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SEEDRECORDINGS:
THE BOSTON CREAM (DE LA CREME)!
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Like it or not, times are not anymore what they used to be, with the ceasing of activities, ventures, eras and their unevitable replacement by others being nothing but the basic principle of life… With the so called globalization goin’ all the way round, times are far when Chicago, New York and Manchester in UK where the only providers of house music. Another illustration being Boston, Ma where a handful of activists look like firmly decided to have their piece of the cake, as shown by Bradford James’s promising label Seed Recordings. (words: MFSB)
Hey Mista James. Glad welcomin’ you on board. Frankly speaking, not that much of us would have ever thought of Boston as far as house music a few years ago. What has been the first sparkle?
Firstly, Thank you Frederic for the interview. Well funny enough, Boston has had a very close relationship with the New York City Dance Music Scene. Boston only being 3.5 hours away from the city and the fact that it is very inexpensive to get back and forth by bus has always made an impact for the dancers here in Boston. To this day Boston househeads frequent all the major events like Body & Soul, Club Shelter, Roots, Dance Ritual etc... Some people even go back to the Paradise Garage days. To say the least Boston has had its moments in history where house music in particular has reached the minds of the young and old alike. Ever since rise of Boston’s Loft 21 aka "The Loft" where it was an all night 18+ event. The city was influencing young minds and has had a great impact to most of the dancers and DJ's in New England. The resident DJ's at this time was DJ Bruno & Armand Van Helden. When the venue closed in 1995 all the dancers and DJ's were forced to start their own parties. Some major parties that came out at this time was Utopia, Life, Soul Revival, Bump and later Seed In The City. Every one and there mutha for big name DJ's and perfromers have blessed the dancefloors here in Boston. We are just in the shadows of New York, but if you go to a New York Event there’s a great chance youll find some Boston Househeads in the circle.
Let us know ‘bout your venture. The way it has started, your positioning if not the definition of Seed Recordings…Co-founded by Oveous Maximus (Def Jam Poetry/Vega/Yoruba), Deknology, Nef Nunez (deepaGrooves) & Myself. The concept of Seed dated back to 1999. It was a one off event called Soul Enters Every Dancer. It was held at the Black Repertoire Theatre located in Providence Rhode Island (2nd largest city in New England). It was a very successful event that focused on energy and sound, specifically for the dancers. After the event, it was my idea to branch off a label and entertainment company using the same philosophies. Keeping up with tradition while inspiring ourselves and others to create and perpetuate soulful music. In 2001, we had all branched out to different cities, Ove, and Deknology moved to New York City and I moved to Boston. We threw some events in Manhattan called Sea of Soul (Boat Party), Seed In The City and Seed in Love. In Boston, we had an event called The Basement and later moved the Seed In The City party from NYC. To this day Seed in the city has had a major impact to the Boston nightlife, due to the fact that it is the only free event that hosts some of the best up and coming and well known DJ's from around the world. Our mission is to showcase DJ's that you may hear about threw productions but you may not have had the oportunity to experience unless you went to WMC in Miami (ex. Master Kev, Jersey Soul, Unified Spirits, Trinidadian Deep, Lars Behrenroth, Alton Miller, Tyrone Francis, Alix Alvarez, Joey Mazza, Nef Nunez, Lola, Offbeat, Joe Dipadova ...). It has become a great introduction to the Boston House music Scene. Most DJ's who have played SITC have come back to play bigger parties like Utopia and Soul Revival.
The label released its first release in 2005 called "Satisfaction" by Jesse Outlaw. We gained a major buzz around the community which inspired us to continue pushing out more music. We have had the pleasure to showcase producers and remixers Boddhi Satva, Seed Allstarz, Fabio Genito, Steve SoulBasics, Jesse James Project, Babyfunk, Tyrone Francis, Jonny Montana, DJ Constantin & Alton Miller. We are now reaching our 8th release and have a lot more in store for the rest of 2008.
Looks like some new wind has shuffled over the last months bringing fresh vibes to the current production as opposed to a whole bunch of soundalike stuff back then. One comment?
That’s what it’s always been about to me, pushing boundaries learning from our past and applying it to the future. The fact that your getting more hip-hop/neo soul producers messing with house music and vice versa puts our music back on the streets. So yes I agree, there is some dope sounds from some new talent floating around.
