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It's those moments in passing at a gig or at a show when you never know who you're going to meet. Not too long ago I spun at a local Long Beach warehouse event put on by a friend of mine and the DJ before me was playing a lot of really cool indie dance tracks that I wished more DJs would play in opening sets. Made a formal introduction and gave 'em a heads up that I would be setting up my gear on the other side of the table. [Hint: New DJs please be cordial and tactful at gigs. Make peace w/ everyone you're performing with. No one really knows who you are and until you're being flown in on a helicopter or a private jet you're basically at the same level as everyone else. So play nice.] Justin was the dude's name and he said he just moved to Long Beach and to check out his website for some music. I checked it out and really liked what I heard. Months pass and he invites me out to a new weekly he's starting in Long Beach. What a great opportunity I thought to shed some light on who he is and what musical vibrations are emanating from Vitalic Noise.
Photo by: Molly Denson
Nativity: First off thank you Justin for taking time to do this interview. I'm sure you're busy with preparation for Tuesday night's debut launch of CRAVE Tuesdays at Sababa. Before we get into that new weekly event let's start off with an introduction of who you are and how Vitalic Noise came to be. How did it all start?
Justin: Thanks for rockin’ this with us! I’m extremely stoked to finally get something started here in Long Beach, CA. My first proper taste on the business side of the music industry came from doing A&R for one of EMI’s affiliate labels back in Nashville. As creative as that sounds (A&R essentially relates to the signing of new artists), I found myself in a formula driven market based around radio success that saw artists as a form of income rather than an art form. Vitalic Noise spawned during that time period as an alternative creative space for my ever-eclectic musical tastes. In it’s first stages it was merely a music/lifestyle publication, which quickly spawned into an event promotions platform seeing us bring Miami Horror, French Horn Rebellion, Spank Rock, and many more for their first appearances in Nashville for our monthly event “VITAL”. After deciding to leave the label and attempt to pursue this passion project more full time, I opened up our management and booking divisions as an attempt to relay my prior music business knowledge into this growing indie dance industry that, in many cases, still saw many artists being managed and booked by their friends, brothers, and grandmothers.
Nativity: Now that we have an idea of how it all came to be, can you please shed some light on each individual branch of the Vitalic Noise entity? What specific role do you play in each zone and how do you juggle your time between each one?
Justin: Vitalic Noise is currently separated into four divisions: Management Group, Booking Agency, Public Relations, and Event Promotions. Some of our artists we represent across this spectrum include Cadillac, Dani Deahl, Edwin Van Cleef, Fare Soldi, FM Attack, Geisha Twins, Jupiter, Justin Faust, Mighty Mouse, Moonlight Matters, Sammy Bananas, Tyson, Viceroy, and Zimmer. Time management is probably the number one thing that you need to focus on as a small business owner, because at this point we aren’t in a position to afford any extra full time employees. Thankfully, we have a whole heap of rad people surrounding us that keep the engine rolling. Most of our designs are done by one of our favorite marketing companies, Burgess Creative, while Breezy Baldwin holds down our web design. Corey Hurley keeps our SoCal events moving, while the homie Josiah Lester continues to support our events back in Nashville.
Nativity: You have artists under the Vitalic Noise family from all parts of the globe. Did you approach these artists to join Vitalic or did they seek you out in hopes to join your cause?
Justin: Honestly, it’s a little bit of both. At first it was purely us reaching out to artists that we saw potential in, while wanting to help grow their brand. As we began to solidify ourselves within the industry, we began to see a great increase in incoming requests from a bunch of awesome artists! It’s funny when an artist that you admire approaches you about bookings or management and says, “I’m thankful to even be speaking to you be about this”. Seriously? You’re excited that you get to talk to me? It should definitely still be the other way around…
Nativity: Aside from being the founder and creator, you also DJ as well. We're all familiar with label heads using their DJ audience to introduce new music through their performance. Was this always something planned from the beginning or was this a natural progression from a culmination of music from your favorite artists.
