EP. 19: REFLECTING ON 100 KLUB RECORD RELEASES!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:04

All right, guys, welcome back to Everyone is a DJ. This is episode 19. First of all, guys, want to give a small apology for last week. Something happened with the video. We couldn't get it up on YouTube. That's my fault. I was in Miami, so we had a bit of a ratchet bootleg setup there. But um, as always, it's your host, Weszy G. I've got Manui here, bro. How you feeling, man?

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Very good, man. Good to be back on video. Hopefully, this time it works. Yeah, last week, some technical difficulties, but yeah, we appreciate people still tuning in and listening. Yeah, the data, the stats, the views, the clicks still are strong. So we appreciate the support just despite the yeah, no video last week. But uh yeah, we're back. Episode 19. Good podcast in store for you guys today. So yeah, man. Let's go.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

It's good, man. Yeah, I mean, I was in Miami, bro, and it took me like a few days to just get back to regular life, man. I slept for like 12 hours last night, just recovering. I mean, Miami is always uh it's a bit of a bender, let's be honest. Even though I was there for my job, you know, there's still all kinds of things happening going on. Every day of the week.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Miami's not a real place, man. Miami is not a real place.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

It's crazy, bro. Even like on a Monday, all the bars are packed. You know, everyone's a tourist. I mean, I was in South Beach this time, that's where the conference was. But I used to think I could live in Miami, bro. I don't think I can.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

What made you realize that when you were there? What was the moment where you were like, yeah, this is I'm I'm I'm far past this point.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

I think we talked about it on the last podcast where it's just like, you know, everyday things like, you know, I want to go have like a casual dinner, tacos, and a beer or something like that. It's just outrageously expensive. That was number one. And then number two is like, you know, you start to pay attention for the kind of people that are there. Also talking to locals on, you know, what kind of crowd is in Miami, and people were like, Yeah, it's either scammers or OnlyFans, and like that's who lives in Miami now, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Are you serious?

SPEAKER_02 1:59

Yeah, yeah. So like actually, quite a few people said that it's like OnlyFans, girls, and like, you know, scammer type guys, former crypto bros or or not. I don't know, man. But you know, just paying a little bit more attention to the type of people that live there, it's like dicey, dicey. It's lost its I think it's lost its charm a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Right, right. So you don't have your yeah, your best, best uh quality citizens living in uh Miami. You don't get the the cream cream of the crop.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

They all they all moved like from what I understand, they moved north. So they moved up like North Beach, Boca Raton, Harbor, you know, those kind of areas, which you need a lot of Tampa, yeah, Tampa's a good one, Fort Lauderdale, you know, those kinds of places, but yeah, Miami itself is a mess, bro.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

I mean, this this makes me think of the world becoming a bit more conservative now, right? Because we've I feel like, yeah, I mean, I don't mean to get political here, but you start to understand why some people are kind of switching views and and going from a more open-minded, progressive mentality views to more conservative. Yeah, when you've got only fans and scammers just taking over a city, I could see why some people might might feel that way. Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Definitely, man. Definitely. But yeah, that that's my news, bro. What's been what's been going on with you?

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Last week, what happened last week? Yeah, lots of club record. We had South Roots by Fallen Wild and Les Castizos, great track. Pushing that hard. Yeah, yeah, it's a great track. Shout out to those guys. Anything else that happened last week? Not really, man. Wavy still pushing with Wavy. I think that that that project, I'm really starting to feel better about it. I've always felt good about it. I've always felt like there was a gap in the market that needed to be to be filled, and and yeah, now it's really picking up. Gonna keep pushing the content. I feel like whenever you're starting something, you've got to post every day. Um I'm I'm really kind of holding myself to that and try and post every day, Monday to Friday, at least get a post out and then uh yeah, continue to build build that business. Yeah, I think I think the the people listening have heard about this new project that I have called Wavy. And again, if you need any mastering, mixing, production support, track feedback, I'm your guy. And yeah, you can reach us at Team Wavy. Is it Team Wavy? Yeah, at Team Wavy on Instagram. That's what I put up with.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

You'll be able like put a check us out, link in bio, man. You know, check us out, link in bio.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

And before I forget, please, guys, if you're watching on YouTube, like this podcast, like this video, leave a comment. If you're listening on Spotify, rating, comment, all of that. We appreciate it. Um, yeah, bro. Anything else?

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Nah, man. I think uh business as usual here, guys. Check out Wavy if you haven't, but let's get into it, man. I think I've been on Instagram last couple days, and the only thing I've been seeing, bro, is Black Coffee in France. Where where did he play again? I don't want to butcher the name.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

I think it was Paris, Neem. I don't I don't know if Neem was the the city or is in Paris, but yeah, Nîmes is is the place that everybody is is referring to. But yeah, was it sold out? It looks sold out.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

I don't know, man. But like for me, I'm not sure if this was the second time where Bakkoff is had the orchestra for his show. Because I know the first one is in Madison Square Garden in New York, but I'm not sure if he's done it since then.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

I feel like he might have done it. When is the one in London happening? I don't think that's happened yet. I think that is happening soon, right?

