Imprints brings you regular profiles of the most exciting record labels the world over, with input from the movers and shakers who contribute to their local electronic music communities.Name: Restructured Recordings
Vibe: "A deep techno sound, with a touch of soul—it has to have feeling and a groove to it."
Founded: 2001
Location: Toronto
New releases: Best of Restructured Vol 1.
Artists-to-watch: Laurent Maldo & Jules Wells (France), Thomas Elmore (Netherlands), Heron (Germany)
Founded: 2001
Location: Toronto
New releases: Best of Restructured Vol 1.
Artists-to-watch: Laurent Maldo & Jules Wells (France), Thomas Elmore (Netherlands), Heron (Germany)
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Toronto's Greg Gow founded Restructured Recordings just after the turn of the millennium, in hopes of crafting a platform for his own releases. As a DJ and producer residing in Toronto in the late 90s, Gow was exposed to a changing of tides in techno music. With influences spanning the Atlantic, from Detroit to the UK, Gow decided to team up with an investor in hopes of keeping his music and finances separate. Eventually, the music industry would prove uninterested in compromise. A consistent streak of vinyl-distribution nightmares would lead Gow over to the digital side of music, leaving his former partner behind and putting his sound and soul-driven music first.THUMP: Why did you decide to form your label?
Greg Gow: Because I had the investor in it and he wanted to see a return on things. He wanted me to sign people to break even, to an extent, so he didn't really care about the sound. So I was working more as an A&R guy instead of putting out my own stuff. I didn't put anything out on the label until the fifth or sixth release. After the fifth release, my partner decided he didn't really want to be part of it anymore because it was a frustrating game dealing with vinyl distribution companies.How would you describe your sound?
A Detroit-influenced sound, but with my take on it. I've been exposed to a lot of other things. I lived in Toronto, still do, and have been exposed to people around here. Plus there was a lot of UK techno and techno artists that I saw come to Toronto. I was one of the first guys to play with Joe Mo back in the late 90s. My sound is really a hybrid between the Detroit stuff and the European stuff. That's sort of what I try to do with Restructured.
Greg Gow: Because I had the investor in it and he wanted to see a return on things. He wanted me to sign people to break even, to an extent, so he didn't really care about the sound. So I was working more as an A&R guy instead of putting out my own stuff. I didn't put anything out on the label until the fifth or sixth release. After the fifth release, my partner decided he didn't really want to be part of it anymore because it was a frustrating game dealing with vinyl distribution companies.How would you describe your sound?
A Detroit-influenced sound, but with my take on it. I've been exposed to a lot of other things. I lived in Toronto, still do, and have been exposed to people around here. Plus there was a lot of UK techno and techno artists that I saw come to Toronto. I was one of the first guys to play with Joe Mo back in the late 90s. My sound is really a hybrid between the Detroit stuff and the European stuff. That's sort of what I try to do with Restructured.
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Do you have a preference between analog and digital?
There is this whole debate about how to make music today, analog or sequencers. This is especially true when you play in new places or other cities because people are interested in how you do things. Some guys swear by Logic or Pro Tools or Ableton but at the end of the day, if I could get something pretty close to the sound without the MIDI headaches and fucking 8000 wires around my house, then I'll do it that way. As long as the idea means something and has direction, that is what's important.What makes your label different?
The sound of the label is still fairly consistent. I don't necessarily put a record out every month, but to me, it's more important that what I do release fits under the umbrella of the label. Rather than just pumping shit out, like some labels are doing, so people see their name come up.
There is this whole debate about how to make music today, analog or sequencers. This is especially true when you play in new places or other cities because people are interested in how you do things. Some guys swear by Logic or Pro Tools or Ableton but at the end of the day, if I could get something pretty close to the sound without the MIDI headaches and fucking 8000 wires around my house, then I'll do it that way. As long as the idea means something and has direction, that is what's important.What makes your label different?
The sound of the label is still fairly consistent. I don't necessarily put a record out every month, but to me, it's more important that what I do release fits under the umbrella of the label. Rather than just pumping shit out, like some labels are doing, so people see their name come up.
Photo courtesy of Greg Gow. Movement Detroit 2015.
Which are your favourite tracks?
The last vinyl release, called "The Warning." It was an original track by me, but Mateo Murphy did a really dope remix. It captured the banger side of restructured, but it also had Detroit elements. Subconscious soul with Jasper Wolf that really sums up the feeling of the label—sort of a bit melancholy, soulful with a drive to it.The distribution company totally screwed me on the vinyl for "The Warning" though, I didn't see a penny.Did that cause you to switch to digital?