Justin: I’ve actually been “DJing” since before we started this whole thing. Although I hate calling myself a DJ as I’m still bearing the same controller interface that I used when I first dove in to it. We were throwing a big house party back in Nashville, and while shopping for strobe lights and lasers (seriously) at Guitar Center, we saw the M-Audio Xponent. We quickly purchased everything, went home and Googled how to use the thing before the house filled up with 200 or so people. I’m sure the music and mixing was absolutely terrible as we seriously had NO idea what we were doing. But, since then it’s become a great way to get not only our artist’s music out there, but that of some of our favorite producers and acts on our radar. We’ve started a monthly mix series that has been promoted by some of our favorite publications including Gotta Dance Dirty, Stoney Roads, Aerial Noise, and more, while having the opportunity to play along some huge acts including Passion Pit, Wolfgang Gartner, Steve Aoki, Miami Horror, and more. But, we’re still not DJs. At least not compared to our artists…
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Nativity: The debut launch of CRAVE Tuesdays at Sababa is this week. How did this weekly come about? Tell us about what kind of vibe people can expect. Will it be similar to other events you hold in LA, OC, and in Nashville?
Justin: We made the move from Nashville to Long Beach at the end of the last fall, sort of by accident. I came out here with the sole purpose of launching our VITAL events along the West Coast, and sort of fell in love with the place. Since then, we opened up our office here in the city and have found ourselves a new home. CRAVE is going to be the exact replica of the same night that we host weekly in Nashville. A straight disco-house lounge hang for all of our friends and the community around them. A comfortable place for people to stop in grab a drink, and dance if they want to. Sababa has the perfect aesthetic vibe for what we want to do. Nothing is pretentious, and nothing is forced. We are hoping that over time we can grow this to be one big family hang, where people know what to expect every time they walk through the doors on a Tuesday night.
Nativity: With the many sides of Vitalic, I'm sure you could use a helping hand from time to time. How can someone get involved with your current and future projects? Whether it be an artist with music they want to share, a contributor or helping hand to the online publication, or maybe even promoting one of your various events. Who should they contact and is there anything specific you want from them? EPK? Resume? Soundcloud? Etc?
Justin: Oh man. I’m always looking for help! Especially here in the Long Beach area. We just opened up a little office, in a really cool creative environment down off of 16th and Gundry Ave. It’s like a little bright creative spot within a community that doesn’t always get the best reputation. Even if you don’t want to help us with our projects, it’s just a rad place for you to come and get creative on your own business or craft. Email me at Justin@vitalicnoise.com if you want to come swing by and hang! If you want to help us out in any way, shoot over your EPK, Resume, Soundcloud, Facebook Link…anything that can give me a better idea of where you see yourself fitting!
Nativity: If you had to narrow down five tracks from five artists that best describe the sound of Vitalic, what would they be?
Justin: Trying my best to stick to our roster on this one:
Tyson – “Out Of My Mind"
Zimmer – “Slave To Your Heart”
Cadillac – “Blue Skies” (Ray Mang Remix)
Edwin Van Cleef – “Triton”
Only Children – “Down Fever”
Nativity: Thanks again for doing the interview with us Justin! Is there anything else you'd like to share with your readers or your fans? What's the set times for CRAVE this week? Any hints at future performers or future events to check out?
Justin: No, thank you man! Super stoked to get things going here in Long Beach. CRAVE isn’t going to have real set times. It’s more of a hang so we encourage the local DJs to play short 30 minute sets on and off so that they can still go hang out and grab a drink with their friends. As for future performers, we are going to start bringing in outside talent at the end of May and you can rest assured that nearly ALL of our roster will find themselves on the decks at some point, along with a few special guests who just want to jam on a Tuesday night! Insight into the future of Vitalic Noise and our roster? Be on the lookout for something big to happen both on the management and booking side of things. A lot of new talent coming our way in the coming months as we continue to expand!
Nativity
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