or you know at an airport even. So, the last two albums and the last DJ Kicks compilation we did a while ago, it was all done on the road. You know being somewhere and just breathing the air of a certain place can be very inspiring. Only two weeks ago we’ve been to Ibiza also and after we did a DJ show. Here Walter the next day sat down in the hotel room and reworked the club mix of Teenage Spaceman, which is coming out now shortly. So, wherever you are you can take whatever’s there and how you feel and put it into the music. So, the traveling is something very inspiring for us.

Best piece of advice you can give aspiring producers/DJs.
It may sound very difficult. No, it may sound very easy but it is very difficult. Be true to yourself and not try to copy somebody else. It’s something we experience lots of times with the Get Physical label when we receive demos from people. Many of those demos, they all sound the same. It’s all the same. The best thing you could do is try to be unique and try to come up with something new. Whatever sounds like something else, it will never be as good as the original. So, you better be off with going your own way. It may be difficult because you have to convince people that this is something really good and something really new but many times, like when we started with something…basically when we started the Get Physical label, the sound that we created there just wasn’t there and this is the reason why we did the Get Physical label. We didn’t know which label to give our music to and then we produced a track together with DJ T., “Free Mind”. You know it was later on one of the blueprints together with other songs of course by other people for something that was later on called “electro-house”. You know electro-house, it didn’t exist at that time. It’s just putting together disco samples and a bit of house flare and a techno flare and just mixing it all up and creating something new. This is what everybody of course looks for. Something fresh and also at a record label like we are with Get Physical, we don’t want M.A.N.D.Y. copy or a DJ T. copy. We want something unique, something new.

New album, More!, is out now everywhere. Why should the kids buy and not hijack it from the blogosphere?
Well, that’s of course a major issue with the whole record industry, isn’t it. People are downloading rather than buying it. We can’t turn back time, it’s just the way it is. We see it more as promotion actually nowadays. Something good about Booka Shade that we’re very happy about is the live show. Ok you can download the music anywhere and people don’t feel like it’s a bad thing, it feels very natural for them to download it illegally. But, the live show is something you can’t copy and this is what we experience. Nowadays, the release is there to promote your music and to have people come to the live show. Now, to buy the record of course, one major point, this is what I always feel — I just don’t know how to get this stuff illegally somewhere. I’m pretty old school with that. I just try to get it at Beatport or at iTunes. I’m not a great CD buyer I have to admit but I do buy the stuff. Many times I feel I want to support these people. If you buy music from a group you like, you may give this group the opportunity to record some more music that you will potentially like and that’s a benefit. If you always steal it somewhere then the artist can’t survive, it’s just impossible. So, this is probably the only reason. And another reason of course is if you have great packaging. We’re working on a reissue of the More! album together with live footage which we record now on the tour. We had something similar with Movements (Tour Edition) where we had a live show recorded on a second additional DVD which was together with the album. So, we’re thinking about something like that. Something you can’t really copy somewhere and to give the audience or buyer a real value for its money. Something you can’t get anywhere else. Something together with a t-shirt. To have a real fan package would be good.

Booka Shade Fairtilizer profile
Booka Shade Website
Booka Shade on Twitter
Booka Shade on Facebook
Booka Shade on MySpace
Booka Shade on YouTube

“Teenage Spaceman” Video (Competition Winner – Directed by: Matthew Harris):

We’ve been hearing things.  Things about our name being, well, a bit shitty.  Pun intended.

And these are not just the low rumblings of the insignificant or of jealous competition.  No. Here at Fairtilizer we are proud to say that we’ve been honored with such accolades as…

Being #1 on the Top 10 Worst Web App Names:

“The service is great, but the name attracted a bit of attention, for example Valleywag suggested (rather subtly, given their rep) that Fairtilizer re-brand.”

Getting totally made fun of by @RyOnLife:

Being simultaneously loved and hated by the famous Alex Payne, @al3x:

And actually astonishing The Name Inspector to a point of dismayed interjection:

“Phil Butler over at ReadWriteWeb has written a post about a new online music service called Fairtilizer.  Oh dear. The Name Inspector doesn’t even know where to begin.”

We see these as no small feats, and have thus far been of the mindset that any press, is good press.

—–

So fine, perhaps Fairtilizer has a few too many syllables.

Ok, perhaps it evokes images of cow manure and has to be repeated three or four times whenever explaining it to someone for the first time.

It is possible that we didn’t check Urban Dictionary before stamping Fairtilizer on everything we created.

1. fairt

A fart that makes a noise, but does not smell. Hence, smells like air.
“Man, why’d you have to fart in my car, the windows are up”
“No worries dude, it was only a fairt”

…or Youtube, for that matter.

