Interview with Martin from Asbo and Anti Social Records
What inspired you to start a record label?
Im not even really to shore ,we had been doing radio on and off for years but sort of seemed out of our league at the time then cloak & myself started getting back into producing and it seemed the natural progression ,ideas was formed and a lil while later asbo was.
Why the name change back in 2013? we changed distribution and alot of other labels started using audio so as we provide vinyl we decided asbo records sounded more fitting.
How would you describe your labels sound? its a broad sound and we have never wanted to get pigeon holed , so it reaches from old skool joker influenced tracks to the odd bit of ragga jungle & then on to more complex progressive sound of future jungle
Did you have a sound you wanted to push in mind when you started and has that changed / morphed into something new by now? people like to pigeon hole alot and we try stay away from that if its good jungle music its good ,but we are constantly interested in pushing the sound forward while maintaining its authenticity
Did you always intend to press vinyl, what response have you had from doing this?
yes 100 {c677f8d1c17564a56c503e01be8f588995c5f36b5bc5ff935a383d6667989752} from early asbo audio releases we went with vinyl, i grew up in a sound system family and collecting dubs and records was a big part of my life i would feel we wasn a real record label if we didn’t ,even if it was just a once a year volume of the best of asbo we would still push on and cater to our vinyl supporters & the response has been great i wish we could press more, plus the artist also enjoy having there name on something tangible
What is it about a track that makes you want to release it? that’s a real hard one to answer but i guess i say its the vibe ,if it tells a story u know like a good ragga jungle tune should make u feel or at least evoke a emotion or memeory of carnival or sound systems etc if the producer conveys that vibe im sold.
You started Anti Social records for the more dnb side of things, how have you seen that grow since you started? its walking its own path and picking up support along the way and we’ve had some great feedback and support from legends like spy ,kenny ken nicky blackmarket and even mista jam aswell which is always encouraging, skinely help with the day to day admin, looking for music & he does the label show on rough tempo with rotating guest from the label and yeah its doing great and letting us push a brand new sound which a lot of the producers on asbo are more capable of producing so it seemed stupid to try and stifle there talent.
What made you want to separate the two labels? asbo is a straight jungle label & dnb wasn working on there so well but we never intended to be a jungle only label ,so the only real sensible course of action was to break away the dnb under a new brand and its working
Has it allowed you to head different route with ASBO? not really ,but we can focus on just jungle at the label now ,2016 is gonna see some changes tho as we get more business modeled and think about the labels long term goals as we have kinda surpassed anything we set out to achieve if we are really honest ,but events is something we have started doing under our rehab brand and something we will be doing more off so if anything its free’d us up a lil to concentrate on where we like to take asbo records.
How did the Joker Project come about? we was getting our vinyl cut at only vinyl over east london and it was pugs(Pugwash) doing the cutting over ,i didn even recognize him the first 2 times i see him as he looked a lot different (slimmer) but we finally cottoned on to who he was and it wasn’t long (about 2 seconds) before we was talking joker and the dream team ,i mentioned a maybe remixing some old back cat and pugs was well up for it and give us permission to crack on ,obviously we was gassed to max.
Where they a big influence on you musically, is that why the project started? yeah man ,stamina and the early stuff are banging tunes ,joker and the dream team was every where and tbf when u think about stamina there wasn many ragga jungle vocal tunes like it at the time, A’Capella wasn so easy to get & im shore bizz b and pugwash picked them up in the states or something so yeah b4 i even knew pugs or talked to bizzy they had influenced me a lot
What one piece of advice would you give someone wanting to start their own label?
Believe in ya self ,like if its what u wanna do make it work ,i remember telling a ex id release a tune and seeing doubt in her face ,so i stopped telling people and just did it ,saved my penny’s pressed use them brain on white label & when it hit blackmarket charts and stayed there for 14 weeks & was there best selling record that year……yeah ,believe in ya self ,same as starting the hole thing i believed in the music we signed from cloak and wanted push it that belief is whats got us this far ……….
What releases do you have coming up?
Incoming Music To Look Out For This Winter.
Asbo Records
Galvatron – Unorthodox E.P 16th Nov
Dj Westy – Jungle Law 12″ EP 18th Dec (Vinyl Pre Orders Nov 21st)
Anti Social Records
Cloak – Fall Out E.P 30th Nov
Various Artist – Unbreakable L.P Dec 21st.
