Paul Woolford Interview

Paul Woolford Interview

14 May, 2007 | 9.25AM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: intimacy, paul woolford

British young gun Paul Woolford has decided to launch his own record label Intimacy. Beatportal caught up with the intelligent and articulate Wooly to get the low down on his new label, and to gain some insight into the workings of running a label in the digital downloading era.

1. Why have you set up your own label?

Well over the years I have had various dealings running labels but these have always been as part of somebody else’s plan, or in positions of limited scope.

I have always wanted to do it, and it became apparent in the last two years that I have the right team of people around me with which to do it in the manner that it should be done.

I think that it’s very important for artists to be fully in control of their music where possible.

Certainly for the way I work, I need to have an immediate outlet with the minimum amount of hurdles in the way before releases.

This is not an impulsive thing that’s merely a vehicle for me to support my DJing, as labels can be for some people.

It’s about indulging myself creatively and building up a body of work that’s original, innovative in places, and hopefully serves to inspire others.

2. Presumably that means you’ll be releasing some inspirational club tracks?

Intimacy will be about cutting-edge dance music, with a firm foot on the floor with every release.

There will always be something that does the job in the discothèque, warehouse or dingy basement and beyond that there will some surprises – some pretty avant garde stuff amongst it.

It’ll be predominantly house & techno initially, but we intend to release albums and to diversify and grow into one of those labels that endures rather then be a slave to dance music trends perpetually.

Ultimately, we are aiming to build things into our own sound so
we’ll see how that develops.

3. So what artists have you got signed up?

Originally the aim of Intimacy was to release my own music, but I keep hearing fantastic music from other producers that I want to release so that’s what I’m going to do.

We have a killer track lined up from a very talented Argentinean techno producer called Jonas Kopp.

He also has some material due for released on Spectral.

Also there is a collaborative album I am working on with somebody at the moment, still in the creative process but all will be revealed soon.

Basically I am not shutting any doors, so if I hear something I like and can see it fitting the way of the label then I will endeavour to draw it in.

4. You’re hired DJ and label boss Trevor Jackson to handle all the artwork - why?

I’ve wanted to work with him since I was a teenager.

My parents bought me a book called ‘Design After Dark’ many years ago and it had some of Trevor’s work in there, along with the work of people like Ian Swift.

I watched his career from there, and then at the back end of 2005 he sent me a great reaction to ‘Erotic Discourse’, and we discussed me doing some work for his label Output.

This culminated in a remix for DK7 which is one of my favourite mixes, and we kept in touch.

Basically when I found the right name for the label and the concept, I banged off an email to him from a hotel room somewhere when I was particularly inspired.

I just said words to the effect of here’s the name, here’s the idea, and you are the only person I want to do it, are you interested? 

I had no expectation, and to my surprise he got back to me and said ‘yes’.

I have a lot of respect for him beyond that as an A&R – he was the first person in the UK to release Black Strobe’s material, as well as The Rapture and LCD Soundsystem. He’s inspiring for me.

5. But is artwork still important in the days of digital downloads?

That is up to the individual, but I will say right now that I am less interested in labels with bad design.

Plus Intimacy will not be a download-only label.

It seems these days that the cult of the object, certainly within the music industry, is less important.

When I first started buying records, I remember spending the 35-minute bus ride home pouring over record sleeves, reading every last word on them and looking at every part of them.

I just wanted to know all that I possibly could about this thing that gave me so much pleasure.

And beyond that, the labels that I aspire to are labels such as Factory and Warp, who have done their own thing and have done it with so many idiosyncrasies.

I just don’t think there’s an excuse for bad design, why should there be?

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