It could be the case that it’s a bit too easy to mistakenly type “Fartilizer,” and then not be able to work for ten minutes because farts are funny.  Always.

It might even be that at a quick first glance, it looks like our name is actually “Fartilizer”.

laughter…

Ok we’re back.

But it’s not that bad.  Well intentioned, a bit quirky, memorable once you can say and write it properly, but not THAT bad a name.  Right? Guys?

…guys?

Ok. Fine.  Any ideas for a new one?

Hi, please could you introduce Death In Plains to our readers?

Yeah, Death In Plains is just me (Enrico, form Pesaro/Italy), recording stuff and loops at home, with guitar, noises, samples, occasional drum machines, keyboards of any kind. My bedroom gets so gauzy when I’m sitting in it recording and producing these songs and not-songs. I like it a lot.

You are releasing a new 4 tracks EP at the moment. Disc Error Recordings, the label you are signed to, is promoting it with some remixes. Did you chose the remixers yourself? Are those remixes only for promo purposes or is there any plan to release them?

The name of it is Mustard Polo, like my email address, and is available as a 10″ vinyl or mp3 download. I recorded and layered stuff at home then James (Aparicio), half of DiscError, did some additional production. We were constantly sending emails to each other talking about tweaks and changes. So it was fun and natural to give it that name, haha.
Yes the remixers were chosen by the label and, really happy about them indeed. We actually decided to put out another digital ep with the best five remixes, which are by These New Puritans, Ghostape, Cosmetics, Nursery and Dreamcrusher.

Are you working on an album or do you think the album format is not relevant anymore in 2010?

No I’m not currently working on a full album, not yet, but I won’t discard the idea at all. I just think that “long collections of songs” are not that relevant anymore in 2010, since it’s all passing so fast, but if we are talking of an album as an organic opus, thinked and recorded intentionally, with fresh stuff written on purpose, then I’d love to work on a LP soon.

Could you let us a know more about the Italian scene? Any bands, artists, producers we should listen to?

What about the Italian scene? Sure it’s a tiny one, speaking on the business side of things, but we have indeed some awesome acts, starting from friends General Decay (http://www.myspace.com/generaldk) to Bologna based His Clancyness or A Classic Education as well as Wolther Goes Stranger and Welcome Back Sailors Milan’s Too Young To Love or Tuscany’s Dance For Burgess. Oh and of course techno house superstars Crookers!

You are also directing videos for Death In Plains but also for other artists. What are the online tools you are using to publish/promote your music/videos online?

Oh I just upload my videos and clips to Vimeo or Youtube and try spreading the words via blogs or writing people I know or who could be somehow interessed, easy

What’s your setup like in the studio (instruments, gear, software)? What are you using to create your videos?

I use a laptop with Ableton Live along with tons of open source stuff like Ardour and Jack environment, midi controllers, modern and vintage mics, a guitar, a Korg Electribe EA-1 and a Roland SPD-6 drum machine. And also samples and guitar fx pedals and a big rugged Mackie mixer from the 90’s. For videos I use a Canon camcorder and a small compact Panasonic camera or I edit public domain footage or using short clips from movies I love. Then I edit a lot, I always like editing, it became easier with software and you can really put your very own taste in it.

How do you stay connected with your fans?

I think it’s easier now that how it could be years ago with the internet and social networking. I don’t really like spamming and promoting stuff though, I always told myself “if you have to be noticed then you will”. Sometimes are fans which send emails to me and it’s really pleasant. Months ago a girl from Japan sent me a mail to thank because she said she used to listen to my songs every day cause it made her fell well, and last week another one from NY wrote that she had just discovered my music and she was about to “lie around with my songs like a lover” once she was back home. Touching and beautiful, truly.

Do you think an artist needs a label in 2010 when he could produce and promote himself his works?

Not necessarily at all. I think that the most fresh stuff is coming from unsigned bands and artists lately. But there are still a bunch of good labels which are up to date understanding their age and know how to find new ways and manners to promote and publish music, to preserve somehow their reason to be necessary. It’s a good thing in my opinion like it’s great that artists nowadays have chances and tools to promote themselves on their own.

DiscError Recordings on Fairtilizer
Death In Plains on Myspace
Death In Plains on Facebook

Derek Miller, one-half of Sleigh Bells, discusses waiting tables, M.I.A. and a possible Xmas record…

How did the partnership come about between you and Alexis to start making music together? Because, if I’m not mistaken, you both come from quite the opposite musical backgrounds.

