2008-03-15 
<br>--> Interview by Masayuki (webmaster of <a target="_blank" href="http://blog.goo.ne.jp/warp50cd">http://blog.goo.ne.jp/warp50cd</a>) in English, meant for translation into Japanese, never published officially.
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<br>Q1: Why did you start label?
<br>A1: The main reason for starting a label (founders were Bad Boy Kaiza and myself DJ Hektik together with Budoka) was a creative challenge - realizing our own ideas on music, information structure and design on another level, additional to our DJing, producing, radio show and partys (by the way, our website www.trio-music.de contains plenty of information about these projects). Also we wanted to help other producers to get recognition (especially with the netlabel). Running a label yourself gives you the opportunity of having a certain influence on the scene, which of course can be positive or negative - so there is also the aspect of responsibility. Today I run (= pay for) the label alone, and i do it basically for people like myself who prefer the better sound of a good vinyl mastering and it's sexy haptic existence and handling opportunities over sterile, abstract digital media... 
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<br>Q2: Why is the label called Tilt-Recordings? What's behind the name of the label?
<br>A2: "Tilt" is what pinball machines do when they are shaken too much and stop operating... The design concept of the label was based on the aesthetics of the old pc operating system DOS (before windows) which was combined with the label name - "Tilt" symbolyzes an old system collapsing because of new input. The slogan "Technical Inspired Limited Trust" also manifests some of our ideas in a very dense form; it contains (on different language levels) our musical ideas, spiritual and social visions and also some questions about business structures.
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<br>Q3: What tune/genre has label released?
<br>A3: Both labels, Tilt-Recordings and T-FREE, have mainly released very specific technoid Drum & Bass: percussive Techno-DNB and Neurofunk. But there are also some releases on T-FREE with tunes from other subgenres of Drum & Bass and a few tunes that belong to completely different genres of electronic dance music. The main focus, however, is quite strictly on technoid Drum & Bass. Maybe there will be sublabels for other styles in the future... The complete catalogue of the past releases and links to the tunes are listed on our main website: http://www.trio-music.de/t3-en/labels/tilt.htm and http://www.trio-music.de/t3-en/labels/tfree.htm
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<br>Q4: What do you think the main difference between Net Label to Real Label?
<br>A4: In this answer I will only talk about the Drum & Bass scene: Digital labels in general are a great way to make music available fast and with low effort (so tunes can be released that are good but not strong enough for a vinyl release), but precisely that is also the downside: because they can be realized so easily, they are regarded as of minor importance (and quality!!!) in the scene compared to "Real" labels releasing vinyl and CDs which are much more difficult to realize. Artists who have releases out on vinyl are regarded as more "established" whereas for digital-only artists it is very hard to get any recognition at all. This needs strong digital labels which are already respected for what they release. And the combination of a real label and a digital label brings the artists releasing on the digital label a lot more attention (because both labels bring each other more attention in different parts of the music scene and thus create a strong synergetic effect). In that way there is no difference at all between free netlabels and digital labels selling tunes, but as far as i know T-FREE is so far the only free netlabel combined with a vinyl label. But there are other vinyl labels combined with digital labels, and also at least one digital label combined with a free netlabel. 
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<br>Q5: What do you think of Radiohead's online album, his experiment, and result?
<br>A5: I must admit that have not listened to the album because I personally am not into their music, but I think it was a very clever marketing strategy and a highly interesting experiment! After the album was released that way, I have heard many people say "this is the future of the music industry, bands selling music themselves or giving it away for free!" but I think they are quite wrong. In my opinion, only such a very well known popular band could have done something like that. If small, unknown bands (let alone electronic dance music producers) would publish their tunes and albums for free, it would very unlikely bring them as much exposure as a regular release or any income because there are many thousands of unknown bands... And with electronic dance music like House, Techno and Drum & Bass it would not work at all because in those segments it's almost only the DJs who do actively gather information about releases and actually pay for music. Specifically in electronic dance music there are no concerts with wich the producers could make money like bands do, so it's only the DJs who get money for their bookings while the producers do not get anything at all - unless they start deejaying, which leads to other questions.
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<br>Q6: What do you think the music industry become in the future?
<br>A6: I am aware of the fact that virtually all released music is ripped and distributed as free mp3, but still I think that some of the conservative music-for-money distribution structures are important, particularly labels. In popular music today, labels seem to be not important because the music is sold everywhere and promoted on commercial radio stations and television. But when more and more people stop paying for music entirely but only download the illegal rips for free, the mainstream industry will shrink and change it's structures to become more flexible like the underground industry, and when mediums change (from cd/vinyl to digital), I expect labels to become more important because they give guidelines and orientation in the endless mass of music, as can be seen especially in the electronic dance music scene. 
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<br>Q7: What is the most important thing about Net Label?
<br>A7: I think it is basically the same as with vinyl labels (except for the artwork which i consider unneccessary for digital releases): the most important aspect is quality control. Generally, labels create their profile by the music they release, the releases intervals and the information infrastructure (including all aspects like medium, file formats, tags, info texts and website). Sticking to a certain musical concept will attract peopole who like the concept, and if the quality of the released tunes is also good (production and sound wise), then people will follow the label, download the new releases on sight and play the tunes. 
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<br>Q8: What is the pleasure of the management of Net Label?
<br>A8: It is very flexible and gives me more freedom than the vinyl label, and it costs me less money... Also, I can look back and realize that I contributed to the public domain of art by having freed more than 100 tunes from the copyright collectives (which are a problem in Germany) so DJs are legally allowed to play them (that is not neccessarily the case with tunes released on vinyl). Another aspect is that music comes to me by itself, so to speak: After having gained a certain reputation over time, the label attracts producers to send me their music to judge it and decide about a release. So releasing music created dynamics that lead unreleased music to come to me... The whole situation mirrors the karmic relations between what you do and what you get.
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<br>Q9: What's the next step for you and label?
<br>A9: I will continue to release vinyl on Tilt-Recordings (and make the vinyl tunes available digitally shortly afterwards) with more tunes by guest artists than in the past, also I will continue to release tunes on the netlabel T-FREE. And i will start a third label named "T-Files", a label selling digital-only releases aditionally to vinyl (and mp3) releases and free mp3 releases, to cover all three levels of distribution. 
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<br>Q10: Please send a mesage for Japanese Music Fans!
<br>A10: Consciousness and respect for life is what is important after all, it is also what will enable us to save the planet. I personally will try to raise my awareness of my own mistakes, please help by doing the same. Also, I hope that some time I get the opportunity to make a tour through Japan together with my DJ partner Bad Boy Kaiza and get in touch with the culture and the people :) 
<br>For plenty of further information, please visit these web adresses: 
<br>http://www.trio-music.de 
<br>http://www.tilt-recordings.com 
<br>http://www.tilt-recordings.com/t-free 
<br>http://www.myspace.com/tiltrecordings