Mark Quail of Secret Weapon Records

Mark Quail of Secret Weapon Records

23 May, 2008 | 1.52PM

• Section: Music News Topics: Beatport Blog
• Written by: Amanda Connon-Unda

According to Mark Quail there is a lot going on in Canadian techno, and not just with his own Secret Weapon Records (SWR) label.

SWR label owner, Mark, is also an esteemed entertainment lawyer specializing in music law, and he has some of the world’s top DJ/Producers as his clients.

He’s highly knowledgeable about the latest trends in digital rights and about the Canadian electronic music scene, of which he’s an integral part.

Yesterday he caught up with me to share some of his latest thoughts on these issues.

As the website for his label suggests, SWR was started to showcase the sound of the Great Lakes area and his aim was to “keep the real sound of the underground alive”.

Today, based in Toronto and true to its mission, SWR has put out many tracks by artists who are not over-exposed.

Quality Canadian artists including Pan/Tone, Repair, Noah Pred, Jake Fairley, Nitin, The Attorney General (Mark Quail), and others have been released on his label.

This week the label released the ‘Lines Drawn’ EP by Repair, and in March, released a great techno 2-tracker, ‘Don’t Feed the Ghosts’ EP by two Toronto producers, Nitin and Vandermeer.

Mark told me about another release called ‘Doesn’t Matter’ coming out in mid-June, this time by Curtis and Estrada from Barcelona.

He said, “I played it at Toi Bar in Toronto last month and it went down well. It’s a dance floor worker with a great riff.”

Mark Quail clearly puts out the music he likes, regardless of where the artists are from, as long as the music inspires the original spirit of his label.

He also works with many other artists, either as a lawyer or a fellow industry colleague.

Previously, he was a music journalist and he is therefore highly opinionated (justifiably so) about the press.

In conversation, he drew on the parallel scenario of the phenomenon of Seattle grunge rock bands in the 80s to describe the relationship between electronic artists and the press:

“[In Seattle] You had one geographic area that had a huge amount of talent and subsequently got the recognition from the press and the public that boosted the careers of those artists. 

“Toronto artists - like Hatiras, Adam K and Soha, Deadmau5, John Acquaviva, Mark Mendes and Sidney Blue - are selling huge amounts of downloads.

“Those artists form one of the biggest selling blocks on the largest electronic music download sites worldwide. 

“However, I still see reluctance in the Canadian music press to embrace these artists as much as they do indie rock.

“It seems like we’ll need to get exposure for these artists internationally, especially from the big British press, before our homegrown press will see the value in these artists and their music”.

However, Mark Quail is not waiting around for the press to catch up.

He’s kept busy running his label, being invited to speak on panels at WMC and Mutek, and he’s also a full-time lawyer.

He told me all about what he’s been doing in that area as well:

”The big tasks involve modifying contracts and approaches to business for record labels and music publishers as they find their way along the digital path…

Of course some labels with bigger fan bases are still able to release vinyl to satisfy the last cravings of the market.

But largely the money is made in digital sales now.”

In addition, Mark has found a much better attitude among people regarding digital music sales.

Mark explained, “Over the last few years at the Miami Winter Music Conference I got the sense that people were depressed and confused about their place in the music business.

Their businesses were falling out from underneath them as the traditional distribution model failed.

But now, for the first time this decade, the sign posts are there – people see that … with websites like Beatport, Juno, DJDownload, etc., people are starting to make money.

So, a re-tooling in the approach to business is starting to happen.”

Mark Quail is not expected to slow down in his work any time soon.

It’s expected that SWR will put out releases by several more artists this year, and Mark will continue to work in law, “to make sure that rights are balanced so that all parties can make money in this brand new music world.”

For further information, visit the :Secret Weapon Records website.

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