Octobers Label of the Month: 31337 records

These are exciting times for Berlin based label, 31337. Formed only in 2007 they have been steadily building up an excellent profile with solid releases and apperances from some from big names too like Someone Else and Remute. Their 2008-09 schedule promises to be a busy one with Dubkult amongst others lined up.They launched their dubby, minimal sound with the excellent compilation We are 31337! in may 2007 and the label is run by Stefan Klaas, Sebastian Guth and Philip Steger. We catch up with Stefan to ask him some questions....


First things first, is the name to be pronounced as numbers or as leet/elite?

Its meant as "leet" or "elite", but many people use the numbers as they probably don't know the meaning.

You seem to have taken a sensible route to starting a label by starting digital and then moving towards vinyl. was that always your intention or is it more that there was a demand for the vinyl releases?

I guess both. Of course we always thought of vinyl, but without any reputation its hard to compete in the music business. since many people get more involved in social networking we thought its best to start off digital. This was cost effective as we didn't have a big budget to start with and it was good enough to get the name out. Also the netlabel scene is a very interesting place to meet new talented artists, label contacts and the like. There is a very strong community behind it and we will always keep supporting it, even when we go for vinyl, there will still be free mp3 releases.

Putting out vinyl is a risky business these days? Are you worried?

Not really worried, but very excited. We just think positive and go for it. Lets see what happens.

Getting artists like Remute and Someone Else to release on the label must have been amazing. Did you know them previously or was it just through other releases that you got in touch with them?

We knew all artists before the actual releases. Especially Denis (Remute) was really open minded to our project even tough we were a new label basically without any reputation. One year later we finally made it! We had several changes in the remixes so we kept delaying it. Sean (Someone Else) was also very kind and provided a great track for our very first release. We also planned the first vinyl with him as we love his music.

Who is the one artist that you would love to put out a record for?

I guess we all agree that would be Miskate or Cabanne.

Do you have any advice for someone starting out a netlabel?

Yes, avoid collecting agencies (such as GEMA in Germany) by all means and be sure to make contracts for every release!

Things seem to be going really well, do you have plans for the future or are you taking things one day at a time?

Indeed we get so much great support from all over the world, its really amazing and cool to see that people appreciate our efforts since we built this label not because of capitalism, but to have a platform for music that we personally love. Great to see that people enjoy our music!

What other labels or net labels do you like at the moment?

There are just too many good labels but i guess our favorites are still (un)Foundsound, Hello?Repeat, Perlon, Lessismore, Echocord, Scape, Multivitamins, Op.Disc or Minibar to name a few and as for netlabels we always like the Archipel stuff from our friend Pheek or Textone from Jay Haze.

What about the future of techno and dance music?

That's not up to us really and we couldn't care less. Some people already say minimal is dead, but we don't go for the current hypes, we keep releasing what we like.

...and long may it continue. You can download or listen to lots of their tracks from their website below and also keep an eye out for their future releases as these promise to be very exciting times for this interesting label.

http://www.31337records.com/
http://www.31337records.com/releases.html
http://www.myspace.com/31337records