SPEAKER_02 5:23

Sometime in the summer, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:24

Yeah, I think he's done it. I think he's done it a couple times. He was talking about about this with David Gedder at MSG. I think in South Africa, in Johannesburg, he did it.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

But it makes sense, man. I think Black Coffee is the one one artist in our space that has that that aura of like an orchestrator, of like, you know, it's got that aura and that presence and that look and feel and that image. So it makes sense. It's almost like, you know, almost natural to see him with that uh production level around him. But it looked good, man. It looked great. And yeah, to sell out in France, that's an achievement.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Absolutely, man. I wonder how the preparation and the set planning kind of works when you're dealing with, you know, that many accompanying musicians alongside you. I mean, there are shows where there's, you know, a DJ and a drummer, like AfroKillers, for example, where I think there's a lot more room to kind of freestyle and just kind of go about it. But how would how would you think as a DJ that that whole preparation for the for the set goes?

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Well, number one, now we know for a fact that it's a pre-recorded set. Yeah, he's mentioned this on uh again the interview with David Gedda in DJ Mag. It's a pre-recorded set because you have to think when you have different components and and musicians as part of the performance, you can't just play whatever you want, right? Because they're not prepared. If you want to play this track or that track, they're not prepared, right? So it's got to be a set list, a certain order, and you have to follow it. So again, I'm not sure if the one yesterday we're recording this podcast on Sunday, I think the set was on Saturday. But yeah, not sure if the one yesterday was a pre-recorded set, but he did confirm in the interview with David Gedder that he does pre-recorded sets for these orchestra orchestra types of events. Yeah. So yeah, I think that answers the question, bro. I think it's pre-recorded. I think that's the way to do it. I don't think you can kind of freestyle it and then expect other people to respond and yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

But but how would it work? So it's like, okay, you have you know your set list and stuff, and I'm sure you have to have versions of the track that don't have certain elements in it, right? So if he has a full orchestra of instruments, you know, he might take one track and then take out like, you know, a violin or like a melody, and then that portion of the track is played live. Is that kind of how it would work?

SPEAKER_00 7:46

I guess. But also I know I do know that he still performs. So, you know, Black Coffee obviously has got signature sounds and signature moves that he does, right? So whether it's an a cappella, whether it's a knob twist, yeah, effects, all of that, that is still done live. But that's a good question. Would he create specific versions of a track to fit for that set? Probably. Yeah. Um, but I mean, listen, when when the production level is like this, it makes sense that everything is curated and taken care of to that level.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

Absolutely, man. Absolutely. No, I think it's cool. It's like it's it's definitely something different. I feel like, you know, in our world, the typical, I guess, approach to making a live performance more, you know, a different level of a live performance, a lot of it would be visual-based, so you know, vide videograph videos behind the DJ kind of things like that. And it's interesting to see that he hasn't taken that route, you know.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

I think I think also it makes me think of like, because Black Coffee has got that music theory background, classical music and and jazz, etc. etc. He's one of a few artists in our space that I can perform in that way and really sell it and own it. I wonder like who else could do it and has got that um almost like multifaceted skill set. I think Zake's, obviously, because he's got the vocals. It's a tough one. Like maybe someone that could play the piano. I know a lot of DJs play the piano, but to what level?

SPEAKER_02 9:17

It's like a vibro, viagro deep, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Yeah, like a vibro. Vigro is a good one. You know, I don't mean to get into like, oh, you know, what DJs are also artists or can play instruments, right? Not trying to get into that conversation, but not many, I think, could pull it off. Yeah. Because it's a totally different thing, man. Like you've got a there is also a it's a different experience when you're like have a singer there and you have to kind of go off of their energy and play off of their energy. Yeah, it's different, it's different. So I mean that's why Black Coffee is so special.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

I agree, man. I agree. You know, there was there was a podcast a long time ago we talked about Afrohouse Ix, and I've just thought of a new one. One of my Afro House Ix is those electronic drum pads that they have, you know, some DJs who use. Do you know what I'm talking about?

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Well, the the electronics. It's like around and they got buttons. Oh those ones, right, right, right, right. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

That's one of my Afro House Iggs. There's a few DJs who use it. No shade to you guys, obviously, but not for me.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

No, they just remind me of like PlayStation games. No offense, but that's what they remind me of. But again, it's convenient, right? It's convenient. I think I mean I was chatting to a lot of DJs over the past year about you know, everyone's trying to be different.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

And again, naturally, as that happens, everyone is the same because everyone's trying to be different, and there's so many ideas and people are only exposed to certain things that naturally you go back and and yeah, involuntarily you end up doing the same thing. But that's beside the point. I think a lot more DJs now are thinking about incorporating different, you know, musical components, whether it's uh drum pad, as you said, whether it's keyboard, whether it's different different things. But I think that's gonna come come into play more and more where it's more of a hybrid set rather than just decks. I think that's gonna that's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Yeah, no, I I definitely see it, man. I mean, there there's a few who do it well, like I mean Eli Fola with a saxophone, obviously Awen singing during her sets. I think I would love to see more of that from vocalists, learn how to DJ and then you know incorporate that you know into your live performance. But I think you know, as well, it's a full orchestra is a is a different beast, right? Like you're you're at the helm of like I don't know how many people were performing under him, at least 20. You know, full orchestra, lows, mediums, highs, super impressive. Shout out to Black Coffee.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Shout out to Black Coffee. I think this year already we've seen a list of impressive events. What comes to mind immediately after Black Coffee that has happened last week was Maz. Maz in in Brazil, opening for Shakira in front of two million people.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

