South London's Seb Wildbood is one busy guy. Not only does he run the city's much loved Church label—releasing his own sax-fueled productions as well as smooth smears of house from the likes of Mall Grab—but he also recently launched the Coastal Haze imprint alongside Hollick (who also co-runs No Bad Days). Where do these lads find the time? In fact, they probably have little to no free time at all because they're constantly finding new ways to feature the best in brightest in contemporary dance music across wax, tapes, and radio. Case in point: Wildbloods new label project, All My Thoughts, which is kicking off with a splendid EP from Australia's DJ Heure.Along with an exclusive stream of the new record's breaks-heavy title track, we caught up with Seb to hear about the M.O behind the new imprint, and how exactly he keeps starting labels while finding the time to eat, sleep, and answer our emails.
Seb Wildblood - I guess this came from a place where we're all set for the majority of the year in terms of the release schedule with Church, however day-to-day I'm still discovering a bunch of really cool stuff, so [All My Thoughts] gives me a lot of freedom. I love to share music, it can be my own or other people's and I get the same satisfaction. It's something I need to do. [All My Thoughts] is also a chance to really define what each individual label means, so I feel like I now have all the outlets necessary to cover the scope of music I believe in, in the right way.Are any other people involved in the label or just yourself?
Music wise it's just me, however I'm working closely on the artwork with graphic designer and photographer "DJ Eliot." There's a clear vision of where the label is heading both in terms of sound and aesthetic.Musically what kind of vibe can we expect from the label and how will that differ from Church and your other efforts?
All artists currently planned to release with AMT haven't worked with Church before. It's a new avenue of sounds untapped, however it's also a personal taste thing so there'll inevitably be some cross over here and there. The first release comes from Adelaide-based DJ Heure, and there's a break beat sample at the forefront of the title track, which is something that's never been explored with Church. I guess that's just one example of how it's can differ. I have the first five releases panned out; shouts to Tom VR, Arthur Miles, Dan Only, and Hobie. There definitely feels like there's a coherent feeling throughout the releases. I'm always conscious whilst A&R'ing of what fits where and I guess most importantly what makes sense where.This is your third label currently correct? Tell me a bit about what's its like running independent labels right now and what have been some of the difficulties you've encountered—from pressing delays to fielding demos.
It's a challenge; record delays played a big factor in the early days with Church, or more the lack of funding for the record after next as without a P&D deal we could only afford to pay for one record at a time. That fact is inevitably going to delay things as the whole process doesn't start until you've paid the advance. Coastal Haze was a direct result of this as we got kind of fed up of waiting, and tapes were much cheaper and quicker to produce. It's really fun with CH as it's a chance to A&R more full lengths which can be really interesting. That said, we're now also dipping our Coastal Haze toes in the world of vinyl (distributed by Clone) so here we go again.It was probably just over a year ago when things got a little easier with Church. You might be able to tell from the sheer amount of music that we released last year. We had to get a lot out there. The demos are the easy part; I've probably only signed a handful of bits that were sent in. That isn't to say people shouldn't be sending music in, it's just very rare when something is just right. Soundcloud is great for A&R as well, and I can get lost in it for hours on a chain on discovery. It's a shame as I feel like the platform is changing and in time maybe won't be as suited to how I personally use it, however that's a discussion for another day.AMT001 is out Feb 10, pre-order on Bandcamp..
Advertisement
Can you tell me a bit about the intention behind starting All My Thoughts? What's your vision for the label?
Seb Wildblood - I guess this came from a place where we're all set for the majority of the year in terms of the release schedule with Church, however day-to-day I'm still discovering a bunch of really cool stuff, so [All My Thoughts] gives me a lot of freedom. I love to share music, it can be my own or other people's and I get the same satisfaction. It's something I need to do. [All My Thoughts] is also a chance to really define what each individual label means, so I feel like I now have all the outlets necessary to cover the scope of music I believe in, in the right way.Are any other people involved in the label or just yourself?
Music wise it's just me, however I'm working closely on the artwork with graphic designer and photographer "DJ Eliot." There's a clear vision of where the label is heading both in terms of sound and aesthetic.Musically what kind of vibe can we expect from the label and how will that differ from Church and your other efforts?
All artists currently planned to release with AMT haven't worked with Church before. It's a new avenue of sounds untapped, however it's also a personal taste thing so there'll inevitably be some cross over here and there. The first release comes from Adelaide-based DJ Heure, and there's a break beat sample at the forefront of the title track, which is something that's never been explored with Church. I guess that's just one example of how it's can differ. I have the first five releases panned out; shouts to Tom VR, Arthur Miles, Dan Only, and Hobie. There definitely feels like there's a coherent feeling throughout the releases. I'm always conscious whilst A&R'ing of what fits where and I guess most importantly what makes sense where.This is your third label currently correct? Tell me a bit about what's its like running independent labels right now and what have been some of the difficulties you've encountered—from pressing delays to fielding demos.
It's a challenge; record delays played a big factor in the early days with Church, or more the lack of funding for the record after next as without a P&D deal we could only afford to pay for one record at a time. That fact is inevitably going to delay things as the whole process doesn't start until you've paid the advance. Coastal Haze was a direct result of this as we got kind of fed up of waiting, and tapes were much cheaper and quicker to produce. It's really fun with CH as it's a chance to A&R more full lengths which can be really interesting. That said, we're now also dipping our Coastal Haze toes in the world of vinyl (distributed by Clone) so here we go again.It was probably just over a year ago when things got a little easier with Church. You might be able to tell from the sheer amount of music that we released last year. We had to get a lot out there. The demos are the easy part; I've probably only signed a handful of bits that were sent in. That isn't to say people shouldn't be sending music in, it's just very rare when something is just right. Soundcloud is great for A&R as well, and I can get lost in it for hours on a chain on discovery. It's a shame as I feel like the platform is changing and in time maybe won't be as suited to how I personally use it, however that's a discussion for another day.AMT001 is out Feb 10, pre-order on Bandcamp..