It's been a bumper month for new labels here at untitledmusic, and whilst I'm usually the one that's gone after them for their musical class, I'm the first to admit I often don't know a whole load about them. Amenti Music is one such label, a name I know is always up to the mark, had some top class artists release tunes on their, but what better excuse to ask a few questions of the man behind it all, Olivier Desmet and introduce them to you all.
Amenti Music has been at the forefront of the San Francisco deep house music movement for the past nine years, and, over the course of 50+ vinyl and digital releases, has featured a long list of house luminaries including Mood II Swing, Charles Webster, Fred Everything, JT Donaldson, LawnChair Generals, Giom, and many others.
Hailing from Belgium, Olivier Desmet is the man behind Amenti Music and the return of Primal Records. He began his career in Chicago as A&R and promotions manager for the late and lamented Afterhours Music, which released some of the best Chicago cuts in the late 1990s/early 2000s.
He began producing his own music under the guidance of Mazi before moving on to manage the renowned Moulton Studios in San Francisco in 2002. He's released works on labels including Aroma, Tango, Siesta, Deepfunk and OM (the San Francisco Sessions Vol 6 with Inland Knights), and remixes of artists such as Mood II Swing, Miles Maeda, Alexander East, and Demarkus Lewis. Among the many artists he's collaborated with are Fred Everything, Ken ECB, Joshua Marquez of Uneaq and Chuck Diesel.
Latest tracks by Amenti MusicHe began producing his own music under the guidance of Mazi before moving on to manage the renowned Moulton Studios in San Francisco in 2002. He's released works on labels including Aroma, Tango, Siesta, Deepfunk and OM (the San Francisco Sessions Vol 6 with Inland Knights), and remixes of artists such as Mood II Swing, Miles Maeda, Alexander East, and Demarkus Lewis. Among the many artists he's collaborated with are Fred Everything, Ken ECB, Joshua Marquez of Uneaq and Chuck Diesel.
Having grown up with house music his early influences include the likes of Kraftwerk, Nitzer Ebb and Depeche Mode not discovering house until his late teens. A self confessed Stella drinking (he's Belgian after all!) soulful, jazzy sounding DJ, label owner, producer, artist and digital record store owner you've got to hand it to the man - he's house to the core! So as a new label to the untitledmusic family I had a few questions for the man himself...
What is the idea behind the label – why did you start it?
"I got into the music business professionally about 10 years ago. I was living in Chicago at the time, and got a job as A&R and promotions manager for Afterhours Music. Afterhours was a great label, but the parent company that owned the label was badly mismanaged. This prompted me to move to San Francisco to start my own label, and Amenti was born."
How do you approach A&R to give the label its identity?
"First and foremost, I only sign music that I would want to play in my DJ sets. I am very picky about what tracks I play out. I will often spend 4+ hours shopping on Beatport or Traxsource, only to find 1 or 2 tracks that I like enough to buy! So that’s the deciding factor, signing music I would want to buy and play out. Amenti releases have had a pretty varied sound, some of it is quite deep, like the recent Todd Omotani and Charles Webster release for example, and some is prime time stuff, like the forthcoming Sonny Fodera release. But it’s all music I’d want to buy and play out."
What is the idea behind the label – why did you start it?
"I got into the music business professionally about 10 years ago. I was living in Chicago at the time, and got a job as A&R and promotions manager for Afterhours Music. Afterhours was a great label, but the parent company that owned the label was badly mismanaged. This prompted me to move to San Francisco to start my own label, and Amenti was born."
How do you approach A&R to give the label its identity?
"First and foremost, I only sign music that I would want to play in my DJ sets. I am very picky about what tracks I play out. I will often spend 4+ hours shopping on Beatport or Traxsource, only to find 1 or 2 tracks that I like enough to buy! So that’s the deciding factor, signing music I would want to buy and play out. Amenti releases have had a pretty varied sound, some of it is quite deep, like the recent Todd Omotani and Charles Webster release for example, and some is prime time stuff, like the forthcoming Sonny Fodera release. But it’s all music I’d want to buy and play out."