It's crazy, bro.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

That's what that's what social media said it was two million people, and it looks like two million people. Wow, man. But Brazil also, people people forget, man, Brazil is one of those countries like massive. The they love music. Yeah, the artists there, you know, there's artists that we don't even know about that are huge. They've got massive, massive following. And just because you know we don't speak Portuguese or we're not in that in that world, we have no idea of the reach and the impact that they have. But Brazil is just one of those markets that if you can crack it, man, it's crazy. So Maz is huge. Maz is huge, huge DJ.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

Yeah, definitely. I think I think as well, it's like something that you know we don't get into a lot because we talk about Afros a lot like for the most part, is just how Latin music over the last year or two has really just exploded into new highs. I mean, prime example, Bad Bunny, not really my style or my world, but you know, what he's done in the mainstream, Grammys, all that kind of stuff is just it's just crazy, man. Things are changing.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Things are changing. Things are changing. I think uh yeah, Maz definitely kind of showing us levels. Black Coffee, of course, as we said. Absolutely. Yesterday, Adam Poor in Georgia, Sibili looked crazy.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

Um I think another one for Black Coffee for me was in Mexico City when he played Sunrise with all the you know balloons and the drones show. Shimzo was there too, uh, I think at an earlier time slot, but that's a level of production which is just crazy.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Was that real? The drones of his space.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

I mean, it's not it's not so difficult to do anymore. So in my day job, we're working on a marketing initiative where we're gonna do a huge drone show during the World Cup. And it's it's like it's all programmable, and those guys know what they're doing. So you tell them what you want, what visuals, do you want text, do you want logo, do you want a QR code, all that kind of stuff, and yeah, just a few thousand drones, and that's it. Easy.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

That's it, just that easy, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

Yeah, yeah. I add look, I don't know, it sounds easy, but it's like it's impressive.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

It's definitely not easy. It's the other I feel I feel like for me, the first time I saw it was again on video and kind of music did at the pyramids.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

That was the peace sign, right? I mean, to see a face and different colours and also just the face facial features were on point.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

That's crazy. It also like goes to show some event organizers and promoters and and stage designers are so far ahead. It's like, what's the next level now? Like, you know, people always want more, and they're thinking about social media, they're thinking about that 15-second clip on TikTok, and it's like, you know, everyone's done the sign now. Everyone, you know, if you've got a brand, you do your your neon light sign, but it's like stage design, it's a whole different ball game. It's just like, yeah, obviously technology plays a huge part in it, but for sure.

SPEAKER_02 14:49

I think if you're gonna talk about stage design, I mean I know we talk about him a lot on this podcast, but that was kind of I think Francis Mercier's whole approach to soleil was that it's not just not just visuals, not just that. It's like the whole stage is designed with elements and and depth and textures, and then you know, he has accompanying instrument players with him, nad drums and the guitar guy, I forget his name as well. That's like a full team, right? So every time he does Neil, yeah. Every time he does uh the soleil, it's like a full complete stage design, and it's not just like a visual experience like an afterlife or Eric Prids or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Right, right. Yeah, I mean there's levels. There's levels. I think who does it best? What stage design, what stage design never gets it wrong?

SPEAKER_02 15:34

That's a good question. I think another one I would mention is no art. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

No art is great. I think I think Zamna, I think they do a good job.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Always, yeah. Zamna is like I think they bit they I think they're the one who set the tone for a global expectation of what electronic live performance can look like.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Zamna, of course. I mean, obviously afterlife, but that's that's that. Okay. Yeah. I think Black Coffee killed it yesterday. Shout out to him, the legend. Right, let's talk about you know, we took we we started the podcast talking about Club Record last week. We had a a new release, our latest release. That was actually, guys, our hundredth release, right? So number 100 after two years. We're approaching two years of of the label in July, yeah. And 100 releases. So every single Friday, I think we might have missed two Fridays, two or three Fridays over the past few years.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

First six months we missed a couple Fridays. Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Yeah, missed a couple Fridays, but we've been quite consistent with with putting music out and now finally, finally, finally reaching a hundred releases, which is insane. But how do you feel about that, man? How do you feel about that milestone?

SPEAKER_02 16:45

Bro, it's it's almost surreal, man. I mean, it's been a lot of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears behind the scenes, early mornings, late nights, trips, doubt, confidence, roller coaster, man. I don't know. But if you had told me, look, it's one of those things like you never appreciate things in the moment, right? But you have to go back and remind yourself, you know, if two or three years ago, if I had said to you, hey Manu, by 2026, in May, you're gonna hit 100 releases on your label, like how would you feel about that?

