Mark Knight Makes Toolroom the Mother of All Labels (and Successfully)

Mark Knight is a Hall of Famer. Quite literally. Knight joins in the ranks of true legends like Sasha and DJ Harvey, as top dog Pete Tong recently immortalized him—the closest thing to being 'knighted' in the world of electronic music. Last time THUMP spoke with Knight he was at the height of the Toolroom #RESET campaign, a crusade focused on accessible and credible house music. Now that we're a year into the refurbished Toolroom Records, it was high time to assess the results of the rebrand on both qualitative and quantitative scales.

Knight explains that their approach was partly a reflection on electronic music fans becoming more polarized by the day. He felt that Toolroom had started to reflect that. "People had forgotten about everything in the middle and we felt that you don't actually need to go either way, or pick a side," he explains. "You can live right in between, in a world of credible house music." In other words, the Toolroom team had stretched themselves slightly too thin. "We needed to trim the fat and refocus, put our flag in the sand, and have more of a distinct direction," he continues.

Ultimately, the change signals maturation not only in the musical output from the label, but in business strategy. "Historically we were very good at finding and nurturing talent, like Fedde and Funkagenda. What we didn't do, foolishly, was have any ownership of that." In the foreground, #Reset was about attaching credibility to their music. In the background, it was more about refining their business strategy.

That point was a paradigm shift for the Toolroom team, as they decided to turn experience into shrewd music business acumen. They used Mark's own career as a blueprint for their new management firm and began to develop a 360-approach to the industry. Their tactic is a blueprint in itself for aspiring brands competing in what can be, at times, an industry of heavy saturation. "Now we've decided to strategically apply what we've learned from my career to artists we feel have potential. With this blueprint and this new strategy, their careers have been fast-tracked."

So what is this Mark Knight blueprint? Knight has strayed from the well-trodden path of most producers who are characterized by peaks (of huge hits) and valleys (of utter silence). Instead, Knight's career is better described as steady, organic growth. "I think that breeds longevity, to have a career that resembles continuous growth. I'm in it for the long haul, not just the cash." Although he jokes that some more recognition would be nice every once in a while.

In many ways, his blueprint is similar to the conversation we had with Pleasurekraft recently. Knight was another torchbearer for a staggering number of electronic music fans to discover a more underground side of things many years ago. Pulling them in with tunes like "Alright", Knight was able to spit them out on the other side of things—the more underground and more credible side of things, in order to come full circle. "You're 100 percent right and my sound allows me to do that," Knight muses. "What's nice is to have a discography and repertoire that allows you contribute to this educational period that is still going on today. Come with me and you might learn something. It's a really big deal for me to contribute to that and to show people something they haven't heard before."

"And now for the hard part," he laughs. "Now it's about maintaining that growth, which is a challenge in its own right. I feel that within my genre, to a certain degree, I've taken it as far as I can. So now it's about staying relevant, staying current, and not losing traction."

The same challenge was presented to his label. Toolroom's strategic approach had to change. In the same ways, the music landscape had changed from Mark's days of producing out of his parents' toolshed. "You can't shove all of your music down one pipeline now, people just don't accept that. Those days are gone. The way we see it, people want things in boxes now. We decided to chop things up and develop a new business strategy." So the team took their clogged four-lane highway (Toolroom Records) and decided to fracture it into more breathable, individual lanes. They now also release music through Toolroom Trax, Rhythm District, and several other labels most people aren't even aware are associated with the master brand. Behind the scenes, everything is connected in the Toolroom head office through an impressive 360-degree grasp on the industry that is proving to be incredibly successful.

Toolroom is a mother brand giving birth to several offspring, nurturing them, watching them grow, and then setting them off into the world to prosper on their own. One day Knight and the Toolroom team will look at their umbrella of labels and business ventures as proud parents. "We want to turn all of these mini-businesses into their own brands. We really needed to create this 360-degree music strategy. There's no money in record sales anymore and that's why we got into events, publishing, and management. At the end of the day, that's very much our strategy—to have all these business facets exist as their own brands, but work in tandem with our Toolroom business and head offices. That's our vision."

Aside from the label, Knight's personal vision is about to come to fruition. Knight is reaching deep into his own archives with a forthcoming album that is set to take the scene by storm in 2016. It's really his history, his influences, and everything he's ever known in dance music spun into a more modern light. "I feel like there is still something I needed to finish—something to be left on the table, and it's very different. It's Underworld meets the Chemical Brothers meets the Prodigy. I've always felt like there's a gap in the market for another main-room, credible, bat-out-of-hell banger. And the time is now."

His parting remarks painted the picture for a truly exciting year to come, both for Toolroom and Knight himself. "The premise of the album was to challenge more mainstage acts. To say, look, you can go on the mainstage, have loads of energy, and still be credible. I needed to step up in that world." It's Mark Knight planting his own personal flag in the sand. That being said, it's about time somebody in that world did.

Mark Knight is on Facebook // Twitter // SoundCloud