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OSCILATOR

http://www.oscilator.net

What’s behind the name of your label? How did this name come about (by accident, a word game)? Or does the name express or reflect the philosophy of the label?

Oscilator is a main part of every machine designed for sound generation. And yes, in a way it does reflect philosophy of the label, we are mostly are interested in synthetic sounds.

When was the label founded? And who started the label?

Label was founded in 2003 by me, Andrej Imamovic a.k.a D Liner and my best friend Ensar Zgodic a.k.a Greg Pavlov.

What was the intention behind starting a label? Did it start as a "witty" response like, "Let's try out to run a label," or was there kind of a business idea right from the start?

There was no business idea in the beginning. At first we were, and we are, working on the radio show and webzine and then we started a label because we had a lot of music produced by us and our close friends, that was really hot, at least we think so, and we were searching for a way to publish and present this music to the people as quick as possible. So our own label seemed to be a logical solution, instead of sending music to other labels, waiting for response...

Do you also run sub-labels? Why and when did you add them to your label roster?

No, we don't have sub-labels.

How would you describe the style/sound of your label (sublabel)? What are the musical boundaries? Which musical "drawer" do you like to fit most of your label's music?

Well in the beginning we were interested in sounds like italo disco, minimal house, electro and more experimental electronic sounds. But now we are mostly searching for dance floor friendly stuff and not so much for ambient, downtempo and experimental stuff.

Which kind of media do you use for your releases (MP3, CD, Vinyl...)? Are there any plans in the near future to add new media formats? Which media formats are definitely uninteresting to you?

We use MP3 for our releases but there are plans for Vinyl releases too. CD`s are also fine, maybe we will use them in the future. So, there are no uninteresting media formats for us.

Do you own/run a shop or web-shop? How important is owning a store for you?

No we do not run a shop, but owning a shop can be helpful for a label... I would actually love to run a records store, I hope that I will one day.

In which countries do you distribute your records? Do you work with a Distribution? Or do you manage the distribution by yourselves?

At the moment we are working as a Netlabel, so our releases are available on our website. But we will have to work with distributors soon and I have recently heard some not so encouraging stories.

How do you become interested in new artists?

When we hear some stuff that we like, and when we think that we can all benefit and do something good, that`s when we become interested.

What do you think about the range of artists a label should sign? Less is more? Or does a big range of artists help to get more attention?

I prefer small labels with selected rooster. And I don`t think that big range of artists helps to get more attention, if music sucks nothing helps, and like I said, I prefer smaller labels with some kind of family atmosphere.

Do you have a demo policy? Who listens to the demos and decides to take new artists onboard?

We don`t have some strict demo policy. Everybody can listen to our releases and send us demo if he thinks that his music fits our label style. And I listen to demos together with my friend, Oscilator co-founder, Ensar Zgodic.

What about the number of releases in one year. How many releases do you usually have in one year? And how much ahead do you plan your releases?

We have around 12-15 releases in one year, but there will be more releases this year since we are getting a lot of great material. We plan our releases 2-3 months ahead.

Is there a connection between the hometown of your label and the label itself? Do you think if you would move to another city your label probably would lose his identity?

Yes there is, most of our producers are from Sarajevo, and it is possible that or label could lose it`s identity if we move to another city or country. We are hanging out together, we are partying and djing together and a lot of good stuff comes out of that. So if we move that probably wouldn`t be possible.

Which of your releases would you name as the most successful release?

I think that our compilations like Novo Sarajevo, Elite Trikotage 1 and 2 are our most successful releases.

Besides the sales figures which one is your personal number one?

It is Greg Pavlov - Beotaster Suprakancelaria EP.

Nobody likes to talk about failures, anyway, how much time must pass until you would call a release a “flop”? Any records which hadn’t any success in the beginning and after you named it a flop it became successful by accident?

I don`t know, I like all of our releases. But other people don`t, I am sure. There are releases that sound a little bit weird to me today, but at the time they sounded good, and I think that they are ok. Times change, people change, you can`t always like the same music, but that does not mean that it is not good anymore.

Your feelings about the music market: Would you say things are getting harder for record labels through things like p2p, mp3….?

I think that small labels have more problems with p2p than the big ones that are making all the fuss. But things are not getting harder with MP3`s, look at the shops like Beatport, you can find great stuff there, as soon as it is out. You can purchase a lot of MP3 releases from my favorite labels there. And that is good for the labels and the dj`s. Especially if you are searching for releases that our sold out or out of print.

Which kind of medias/press do you use for promotion? How do you select the media you work with? In general; how important is the press for electronic music? What makes you really upset when you work with the press? A bad review, no response…

We use all kind of medias for promotion, radio stations, magazines, specialized web sites, and we select medias that are interested in sounds similar to the sound of our label. I think that press is important for electronic music, especially today when you have dozens of new releases coming out every day... I have found some great new music thanks to the help of the press. What makes me upset is a lack of response, not a bad review... There is a lot of radio stations for example that will play your music, even if you did not send them promos, but they will not let you know that they have played your tunes, and some small labels run on positive feedback... What I am trying to say is let the people know that you are playing their music!

Music is business, like every other business. With that in mind, how important is "friendship" and "trust" to you when you work with artists, promoters or distributors? Or do you separate things?

We do not separate things, friendship and trust are crucial when you work with people, after all it is music we are talking about, it is not oil industry or nuclear physics.

Although your whole day is centered around the music business, do you sometimes walk into a recordstore to buy a record?

You would not believe how much of new music I listen to every day. I love to do that, and I need new music all the time for my radio show and dj sets.