SPEAKER_00 17:12

It's a lot of music, man.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

Bro, crazy.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

It's a lot of music. I mean, even though it's a hundred, we probably have a hundred and twenty songs out, and twenty plus exactly singles out. There's a lot of admin that goes into that. People need to understand like the the paperwork and accounting, accounting, the artist management, the AR, yeah, all that back office stuff, which is hugely important. But the details, guys, there's so many details for every single release that you have to get right. Things change, some things go wrong, and I feel like even even now, right? Every time a release goes out, I still feel like okay, what can we do? What can we improve? What needs to be done better? But I don't think that's ever gonna go away. I think it's it's like anything in life. It's you can only keep keep improving every day. I think that's the that's the most important thing.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

Absolutely, man. Yeah, it's like, you know, guys, for those at home, Manu and I talk about all the time, like, what's next, what's next, what's next, right? And there's that version of the conversation means very many different things. It's right, okay, what's next for a track that we've already released, right? How do we elevate that one track, that one project? You know, what can we do to keep marketing it, growing the track, supporting the artist, supporting the label? And then what's next if for the brand, for events, for merchandise, for the team? It just it's a never-ending evolution every single day. And we do show up every day for the most part, every single day, man, Monday to Sunday.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

It's not easy, man. Think again, we can we can get into conversations around what does it take for someone new that is thinking about launching a label, being consistent with it, how do you make a label successful in 2026? What components do you need? What how do you build a team? Should you start a label in 2026? How often should you release? What sound should you go for? These are all very important questions, and they're not questions that you answer in a single day. It happens over time. I think the business of music label can be lucrative if you know what you're doing, if you know how to scale it, if you know how to tap into the right opportunities and have the right partners around you. But you really have to treat it as a business. You really have to treat it as it can't just be a passion project. Every single release has to make sense, every single release has to contribute to that bottom line. Of course, you know, again, I'm sounding like a complete corporate a-hole, but that's just how it is. Because at some point, you're gonna get into conversations with big players and they're like, okay, what are you what are your numbers? How much money are you bringing in every month? What are you doing? Like, what is your overhead? And as you're going through the list, that list of questions, internally, you're gonna be like, oh man, I wish we could be at X level in comparison to where we are now. We're super young, right? We're super young labeled. We understand that we have prioritized quantity for now because we have the the platform and and people trust us and they want to release with us. But I think now that we've built that that catalogue of a hundred releases, the next stage is how do we scale in terms of ensuring that every single release has impact and isn't just a good song that is out, and people are like, Oh, you know, three months later, they're like, Oh, you also released this, and it's a nice track. It's like every single Friday there's impact, there is traction and noise, good noise.

SPEAKER_02 20:52

Absolutely. I think what people also fail to recognize, you know, just typically in being a label, is it's not just all about us as the label, right? Every contract, every song that we release, every project is more or less a partnership between the label us and the artists, right? So they're expecting a certain return on their investment. They're choosing to sign a song with us, you know, for various reasons. It can be revenue generation, it can be PR, it can be because they're they like us as friends, they like our brand, they like what we're doing. There's so many elements that go into a you know a decision when a song is signed on both sides, right? So every single week it's a new partnership, a new project, and it's an investment on both sides, like I said, right? So there's a responsibility for us as the label to take care of the artists. You know, they spend a lot of time and and passion and work into creating that song. You know, quite often there's a lot of back and forth, you know, on a on a mix mastering, change this, maybe a new vocalist, you know, try this, try that. And it can be a couple months before, you know, from the first demo for it to go actually live out to to the audience. So there's a lot going on behind. The scenes, man. One question I have for you though. What is one moment that you look back on over the course of the journey of the label that was like a defining moment for you?

SPEAKER_00 22:10

Probably when I was last year when I was in the crowd in London when Black Coffee played like that, the Ape Drums remix, I think.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

And I was thinking about it this morning. Not even for the sake of this podcast and this conversation that we're having now. It was just like, you know, in life, you have almost like fork in the road moments, decisions where it's like something happens and then like it really changes the course of events. Seeing something like that in front of so many people, you know, and that couldn't have happened if a guy in Corsica, France, sent me that track.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

You know, and I was just at home in my kitchen listening to it, and I was like, I'm not sure. Then I sent it to you, and you were like, Yeah, it's a banger. And I was like, all right, let's go. You know, my partner was like, no, that's gonna stream. I was like, okay, let's do it. And then registery, right? So it's like, and then, you know, going from there when I was unsure about a track to then being at a black coffee show in London at the National Gallery. Was it National Gallery? Where was it? The Navy, but yeah, Royal Navy College. It's surreal. It's surreal. But I think again, now it's about it's it's difficult to tell yourself what's next, what's the next track. I mean, I was chatting to someone, I was chatting to someone this week, and he was like, mate, chasing the next track is like chasing the the end of a rainbow.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

Yeah, you never know, right?

