If you’ve been grazing on our musical morsels recently, you might be familiar with Bade Records. The new label are based in London but spread over various cities around the UK and are putting their own spin on the melodic, atmospheric brand of house and techno, synonymous with Berlin and other central European hotspots. Two strong releases down, and the day before they host Tent 2 at One Day, we caught up with the guys in their first Q&A. Resident James Sison has also done a quite menacing exclusive mix for us.
Catch Bade tomorrow at One Day with Marcus Worgull, Konstantin Sibold, Tom Trago, Hunee and more. Final release tickets available here. BADE002 with Alexander Christian is out 7th July. Like the on Facebook for info on pre-orders.
DOWNLOAD MIX. Tracklist coming soon – like us on Facebook to be the first to hear.
For those not in the know, could you introduce Bade?
We’re four friends from London: Ed, Charlie Jamie and Henry. We’ve always been interested in music, growing up Charlie, Henry and I were in bands together. We all started to get involved in electronic music around the same time, migrating through various genres before settling in the house/techno region. One day we decided that we wanted to take our passions one step further and the idea of forming a label naturally came about.
What was the inspiration behind the name?
The name was a funny one. We were running through countless ideas until Charlie stumbled across it in a textbook! It’s a nice sounding word, and in our context means to make an effort to achieve something, which is exactly what we hope to look back on the experience and say.
How would you describe the sound that Bade is pushing?
Our sound is definitely at the more melodic end of the spectrum. When we first got into house we were all very much focussed on the more UK jump-up, deep house end of the spectrum; think Kumasi and Kolombo – big basslines that are hugely fun on the dancefloor, but not the most intricate or intelligent in their composition. I think our migration to the more melodic end was both the result of a natural progression in music taste but also a response to our deeper-rooted influences that inspired our music tastes from when we were all younger: a thirst for more melodically driven, ambient and, most importantly, interesting music. We definitely feel our first two releases showcase this.
What would you say to critics who might say Bade are ripping off a sound that is more at home in Germany? What makes what you guys are doing, worth listening to?
We’ve been hearing a lot that our label and music are London sounds by way of Berlin, and we take this as a huge compliment! We wouldn’t say that what we are doing is in anyway a ‘rip off’ or an ‘imitation’. The Berlin sound has always been around and it’s naturally spreading around the world with the rise of labels like Innervisions, Kompakt, Life and Death, Diynamic and rising stars like Steyoyoke. We like to think we are offering our own take on an increasingly international genre that has such wide appeal because it is timeless, interesting and challenges the listener. That it originated in Berlin is no mistake, but it’s spreading and we want to be positioned to introduce our brand to the UK.
Why should people listen to us? We think our music speaks for itself. We’re trying to source young, talented artists who are still in their development stages sound-wise but who are amazingly talented. And so far we think we’ve achieved that.
With so many of you involved, deciding what tracks to release must be a pretty difficult. How do you negotiate what to put out?
This year has been a bit of a struggle for us as we’ve all been at different unis! Jamie’s at UCL, Henry’s at Exeter, Charlie’s in Leeds and Ed’s at Edinburgh so there’s been a lot of conference calls, emails and endless facebook chats. Despite our locational differences our decision making processes are actually incredibly short. For both Bade 001 and 002, and for our future Bade releases in the pipeline, we’ve all been in overwhelming agreement about the artists; no doubt a result of our very similar music tastes.
Speaking of releases, Bade002 with Alexander Christian is incoming. How did you link up with him, and could you tell us your thoughts on the EP. The a-side is really something special!
We found Alexander on Soundcloud whilst sifting through artists and first spoke to him about six months ago. Since then he has been gradually putting this EP together whilst making some time for his university work. It has been an amazing experience seeing how his production skills have improved ten-fold in the last half a year and that’s no exaggeration. We guess the EP is the light at the end of the tunnel! We are really pleased with how it has come along. For us, it’s got the perfect combination of a dance floor shaker (Lente) and a crowd soother (Bloom) that compliment each other well.
What other labels are you guys interested in, and which have been an inspiration to you guys?
Rising Berlin label, Steyoyoke, is one that we have been following very closely since we formed. We actually approached one of their artists a while ago and that’s how we stumbled across the label. I wouldn’t necessarily say that they promote the same sound as us, but it has been great to see them grow over the past year, much like we have (on a smaller scale of course!). Soul Button and Dahu are two Steyoyoke artists that have amazed us with their heavy atmospheric productions.
Are there any other artists or labels you’re into at the moment who are pushing the Bade sound?
In terms of UK labels, there aren’t too many prominent labels pushing this sound. Stem Records have been really impressive with their output of dark techno, especially their recent Agents of Time Spread The Word LP. They gave us some advice earlier in the year on how to get the label exposure. We have also been in contact with Agents of Time who have shown an interest in playing out some of our releases. In terms of established artists, I’d say Mano Le Tough’s sets show the kind of sound we want to release.
Where do you see Bade in the next few years?
Well that’s the million dollar question. We hope that Bade will have become recognized across Europe as a thriving label that opened up a gap in the UK underground music scene. I guess it would be very satisfying to say that we had influenced some sort of movement in a very saturated UK market. We also want to become more involved in events and showcases.
You’re hosting Tent 2 at One Day this weekend – excited? What can people expect from you in the evening? We hear you’re flying in a some of the roster just for the show.
Yes we are very excited! It’s going to be an amazing event, the perfect day in our eyes. It’ll be an honour to play alongside the likes of Marcus Worgull and Konstantin Sibold, artists who have definitely had an influence on the direction that Bade is heading in. We will be flying in Ben Böhmer (BADE001 – Black Pattern EP) and Alexander Christian (BADE002 – Lente EP) for the occasion. Ben will be performing a one-hour live set which should be filled with deep techno and Alexander will be DJing. We have also invited British artist Kesper along (recently released on Slipstone Records – Moonwalk EP), who will be releasing with us in the future, we can’t wait to share some of his music with you.
Looking beyond One Day and Bade002, what are your plans for the rest of summer? Any more live dates and releases?
Some of us are heading over to Berlin in August to put in some groundwork (if you want to call it that). Events-wise, we’ve been chatting to a few promoters about being part of some exciting events in Liverpool, Leeds and London, all later in the Summer / beginning of next academic year, we will keep you filled in!
