Just weeks after debuting at Civic Underground, Sydney club night Loosekaboose will be heading west to a St. Peters warehouse for its October installment. Melbourne jocks Markojux and Lance Harrison will be performing at the event together under their Forty6&Two guise for the first time in Sydney.
Both artists currently head the Melbourne-based Pinksilver imprint, which has gradually become one of Australia's most prominent and recognized sources of locally produced techno and house. Formed in 2006, the label has evolved into three arms, encompassing digital, vinyl and netlabel spectrums. Pinksilver's late night label parties, which frequently host Markojux and Harrison, have become renowned Australia-wide, and now Sydney residents will have the chance to see what all the fuss is about.
We recently caught up with the duo to get the scoop on their DJ sets, performing together and what we can expect from Pinksilver in the coming months.You guys are playing your first Sydney gig together later this month. Has performing in Sydney together been on the agenda for some time?
As a duo, Forty6&Two, this will be our first gig in Sydney. We recently had DJ Trinity down in Melbourne for one of our Pinksilver parties, and she put the notion to us and we immediately said "Yes!" Ever since then it's all we have thought about. We love our home town, but it will be really nice to play to a new and up-for-it crowd in the depths of Sydney, and to see their reaction to our set.
What has been happening on the Pinksilver front, lately? Are there any releases in the pipeline?
Pinksilver has been really busy behind the scenes. We have been hard at work over the winter preparing for a busy summer ahead. We have been sourcing and accepting many demos, but when it comes to music, we are very selective in what we put out. We are not about pumping out release after release like some Beatport labels. We're about quality, not quantity. Soon, you will hear some quality tech house and deep house sounds being released. We have our next vinyl release from the Pinksilver Limited series set to be released in three weeks by Cadenza artist, Argenis Brito, along with a Forty6&Two remix. Pinksilver Digital will see releases from Greece Duo V-Sexion and Ntanos, and a new Markojux EP. Pinksilver Netlabel, our free download label, has a Markojux EP coming out in the next six weeks. So, yeah! Flat out!
A few years ago, you guys established the Pinksilver Net offshoot, supplying music for, more or less, free. How did this approach come about, and how has it impacted on Pinksilver as a whole?
Pinksilver's conception, initially, was wholly based around the netlabel ethos. Under the Creative Commons Act, netlabels are a vehicle for artists to release their music free for download. We developed this idea into a working vehicle for artists, simply because we wanted to give new artists a chance to show and share their skills in music production to the global dance community. Music is not always about sales and dollars, so we easily forget that it's made for enjoyment and for sharing amongst like-minded people. The response to our netabel releases was amazing. At times, our website was so overrun by downloaders it was shut down by our provider (a great problem to have). After 10 netlabel EPs, and the amount of positive feedback we had received, it was the right time for us to start our long-held dream of having a vinyl label.
You guys have consistently thrown label parties—these undoubtedly serve as great promotion. How important is branding? Is it something that you guys learnt through experience, or has it always been part of your label mindset?
We have never directly branded our overall package to a particular market. Anything that has evolved from what we have done has happened organically, or indirectly. We have an overall conception of our sound and look, and try to keep within those boundaries. Therefore, anything that results from that has been naturally attracted to our brand, if you call it that. We have a passionate fan base, and I think that they appreciate the fact that we are not in their faces every day of the week, don't have full-page colour ads in the paper and don't have the "flavour of the month" DJs playing at our nights. Our model is almost the opposite of what you would expect from the bigger establishments. It works for us: Massive crowds, big dollars and acceptance from our peers is not something we crave. Great tunes, great people, new friends and musically structured nights is what we are about when it comes to Pinksilver parties. This is why we were so attracted to playing at Loosekaboose—their concept is very similar to ours.