An Interview With Omni Music
Here at JDNB, we are fortunate to receive a lot of amazing music from labels and artists looking to get extra promotion for their forthcoming releases. One of them labels is Omni Music which was initially set up in early 2011 to showcase Eschaton's aka Christopher Wright's own productions, as some tracks had no natural home on other labels and he felt that there needed to be an avenue for his creations. He had released on net labels prior to this (Digibeat, SC:Digital and Materializm) but felt restricted.
During the label's conception he began to hear a host of other demos by like minded artists, which he felt deserved to be heard by the public and so took the decision to release other artists' music too. The styles on the label vary from jungle to glitchy dnb to chilled out downtempo tracks; the common denominator is always deep thoughtful music spanning both the dark and the light, the yin and the yang. Omni has been proud to feature a host of artists throughout the years giving a showcase to new artists, as well as veterans of the scene that inspired Eschaton as he was growing up in the early 90's, as jungle and drum and bass evolved from rave, techno and hardcore.
Not only did we get an Omni Music label mix for our soundcloud mix series 'Shadow Boxers', but JDNB also had the pleasure to have a chat with Chris to find out more about his label.
Hi Chris and thanks for taking some time out to have a chat with JDNB. How has 2020 been for you so far?
I think it’s obviously been challenging for everyone due to the global events, and personally it’s been difficult. In terms of the label though, there is a silver lining, in that lockdown allowed me to focus on coordinating a string of releases during it, as well as finally giving me the time to finish a number of personal projects; which are in the pipeline for release.
We receive a load of tracks to the JDNB office from your label, which release would you consider to be the greatest received within the dnb community?
I would say recently that it was our Celestial Changes vinyl release, which featured 4 varied tracks from myself (Eschaton), Pariah, Rainforest, The Drumkilla and Bad Twin (Oldskool heads will know them as Rob Haigh from Omni Trio and DJ Syko). We have also just released a series of seven epic-length compilations showcasing a selection of the back catalogue with a few new unreleased tracks added to the mix. It was good to release them now, seeing as the label has gained more fans, as it is difficult to scroll all the way through the back catalogue; so it gave older tracks the chance to be heard by new ears.
How would you best describe your label's sound?
I would say its main focus is the atmospheric and breakbeat sounds. Some people say it has an oldskool sound, but to me that sound never went away, it still bubbled away on the fringes of the scene from smaller net labels and artists. Omni just embraced the sounds that were around in the original days, sometimes with a modern twist, as they were the sounds I grew up with and still love to this day. As fans will know though, it’s not just the atmospheric sounds we cover. The mission has always been to release the dark and the light, the yin and yang of DnB, the consistent thing is that it is deep thoughtful music. Be it Drumfunk, Jungle, Ambient, Minimal, whatever; it has to be deep, and if it has breakbeats added then that gets me even more excited.
Your label still releases vinyl, how has that been doing and do you find that there is still a lot of interest for this format?
I have struggled with it overall if I am completely honest. The first two vinyl releases were a success, but that was back when a lot of underground labels that released breakbeat styles of drum and bass didn’t release vinyl; just a few here and there did. The 2nd two were a two-part release that was a little harder to sell, but that’s because I pressed a larger number. As I was relocating to another country, I took the difficult decision to throw half the stock away that I hadn’t sold, because I couldn’t afford to ship it with me. In hindsight that was a huge mistake, as I am sure a few years down the line I would have been able to recoup the costs of shipping them over with me, but I guess you live and learn. The next release sold out very quickly, the Celestial Changes EP, as mentioned earlier, but the latest two have been much slower to sell; despite the great quality on offer. There are still copies available through Bandcamp. I think there are so many vinyl releases now that it’s difficult, certainly when you haven’t got disposable income to lose, which I haven’t, I have to sell all to breakeven. I am hoping to do an omni classics series, but that will be crowd funded, so it all depends on what support and interest I get as to whether it finally goes ahead or not.
Which djs/radio stations are supporting your label and where can we hear them?