SPEAKER_00 23:31

You never know.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

You never know.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

I think all you can do, put music out. If you like a track, if you feel strongly about a track, you have to back yourself. You have to back yourself. People are not gonna back you until it works. That's just fact. That's just with anything in life. Even though you know it works, even though you feel strongly about something, no one cares until they see other people supporting it, until they see another DJ playing it, until they see that support and that success. No one cares. So you really have to work hard to make them believe. And this is why I don't think anything personal, I don't care about people's opinions too much.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

You know, yeah. That's just, I mean, I feel most strongly about that now because I'm at at a certain age. I've done different things, I've failed at a different things, I've done well at the different things, but at the end of the day, you can take people's advice and opinion into account, but it's up to you what you do with it.

SPEAKER_02 24:28

No, I totally agree, man. I think that's something I've learned as well. I mean, doing Afro's feed for so long is that, you know, I believe in this whole thing. It's cringe and it's cringe until it works, right? So, you know, I tell people like, especially a lot of people hit me up who are starting to do content. I have some friends who do all kinds of content, fashion, financial advice, all these kinds of things. And I'm like, first of all, when you sign up for something, especially like this, in in a business world, a long-term project, is that you have to think about things in years, right? It's not like, oh, I'm gonna try this for a few weeks or a month or two and see how it goes. Because it doesn't work that way in real life. There's so much trial and error preparation, thinking, you know, just kind of letting things marinate and then execution itself is you know, it can be like a full year before things actually start to materialize. And I think with the with the story of Club Record, for those that don't know, was you know, Manu's idea at first, his opportunity, and then I got involved a little bit later on. And I think the the amount of time it took us from first conversations with me to to the first release, that was like a full year later, right? Wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 25:33

Yeah, more than a year. Within a year, I would say, probably I would say late, late 2023. Yeah, I was like, okay, I've got the name, I'm gonna do it.

SPEAKER_02 25:45

And then we have to release some of those hats, bro. Those OG Club record hats. So Manu had hats made before the label ever existed. Yeah, check these out, guys. I saw it at first time. We were just having a call and I was like, yo, sick hat, what's that? And then Manu was like, yo, this is what I this is what I want to do. Sig brand.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

Yeah, I mean, these these are the OG hats. So this is literally the inception, right? The inception of the idea. And then I was like, all right, let me go online, let me just find a printing, printing company. Those are sick, you know. I mean, I wear this all the time. People always like compliment me on this hat because they fucking love it. People love this.

SPEAKER_02 26:26

Let us know, guys. In the comments below, those on YouTube, on s on Spotify, if you're listening, go go check out the video. Let us know if we should drop those hats.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

But again, let's say I came up with the name Club Record in September 2023. The first release was July 2024, right? Yep.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Sort of movements. Sort of movements.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

Sort of movements came out July 2024 like that.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

Seven seven releases after that, yeah. Something like that.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

Like that in September took a long time, man. A lot of investment at the time. Still doing my nine to five, so everything I was making, a lot of it putting into club record.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Yeah, we figured it out on the way, along the way. Figured it out along the way, asked a lot of questions. Yeah, we're still trying to figure it out. I feel like where we are now in terms of the potential of club record, what do you think? I think we're at 30%, bro. 25, 30%.

SPEAKER_02 27:26

Yeah, look, I mean, there there's been a lot of great moments, a lot of milestones, and you know, outside looking in, it looks looks like we're we're winning, which we are, but you know, as an internal, it's like I feel like it's just still kind of day one. You know what I mean? It's like we have such a long way to go, which is exciting, man.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

Absolutely. I think I think next step is for both of us to release more music and take take that the artist part of our artist project more seriously. Bottom line is it's gonna elevate the label, it's really gonna help with with promoting our music and the label's music. I think events is what is one thing that we're gonna figure out. For now, keep it small. 200, 300 people, before you know it, it's it's it's gonna increase. Yeah, man, it's a marathon, bro. It's a marathon.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

But what what do you think, like as an ultimate dream or something like that, right? Like ultimate moment for you where you're like, yeah, I've made it. You know, what what does that look like for you?

SPEAKER_00 28:27

I think for Club Record is just guaranteeing artists that we can increase their profile across all platforms. Yeah. And I'm not just talking about streaming, I'm not talking about B port charts, I'm talking about everywhere, right? If I can get you more gigs, if I can get you more followers, because that's currency now. That's what people care about. People care about I want to have more followers, you know, I want to have more gigs. The amount of times on a weekly basis, I get an artist asking me, Do you know any booking agent? Can you introduce me to anyone? That's what they want, right? Although they want to release with Club Record and that means something. Gigs is actually what pays the bills. You know, if you're not touring, you're not making a lot of money in this industry unless you're streaming really well, which not many people are.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:14

So that's for me, that's that's the goal. That yeah, that's the goal. I think it's it's if every Friday we can have a track that is streaming, doing four to six thousand base streams a day, that's when you're winning. That's when you're really winning and doing well.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

My my ultimate goal, I've said this before, I told you at 80 is so Club Record is a brand, we're big enough, our audience is big enough, we have many events a year, well attended, and we're able to sell our own alcohol at the event called Club Soda. And it's like a tequila soda or vodka soda. That's that's the ultimate goal for me. That's when I know, like, all right, we're big, big.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

You're a brand brand.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

I'm a brand brand, yeah. And we've got merch, we've got alcohol, we've got artist management, you know, streaming, we got you guys, no problem. We can get you to wherever you need to be. And then now it's like, yeah, let's have some fun, let's let's make our own drink, you know?

