The internet has been flush with the works and links of one of the industries fastest moving, forward thinking artists / label honcho’s, Neoteric. Main Course Records has been on the tip of every tastemeaskes tongue fom some time now, from the likes of THUMP, Earmilk and many more.
The future certainty of electronic music has been approved by Jay Z, which of course is the most significant opinion that can be offered by any one person on the subject.. Future Classics believes this statement to be true however. It is just a matter of how and with how much outside influence the spectrum will continue to grow that has still yet be determined. MCR is under an eye (so to speak) in this regard, they’re being a free or by donation label and all.
Thankfully, after his lengthy Earmilk interview w. fellow label mates Bot & Astronomar Neoteric still had some words to spare on his career and the label that’s doing it so hard. Read, enjoy, comment, share.
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I’d love it if we could talk about your career a little bit. You’ve lived in a number of city’s, participating in a variety of scenes, worked in A&R, and so on. Before we jump into Main Course.
Sure. Yeah I’ve moved around a bit in the past few years, but I’d say I came up in Vancouver, DJing and then producing. The last few years I spent around Europe, mainly in Berlin. During that time I was managing Crookers (while they were still a duo) and a few other artists. Recently I’ve moved to London Ontario, which is a couple hours south of Toronto. Musically, I’m all over the map. I started out mainly as a Hip Hop DJ, but the ease and access of Serato really allowed my sets to transform into a reflection of what I loved moreso than what I ‘had’ to play. These days I mainly play and produce house, but also love spaced out cosmic disco stuff, and run a passion project of a podcast called The White Light Mixes (www.whitelightmixes.com). I’m pretty much obsessed with all types of music though.
How long have you been producing and DJing and which came first?
DJing for sure, and I guess in my bedroom for almost 20 years now. Wow, haven’t done that math in a while. Publicly about 15, and travelling/touring for about 6 I think. Producing was always something I dabbled in here and there, but became much more of a focus in the past 3-4 years.
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How long were you signing other peoples records to other peoples labels? and how did you begin that role in the music industry?
Technically, I started an underground rap label in ’99 called Futility Records which was an interesting outlet and experience, but my main experiences started in 2008 when Switch, who had just moved to LA from the UK came to play in Vancouver. We hung out, had some drinks, talked music and showed each other tracks, and he subsequently asked me to help him find records for his label Dubsided, which was a real spark for me. I eventually started helping friends get their music signed to labels like Dim Mak and Top Billin, and also did 2 compilations on Discobelle Records which featured a bunch of my favourite producers. So, it was pretty natural, and frankly overdue for me to transition that into my own label.
Was there ever a site, model or friend that Main Course followed in terms of running as a free release label? Or was this choice made entirely on your desire to deliver quality music more readily?
It was based around so many random ideas, and certainly inspired by a few people we looked up to over the years. The model of 100% free was something we thought we could make work. I guess thats yet to be seen. But Mad Decent did a great job with Jeffree’s (big up to Vancouvers Paul Devro for his amazing work with that label), and later Fools Gold’s clubhouse series was a sign of a new direction too. Ultimately as artists, I think we wanted to start representing what we loved, and using our connects and profile to get the word out. Musically we wanted to represent pretty much anything good, anything we loved, and always aim to release it in final form as quickly as we can, to keep things fresh.
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What do you see the roles of current music blogs as? As compared to say, the early thousands.
They are so incredibly important these days. It means SO MUCH for a label like us to be featured – we truly just want the music heard, and we’re willing to spend our own money to give it to you. There is so much good music available now, more than we could ever really digest. So, we live and die by blogs and their support – we’re always down to work out premiers or exclusive content if that helps the rest of our catalog or artists get noticed!
Have you found todays blogshphere to be very accommodating of Main Course’s freelease methodology? And was this a consideration in the labels early conception?
I have, but there’s certainly tons of room for more help haha. Another thing we’ve come to realise is that every site can’t feature everything we release as we have so much coming down the pipeline, be it full releases, our “snacks’ series, our mixes and upcoming podcast series, plus music videos, and of course, our own individual content as separate artists – all that combined is a great deal of content, so it’s good to just follow us via our sites and social feeds so you don’t miss something amazing, haha.
Is the labels main output going to continue to be free releases?
Absolutely. Hopefully, forever. With all our releases we ask people to consider buying it on iTunes or Beatport if they love what they hear and want to support the artist and label. It really does help. Sometimes we might do a giveaway for anyone thats purchased a release – a zip file here or a chance to win a shirt or something. As of now, if we can just recoup our expenses we are more than happy! Finding a way to take it to the “next level” while still keeping things moving fast, and freely could be tricky, but we’re down to figure that out.
Where does Main Course call home?
London, Ontario, Canada (myself), London, UK (Bot) and Los Angeles (Astronomar). Worldwide Domination pending!
How do you feel Main Course stands out from, or fits into, the rest of the label pack? Aside from the roster.
Hmm. It’s kind like how I was in high school. Able to hang out with a bunch of different crowds. The basketball players, the skateboarding stoners, the pretty girls, and the arty introverts. It keeps things exciting, for sure.
Do you like Main Course being referred to as an “Experimental” label?
I think our ‘Everything Free’ model is more experimental than the music, but perhaps i’ve been desensitised to the music. I think a lot of it is.. weird and non-traditional, a bit cutting edge, but I don’t view it as experimental. If anyone does though, that’s cool with us.
Word is that there is a ‘SNACKS’ compilation, and remix compilations en route. What can you say about either of those at this point?
Yeah! The first SNACKS compilation actually just came out! (link: http://bit.ly/MCR13iTunes) and we’re thrilled, as it’s our first full length release. 10 tracks, which were previously offered as Snacks, our free download quick releases. Volume 2 is 10 more tracks and drops Jan 7th! The remix compilation is a solid 8 tracks and out on December 10th. We’ll be giving a track a day away after that. There’s some real heat on there too, a vocal version of Swick & Lewis Cancut’s Hi Score featuring Dancehall artist Di Apprentice, plus some big big remixes from AC Slater, Jeff Doubleau, Raymond Lam, Bot, Nacey, and 2D Noize.
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PS. On the subject of submissions. Granted dealing with submissions takes up a great deal of time. But Im curious if one resource or channel, or country, or city even that has proven to be more fruitful in it’s supply of new talent.
It takes a good deal of time, for sure, but it’s fun to listen to what comes in. We generally ignore anything that is some mass CC to a bunch of people – that’s not the approach to go about getting your music signed. Most of it comes via emails, and some through our Soundcloud dropbox (link: www.soundcloud.com/maincoursemedia), but the vast majority of what we sign comes from people we meet when we’re travelling for gigs, meeting the people who are playing at the same kinds of parties as us. Or via friends of artists we already work with. We’re all about relationships and building with new and exciting talent. That said, if you think you got what it takes, check out www.maincourse.me/label and submit your demos to us (contact@maincourse.me). We’ll get back to you if we think it’s something we can work with!
Big thanks to Future Classics for the support!!!!
NOTE: You can check Neoteric live in your respective cities of Calgary, tomorrow at the Hifi Club for the Stirling Agency’s 4YR anniversary party, and then Friday in #Vancouver at the Electric Owl Social Club with Mama Miche + Blondtron + Vinnie the Squid.
Here are a few recent releases from Main Course Records:
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Neoteric – Facebook | Soundcloud | Twitter | Main Course Records
