Page 28 - Zone Magazine Issue 020

labelfeature labelFEATURE
f you’re into Progressive House and I mean true progressive house, then you would have heard of Pro B Tech Music. Brent Lawson and Ingo Vogelmann are the brains behind what has become one of the best labels in this genre. A constant stream of great music emanates from this label and I have been witness of this for some time via the promos that have been hitting
my inbox and from the numerous sets that I’ve heard on various streaming sites. Not forgetting the numerous DJ’s who have been supporting their releases and have included their music within their playlists. Since it’s creation in 2012, things have continued to grow with signings including Tilt, The Undergroudn Allstars, Dave Seaman, John OO Fleming, Hernan Cattaneo, Martin Garica and many more.
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Tell us a bit about how Pro B Tech came about and how the two of you met?
Brent: I kicked off Pro B Tech as Pro-B-Tech Records many years ago, the idea was for me to try and branch out into the scene to support my DJ career, I have had so much fun with this and been lucky enough to work and meet many hugely influential and good people. Myself and Ingo began communicating a long time ago when we initially worked together via Frisky, our relationship and communication grew through the years and we began talking about PBTM and BTechNoir records, from there on it’s grown to a strong team that works very very well.
Ingo: What Brent said. Sometimes you meet people in life with whom it "clicks" within milliseconds. Our encounter was one of them, and it became the great collaboration at Pro B Tech Music. That did not appeal to everyone at first, that's the business, but we never let ourselves be thwarted for a second. We believe in what we do and I’m confident to say: we are doing a very good job.
You’ve become an established and well respected label within the industry, what difficulties have you faced whilst getting the label off the ground?
Brent: Think the most difficult part and still remains is finding the time, ensuring you can create what you need to ensure a quality job is maintained. Balancing family, day job, 14 artists on the agency, 2 labels and DJing is tough, but get it right and its hugely rewarding – not financially but personally.
Ingo: Running a label is not just a lot of work, you're constantly challenged to meet expectations, and it's important to find the right balance between working hard and meeting expectations.
Sometimes you have to slow down and gather to keep your focus, and you need people around you to keep reminding you of your mission. Brent and I work this way. Beatport publishes about 25,000 new tracks PER WEEK, in this ocean of music you have to work very well to get noticed accordingly. I am also particularly happy about this question because I’m a massive believer in “quality always wins”. That is our principle, and we will not publish anything that does not meet our very high quality standards.
Is there anything that you would do differently now that you have had the experience of running the label for some time?
Brent: Mmmm... not really, it's been a fantastic learning curve, I guess maybe some of my decisions were not the best and maybe I would not have been so quick to jump at some of the projects we committed to, other than that and looking for help earlier I am really happy with how things are and have went.
Ingo: This is like with all other things in life, you don’t always do everything right. And you don’t have to. You just have to be aware of your mistakes and do better next time.
What have been some of the highlights for the label?
Brent: Watching the label grow year on year, the artists involved and showing an interest such as personal favourite Hernan Cattaneo, and seeing regular charting with all our releases.
Ingo: I would like to answer that question on a meta-level: as long as we make people happy with music, we have already achieved the best that can be achieved.
" It has always been about experiences, people, not the recognition or financial side, I have seen some real crappy things happen in the industry that have put me off, but I always bounce back quickly. " - Brent