Monday, April 25, 2011

Q&A

Ok, so yesterday I put up a post letting some readers ask me some questions. Now it's time for me to answer. I purposely only left it going for a short time so that I didn't have too many questions to answer at once, I will be doing this once again in the future though.

So, time to get to the questions!


Jamal Crawls asked: Where did you best like working?

Well, this is a tough question. In terms of every day work most of my time is spent sitting in a room at home with a computer with the occasional run to the post office or local record store. That said though, sometime's it's hard to beat when you go out 'working' in order to do a performance for a gig.

My favourite gig was a few years ago. I was performing on the roster with some local acts for a regular show that was run in my hometown. It wasn't the biggest crowd ever but I definately had a great night because a lot of the acts were friends and there was a big bar tab available for all of us, so it ended up getting pretty messy.

In terms of actual performances though, while DJ'ing for one of my signed artists we did a support slot for a group called 'Horrorshow'. They managed to to a sellout show and the vibe from onstage couldn't be beat. Having a huge group of people all jumping and singing along is one of the best feelings you can have on stage.

Mr Dough asked Is dubstep easy to make? And why is it so fun to listen to if it's so repetitive?

Well. Dubstep is like any music genre in terms of easiness. Yes, it can be extremely easy to make dubstep. It is however, extremely hard to make high quality dubstep. Same goes for all genres, you can spend 10 minutes on something and define it under any genre you like, it doesn't mean it will be good though.

In terms of why it's so fun to listen to that all boils down to personal taste. My own enjoyment with Dubstep comes from when you're listening to it on huge sound systems. Dubstep seems to achieve that level where at a club the 'feel' of the music is just as important as what you're hearing. Dubstep for me personally starts to take a backseat to other genres though when played on crappy little laptop speakers or similar.

sandman asked: what genre do you specialize in? have you had many releases? whats your thoughts on downloading

Well. I specialize in hip hop. To be even more specific, Australian Hip Hop. While personally I haven't had any releases, artists on my label definately have. We only recently finished pressing up the EP's for one of my acts. We also just finished doing his launch in Brisbane and are now doing the plans for Adelaide.

In terms of downloading I think it's both a good thing and a bad thing. First of all, downloading has definately helped independant labels. You can make a release, put it out on iTunes or any similar download service and it is relatively inexpensive, pretty much anyone can do it. You don't have to worry about all the overheads that come with pressing up hard copies.

On the flipside, it has made illegal aquisition a lot easier. I have no issue with people downloading cd's if they really truly cannot afford it. When I start to have ill feelings though is when people just claim they can't afford it or just refuse to pay for music. Like it or, there's a lot of people involved behind a release and all of them have either put in big amounts of money or big amounts of time. If you want the cd, I think you should pay for it.

fit4life asked: how did you end up where you are, doing what you're doing?

When I was in my finishing year at high school I was really getting into the local hip hop scene. I was attending lots of shows regularly and was making a lot of friends. I originally started off a free design service for local acts as I was noticing a lot of demo's and mixtapes were going out with very amateur looking covers.

From there I was working on that, going to more and more shows and getting more involved. I started to notice a lot of acts that were of a very high quality that were having trouble even getting noticed. After seeing this a lot I just decided one day I wanted to help and that's when I started my label.

It really was one of those things I just decided I wanted to do. From that point on it was all about doing my research and working hard to make sure I was doing things right. I signed a couple of acts and started getting to work. That's all there was to it really, sorry it couldn't have been more exciting.

5 comments:

  1. its just nice to hear of people being successful from a modest start, thanks for answering! i think i'll do something similar on my blog!

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  2. Very interesting! Maybe one day I will finally make a Hardstyle album. XD

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  3. nice one man. I've only heard a little bit of Australian hip hop, would you mind linking us some?

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  4. It's nice to see people who can do what they love doing.

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