BOE Recordings – Ben Parkinson

Although only on their fourth 12” release, the small and cuddly label BOE recordings family are making a name for themselves as the standard bearers of a resurgent house scene. With whippersnapper upstarts KINK and Burnski releasing some of their best work to date on the label, and every one of their releases flying off the shelves, BOE Recordings have been touching all the bases marked ‘very good music’. Their small output has seen them release everything from deep dubby cuts to gut-troubling acid workouts with the defining factor being quality, not quantity. With the Signal EP by Kink finding it’s way into many a DJ’s box this summer, and a sack full of exciting sounds due to be released in the coming months, label boss Ben Parkinson took some time to trade questions and answers with Electronic Beats.

Hey Ben, first off can you tell me a bit about how the label started?The label started up good and proper right at the end of 2007. That's when the first release with Burnski was put out for promotion and release in January 2008. The idea behind the label started about a year before that.

Why did you start the label? What was your inspiration? I wanted to start a label because I was itching to do something in music. DJ’ing in London is almost impossible if you're not in a crowd, involved in a night or prepared to prostitute yourself musically. I have my own life outside of music, I have very good friends who like to get loose some weekends but they have other interests; music is my own private vice. A few years ago I became friends with a couple of guys (Mass Transit) and we did parties together. We had a few great guests on but we didn’t do anything more than sporadic. It was a lot of fun but I don’t think I’ll do nights for a while. About the time that came to a close I was really keen to get out and do something off my own back.

I'm a mate of James (Burnski) and we always chatted about music right from when he first started releasing on Trapez and Morris Audio. He sent me a track called Monkey Hanging and I immediately wanted to release it there and then. I thought “fuck it let's put it out on a white label” and he was keen but another label picked it up. The release didn't materialise, it came back on offer and I thought right I'm gonna start a label!

I also drew inspiration from one of my favourite labels, Morris Audio. I don’t know Stephan personally but I’ve heard great things about the guy. He has a full time job, a family and 3 great labels that release top drawer music. It made me think, “I could do that too”. Minus the family thing!

What does BOE stand for? I couldn’t honestly think of anything at the time of conception. I’m not the most imaginative of people when it comes to the English language. I cycled through my head thinking about things I liked; places, people, food, culture. Everything I came up with sounded terrible so I named it after my cat. Barry is infamous around east London. He's got one eye for a start and he's a Birman, which is an incredibly friendly breed. He also likes dub techno so he helps out on the A & R side of things.

What is your musical policy? At first I wanted to release all kinds of stuff within the boundaries of house and techno. It was a case of signing music that sounded great and stood out on its own by being original and interesting. The artists I work with tend to be emerging, or recently established and that’s how I aim to work going forwards too. Over the four releases the sound has definitely developed into the true sound I love which is deep and moody house and techno. Going forwards I'm really glad to say that Kris Wadsworth is lined up for a succession of EPs. This guy is really gonna blow up next year. The stuff I’m signing from him really reminds me of the old Herbert sound. Mid-nineties 100 lbs type material. Raw but musical, and with lots of funk.

Can you sum up the 'BOE' sound in four words? Krunk, funk, deep junk.

Tell me some more about the artists you work with - how did you come to work with them? I was pretty lucky to be honest. I knew Burnski well before I started the label. We booked him to play a mass transit night in 2005 and we got on really well. Kink is a guy who's music I loved from his first release on Odori and I really wanted him on board. Consistent, I just contacted through their Myspace page . I was also lucky to get some great demo material sent to me. I’ve also been a big fan of David Labeij since Polder first started releasing his stuff. I’m really glad that he agreed to remix Get Nervous as I think that's been the best release so far.

Trying to attract new artists has been tough though. A number of the ones I would like to work with tend to release exclusively with certain labels, so I really have to keep ahead of the game to keep the model intact. i.e. releasing music from emerging artists. That said the future looks very bright on the music front.

What about the future? What are your plans? Well, I’m currently re-assessing the way the label operates. The first year of business has been a reality check and I’ve learnt a lot. I want to have as much control as possible, and that means control in production and sales to the distributor and beyond. I want to get a larger footprint in Europe as the reach up until now has mainly been focused in the UK. Music-wise I’m working closely with Kris (Wandsworth) on his EPs, Kink is working away on some new bits and I have a couple of very bright new-comers who release straight up deep house.

If you could sign (or release some work of) anyone, who would it be? Jesus, that's a tough one! I guess it would have to be Cobblestone Jazz. I find their music truly original and inspiring. Rozzo / Peter Dildo would be someone I’d like to bring in as a remixer. And to be completely limitless.... I might ask Herbie Hancock if he has anything new & unsigned when I see him at a gig in November!

You DJ, and produce, run a label. Is it hard to find the time to do it all? Yes. The label comes first at this moment in time, after a full time job. I don’t have the time to promote myself as a DJ as much as I'd like and I havent’ had the necessary productions to my name that will enable me to get gigs. It's strange now how you become a bookable DJ as soon as you've had a few successful releases. That's just how it works nowadays. I have a monthly residency at Underbelly in Hoxton which is pretty cool, and I aim to crack on with some original music for BOE this year. Finding the time to work on it is difficult though. My first love will always be DJ’ing though - I absolutely love playing records.

What music has been making you excited right now? The music that’s been exciting me and depressing me at the same time is what I love; House music. All of a sudden it's now fashionable as though it's never been around. There is a lot of really good deep house coming out of Europe and beyond but a lot of crap alongside it. It's like the standard minimal sound had taken on a couple of chord stabs and now it's deep house!

How do Berlin and London differ from your point of view, in terms of music? They seem to feed off each other, but are quite different as well. I know you have a lot of love for music coming out of Berlin! Well I’ve only been to Berlin a couple of times so I can’t give a truly valid opinion. Both times however, I was blown away by the music on offer and the lack of pretence in clubs. My perception of Berlin is that the people there love music and are eager to work in the industry in an honest and professional way. The people are truly knowledgeable and love their clubbing, for the sake of clubbing!. London lags behind musically and is tied to the mainstream I think. There are certain crowds that are full of scenesters and bandwagon hoppers riding on the crest of the latest trendy wave. London is great though and I absolutely love living here. But that's for reasons other than music. If my life was totally dedicated to music then id be in Berlin without a shadow of a doubt.

Who is your tip as one to watch? Kris Wadsworth! Shameless plug but he has a lot of amazing stuff coming out over the next 12 months. A few artists I’m really into are Daniel Mehlhardt, Till Von Sein, Anton Zap, John Roberts, Keith Worthy and Oleg Poliakov.