SPEAKER_00 30:05

But this is the thing, like to get to that level where whatever you do doesn't matter, it's gonna sell out.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

And so many things have to happen. I feel like you have to be a fucking artist. You sell out your own shows, I'm doing my thing. Club record is just the same level as as as as almost the major. Yeah. We can definitely get there, man. We can definitely get there. Also, I mean, I was thinking about this now. It's like, how many times have you and I texted each other when we've seen another brand either use the word club or copy our artwork, our look and feel, our font in the past two years, bro?

SPEAKER_02 30:45

I mean, imitation is the best form of flattery, right? That's that's the expression. So look, it's uh it annoys me, but it's a good thing. But it's our job to make sure we continue owning that, and that's us, and that's it, right?

SPEAKER_00 30:58

I think I think it shows and proves that we're doing something right.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

There's never been a question about our brand. There's never been a question about the artwork. People love the artwork. We might arguably have the best artwork and creative direction, I think, in Afro House for sure. Like we keep it fresh. I think every every six months or so we we we challenge our our desire to to to elevate it and and think outside the box, which you have to. And I push back a lot. It costs a lot of money to to do artwork, yeah. But we understand in this age of visuals and social media, it's so important. It's so important. I mean, I would say out of yeah, all the artists that have signed with us, I would say 60% sign because they want the club record artwork and they just love the artwork. We get that, we get that all the time.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

No, I couldn't I totally agree. I think other things that I'd love to see, you know, in the next, let's say up to three years is more presence in Ibiza. That's number one. I'd love to see you booked at like a Tomorrowland or like another big festival. Presence at Miami Music Week is always a big one. Same here, man. Same here.

SPEAKER_00 32:16

Anyway, you got you got a track coming up. Have you told you told the listeners what's going on?

SPEAKER_02 32:20

Yeah, yeah. Let me let me give you. So the track is called uh Giddy Bop. It's dropping on May 29th on Club Record, obviously. It's a collaboration between myself, Future Cartel, and one of my favorite vocalists, CMart. For those that don't know, I grew up in Nigeria and Ghana. 15 years of my life spent between the two countries. So for me to do an Afro beat style track in an Afro space is like bridging two parts of my life, uh, my childhood, and obviously, you know, my presence. So it's this track that means a lot to me. It's very special. Shout out to my boys back in Legos, I'm sure they're gonna love it. And yeah, make sure you pre-save, do all that stuff. It's dropping soon, man.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

When is it coming out?

SPEAKER_02 33:01

May 29th.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

So this month, May, okay. Right, guys. Guys, let's get on to Wesley. We need at least a video a week of you promoting this track.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

Yeah, please, guys. Near the audio.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

Oh, you shit.

SPEAKER_02 33:15

What a you like okay, we on your page. Yeah, on my own page. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

Yeah, bro. When you go out, you have a dog. You know how much people love dogs on social media?

SPEAKER_01 33:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

When you're walking your dog out, I don't know, put your phone somewhere, do something cool, like you listening to Giddy Bob. That's that's you know, you've got you've got different ideas there. Just just you need to promote the shit out of it. It's a bop, bro. It's a bop, it's a bop.

SPEAKER_02 33:37

It's a big bop. Yeah, I think like one I will I've been thinking a lot about that over the last couple days is what kind of content I I can create.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Yeah, I think I I just thought about this now. Because you have a dog.

SPEAKER_02 33:47

Just do it around the dog, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:49

Just do it around the dog. Anytime you're doing any music content, have your dog in there. People just love animals. Like it's uh why didn't I think about this earlier? Yeah, it's like your dog. Yeah, you just have your dog in there, mate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just just yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I think I think we might have cracked it, guys. We might have cracked it, but all right.

SPEAKER_02 34:09

I'm gonna I'll start today, coming soon. We're gonna film something today, Giddy Bob.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

Coming soon. Okay, what other business record label things can we touch on from the people listening? Do you think it's worth starting a label in 2026? And what what are some considerations before you get into it? Because you have to think, right? In our space, Afro melodic, indie dance now, yeah, fucking competitive. Like, how are you gonna compete with us, Magnifique, Unreleased? There's so many others, VOD, Mo Black, We're Hero Black, Made the Girls Dance, Insomniac, Helix, Flippin', what's the indie dance one everyone loves now? Adam 10 one, Maccabi.

SPEAKER_02 34:51

Yeah. I think it's for me, it's uh it's not a black and white answer, right? Because there's so many different elements that go into a successful label, right? But I I am a believer of that a lot of these labels were founded from a place of pre-existing success, right? So some it's the artists themselves who who started the labels for the most part, and they have a pre-existing audience and kind of a base. And club record was the same. I mean, fortunately, we had my page, Afro Suite, we had Manu's page. So you had we had a marketing channel as a baseline to start off with. But when you're starting a new label from scratch without any pre-existing social media or audience that you can tap into, you're not as advantaged as kind of the rest of us, right? Because uh you need to build those pages, you need to build that audience while releasing music, while getting to artists to invest in you. So if you don't have a lot of money or time, then I wouldn't do it, right? Because it is an investment, it's gonna be expensive, you know, you're gonna have to spend on ads, a lot of time posting, being creative, coming up with new content, growing out of your audience. And I think it'll take you longer to get the return on investment than it took us. I mean, we're still getting the return on investment slowly, but I think I think that's an interesting conversation, man. It's like a lot of the top labels already had a backing, right?

