Words: Adam K & Chris D
Influences and inspirations come in various forms, some of which are more obvious than others.
After launching a night in Lincoln a few years ago, the Retraflex boys were hit by tragedy through the untimely passing of a close friend and founding member of Flexout, Jon aka DJ Apocalypse. As opposed to drawing a line under their musical ambitions, Tom & Stephen used this as the driving force to make their lofty ambitions a reality, and are now the bosses of their own label, Flexout Audio. With their debut LP, Logarithmic, released last month we caught up with Tom to chat about their motivations and journey from nights in Lincoln, to labels in Brixton…
“The longish story is that we started a club night with my best mate at Lincoln University and he unfortunately passed away completely unexpectedly about three years ago now. It was always his idea to evolve the night into a label so that we could have a platform to get producers out there. Him passing was really the thing that drove us to really push it hard over the past couple of years.”
Massive props, that’s a true motivator to get things done. With your label still in its relative infancy, how would you describe Flexout Audio to people who might be unfamiliar with it?
It’s a really difficult one. We were always advised to try and streamline the sound of the label to make it more instantly recognisable and look for certain sounds from artists we sign, but we decided to go in the opposite direction and really diversify. We love drum & bass and our own tastes are constantly evolving and changing – we’re quite fickle when it comes to sub genres of drum & bass so it’s really difficult to stick with one sound. Everyone knows that there isn’t a massive amount of money to be made from running a digital label so everything we do, we just do for the love of the music. We just try to trust our instincts and go with it. I really like my more experimental sounds at the moment whereas Stephen is a sucker for a roller, DJ Die for example is his favourite producer, so we have loads of different influences coming into the equation.
With such a spectrum of sounds how do you decide who to sign?
We won’t sign any tracks or artists that don’t appeal to both of us. It’s only fair when there are two of you running a label that you both like and enjoy what you’re putting out. He’s definitely the more sensible one, I tend to do more of the networking and A&R and I tend to get pretty carried away and want to sign loads of tracks, so we then filter through it together and quality controls what makes it through!
The new album, Retraflex Presents Logarhithmic, has a really rich, textured feel to it and definitely isn’t a run of the mill drum & bass album. How did it come about?
Yeah pronounce it how you like! It’s something that has organically happened over the past couple of years. Since starting the label there have been tunes we’ve held back for this sort of release. It was originally going to be an EP, then a 10 track, and now it’s this massive compilation album!
The reason we called it that is because of the journey that you go on throughout the album. It’s part of the overall design that it starts with such a chilled track by Barefoot and it evolves with every track, picking up the pace. Some producers on the album are making their debut release, and then we have people like Need for Mirrors who we’ve been waiting patiently to work with for a long time. Although we don’t push our own branded style, there is a certain loose string that ties everything together. You won’t be hearing any jump or neuro for example, but all the producers have come with original ideas and it’s worked out really beautiful.
And by the looks of some of the names on there, you’ve been scouting far and wide!
Haha yeah it’s a pretty international blend of sounds! We’ve got Neve and Bayou who are both from Italy, Incognito from New Zealand, One87 from Belgium and then more locally sourced talent with Dekko – his track is probably my favourite on the album. I was randomly round his house one day showing him the album and he ducked away and pulled out this track called Shook and it had to go on there. He’s on a house tip now but his drum & bass production is awesome. It’s a massive advantage for us being based in Brixton now because you’re in amongst it and don’t have to do everything by e-mail and telephone. You can actually meet these producers face to face and just totally immerse yourself in the scene.
Going forward what can people expect from Flexout Audio?
Quantax definitely falls into the category of people to watch out for. Neve is another one on the album with bags of potential. I guess one of the major standout acts for us is a guy called Hyroglifics. The next major landmark for us will be the first solo LP release on Flexout Audio by Static. With tracks featuring Frank Carter III & Pennygiles. For both of us that will be a massive moment!
Retraflex Presents Logarithmic is out now. Listen and download.