We’ve had support over the years from a lot of DJ’s on Bassdrive and Jungletrain and have had continued support from DJ Trax, Stunna, Code and many others. LTJ Bukem has played a few tracks in the past and we have even had a couple of tracks played on BBC Radio 6, as well as regularly being featured on the DnBDojo podcasts. I do a monthly mix series called ‘The Omni Sessions’ that can be heard on Mixcloud and Soundcloud. I also used to do a regular slot on the internet station, Alpha Radio. All my shows from there can also be found archived on Soundcloud and Mixcloud. I also do guest mixes for the occasional blog or radio station.
What is the next release due from Omni Music?
Well we have 2 releases today; one from Fonetick Lee, an up and coming producer that Omni have featured before. He serves up a 5 track EP mainly on the atmospheric breakbeat side, but mixes it up with a darker track called Unimatrix, which is the title of the EP. It also features a remix by label regular and good friend Parallel. The other release today is from Victoria Darian, offering up something different. She is best known as the vocalist and keyboard player from the Russian band Sky Residents. The release features her first solo track A Minor Bird, a downtempo electronic composition, which is complimented by 2 Atmospheric DnB remixes by myself, under my Eschaton production name.
Who would be your dream producer to feature on your label, and why?
Well, probably my top four DnB producers of all time, due to their consistent output since drum and bass and jungle evolved are Klute, Paradox, Seba and DJ Trax. I have featured Dave Trax a few times now, so that’s one ticked off the list, thanks Dave, and he’s always been a great supporter of the label. So, that leaves Seba, Paradox and Klute. It would be an honour to one day release something of theirs, or maybe both, or Maybe a collaboration. But I probably can’t afford them on my little label. That’s the ‘who’ and the ‘Why’ is because they are just so damn good.
Can you tell us about the hierarchy and members of the label?
Well, it’s basically just me. I more or less do everything, from sourcing the music, mastering, artwork, promotion and so on. I’m flexible with the artists and we often share ideas for artwork and I try to accommodate as much as possible, but most of it is by me. Having said that I owe a huge thanks to the Designer Warrick Sears for his work on creating the brand we now use on the artwork for each release. Thanks Warrick.
Occasionally the mastering is done by a third party (certainly for vinyl, which goes without saying, where I use the tried and trusted SCMastering) and very occasionally the artists themselves do the mastering. But most of the time it’s me, myself and I. Which can be tiresome, but I do it out of love for the music. So, if anyone sends me a demo or four, then please understand that I get quite a lot and I have so much to do that it sometimes takes a while for me to reply. But I always do.
For anyone thinking about setting up a dnb label, what is the best advice you can give to them?
I would say try and do something different and keep the scene diverse and interesting, however the best advice is to give yourself time to become established and to not get disheartened after a year or two. A wise man once told me the same when I first started out (Pinecone Moonshine’s Nic TVG). He had set up his label a few years prior and his advice was to stick at it and just do what you love, telling me that it takes at least three years (certainly back then) for a label to get more established and for people to take note. I found that to actually be true, and we build on our fan base year on year now.
You have a huge back catalogue, tell us about some of your favourite releases.
That’s a difficult one, due to there being so many; as you have said. First though, I would just like to explain why we release so many. When I first set up the label, it was mainly to get my own music out there, but I heard lots of great demos that I felt deserved to be heard by the wider public. I knew a lot of the artists that sent me the demos, as we had crossed paths many times and had either worked together or had become friends. We all encountered the frustration of signing a track to a label and then waiting for years for something to happen; and often nothing did. I made it my mission with Omni to release their music as quickly as I possibly could. There was no point in me hoarding their tracks; they should be out in the wide world to be listened and appreciated. So, once it was seen that I was doing that, I received more and more demos from other up and coming artists and it snowballed from there. I am also a bit of a slave driver and hassle people to finish things (If they are reading this, then they know who they are.)
Anyway, on to the question, it’s difficult to pick favourites from our 200+ EP's, 70+ LP's and its other compilations and downtempo offshoots, but if I could choose a top 10 in absolutely no order (and this top ten could change tomorrow, depending on my mood!) then:
Jiva – Periods of Constance LP
The Drumkilla – Breakbeats & Space EP
Cryogenics – Through The Eons LP
Acid Lab – Odyssey LP
Eschaton – Quantum 1: Quantization
Pariah – Selected Works Part 1
Various - Celestial Changes EP
Deep Stealth – Stellar Birth EP
Wetman – Jewel Garden EP
Abstract Drumz Ft Kay BG – Prophecy EP
Even then, I have missed a huge amount off, like Ziyal – Retrospective LP, I should have done a list of 30.