SPEAKER_00 36:12

Do you think do you think it's better to start a label after having a successful party or a successful artist brand?

SPEAKER_02 36:20

Oh, that's a good question. I think it's better from an artist brand perspective because the medium is already music, right? So you are at home, you're on your way to work, the gym, having dinner, whatever it is, you're listening to music in any setting outside of that. So you're consuming the same content as a fan, but just through like a new, a new medium, right? So it's that consumption of the end product, which is music itself. Whereas the event is a little bit more specific in it's a point in time, but you're not thinking about the event when you're, you know, it's eight o'clock in the morning, you're on your way to work, it's you're tired, like you know what I mean? I think that personally. I disagree.

SPEAKER_00 36:58

I think, I think, I think, I think, I think it's almost like I'm gonna use a football reference here. So it's like no name is bigger than the shirt, no name is bigger than the club, no name is bigger than the logo. So for me, this is why sometimes I go through this phase where I'm like, I don't care if I become a big DJ because as long as club record is huge and lives forever, when I'm gone, for me that's like the vision and the win, right? It's like yeah, this is why I think almost see, and also say the artist that owns the label is the face and and and the true value of that brand, of that label brand. If anything negative, anything negative, negative news, any you know, trouble happens or may happen, that's gonna add negative publicity exposure to to that brand. Yeah, it kind of makes me think of the Wassemer situation, right? That talent agency was founded on the name of obviously prominent figures in in the California scene. They completely changed that name because it was family name and now it's called the team.

SPEAKER_01 38:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:02

I almost kind of take that same mindset and perspective to the label, and that's why I think having a party, having an event, it's so so so important. Like for me, that's like that's my goal. I think if we did a party every month where we you know we can sell 500 tickets without even blinking, like it's it's it's game over.

SPEAKER_02 38:27

I have a question for you then. Can can a lay for for those labels that are founded by the artist, right? So my stance, can a label ever be bigger than the artist? And have we seen it yet? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 38:37

Can a label ever be bigger?

SPEAKER_02 38:39

Like for the ones that are like, you know, founded from the artist, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 38:44

Well I'm I'm I'm thinking now. I mean Def Jam.

SPEAKER_02 38:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:48

Def Jam. I think people think of Def Jam, they don't think about um I forget the rappers' names. Like, yeah, Russell Simmons in them, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 38:57

Yeah, Rock Nation.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

Rock Nation. I mean, people think about Jay C. Jay-Z. It's a good it's a good conversation though. I'm sure there's there's examples out there. Mate the girls dance. So if you look at our scene, who gel is is bigger, kind of music, although it's a label, people think about the three guys, Magnifique. You have to think about Summon Asna unreleased, you think about Arotis. Cunye is good, but obviously you think about Shimza, but the party is is in South Africa.

SPEAKER_02 39:24

The party, I think Cunhae for me is like such a cool use case, man. I am a big Cunha fan across the board. Um, because I think they they've hit all their bases, like they smashed it, right? They got they got big figureheads running, running shit. They got the party, which is just I think it's the hottest party in SA right now, no doubt about that. Absolutely. And then the label, man. Good music. They're not releasing that frequently, but still.

SPEAKER_00 39:50

But I think if you look at the biggest parties that happen in our space, it's brands, bro. It's not labels.

SPEAKER_02 39:55

What about so a good example of that is like Circle Loco, right? Party, label.

SPEAKER_00 40:00

I mean, yeah, party, label. If I look at Zamna again, talked about it earlier.

SPEAKER_01 40:05

Zamna, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:06

The biggest parties, and it goes back to the conversation we were having before we started this podcast about you do one thing really, really well, you dominate it, and then you can do whatever you want.

SPEAKER_01 40:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:17

Right. And we we've gotten into sometimes a habit of trying to do too much. And you gotta, you gotta stop yourself and and slow down and and to reevaluate and say, okay, just just although we've started and we've launched something and I've announced it and talked about it, yeah, you gotta pull back and yeah, just just kind of rejig focus. But it's difficult, man. It's difficult. I think when you start and you need that experience, you gotta fuck up, you gotta just just try different things and see what works in the end.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, yeah, guys, for those that don't know, I mean, what what we're working on, not just from the music perspective, there's like growing out our playlists, merchandise, events, our own, our own brands, our own music brands as DJs and artists. That's just like the top kind of categories. We're all podcasts, obviously. We're all we're on the podcast. Guys, I mean, so there's a lot that we're working on across the board, man. We gotta improve, you know, our return on how many streams we could generate for the artists we sign as far a label, and there's a lot of elements that go into that, right? So the ultimate goal for us is to get as much in-house as we can. So our own playlists, our own marketing channels, and then in line with that, we got events, we got the podcast, we've got merchandise. Romano's got his own journey as a creator and an artist and a DJ, my journey as an artist and a DJ, Afrohouse Feed. So there's a lot of work that happens across the board, which is why showing up every day is so important for you guys and for ourselves. I mean, it's it's tough.