I sometimes have the feeling that no (anymore) matter about the labellization but more of the affirmation of a culture when listening to music of people such as Boddhi Satva, Carlos Mena and Abicah Soul for instance, on the heels of what Joe Claussell, Antonio Ocasio, Osunlade and Jephté Guillaume have accomplished before…
Yes, it’s a beautiful thing to see people getting inspired to create some great music. All of the people you have mentioned plus many others you have not have had a great impact in our culture and music community. It just goes to show if you can create positive energy thru music it will be heard and appreciated.
On a wider scale, judging by what happened in Detroit and nowadays in Chicago and to, a wider extend, the countless influences which we may feel in today’s production, I would even be tempted to think we’ve come to the end of an era, with dance music comin’ back as a whole as opposed to the numerous micro niches which have been the result of its successive internal divisions for about 2 decades…
Yeah that’s for sure... I call it coming back full circle! You have kids like The Martinez Brothers inspiring young and old music lovers alike. The whole era of sub-genres have once again been thrown out the window. Back when I started playing music, it was all about different shit, from rock to hip-hop, to soul to whatever was dope. Then it seems once the globalization took place, rave scenes appeared and this guy was playing hard house for an hour while you heard another DJ playing deep house for an hour right after. That’s what fucked shit up. It’s a breathe of fresh air to hear eclectic sets with great music young and old with the thinking in and out of the box.
You’re among those who’ve evoked the necessity of establishing strong relations, when not joining forces around new projects inside the community. A reaction not that frequent in an environment where a majority of people tend to work on their sole owns…
Yeah man you know it’s lonely at the top, I don’t want to be lonely. lol
Anyways it’s very important to support your community without an ego. Ego's ruined good music period. But for me I feel like if I can help my friends get to the levels they would like to reach while I myself am doing the same, puts money in all of our pockets. In order to really last in this industry you need to work together. Networking is the key! It is the key to business period. It’s a still who you know type of industry.
You’ve recently added a (legal) downloading platform to your activities. Let us know a bit more about it. Your motivations…
Man, my motivation is having the oportunity to sell our music and other’s on our site. With all of the Digital Distributors out there and the cut you receive is not very significant, it only makes sense to have your own store available to the public, so that your fan base can buy the music and the proceeds are more significant since your receiving 100% of the royalty. Plus using the technology of today we are able to create relationships with other labels on the same shopping network. So my fan base could reach yours and vise versa. That’s what it’s essentailly all about. The artists and labels getting paid to keep pushing out quality product. In the future (next couple of months) you will see more and more unreleased promos available on the seed website. So check us out... seedrecordings.com
Time has come to put a temporary end to our conversation with an unevitable question in regards to Miami ? How do you consider it as far as your activities are concerned. What to expect from you there/in the comin’ weeks/months?
Well for me, I wasn’t going to go till I found out that 2 of my recent co-productions have been making some serious waves. The titles are Oveous Maximus - I Apologize (Yoruba Soul) & Boddhi Satva - Warriors of Africa (Seedidadian Deep Remix) Shelter Records. That’s right there is the motivation to get me to go to Miami.
But the years before the Internet exploded, Miami was very crucial to the music industry. A lot of business would be happening poolside. Now it seems like WMC is a festival more than a Conference. I haven’t attended the actual Conference in along time. I go to Miami to play and party and meet new people from all over the world. Start new relationships, cuz the parties are still happening. I just think they need to move the location, cuz for our community... Miami is too expensive and is keeping a lot of people I know home this year. But to finalise the question whatever comes out of Miami is a blessing, it makes it all worth it at the end of the day.
Thanks again Frederic, you da man!
mission:complete
soul enters every dancer
BODDHI SATVA featuring ROBERT WALKER – Get Up (Remixes) (Seed Recordings/Promo)
JAZZAFAIR COLLECTIVE – Funkaffair (Seed Recordings/Promo)
THE SHADOW KINGS – Soul 4 Real (Utopia Boston/Promo)
ALTON MILLER – Together (Seed Recordings/Advance)
INDAMIXWORLDWIDE.COM: Only the best, No time for the rest!
INTERVIEW