Who would you most like to see doing some remixes on your label if you could?
Without a doubt it would be Seba, Paradox or Klute. I’ve been very lucky to already have had some great artists remixing tracks on the label in the past, from Stunna, Aural Imbalance, Voyager, DgoHn, Madcap, Ricky Force, Tidal, Infest, Fushara, Rainforest, and loads more. Thanks to each one of them.
How can budding producers get their tracks over to you and what kind of advice can you give when sending tracks over?
The best way is to contact me is either through the Omni Music Facebook page or through Soundcloud and we can take it from there. Gone are the super easy days of AIM messages! If people send me a message and/or links then I will get back to them as soon as I can. If they can also introduce themselves or at least say something, anything, just so you don’t come across as rude; then that is greatly appreciated. I am always kind and considerate and will offer constructive feedback. One bit of advice I would give before sending tracks to me is listen to the previous releases on the label to make sure that what you are sending is in a similar style. I get sent a lot that really aren’t anything at all like any other Omni release, because the person is just firing off their track to every place they can see contact details for; without researching first. I like experimental tracks, but again, they still have to fit nicely into the Omni catalogue. A quick flick through our Soundcloud or the bandcamp page will show you instantly what styles we go for.
Tell us what to expect for the rest of 2020 and beyond from your label?
Coming up we have an LP from the Russian artist Spotovsky, a new EP from Schoco, as well as a sequel to Parallel and mine’s 2010 LP ‘AM:PM’. We decided that after 10 years, it was probably about time we made another one! This is a much more artistic and experimental LP though, made more for home listening than for a dancefloor. It blends and blurs sounds a lot, mixing downtempo with half-time DnB as well as Atmospheric Breakbeats, amens and psychedelic guitaring; so it’s a pretty eclectic and different LP. We are currently organising more releases for later in the year, well I say ‘we’, but I mean ‘me’ obviously, haha. We will hopefully have at least one more LP, a few more EP’s and if I find that there is interest in it, as mentioned earlier, I will start the series of vinyl releases, featuring Omni Classics that will look back over the 9+ years and choose the cream of the crop to be featured. I am hoping to get some more music out from Rainforest, Pariah, Greekboy, Sub-Data, Cavernous Space as well as a top secret artist that I have been working behind the scenes with for years, and hopefully this year is when it finally comes to fruition. I’ve probably jinxed that now, but hey-ho. I’m looking to get more music out from up and coming artists too, to give them a platform to get exposed. I should hopefully have some new bits from Pete Rann, I Wannabe and FX909, and I continue to stay in touch with previous artists on the label to try and sign more great music from them. I am also starting work on the 2nd soundtrack to my ‘Survival’ Novel series, I released the soundtrack to the first part earlier this year, and as the final part of the trilogy is going to be published later in the year, I thought it was a great time to compile and produce the soundtrack to the second and third installments.
What do you love about the www.jungledrumandbass.co.uk website the most?
I like that it gives a good general overview from all styles, and that it allows people to click on the styles that they are into most, in an easy and succinct way. The features and mixes are a great touch too; it’s a great way to send out more information to fans and listeners. I think the main thing that I like is its professionalism. I can send out a promo mailout and generally within a day the links are up and ready on your website, which is super-efficient.
Thank you for your time, lastly any shouts or thanks?
Well first and foremost, I want to give a huge thanks to anyone who has ever supported the label, from the music buying public to the DJ’s, because without them Omni would cease to be; so the fact that we are still able to release incredible music for people is down to them. Thanks also to you guys at JDNB for this interview, it’s great to give a bit more detail as to what makes the label tick. I’d like to give shouts to every artist on the label, there are far too many for me to list, but it has been an absolute honour to release your music over the years, every single one of you, and I will continue to do so for as long as I can.
Omni Music Socials:
Facebook / Soundcloud / Bandcamp
Interview By: Chilla
Edited and Posted By: Chilla
