With The Purr recently celebrating their 100th release we catch up with label boss Jelly For The Babies for the latest episode of Ask The Label Manager.
1. Thanks for joining us and giving us some insight into your life and daily label manager duties. So let’s start with the obvious, what label or labels do you manage and where are you based?
I moved to Novi Sad now but work in Belgrade so every day i am traveling 80km to my regular work, which is IT engineering on Economic Faculty, and go back. Sometimes i stay in Belgrade cause I didn’t move my studio yet. I manage two labels, The Purr and One Of A Kind. The Purr i am leading along with Filip Fisher and with Bonaca I am leading One Of A Kind and together we have great help from Balkan Connection boss, Milos Miladinovic.
2. Where does the name from your label(s) comes from? Is there a story behind how it/they came to be?
When you pronounce The Purr, it sounds like you are saying “deeper” so main idea was to release only deep house, but as we are great music lovers, we intend to have our own label style, but love to release almost every sub-genre of house music, while One Of A Kind is more based on progressive and melodic techno. For One Of A Kind i didn’t think too much…i just wanted originality on label, something unique, one of a kind.
3. Does your label(s) have a distinct sound? How would describe the labels vision and sound?
As I said, main idea is that The Purr releases deeper kind of music, deep house, deep electronic, while One Of A Kind is all about this new age eternal techno and progressive house, but as i said, it all depends on our current mood.
4. We would guess you probably receive a lot of demos, how many would say you receive in any given week and what percentage would you actually consider releasable and do you reply to every submission?
We got lots of demos really, and i am really limited with the time i have, so sometimes i sit and whole day just listening to demos. It is hard to pick the right track because sometimes we reject track that are actually good but in that time we don’t feel like it something we want to release.
5. How long is the wait from when you sign a project to when it will actually get released?
It depends. Sometimes less than two months sometimes more. I like to prepare every release for a couple of upcoming months, just because of the time limitation and work. If you organize your time pretty well everyone will respect it.
6. Who would you say are your core label artists? And do you think it’s important for a label to build a roster around a few key artists and develop a distinct sound in the process.
When I think now, it is not actually appropriate to distinguish some cause our doors are open to everyone and every release has its own impact.
7. What is your thought process behind remixer selection on a given project and how many is too many in your opinion?
I think two is the right number. Too many remixes can kill the originality of release.
8. Where would you say the majority of your fans are based? And does that correlate to where the majority of your sales come from?
By the research we did, USA, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Australia, etc.
9. What has been the most successful track or release on the label? Both from a sales perspective but also support or live / radio play form established DJs?
Hraach, Roby Deep and Bastiano are the most sold artists in the history of The Purr, while on OOAK, Sonic Future, Bonaca and me as Jelly For The Babies were most successful.
10. What artists would you love to have on the label?
Hard question…Pablo Bolivar, Deep Spelle, Maya Jane Coles….than CID Inc., 16 bit lolitas.
11. Where do you see the label in 5 years? And are you pleased with where the label is now since its inception?
I am pretty satisfied yes. People recognize our hard work. In 5 years we will be at least 5 time better.
12. Living off the earning of a small digital imprint is unlikely, how do you supplement your income? Do you have a job outside of electronic music?
I am working as IT Engineer on the Economic Faculty in Belgrade. With the money I earn on music I like to spend on traveling, holidays, life…buying new sneakers.
13. Do you pay advances or remix fees? And is it reasonable to do so in your situation?
Economic situation in Serbia doesn’t allow me to pay advance fees, as some artists are searching more than 200 euro per track which is 80% of my regular payment. Thats the price of the apartment I am paying for living. To be honest, I understand them. That is the normal price for advance fees, but no one understands situation in my country more than people who live and work here. It is hard to explain…
14. Who is your distributor and have you been with them for the entire existence of the label?
Proton, and I am pretty satisfied.
15. Are you or have you done label nights and if so how have they contributed to the label’s growth?
Yes of course. Except Serbia we did label nights in Lithuania, Netherlands, Italy.
16. What’s your favourite thing about running a label?
Connection with other artists, other good people from all around the globe. Sharing experiences and enjoying music.
17. What advice would you give to anyone trying to get a release on the label? How do you suggest they approach the demo submission process?
They can send it on facebook or soundcloud with a private link. Be original, give us something new. We don’t chase trend so don’t send us techno hahaha
18. What if a demo is good but needs refining? Do you have time to help the artist and give them some tips?
Always! After all I am here to help, give directions.
19 Who does the labels mastering? and do you ever have tracks mixed down by an engineer for better results?
Ednner Soares mostly, from time to time Roby Deep. Yes, when the track is bad mixed, we intend to give proper advice for fixing, or we send separated stems to our engineers.
20. This is tough but if you had to pick your five favourite releases or tracks on the label what would they be?
Hard question indeed. “Venus” on One Of A Kind by me haha
21. Lastly, what advice do you have for someone just starting a label?
Be prepared to sleep 4 hours a day if you want to succeed.
The Purr’s 100th release is out now, you can check out the full label catalog: here
