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Coffey is an entrepreneur and the founder of Ammunition Records (neurofunk drum and bass), Caliber Music (neurohop, mid tempo and dubstep), Bokeh Music (chill out, future garage) and Neurohop Promotions. These labels fall under the umbrella of the Arsenal Corp – the parent company that oversees all of the labels. Arsenal Corp is also run by Coffey. I’ve been following all of his labels very closely for the last two years and I felt real excited to have the chance to speak to the main man himself, who is behind so many incredible bass music releases. Enjoy getting acquainted with Coffey and learning about his awesome labels on this one!
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Transcript
Do you wanna start off by telling us a bit about yourself and the labels you run?
Yeah, my names coffee, like the drink but spelled different. Its actually my last name. I get that question a lot so that’s the short of it. The labels, I started Ammunition Recordings a long time ago, years ago. I think we’re almost to our 100th release. Its focused on neurofunk drum and bass, more gritty, more aggressive styles of drum and bass music. And then Caliber Music is more, you know, 100 BPM and we kinda carried over the neuro influence from Ammunition to Caliber so, yeah, they’re just bass music labels.
So Ammo started in 2009?
I’d have to look, I think it was 2008 but it’s been a while.
Let’s talk about Ammo first. Obviously there’s a ton of labels out there. What defines Ammo as different to other labels?
With Ammo I get feedback from people saying it’s a new fresh sound and people ask how you get that sound and the short of it is that I’m not afraid to take a chance with new comers. With Ammo we’re not concerned about how big you are, but more about the quality of the music. We do take a chance on newbie’s and it is noticed within the community.
How did you get started making a record label?
I got into dnb a while back when I moved to Orlando. One of my buddies was playing some music by Evil Intent. I started DJing from there and I got a show on DNB Radio. I would send messages to producers if I loved their tracks to ask if I could play the tracks on the show.
I would follow up with them later because the tracks would get really good feedback from the show’s listeners, and these producers weren’t getting their tracks signed by labels, so I thought I could start a label and release these. I thought these are good tracks I don’t know why theyre not getting signed. So I looked over to my wife and I saidf you know what I’m thinking of starting a record label. And now she says to me I remember when you said that. And it takes a shit load of my time up now.
What was her reaction?
She just kinda rolled her eyes.
What have been some of Ammos most successful releases?
Xilent was one of the stand outs. He was a fresh take on uplifting neurofunk. A lot of people are calling it ultrafunk but I don’t know if that’s still happening, then KUNG in all fucking caps, and Kloe and Imprintz, but there have been a ton but those are the ones that stand out.
How would you describe ultrafunk (I guess you just covered that) and who are the main Ammo artists doing it?
Its like neurofunk co it has that gritty dirtiness to it, but its also uplifting. It’s a fine balance and its really hard to get that sound. I’ve tried it and I suck at it. Speaking to Xilent, he called it that as a joke but then all these forums and communities started. We have Yanntek making music along the same veins and we have some more stuff along the ultrafunk line soon if you wanna call it there.
You also have some ultrafunk from Myselor?
Yeah hes a great producer man, he actually made two tracks for Caliber music it don’t mean a thing and its got this jazz sample in it it really sticks in your mind.
You’re very much involved in the graphic design on your labels, how did you get into that.
When the labels started I was having to deal with people not meeting deadlines and sub par artwork made me want to do it myself. I think the image your portray as a business is very important . That was one of my beleifs and so I started going to school for it and now I’m about 3 months away from getting my bacholrs of science in design technology.
Do you have any favourite designs you’ve done for the artwork.
Disprove’s In The Lab is one. I was thinking about chemistry and its all the molecules stuck together in 3d, its superclean, really crisp, the one I did for Wreggula on Caliber called Tough love it was my first comic book style one so it was fun.
What are some releases coming out in 2013 on Ammunition that you can tell us about?
Let me pull up the release schedule coz theres so much. We’ve got 3 two track releases from Yanntek along the ultrafunk vein and that goes up to ardg99 so its going to be our 99th release, then ar
Will be our centeniial release 100th release and I kinda wanna keep it underwraps for now, then weve got some stuff from wreckage machinery, emotion, incube, and then some bigger stuff that I’m kinda keeping under wraps so.
OK, lets talk about Caliber, how did it get started?
Yeah I was getting a lot of demos from these neurofunk dnb producers that were like 100 to 140 BPM when the whole dubstep craze was going on. KUNG sent me these two tracks and I said dude, lets sign these so I asked our fans on Facebook how they would feel if we released dubstep on Ammo and it got a really negative response, so I thought holy shit, shouldn’t do that, so I thought ok, lets start another label.
That was in Spring or Summer of 2012 when it launched right? And do Kloe and Yanntek help manage it?
Kloe is Managing Director for Caliber music. We did have Yanntek on board but he had to step down from that because he was very focused on his production and he found it hard to balance with managing a label. So for now its Kloe and Kursa who is a repetoire and artists who lends his ear on demos from time to time.
