Record label: Roze Balletten
It was a given fact that vinyl records would never die out but I guess no one expected it to flourish again the way it does right now. As for us we can only encourage those who decided to leave the tidal wave of digital releases and chose vinyl as their primary medium. With these articles we'd like to highlight some of the new 'vinyl only' labels that popped up lately.
The record label ‘Roze Balletten’ is the brainchild of Innershades (Thomas B.), Raw Sketches (Filip M.) and Nyuu (Olivier DS). Almost one year ago we saw the first signs of life by the Belgian record label on social media like Facebook and Soundcloud. Between then and now, the three guys were very frugal with information about the label itself, consciously or unconsciously creating a lot of fuzz. Patience was needed, but also rewarded and only three weeks ago Belgian kids where given the opportunity to buy the first copies of the ‘Maud Sarr EP’ at an exclusive release session in Ghent based record store ‘Music Mania’. We left Aalst for that one and found Filip in the store, playing some records while Olivier and Thomas were outside drinking & smoking aka “doing their thing”. We grabbed a beer ourselves and spoke with Olivier (Thomas was too busy drinking) about the label and girls passing by…
The first and most obvious question we have to ask is of course where the idea came from to start your own record label ?
Olivier: I Think I met Thomas when I was around 15 or 16 years old due to him being the only guy I knew in my hometown who was actually interested in Chicago House at that time. He also used to help out in this small record shop (E-Vinyls) next to my school so I'd run in to him once in a while. We started talking, we kind of had a click and basically, to this day we do the same stuff we've been doing since then. Guess it was kind of obvious we'd end up doing something like Roze Balletten after a while.
I'm not sure about Raw Sketches though as I met him in the dark outskirts of the Internet. Until this day he keeps spamming my inbox with weird pictures and cryptic texts I still can't quite wrap my head around. All I know is he has a beard and we share a mutual love for Alizee during the early 2000's. He also keeps rambling about this 'Spacid' guy who I guess is ‘above trends’ and all, but to be honest half of the time I don't even know what the bearded man is talking about.
After changing my e-mail I introduced the two and a few months later they came up with the idea to start a label. Since both Thomas and Filip are producing they keep saying I'm the label boss and should do all the paper work, so thinking about it they might just be using me. Anyway, during the preparations of our first release Godspill contacted us because they wanted to expand their distribution. We're all fans of the label and their aesthetic so after weighing our options it wasn't that hard of a choice. Looking back at it TLR really guided us through the process of releasing a first EP so a huge thank you to him. All of that actually was around the time Innershades signed his Crème release so he ended up doing most of the label-related work regardless. Tough luck, Thomas.
I don't really think there's a big "Why" for starting Roze Balletten though. It was all about meeting the right people at the right time who were all just highly motivated to put out some quality music from friends, family and whoever we like. Which is probably the best reason to start anything related to music from scratch these days.
The first release is a sampler EP with tracks by Innershades, Locked Groove and Raw Sketches. Does the future bring more sampler EP’s or will there be single artists featured too? And what about the second release? Is there something in the pipeline yet?
Olivier: The label wasn't necessarily started to be an output for the work of Innershades and Raw Sketches but since they were sitting on a lot of material it seemed more than logical to feature some on the first release. Locked Groove is a mutual friend of them so he sent over Dwarsdijk. The track already floated around between Thomas and Raw Sketches before I joined Roze Balletten so I'm not entirely sure how it all came about.
Anyway, we do want everybody who is affiliated with the label to really feel like a part of it. Since, you know, putting out a first release and wanting to do it well takes time, a lot of time. People you don't know on a personal level might grow impatient and drop out so it really helps if the guys running the label are friends with whoever gets signed.
There was never an actual plan to keep putting out V/A releases, it just kind of turned out that way with the first two ep's. So yeah, we're in the middle of finishing the second one. Walrus put out an amazing album on Bepotel and we contacted him when RB001 was completed. He sent over a bunch of tracks and we actually picked out something he was working on with Sagat under the Elmer moniker. At the same time Thomas and Tim (Locked Groove) were working on a collaboration themselves which sounds exactly as you would imagine. So it will be another V/A release, again with friends we think deserve their chance to get more material out there but this time they'll be collaborating with each other. Maybe there will be a third track on it, which featured in some podcasts Thomas did but let’s not reveal everything right away.
“ INSPIRATION AND FASCINATION “
Are their other record labels you guys keep a close eye on yourselves? And what about a favorite artist you’d love to have on RB ?
Olivier: Obviously, I can only speak for myself concerning this topic.
Ekster and Vlek are two Belgian labels I’m really enjoying at the moment. I love their aesthetic and dedication they put into each release. Their music is easily accessible, the record is presented in a nice sleeve and overall everything they put out is different but still relates closely to the label.
Having said that, I don't think I can recall many dance floor oriented labels I draw any examples from. Like even if the music is really good, if it's presented in a white sleeve with some stamp there's nothing we can take from that on how to run our own label. Looking at other genres I think there’s something lacking in the way most dance music is presented. I’m not going to extend too much about this but just look at a label like PAN and how they present each release. Not only the music but the whole package is something unique, something to cherish. I’d love to see that being translated more into the many faceless house or techno releases.
Concerning the producer, I actually don’t know. If I had to pick one, like gun to my head wise, it’d probably be Toasty. If Roze Balletten meant the comeback of Toasty, boy I don’t think I’d hesitate !
Will ‘RB’ stay a strictly ‘vinyl only’ label or are there digital releases to follow ?
Olivier: Right now we just want to get the record on the shelves. I don't think we actually discussed a possible digital release yet but I think we all share the same philosophy that whoever wants to own a release will get the chance to purchase it at some point. None of us really want a part of the "strictly limited" business going on at the moment. We won't press a whole lot of records for our first release but if we ever notice a strong demand for more copies we'll make sure everybody who actually wants it will own it at some point. It might take some time though, so don't feed the discogs sharks if that would ever be the case. Sorry Alainv2 and Romainlg !
You can listen to the previews of the 'Maud Sarr' Ep over here !
Those who like to have their own copy should make their way to 'Godspill', where you can place a pre order for the first Roze Balletten release. The nice people of the Hague (Westcoast represent!) behind the mail-order informed us that the records should be ready for shipping by the end of this month at last !
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