We met by chance and, as it turns out, have similar goals creatively. I was waiting tables at the time. and ended up waiting on her. Her mother struck up a conversation with me and was curious about what I was doing in NY. I told her I was looking for a female vocalist…Alexis was there and mentioned she was a singer. We exchanged email addresses and started recording shortly after that.

Explain the track title change of [my personal favorite and a lot of others' favorite] “Ring Ring” to “Rill Rill” on Treats?

The demos were never officially released, so the names were all working titles. We didn’t anticipate any interest in what we were doing so we were pretty flippant in a way. Nothing was set in stone so we felt comfortable changing/moving things around for the “proper” LP.

You basically finished Treats in the eleventh hour and rather than risking a leak you got up on iTunes for sale ASAP. Who’s decision was that: band or label? And, do you believe that it was effective?

It was a joint decision. We are restless…the idea of finishing a record and having to sit on it for three months is weird. I would certainly renege or try to change it every week. I will erase or delete anything that I can, but once it’s out there I have to live with it and I’m ok with that. It was also refreshing for everyone/anyone that is interested to hear it at the same time.

It’s 2010 and there’s a lot of chatter that labels don’t matter anymore. How important has Mom + Pop/N.E.E.T. been in your development?

Very important. The internet is great initially, but a lot of early fans are fickle, because newness is their currency…not music. Everyone knows this by now. A good record label exposes your record to people that aren’t sitting in front of a monitor 8 hours a day. I’m thankful for all of the support we have received online, but it’s rarely sustainable.

You guys have quite an online following. How do you stay engaged with your fans on the web?

We aren’t huge fans of “social networking” really. Apparently, there was a time when it was important for bands/artists to break down the “barrier” separating them, but I think now more than ever it’s important to protect yourself…not just from the bad stuff, but the good as well. It’s all toxic. Twitter is a good example. It’s basically a direct line of communication from a stranger to the artist. It’s way too easy to access people. You have to shut yourself off from that in order to maintain a clear head. Feedback is good, but too much of it clouds your mind and can fuck with the creative process.

It seems like once those demos surfaced in 2009, the rest was history. Did you guys plant that seed for exposure or was that fan generated?

I don’t know…we recorded songs and put them online because we thought they were ok!

What’s your setup like in the studio (instruments, gear, software)?

I used Logic for most of the stuff. My engineer, Shane Stoneback, used Protools. A lot of the original stems from the Logic sessions were used…maybe EQ’d a bit, but mostly untouched. The rest of the record was made with sounds were in front of me.

Now you have production credits on M.I.A.’s upcoming release, /\/\ /\ Y /\, right? Any other projects you’re working on?

Yeah I did one track for Maya’s record. That’s how I met Shane (engineer/Treefort Recordings) and built confidence. I already have a ton of new material for the next record. We are going to be touring for a while so I’m trying to be patient!

So, can we expect a Sleigh Bells Xmas Record this holiday season? Maybe featuring George Clinton?

Definitely.

Treats out now on Mom + Pop/N.E.E.T. Recordings.

Visit Sleigh Bells website
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Visit Sleigh Bells Facebook profile
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Hello, can you introduce Sepalcure, aka Machinedrum and Praveen, to our readers? What are your backgrounds, and how did the partnership come about between you to start making music together?

Sepalcure started in early September 2009 after a successful 2 week collaboration in which we were playing around with a sound that was new for us as producers. At the time, we were bored with our respective solo projects and found new inspiration working together. After nearly 8 years of friendship, this was our first musical collaboration. It’s been pretty exciting for us.

Travis: Machinedrum is my project that I started while attending high school in the late 90s. It was my experiment with fusing fast tempo music like drum n bass with downtempo hiphop and funk. I’ve released several albums and EPs on Miami based Merck Records (RIP) and have done a lot of remix work for people like Johnny Cash, Solange, XV, Sound Tribe Sector 9 and many others.

Praveen: I’ve been making music as Praveen since the mid 90s. I’ve released on Neo Ouija, Expanding Records, AI Records and Music Related. I started off ages ago making Detroit Techno but recently my solo project has explored the sounds of degraded beauty and hopeful melancholy and has become progressively more acoustic. I have also been collaborating with Kranky’s Benoît Pioulard on a project we call “Praveen & Benoît”.

What’s your first single about and what’s coming up next?
Love Pressure is simply an exploration of a sound that we’ve been keen on for a while. Its the more soulful and sexy side of what people consider Dubstep. We’re really into the idea that a lot of electronic music producers right now are throwing out the blueprints and anything goes. We’re working on new music all the time so expect to hear a more finely tuned and mature extension of what you have heard thus far.