SPEAKER_00 41:44

Yeah, I think even with the podcast, right? Again, it was one of those things where it was it started alongside other projects that were ongoing. And you could argue that maybe we should have completely figured out the merge space before starting the podcast, but the podcast now is taking off, right? And it's like it's easy to shift priorities and and focus on the podcast. Things like this happen, right? You start stuff and some things take off for a while and then they drop off. And it looks like the podcast now is doing well. It wasn't something that I expected, honestly, for for it to receive this positive feedback so quickly.

SPEAKER_02 42:24

Um but but you know, I always I I'm a believer where it's like you can you can beat around the bush forever and ever on an idea, right? Anything that you you go into from a business perspective or personal project, you know, you can write the business plan, you can create a website, you can create a brand. All that stuff is easy now, especially with AI, right? It'll take you like a day. Get that all done. But then it's like, how do you how do you actually get it, get things live? And my I always tell people is like just get it off the ground, go try it out. If it fails, at least you learn something, right? So even though, you know, for example, the merchandise, I'd like it to be bigger. We've done well, I think. Overall, guys, thank you for supporting us. We got new stuff dropping soon, but now we know the process, we know how it works, we know how much things cost, we know the model, we know how to do this, Shopify, international shipping, taxes, all that stuff, right? So I never think of things as a failure. It's like there's a saying that if you didn't fail, you didn't try, right? So you gotta try and at least you learn something, man. And that's this whole journey has been, man. Just learning every day. Every day.

SPEAKER_00 43:28

Oh, it's learning. I think I think this podcast has been like a therapy venting session, which which sometimes you need, right?

SPEAKER_02 43:35

Yeah, but like we yeah, we don't have time to talk about it because there's so much shit going on, right? But that's how it is, you know.

SPEAKER_00 43:41

Last question before we go. I think there's so many different areas of of this business that we're working on. The team is growing. I'm sure people that are listening are like, Man, I'd love to work with these guys, they need help. What roles would you hire for if you could?

SPEAKER_02 43:56

That's a good question. I think you know it kind of goes back to our Or you know, natural responsibilities within the labels. So from my side, a lot of where I'd like help is is on my on my side of things. And a lot of it's operations, right? So somebody I would like to have like a ingestion manager, right? So every week ingesting the tracks, getting them on in-flight, communicating the marketing materials from you know our own support channels back to back to the distributor, working together on planning, pitching, all that kind of stuff. I mean, I'm doing that, but probably not nearly as much as you know we should be. But an ingestion manager would be cool, and then maybe a full-time royalty accountant as well, because that's a big, big task. So those are two things on my side. But I know it's different for you.

SPEAKER_00 44:41

I think for me, if I just look at marketing, I would love to have someone that just takes care of marketing, the budget, ensuring that we do everything we can based on the track's potential and there's a marketing strategy for that track. Very important to cover the marketing side. I would love to have a playlist growth person. Yeah, big words that can just focus on that ecosystem and what that roadmap looks like from a thousand saves total to a hundred thousand into a million, right? How do we do that? Social media content person. I think content now, you can probably have one person for that, but I would love to just have someone that curates the page top to bottom. Everything is curated every week. We have two, three, four, five posts that there's cohesion, there's flow there, and it looks great, and there's a story to the page. I think at the moment it looks fine, but you know, the content is our artwork, the content is the club mix, maybe sometimes a DJ support video.

SPEAKER_02 45:45

One more I would add is you know, a space I think about a lot is you know, the whole artist management or agency kind of role where you know, can we give that opportunity to the artists that we work with ourselves, you know, getting out on the road, showcasing themselves as DJs, not only, you know, in an online capacity that's somewhere where I'd like to see us grow into eventually as well.

SPEAKER_00 46:07

The fact that I get so many requests for that already as manual, yeah, means that there's a service that we can offer, right? And we can take care of that for a lot of artists. But it's again, it's not an easy space to navigate. It's competitive. People are fighting for the same venues, the same gigs, the same opportunities. Yeah. But we forget people know us, right? So we we all already carry that that value and that trust. Any other roles? I'm trying to think event, an event person.

SPEAKER_02 46:36

Yeah, big time.

SPEAKER_00 46:38

An event person. I mean, right now we've got an artist liaison person, we've got AR, two ARs, obviously you, myself.

SPEAKER_01 46:46

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:47

I think more kind of owners, channel owners, channel managers. It's it's it's needed.

SPEAKER_02 46:53

Yeah, those that can have a that's their process, they own it, they grow it. So, guys, if you want to get involved, let us know, hit us up, you know where to find us, send us a DM or an email. We'd love to chat, man. But that's been episode 19, guys. As always, thank you for listening. Leave a comment, leave a like, leave a rating on Spotify, and we'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_00 47:13

Yes, sir. Peace.