This week, we catch up with Rainer Weichhold, A&R and label manager at Great Stuff – one of the most successful labels on the dance scene. We talk music policy, switching from Hi-Hop to House and where he believes the future of dance music lies...
1. What does your job entail at Great Stuff?
As A&R and label manager, I’m kept really busy checking and replying to all demos, which are around 50 a day. Once I like something (about 0.01% of the demos), I negotiate the deal and coordinate the release including artwork, remixes, promotion and marketing.
2. Great Stuff looks after the promotion for a lot of smaller labels. How exactly does the relationship between you work?
Great Stuff has several sub-labels that we run mostly in cooperation with a well known DJ. Craft Music is Tomcraft’s label who is also the Great Stuff founder. Kling Klong is Martin Eyerer’s label, Swings is from Jean Claude Ades and our new baby Break New Soil Recordings is with Gregor Tresher. So they bring in their conceptual thoughts and we handle the rest for them.
3. Do you think smaller labels have any chance of survival in the current climate?
You can only survive and grow if you’re different and original. Small labels can easily survive as they don’t have big overheads.
4. Your personal early musical history leant more towards funk, hip-hop and indie before switching to house and techno. Do you have to be in to the music to work there or could a hip-hop head do the job just as well?
Well, I spinning as a DJ every weekend and I think that’s absolutely crucial for my job. Only with the regular club experience I can see new trends and can feel what works. So no, no chance for hip-hop kids running tech-house labels…sorry!
5. Which artists are Great Stuff currently working with and who should we look out for over the next few months?
Brand new and lovely are the remixes of a huge deep house classic called ‘Tessio’ from Luomo. Mixes by Ramon Tapia, Butch and Stimming are just awesome. Next priority releases are Namito’s album on Kling Klong and Gregor Tresher’s new album on Break New Soil.
6. Great Stuff has been responsible for bringing some pretty big tunes to clubbers and DJs around the world…any personal favourites?
I love our ‘Great Stuff Roots Edition’ which brings old classics back to life, like from Rockers Hi-Fi, Luomo, Pressure Drop, Nicolette and Whirlpool Productions.
7. You release a fairly diverse range of music as a label. What is the A&R ethos at Great Stuff?
It’s about quality peaktime party records, which can be vocal or instrumental. My wish is that some of the tracks we sign and releases will stand the test of time and still sound great in 10 years.
8. Minimal is dead. Discuss.
Minimal is absolutely dead and deep house became the new minimal, so it will be also be dead next years as well! But that’s no problem, it’s always going on and on and on. So there will be something fresh and exiting after that.
9. How do you see Great Stuff progressing as a label over the next 5 to 10 years?
We will continue working with open eyes to discover the challenges of the ever changing market as early as possible. We will strive to be open on a musical and artistic level but also on a marketing level. These changes make this business so exiting.
10. Where does the future of dance music lie?
Always the same old story: people will dance to it in small clubs or at big festivals and someone will play it to them somehow.
www.greatstuff.eu
www.myspace.com/rainerweichhold
www.greatstuff-booking.com
