Tuesday 12 April 2011

[Label] Fent Plates





Fent Plates are a label established only last October, but already they're bringing big things, securing a strong first wax release by UK underground legends - Fused Forces earlier last month, signing the original Bedford grime crew - Macabre Unit - and bringing out a full length 16-track compilation album for only 4 squid. Label head, Seizure, had a chat with us about all things Fent Plates.

Artists: Fused Forces, Macabre Unit, Box Mouse, Kochari, Blind Prophet, Twitch, Seizure, Gnome, A-List, Macabre Unit, Introspectionist, Gantz, Digital Native

Macabre Unit - Midnight Bliss / Time Out (Samples) 

Hey there
Hey man, thank you for having us for a little Q&A!

Could you tell us a bit about the label?
The label started in October 2010 with two main aims. One was to push deep and musical bass music through digital releases and vinyl releases, the other reason was to get under rated artists and and really push their music so that they can get picked up by bigger and better labels. Since we started we have had 9 digital releases, 1 vinyl release and a compilation CD entitled "Evolution" which was given away for free download too. We have achieved a great deal in roughly 5 months, so if this is what we can do in such a small time we hope that in a few years from now our achievements and scope will be huge.

The first vinyl release by Fused Forces is a limited release with only 285 pressed. Could you tell us a bit more about that?
We don't have a lot of finance and we really are a small label so going in to press vinyl is a big step for us. By creating a limited press (meaning it won't get repressed) along with a low quantity, it makes the vinyl collectable along with being 2 sides of serious bass weight. We don't have a P&D deal so financing each release is costly along with also having to personally distribute them to select stores allow us to get the limited release in stores for £5.99. The vinyl has done really well so far with half of the press has been sold. The press is in all good stores such as Chemical, Juno, Redeye & more but if you buy direct from Fent Plates, along with supporting the label directly, we will also pop in a free Evolution compilation CD.


Fused Forces - Bunfire / Power Plant 12" 

What's the significane of the name?
Ahaha, erm, I personally have no idea. Masen Betts, our graphic designer at the time, designed the upside down fish logo with the name of the label being something to do with fish, but that's a little immature, so keeping the logo everyone in the room shouted out random words and I said "Fent" and that was that really. Bit silly but, oh well!

You're also looking to start a magazine...
When the company started it was a record label and magazine. After developing the magazine aspect and contacting designers and what not it became apparent that it is very difficult to create and seek the correct advertisement along with finding a distributor and financing it all is such a huge job! So instead, we decided to do justice to the music and focus on the record label for now. The magazine was going to be on the Urban arts of Photography, graffiti and street art. At the moment we still want to contribute to the arts scene by acting as an artist and photographer representation agency where we push artists work and gain them some form of publicity.  We are at the moment collecting everyones portofolios and will set them up online soon. We hope that one day we can go into magazine manufacturing as we have the idea, the advertisers backing us along with a distribution company, it's just down to allocation of time and money for now.

What does the future hold for Fent Plates?
Along with continued digital releases we have many more vinyl releases in the pipeline along with our own sticker range coming out where each design will have 20,000 stickers made. This will appeal to the street artists out there, I suppose you'd understand why I say that when you see the designs. We are also manufacturing our own Shisha which will be sold in July, slap bang in the middle of summer. We will be pushing lots of new talent and we will be making sure wax is will be going into shops. We will also be doing some Fent Plates events starting with a takeover at the Sheeps bar in Croydon sometime in July. Lastly, we will be getting the merchandise out too, the T-shirts and you have no idea how tempted we are to get mugs made!ahah!  So the future is bright and we hope to be on the radar for all of you!


Big ups...
Straight big up to Madlab! Has to be done! Big up to Box Mouse, Kochari, Blind Prophet, Twitch, Gnome, A-List, Macabre Unit, Introspectionist, Fused Forces, Gantz, Quantax, Digital Native, Netrik, Module, Badhair, Basic A, De-Real, J-One, Kiev, Dfaultuzer, Pressa, Phrex, Triggy, Whyrez, Wiggle Baron, Piston Beneath & Forensics. Then I have to big up Mizan & Arif for some of their barring along with the graphic designers and photographers that are Lewis Yates, Masen Betts, Anand Jasani, Eamon Barrett & Benjamin Eddings. I'm sorry if I missed anyone out!



Linky
FP001 - Fused Forces - Bonfire/Power Plant - 12" + free Evolution compilation
Bandcamp - with all releases for only 40p!

Fentplates Site
Fentplates Blog
Facebook
Soundcloud
Youtube

Keep your eyes peeled for a Fused Forces interview, coming up!

7 comments:

  1. Thank you very much for taking the time to put this altogether!

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  2. Wicked interview. Keep doing your thing Fentplates

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  3. Tidy interview. Fent Plate doing big things that I need to keep an eye on.

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  4. Absolutely love Fent Plates, definitely some of the coolest and hard-working artists/label heads out there.

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  5. just realized that was an upside down fish lol. nice interview need to check out some releases

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  6. nice interview, stoked you guys are on wax allready, only a year - wow!

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  7. Facking Gnome on that Fent Plates compilation is just off the chizain.

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