I was really discouraged by that. Here I am, putting up like five or six grand, which isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things, but after having two or three releases in that scenario, I decided to stop releasing vinyl because it was so discouraging. Then I came back to Beatport and focused on digital releases and trying to find other ways to promote the records without vinyl. Once the vinyl ended, it made it easier to put out music. It was a bit dangerous, though, because it was too easy to fire stuff out the door. It's not that we didn't think about it as much but there just wasn't as much risk as with vinyl.
The last vinyl release, called "The Warning." It was an original track by me, but Mateo Murphy did a really dope remix. It captured the banger side of restructured, but it also had Detroit elements. Subconscious soul with Jasper Wolf that really sums up the feeling of the label—sort of a bit melancholy, soulful with a drive to it.The distribution company totally screwed me on the vinyl for "The Warning" though, I didn't see a penny.Did that cause you to switch to digital?
I was really discouraged by that. Here I am, putting up like five or six grand, which isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things, but after having two or three releases in that scenario, I decided to stop releasing vinyl because it was so discouraging. Then I came back to Beatport and focused on digital releases and trying to find other ways to promote the records without vinyl. Once the vinyl ended, it made it easier to put out music. It was a bit dangerous, though, because it was too easy to fire stuff out the door. It's not that we didn't think about it as much but there just wasn't as much risk as with vinyl.
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When you make a vinyl record you have to really think—is this the best it could possibly be? Because you are about to ride at least two or three grand, if not more.How do you choose the artists that you work with?
The easiest way to break it down is there are two kinds of music: good and bad. It's as simple as that. Although, that's very subjective—what's good to me may not be good to you and vice versa. But, I'm not listening and thinking, 'Oh this clown used an 808 kick but he should have used a 909 kick.' I'm not like that at all—I ask myself if the music has a direction. When I listen to demos that people send me, the first thing I'm listening for is a feeling. Does it capture a feeling? If it has a direction and feeling, I continue to listen.What challenges do you face running the label?
The frustrating thing was the distribution companies and getting the money back from them. Even if you sold a good amount of records the money was painful to retrieve. Then the label took a real shift and I realized that for the amount of effort I was putting into it, I should put my own stuff out or stuff I was really into.It's fucking crazy. You would send the records from France to Germany and then get a big bill in the mail from the tax company because you're importing goods. Why the fuck am I doing this again? You're not making any music because you're spending the rest of the day on the phone chasing these guys down.
The easiest way to break it down is there are two kinds of music: good and bad. It's as simple as that. Although, that's very subjective—what's good to me may not be good to you and vice versa. But, I'm not listening and thinking, 'Oh this clown used an 808 kick but he should have used a 909 kick.' I'm not like that at all—I ask myself if the music has a direction. When I listen to demos that people send me, the first thing I'm listening for is a feeling. Does it capture a feeling? If it has a direction and feeling, I continue to listen.What challenges do you face running the label?
The frustrating thing was the distribution companies and getting the money back from them. Even if you sold a good amount of records the money was painful to retrieve. Then the label took a real shift and I realized that for the amount of effort I was putting into it, I should put my own stuff out or stuff I was really into.It's fucking crazy. You would send the records from France to Germany and then get a big bill in the mail from the tax company because you're importing goods. Why the fuck am I doing this again? You're not making any music because you're spending the rest of the day on the phone chasing these guys down.
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What direction do you think the music industry is moving towards?
I think one of the biggest problems in the music industry is that medium of DJing has become so easy now. You can go get Ableton, get some sounds—some might even come stock sounds—and with a little bit of guidance and a couple of YouTube videos, an hour later you can have some sort of track. When I first started in music, I was a using really shitty Atari where stuff wouldn't work, things would fall out of sync, its keyboards didn't even have MIDI. All that stuff got eliminated from the equation with technology. So you have these guys that sit down and in a couple of hours they manage to have their buddy that has a label get the track out there.What's happened is that the money that was spent on the vinyl is now spent on digital promo services, or A&R people trying to get features in magazines. There's still money being spent but in different ways.How does Restructured survive and thrive in an oversaturated market?
I think the only way that your label is going to be sustainable is if you are really consistent with what you put out. You just have to have consistency. If people listen to your release and it is a bit more experimental, as long as it stays true to what your label does, you're fine. What I try to do is, to find artists or tracks that are doing similar things and then contact them for a remix or to do an EP in order to keep that sound going.I try to find stuff that I'm into and with people that would be willing to do stuff for the label. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't, it's a small community when it comes to melodic techno. I can count the artists on a couple hands.Catch Greg Gow at Digital Dreams on June 27th and Electric Island on July 1st.Restructured Recordings is on Facebook Greg Gow is on Facebook // Twitter // SoundCloud