What have been the highlights to date?
"I’m proud to have had quite a few of my favorite producers, for example Mood II Swing, appear at some point on the label. The collaboration I did with Om Records to release a double mix CD of all Amenti material on their prestigious “San Francisco Sessions” series is also definitely a highlight. I would say that I’m also very proud of the killer yearly Amenti events at Miami’s winter music conference over the past 8 or so years, first collaborating with Aroma Records for the infamous “AA Meeting” parties, then now collaborating with Fred Everything’s Lazy Days Recordings for the equally great “Freeform” parties. Finally, a real highlight for me is that after close to nine years and 50+ releases, Amenti still going strong, which is quite an accomplishment in this business!"
What’s your favourite release?
"Picking a favorite release would be like picking a favorite child, pretty much impossible. Looking back at the catalog, I would still sign the vast majority of the releases today."
"I’m proud to have had quite a few of my favorite producers, for example Mood II Swing, appear at some point on the label. The collaboration I did with Om Records to release a double mix CD of all Amenti material on their prestigious “San Francisco Sessions” series is also definitely a highlight. I would say that I’m also very proud of the killer yearly Amenti events at Miami’s winter music conference over the past 8 or so years, first collaborating with Aroma Records for the infamous “AA Meeting” parties, then now collaborating with Fred Everything’s Lazy Days Recordings for the equally great “Freeform” parties. Finally, a real highlight for me is that after close to nine years and 50+ releases, Amenti still going strong, which is quite an accomplishment in this business!"
What’s your favourite release?
"Picking a favorite release would be like picking a favorite child, pretty much impossible. Looking back at the catalog, I would still sign the vast majority of the releases today."
How did you get into music – what’s your story?
"I grew up listening to both funk music and “new wave” – stuff like Depeche Mode, Nitzer Ebb, New Order, etc. This naturally led to house music in the late 80s and early 90s. I started DJing in 1990, and tried my hand at producing in the early 90s. But it wasn’t until moving to Chicago that I really started taking the whole music business seriously and worked at making a career of it."
What’s the story with Primal?
"I moved to San Francisco in early 2002 to manage my label, but also to manage Moulton Studios, which was a recording facility and record label owned by Jay-J and Chris Lum. This job ended when Jay-J moved to New York, so I got a part time job working at Primal Records to help make ends meet. Primal at the time was the biggest vinyl record shop in the East Bay (located in Berkeley) and was starting to do good business online. Eventually I became a minority partner in the business, and took over management of the business. We ended up selling ridiculous amounts of vinyl via the primalrecords.com web shop for a while, until the vinyl business sort of disappeared on us. Primal is now selling digital downloads, and it’s starting to do quite well at that."
What other labels and artists do you look out for?
"Some of my favorite producers at the moment include Fred Everything, Giom, the LawnChair Generals, and Joshua Heath. Jimpster is doing great things with his “Delusions Of Grandeur” sublabel."
"As a label, it’s a great way to easily communicate with your audience and fans. It’s free advertising and an absolute necessity these days. The problem of course is that everyone is bombarded with information all the time, so it’s not always easy to stand out from the rest. I’ve just relaunched www.amentimusic.com with a full online shop, so I’m very excited about that."
What are you listening to at home these days?
"A lot of demos! Amenti will be releasing more music than ever before in 2011, so I’m listening to a ridiculous amount of demos!"
"I’m starting a new mix compilation series called “Destination”. I did the first one; it will be released worldwide in December, and is available now on Beatport as a pre-release exclusive. I’m doing a full world tour to support the release via APT Entertainment (www.aptentertainment.com) and will be doing North American dates from January to May, then heading to Europe and Asia over the summer. As I mentioned, I’m stepping up the release schedule for the label to 20+ per year, so that’s quite exciting. Looking forward to new Amenti releases coming soon from Miles Maeda, Sonny Fodera, Atnarko, Fred Everything and me, and lots lots more!"
Links
Amenti Music
Soundcloud
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