How did you get to know Kursa, did he send you some demos?
Yeah, he was really into Ammo, and he sent some minimal but powerful music for Caliber and we ended up talking and talking and became good friends and man he makes trolling into a form of art or advertisement. He’s hilarious. He does a lot of trolling on MakO’s page on Soundcloud.
Yeah, I sent them a track by Teddy Killerz while we were on MSN Chat and they got out of control talking about how sick it was and getting real graphical about sick and puke and stuff.
Haha, so Caliber is one of the main labels pioneering the neurohop sound. How would you describe Neurohop to people? We we carried over the neuro influence to slower tempos. There was a seed there from the producers already making this music and we picked up on it and promoted it and formed the label to releases this sloweddown neurofunk drum and bass. Its typically between 90 and 120 BPM, kicks and snares that cut thru the mix really well and that moving neuro bassline and it can incorporate any other influences like jazz or hip hop or electro and it can meld to these other genres. It’s a hard genree to tap down but it sounds awesome.
Kloé was storing up an archive of all this previous neurohop that shed heard and she started talking with one of the Noisia guys who she traced it back to and he was like whats neurohop and we had to show them, but its got this great tempo to like, walk like a bad ass, or drive around in your car with it.
So Caliber has gotten off to a super strong start in the last 12 months since it started. Do you see any difference in terms of sales or demand between record sales on Ammo Vs. Caliber?
It depends, the Talents LP Volume 1 with NeurofunkGrid Recs, people were amazed and the response was great, but releases before that it depends on who we’re releasing – obviously newcomers on their debut release Vs. say MakO for example. But we’re not focused on the money aspect of it, we’re focused on bringing the best quality music to the scene.
Who are the most prominent releases on Caliber?
Masq is one guy, Disprove (signed exclusively to Caliber) I don’t know where he ets his passion or creativity the guy is amazing, and the mixdown, and the engineering behind it is just sick.
Kursa, MakO, we’ve got stuff incoming from Receptor, we’ve been in contact with CliffHanga to do some stuff. Every reelase that we put out is one we’re gonna stand behind and feel passionate about and I’m equally passionate about all of them. I’m passionate about that release at that one time and I’m gonna push it as hard as possible.
A lot of people listening to the BG Podcast are producers who want to get signed in the future so as a label owner what is your advice to them?
Don’t send your work unless youre 110% happy with it.
Get your mixdowns down.
People will send tracks that are awesome but the mixdown will ruin them.
But if you spend that extra time learning and it’s a lot of reading too you’ve really gotta learn how to balance everything in the frequence domain. But spend the time and your stuff will start sounding strong.
It takes a long time to get that perfect mixdown in dnb especially coz its so fast and theres so little time between the kicks and snares to and everything has so little time to breathe.
The Russians seem to know how to make a bad ass mixdown for some reason. Joe Ford also sent me his first demo after hed been producing for just 3 months, which made me jealous of him.
I definitely encourage people to work harder on their mixdowns. If they do that I’ll give feedback.
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What annoying things happen when you get demos from people?
If I get a demo and I feel like its not the sound for Ammo or Caliber I7ll be straight forward and say this is a cool tune, you may need to work on some things, and then I’ll say if it’s the style for the label or not.
If I say its not and they keep sending me the track over and over it can be annoying. They should send me a different track instead of adding one bar to it, and the mixdown sounds the same.
The rule in the industry is if you don’t believe I nyour first release, a lot of labels will give you one shot and if they see your name and hear the one sound and its awesome theyre gonna wanna hear more, but if its junk, all future music will get pushed to the back of the list.
I go to the people whose sound is growing and they have a great sound first.
How many demos do you get in an average week?
100 to 200 I would say.
Especially with starting a 3rd label I cant respond to all of them. I wanted to respond to everyone but I can’t keep up, even with Kloe listening to demos we cant keep up but its appreciated so you guys keep sending demos hey!
What can you tell us about your third label?
Its called Bokeh music, Bokeh in photography means the blur. A lot of bokeh photography is blurred lights. It s like ambient photography so were trying to make an audio visual connection, so genres like future garage which is like ambient hip hop with a lot of textures.
Our debut is with Asa coming out on March 11th, the two trakcs are called true forever and ark, then we have our 2nd release from a Canadian producer Temporal, releasing 4 tracks, he has lush melodies in his work then we have Sorrow onboard who is just sick. His engineering and his mixdowns are just incredible and great melodies. With that label with the whole audio visual connection most of our stuff will be on Youtube as we want people to see as well as hear. So the vibe is just melt in your chair, light one up, have a listen kind of thing you know.
Do you wanna give any shout outs to anyone?
Everyone whos shown support over the years. I started these up because of my love for the music. Bit shouts to neurofunkgrid, Kloe, all artists weve worked with, theres too many to list,
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