Page 46 - DemoZone Magazine Issue 003

Did you guys have any experience in label management before this venture?
No, neither of us have worked at labels prior to doing this. I come from a promoting/Dj’ing background that spans back from the early 90’s. I just wish I had started this back then and started producing much earlier.
Darren comes from an agency background running Forge Bookings which had offices in the Netherlands and here in the UK, then started working with Wez over the years and eventually taking over.
involved.
We sent the original off to French duo Acid Washed who are currently based in Berlin and they were instantly up for working on a remix. We were over the moon as we have a lot of respect for those guys. When their remix was returned it was such a rush, not only complimenting the original, but taking it to another dimension.
One of my old favourite DJ’s from the 90’s and of D:Ream fame, Al Mackenzie provided us with his club friendly interpretation and also a producer that’s worked with people such as Dido, David Bowie, Florence & The Machine, Leo Zero. What a combination of producers, we cannot tell you how proud we are to have all of these guys involved in our dream.
Of course rounding up the remixes is one from me ha ha.
What is it about the labels that makes it all work?
It’s a massive passion of ours to be a part of what we love doing and it’s so addictive. It’s totally different to being a DJ or promoter in way. Although you are promoting your brand, it’s not like promoting an event.
One of the main battles is gaining recognition within the industry and to do so, you have to go to the right events and conferences. We have met so many cool people through the years and you soon learn who are the people that you want to work with and those who want to work with you. We never lose sight of what we want to achieve and are always grateful for every opportunity that arises. No matter how big or small that opportunity is and who it comes from, it’s important to the journey that we are taking. Music is about fun, so it’s something that we embrace and are lucky enough to be our vocation.
What’s your all-time favourite label release?
There is one that stand out from November 2014 by Leeds based producer/dj Dale Middleton. He has huge respect within the industry and his music is played by so many massive dj’s such as Hernan
Catteneo, and recently on the Radio 1 Essential Selection. ‘Tord’ was the name of the release and we managed to get some amazing remixers involved. Dave Seaman, D-Formation, Chloe Fontaine and Lee Williams all churned out huge remixes.
The release gained numerous features and reviews online, we hope to get these guys involved in another sometime this year. D- Formation is already on board for another remix, which will be a summer release.
Proudest moment of the journey so far?
It has to be when we went to ADE last year. The amount of DJ’s that approached us after seeing our EJ Underground t-shirts and said, wow that Dale Middleton promo, it’s the bomb! Ha ha
Not only that, but being asked by the Decoded Magazine guys if we would do a TV interview. We looked at each other and thought, are you sure? Us?
We stood there and the Futuristic Polar Bears and Jay C were being interviewed before us, talking about huge festivals playing to 100,000’s and travelling the world with Toolroom etc. We felt really nervous and intimidated at this point, thinking, what are we going to speak about ha ha
But in fact, you realise that everyone has their place in this industry and it turned out to be such a great interview. Funny enough we have cemented some really good friendships from that off the cuff meeting along the street outside the Dylan!
You guys obviously sign a lot of new talent – are there any signings that you guys are most proud of?
Yes, we sign lots of new talent who constantly churn out top quality music. There’s Lee Williams, KEFFISH, Jourdan Bordes, Ponytech, Scientific Funk, all gaining huge support from some big DJ’s. The list is endless to be honest as all these guys really push their releases and have become a part of our family. We stay in touch with so many of our artists on a friendship level.
Release 100 for EJ Underground is just around the corner – can you fill us in?
It’s so exciting for me personally as I had never envisaged getting to this point. When EJ Underground started I was trawling soundcloud for artists and tracks to release, sometimes begging people to release under my banner as they had never heard of the label before. I was pumping so much money into promotion and putting on the odd label night, and never making anywhere near enough to cover the cost of running the label. Thank goodness it’s not like that anymore as I would have given up a long time ago. The 100th release took me ages to put together, I chopped and changed with which one it should be. I did plan to have track from a guy in the US who has made an amazing track with a singer from Oz, but I ran out of time with getting remixes to compliment the release. It will still be coming out, so watch this space.
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We were sent the track by the Bedford Falls Players and it was lucky really as I instantly recognized who they were as I’d remixed one of their releases back in 2012! Mark Cooper and Bob Miles who head up the BFP with Terry Farley produced the track with Justin Drake who is the engineer behind Peace Division. So not only was it a perfect track for the 100th release with its swirling 303, the whole package was something that could work from a PR perspective. There was no point hitting a massive milestone without knowing we could shout about the people