What’s the best thing about making music?
The therapeutic aspects. Its like you are recharging, it makes us excited about living. Its also about discovery and the feeling you get when you find out that you are capable of making something you’ve never heard before. If that pure creation can be sent out into the wild and brighten up some people’s lives, even if only for a moment, that makes the rewards even better.

Where were you in 1990, how was it?
Travis: At home in my living room at my parents house in North Carolina watching MTV and drawing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and blueprinting ideas for video games.

Praveen: Funny that Travis said that – I was doing about the same, except here in NY and I was probably drawing pictures of Spider Man or playing Nintendo.

How’s the scene in Brooklyn?
It’s chaotic – as most of NYC is. There’s so much happening in NYC every night that its hard to say there’s a predominant sound but artists such as ourselves, FaltyDL, Kingdom, Matt Shadetek and more seem to be finding a common ground bringing a distinctly american twist to the UK Bass music sound.

There’s a lot of chatter that having a label doesn’t matter anymore. How important has Hotflush been in your development?
If you are as big as Radiohead or Jay-Z then yeah, you don’t need a label. Hotflush has been an inspiration to our sound for years and it is an honor to be working closely with such an innovative collective of producers.

Has the internet changed your way of working as an artist and consuming music?
Definitely. With an increased accessibility to cheap or free music there is also an increase in the amount of new musicians, artists and producers to meet the demand. This has actually lead to an explosion of ideas and genres over the past 10 years which is very exciting.

Praveen: I’ve been running a mix archive and podcast site for the past 6 years called Percussion Lab. Its been amazing to see the amount of people who have started finding out about new music from the site.

How do you use it on a day to day basis, and how do you see it evolving in the coming years?
We listen to our friends music, trade tunes and check mixes.

What’s your setup like in the studio (instruments, gear, software)?
Ableton Live, Rhodes MKI, Shakers, Impulse Tracker, a Elektron Machinedrum, Turntables, Juno 6, Nord Lead, tons of Plugins, Booze, American Spirits and whatever else we can find. The other day we started a track with a Kalimba and Acoustic Guitar.

Recommended music site, a club, a movie, an artist, a piece of music gear and a label?
There’s loads of music up on PercussionLab.Com. If you’re in NYC, you should definitely check out Club Love (try and catch a Dub War night there). LuckyMe is one of our favorite labels at the moment (we’re biased). Buy some maracas and definitely check out Mount Kimbie on Hotflush – we love what they’re up to right now…

Where are we going?
Decibel Festival September 25th. Europe this winter…

Sepalcure “The Love Pressure” EP is officially out!

Visit Sepalcure website
Visit Tailored Communication Fairtilizer profile
Visit Tailored Communication website

Everyone knows who Lifelike is, tell us about where you are now in your career and your newly launched label ‘Computer Science’?

Computer Science just started early this spring, so its really like a baby right now, I hope it will grow up fast and gives everybody a lot of other babies. I can’t tell where i am in my carreer, as to be honest, i never planned anything in there, i just do the way it goes, as relaxed as possible and try to release the best music i can.

Like your friends Kris Menace and Alan Braxe, we expected you to have started your own label ages ago, why now?

Well, 5 years ago after “Discopolis” successfull year i had the opportunity to release a record with Wall Of Sound in the UK (”So Electric”), so this pushed me away from the “do it yourself” part of building a label, and also i didnt have the pressure that Kris had right from the start, like building his artist name and trying to rush records out to be more known. The fact that I released already in the late 90’s and early 2000 on the french label 20000ST, helped me a lot to get the connections out there, so I didnt feel I had the pressure to release on my own and go fast to be more known.

I wanted to continue and sign again with Alan on Vulture, so I did with “Sunset” and probably more soon again. I’m pretty slow at having the right track ready to be released, i released only 2 records since Discopolis, i didnt feel that I needed to release on my own until now.

Is Computer Science strictly for Lifelike releases?

Right now, yes. I think that, just like Alan in the past, I need to be focused on a few projects and for that its better that I just concentrate on my music. We’re not so many people working in the label, it’s a very small company, we wouldn’t have the time to take care of everybody if we would start to sign a lot of newcomers unfortunately.

What kind of music will you be focusing on releasing?

I have this new single “Love Emulator” that shows maybe a bit what i will try to do. Between electro-pop and house music, somewhere in there, like i do since 10years now. We plan to do a “Love Emulator” remixed by the end of September/October and then something more radical, I have a few tracks i wanna release this winter, and they are totally 80’s, like something you wont hear anywhere else, I hope!

