Page 36 - Zone Magazine Issue 014

feature interview [uk]
With a brand new We Take Polaroids single releasing this month, Mark Zowie talks about JULA. His latest incarnation. A record label for like-minded artists and unashamedly, for his own We Take Polaroids, Mark Zowie and Monzza output.
Mark Zowie has such a long story to tell, his run -ins with labels, experiences working with others, putting bands together, touring, writing albums, avoiding the pigeon holes the 'circus' that is the 'Music Business' seems so painfully quick to trap producers within.
Taking all this into consideration, was this the reason behind the new label? Apparently this isn't the first label he's ran, signing the first 'Stouffer' single, an artist who would go on to name himself Mr Calvin Harris.
Well, I'm unsure where to begin!
It's been a long journey to this point and not a decision I took particularly lightly. There's a trillion labels out there. All with passionate people jumping at the heels of whatever it is they're trying to achieve. I find it all a little overwhelming to be honest. Why should anyone want to take any notice? The fact is, there are no reasons these days for anyone to take note of any labels.
INFACT, What actually is a label these days? It doesn't feel like it did 15/20 years ago. Reaction sheet faxes, record sleeve mailers, all so physical and visceral. A tangible stock, with value and apparent collectibility. I co-owned / ran a vinyl only record label around '97/'98. Natural Selection Recordings, releasing 4 singles. Which was pretty fucking good going back then. Bloody expensive it was too. Nearly broke us.
We released 3 Lil' Devious tracks and a Funk Freaks record, (friends of ours), then, we had signed a new single, 'Brighter Days', by 'Stouffer', a young kid, even did a few remixes for us for another possible never ever to be future release. He was from up in Dumfries, a half hour or so away from Carlisle and was so young, (15 maybe), I had to meet his Mam and dad to get them to sign the contract!
Anyhow, cut a long story short, we ran out of cash. After the 4th single just drew even, we decided to call it early doors on the label.
The only problem was, I was dreading phoning Adam and letting him down, so I jumped on a train down to London one
Friday afternoon, and ran round a few distribution companies with his then demo CD. (We'd moved on from cassettes, just). I eventually met a guy called Ernest who we'd done a P&D deal with earlier that year and managed to sign the track over to him. I rang Adam later that weekend and even got him a cheeky little advance and eventually got him released. I could sleep at night.
Tell us about Jula...
"There was a certain freedom I was looking for with JULA. An artist who writes and produces his work specifically for a label is not working to his best. You instantaneously pigeon hole ideas, I know, I've certainly been there many years ago."
Producing music which hoped may cross over, may get noticed by bigger labels. I found it soul destroying. There's a great bunch of labels I'm regularly guesting on and hope to as much in the future, these guys really loosen the grip on genres. Allow the artists to expand ideas and gain more progressive ideas that create new feeling. There's few releases of mine you could compare. Difficult to tell which direction I was heading in at any one time. I love that, it's how music should be, varying exciting, real.
Allow yourself the journey, untethered by other sources. An artist doesn't paint a picture in a style he hopes will suit a gallery. A gallery picks an artists work on the individuals talent, originality and flare. Not because it looks like a piece which sold a week earlier. The music industry has lost its way,
I feel. The labels
are looking for a
sound, a kind of
production. How
can you do that?
It's about
output. Quality,
regardless of
trend. I stand by
my ethos of
JULA, that being,
'a great track is
a great track'.
So who are Mark Zowie / We Take
Polaroids and Monzza?
We Take Polaroids / Mark Zowie and Monzza are just different heads, or personalities, so to speak. I use these personalities to express a varied style of output. I think it's more for the listener to be honest. I'm well aware that people head towards genres.
So my personalities allow me to express myself without making people think, 'why the fuck is We Take Polaroids dropping a swaggery house track at 120 bpm, yet the last single was 107bpm and had chorus, verse and middle eight? It just means the listener expects a certain kind of output, a style or sound. We Take Polaroids for example is a much more song led style of my writing.
Mark Zowie is as wide a span of genres of house music as I feel comfortable, whilst Monzza is much more of a larger, progressive, tech inspired, highly polished vibe. It's been compared to Deadmau5 and others in that genre. I see it as slightly more organic than him. I've certainly had great interest from Mau5trap on material, which means I'm walking in territories neither MZ or WTP personalities would of tread, yet still something I wouldn't feel comfortable releasing as Mark Zowie, or even We Take Polaroids.
So, JULA allows me to experiment a little more with these 'heads'. I don't necessarily need to worry about a label feeling uncomfortable putting out 3 different artists all being little old me! I write for me. For the label. If the track is great and makes me feel it's valid and needs to be heard, then I'll put it out there.
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