Ike Release debuts new Episodes imprint

What urged you to start your own label? I've always wanted to do it really, but it wasn't something I had as a priority until I became increasingly convinced that I cannot be dependent on other people (labels) in order to be heard. Many artists realize this or at least the thought occurs at some point, but in my case, I was always simply focused on trying to improve my skills while holding out for an opportunity to be picked up by a label that I respected. Labels were always keen on my music, and I had some interest from some reputable labels, but they had their own agendas or sound they wanted to promote. What I was doing became less and less a part of that, and I wasn't interested anymore in going back and forth tailoring myself in order to make someone else happy. In a way, the name Episodes encapsulates an idea related to my own production. I feel the tunes that best represent me are the ones that I never knew I had in me to begin with, as if I was taken over at some point during the process. Many of the tracks I make are done relatively quickly, or most of it at least. After I bounce down a track at the end of the evening, I don't listen to it until a few days after. It has basically left my memory by this time, and when I listen back to it, I'm usually surprised or mostly confused thinking, "What was I on? I must have had some kind of episode." Thankfully there have been those times where I'm pleasantly surprised and not just disgusted or embarrassed! Why the vinyl-only, limited-run deal? A white label is just a quick and dirty way to get a release out really. I'm not a visual artist or anything and I don't have the budget or time to work with an artist to create a design for a release, so I do it all myself: Hacked together a logo, picked out some tunes and paid the people to make my record. Except for the photo on the insert that accompanies the 12", which I admittedly jacked from flickr. Sorry. I will just have to pay karmically for that. As far as the format I chose limiting my potential audience, I guess I'll just have to apologize for that too, because money is tight. And if its a choice between taking my money and repressing or releasing some new shit, I'm inclined toward the latter. Regarding being vinyl-only with no digital, I'm sure alot of people will have a problem with that too. It's not like I'm trying to create artificial hype for my shit, its just that the reason I got into DJing (and subsequently production) was because I want to buy, play, and release vinyl. It fascinated me more than anything about this culture. So I suppose it's a bit of an homage to that. How would you describe the music you're going to release on Episodes, and is it any different from the music you release on other labels, in terms of style/genre? As far as anything that comes out on Episodes goes, in terms of genre, it will adhere for the most part to four-to-the-floor vibes that "bang" and have some sort of raw feeling to it. I mean the term "raw" is tossed around in countless release descriptions daily. But the kind of "raw" that I'm talking about has nothing to do with what equipment you used to make the tune. The rawness that can't be qualified from a 90-sec clip on the web. The kind that occurs between the time the producer hits "record" and "stop" in whatever they are using, computer, tape machine, whatever. Some well executed toms, rimshots, and cowbells also help. That shit's raw by default.