You’ve got your own signature sound, is it difficult to create music while sticking to your signature style and still keep it fresh?

Sometimes yes, it can happen, I sit in the studio and ask myself if what I’m doing, remixes or working on my music, is fresh ? how will people look at it ? That’s also why it was urgent for me to change a bit of the content of my music with ‘Love Emulator’. I wanted to use rap vocals, but I wasn’t sure at all how this would sound on my music… I was really surprised to hear that it sounded great. Then I had this feeling like “wow, now again something moved in my music, it’s brilliant times, lets do it”

What formats will the Computer Science releases be distributed on and Why?

Right now only Digital distribution has been discussed with our partners. But we’re not excluding a possibility to do a small vinyl pressing soon if there is enough demands.

We chose to stay with the Digital Release mostly because people dont buy CD’s and vinyls anymore, basically it’s not that we can’t press those records, it’s just that there are not enough people that would buy it, not in sufficient quantities for us to recoup the costs of the pressing.

5 years ago we sold a tremendous quantity of the infamous “Discopolis” as an example (around 20000 vinyls and almost the same with CD’s), but today the market has changed totally, only a few afficionados are still buying physical support, unfortunetaly, i really regret that, but it’s life, we got to move on.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of running an online music label in oppose to being signed to one?

The best thing is that you can really plan things the way you want it, nobody will come and tell you, “no we better do like this or like that”, the less cool side is that you have to pay for everything, but let’s say thats it’s the price of your liberty somehow. I decided to even build my own store, so that I can sometimes sell music through the ‘Computer Science’ website. Like now we have this exclusive offer that you can download the full EP plus an unreleased bonus track and you can buy it all on ‘Computer Science’ website. The offer is there for 1 more week then it will be available on normal digital retail stores.

For income, do you depend on your music sales only? How do you fund your label?

Oh no, i dont even think about making money with my release right now, and it has always been like that, we never thought that “Discopolis” would work that well to be honest, the record got released in June, and has a super ibiza season, we didnt know about it, it was only in September that we noticed that the record was on every DJ playlist on the internet.
The money comes from my own pocket, mostly from my DJ gigs, but its fine it’s not like horribly expensive to promote a record, it is possible to do it on your own, as long as you have the right promo agency.

Why is the internet so important to Artists and Labels nowadays?

It’s a very creative way to promote your artist name, your label or anything related to your releases if you are a record label. It’s great, efficient and fast, people have instant access to the music, no need to run to a shop when it’s cold outside or wait for your order from blabla records online that take ages to get delivered.

What online tools and services are you using to achieve your promotional goals?

Well, Fairtilizer is one of those tools, but also Soundcloud, MySpace music, Facebook, iTunes to name a few of them.
And we do have our own websites, like www.computerscience.fr where we sell our music, or www.lifelike-music.com etc…

What is the best way you can incorporate a music service such as Fairtilizer in your promotional strategy?

The best way is to do a big mailing to different key people in the buisiness and music industry, and the keys blogs, you can then count on a very fast internet spreading.

Are you part of any community/social-network where you can stay connected to your fans?

yes of course, we have myspace page, facebook fan page and soundcloud recently added.

Tell us about the first release and the collaborations on it?

“Love Emulator” is a kind of weird story, I had this track as an instrumental for months and planned to release it like a typical club track. We had been already started the promotion around this track when I finalized the vocal version. The vocal mix sounded so great that me and my manager decided to drop the instrumental on the way and go for the vocal track. We had those great choruses from Yota, she had already been featuring my last record on Alan Braxe’s Vulture record named “Sunset” and because she insisted to give it a try I sent her the instrumental. When I received the demo with her voice I was like “wow it’s briliant, but why wouldn’t we go further and add even more vocals ?”. And here we are, my manager connected us with Atlantic records in LA and we got this incredible rap topline from Namebrand, a fresh new guy over there, he has been working with Kelis already, he’s a brilliant singer really, his voice just took the track somewhere else.

Leaks are unavoidable, especially with releases in demand, how do you usually deal with that?

We didnt promote the single with any CD’s, even for journalists, we didnt post it anywhere and we refused also to give it away for free promo purpose or to blogs. Selected journalists, bloggers could hear it if logged into an account with a secured page. I know this sounds paranoiac, but it worked actually, we couldnt’ leak it anywhere on the internet until last monday, date of the official release. I was really happy with that. Also people hear about a new release, but couldnt get it anywhere so they had to wait, glad to see that finally nobody was bothered to not being able to download it.

Computer Science website
Computer Science Fairtilizer profile
Lifelike website
Lifelike Myspace page
Lifelike Facebook page