Leftwing & Kody’s Lost Records treads the line between bottom-heavy house, garage and groovy tech, earning a solid reputation for itself via releases from the likes of Kevin Over, Okain, Christian Nielsen, Philip Bader, MANIK, Sven Tasnadi and many other acclaimed talents from across the world. We asked the head honchos to tell us more about their impressively successful and diverse imprint, which is part of the MN2S label services group.
What’s the story behind your label? How did it come into existence?
Since we started working together we had always discussed starting our own label. We started to look into it more seriously when the DJ work starting picking up. We were both still doing day jobs at the time so had two sources of income. Everything we were earning from music we decided to put into starting the label so paying advances, artwork design, PR, pressing vinyl all came out of money we had earned DJing.
How was the name chosen?
The name was chosen after a few days brainstorming. Lost seemed to stick because it could mean a lot of things to different people. For us, it meant records that we thought were amazing but could potentially get ‘lost” in the enormous amount of music that is released these days.
What is the label’s ethos, and has it been that way from the start?
It’s always been about music that we’re into and works in the clubs and it certainly has been like that from the start.
How did you go about sourcing and choosing your first few releases?
The first few releases were sourced by us really, reaching out to artists we admired and who were supporting our music. We wanted to build the label like a family and I think we have managed to do this in a short space of time.
What have been your most successful releases?
Max Chapman’s releases have all done really well and the Lost Summer Selection Compilation we released during the summer did really well too. That reached No. 1 on the Beatport releases chart which is an achievement we are really proud of. Also our EP ‘One Nation’ was well received and did really well on Beatport.
What do you think the most important elements of running a label successfully are? What advice would you give someone setting up a label of their own?
I think to be as professional as possible. For us, we know what it’s like to be an artist and deal with labels, so can understand what it’s like when things don’t happen like we would expect them to when we release our music on other labels. So with Lost, we try and give every release the attention it deserves and keeping artists in the loop with what’s happening PR-wise etc.
Which other labels do you really admire and why?
Tough question! All the labels we have worked with have been fantastic. We love what Hot Creations are doing; the A&Ring is so on point. Also Truesoul has been putting out some solid tracks – defo a label we are aiming to work with.
Which artists would you love to have on the label?
There’s loads to choose from. One person we have been trying to get on for a long time is Nathan Barato but there has always been a schedule clash – but hopefully in 2016 we’ll be able to work something out. We would love some original work from wAFF and something from Detlef would be amazing.
What’s the benefit for you of working with MN2S’ label services team?
Chris at MN2S is great as a label manager. He’s very efficient and answers any enquiries really quickly. He’s also happy to deal with any contractual issues and compilation requests which is great as he has way more experience than us when dealing with the business side of running a label. This means we don’t have to worry about the complicated things and are free to look for and listen to music for the label.
What’s coming up on the label?
Next up we have an EP from Montel which includes a Philip Bader remix. That’s out in October. Then we have and EP from Vidaloca and Piem which we have been slamming all summer. Remixes on that one are from Josh Butler and Max Chapman. That will be out in November, and then the final release for the year will be from Wade in the middle of December. Leftwing & Kody and Jey Kurmis are on remix duties for that one. Some really exciting music to finish out the year with.
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