Strictly Rhythm - Strictly Business
26/10/2006
“I don’t go to the clubs, I’m not part of the scene and my ear’s stuck on somebody like Phil Collins or Eric Clapton. That’s where my head is at; I’m irrelevant, I’m too old to pick the music. But it’s exactly the same as before, back then Gladys picked all the music and I didn’t even listen to it.”
Fours years after his acclaimed US house label Strictly Rhythm vanished almost without a trace, label founder Mark Finkelstein admits he remains as blissfully unaware of dance music trends as he did during his label’s heyday in the 90s, though is confident new ally Simon Dunmore from Defected will fill Gladys’ role.
“Simon Dunmore will be the new creative head of Strictly Rhythm Records. He will supervise the releasing of the music from an A&R point of view and also logistically,” says Mark.
“From an A&R side that means he’ll re-release some of the classics on vinyl and also make them available digitally for the first time. He’ll release a number of compilations and also remix some of the tracks and make them more relevant to today and the big thing that I’m particularly looking forward to is that he will make new signings to the label to keep Strictly Rhythm alive and growing and a player in today’s scene.”Tight-lipped about what both what almost killed the label and the last four years (‘let’s just say it’s been a four year vacation. I can’t talk about it’) he’s considerably more forthcoming about his new business plans and the different approach his new company will take.
“The problem most record companies face today is that they’re stuck with large overheads and a status quo of methods and when you’re in that place you tend to hang on because that’s all you know. Sometimes you make decisions on how much money you have to make because you need to cover an overhead. Strictly’s going to tap into Simon’s infrastructure that’s already in place so no overheads are going to be created. We’re going to be free to do things experimentally without saying ‘gee, we’ve got to bring in £50,000 to pay an overhead,’ he explains.
Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): Defected is a London based company, is Strictly now also going to be based here?
Mark Finkelstein: “Yes, London will be the base, Simon will use Defected’s resources and infrastructure to do all the business side of all the things a record company does. In the US, I will run the operation but Simon is the key musically because the UK is our biggest market and the scene is a lot more popular than it is in the States.”
Skrufff: Your old associate Todd Terry told Skrufff recently that he’s making most of his money from DJing rather than production, with the music business now being completely different because of issues like downloading, how does that make you feel about re-launching the label now?
Mark Finkelstein: “When I first launched Strictly the United States was in a recession, things weren’t good for anyone and there was chaos and disorder. There was no business model that was making anybody any money at that point. I believe bad times are moments that provide the greatest opportunities for people who are not entrenched in the status quo, who want to be innovative and create a new business model. One thing I’d like to do with the label is, instead of fighting new technology, I’d like to embrace it and figure out how to promote and market music in a way that’s cost effective."
Skrufff: Strictly disappeared with no fanfare at all . . .
Mark Finkelstein: “It ended in October 2002.”
Skrufff: You could have just set up a new label, do you feel you still have something to prove with Strictly?
Mark Finkelstein: “You always want to show people that having done something once successfully that it wasn’t an accident. But to me, it’s like being separated from a child you gave birth to who comes back into your life and you want to have a relationship with them. Now that I have Strictly back and all the rights back, sure, I want to play with it now. And that’s why Simon was integral to my decision to re-launch because he’s the perfect partner. He has a good ear for the music and I trust him, we’ve been friends for 15 years. We’ve done business for 15 years, in fact three out of five of Defected’s first releases were Strictly records. He was my second licensee in 1992. And in the four years since the label’s been gone all I’ve heard is that Defected is the new Strictly.
"The last thing I want to do is john tesh up a legend. It’s like having a boxer fight for too long when you look at him and think ‘isn’t that sad, he’s 48 years old, he’s had the mini cooper kicked out of him why didn’t he quit when he was on top’. And without Dunmore, if I tried it with someone else, I ran the risk of people saying ‘why didn’t he just leave it alone’. With Simon, I don’t have to worry about that. I think he can make Strictly what it once was and that’s the reason we’re doing it. And he’s excited because it’s a great tradition and catalogue for him to play with.”
Skrufff: New York’s nightlife appears to be constantly shrinking and shrivelling under the relentless pressure from authorities, what’s your take on what’s happening?
Mark Finkelstein: “New York is a tough town for clubs and it’s tough to run a club there but then you’ve got places like Miami where it seems to be growing. Though in New York, Pacha opened up recently, which Erick Morillo runs and he told me it’s doing well. Going back to the days of Studio 54, which I used to go to every Thursday night, I don’t know how you can replace going to a club, listening to some great music, having some drinks and having a good time, socialising and meeting people and in my day the music was a backdrop to the socialisation that was going on in the clubs. It was a good gathering place. Of course there are other genres, and I’m not going to diss other genres but generally if you go to a club that plays house music, there’s not going to be violence there. You’ll be able to chill and have a good time and that’s what dance culture is about, not so much about making a statement politically or whatever. And, it embraces a multitude of different cultures- it’s gay friendly, female friendly, heterosexual friendly, you all come together in the same place and I think that’s what makes dance culture different from hip hop or other genres.”
Skrufff: When you were signing the likes of Todd Terry and Roger Sanchez . . .
Mark Finkelstein: “And Josh Wink’s first record, and Kenny Dope’s first one . ..
Skrufff: They all seemed to come from gang neighbourhoods . . .
Mark Finkelstein: “So did I, and when I left my public (state) school my brother and I were the only two white kids in the school, in Brooklyn, Bed-Stuy (Bedford-Stuyvesant).”
Skrufff: When you were dealing with the guys when they were coming from those environments, how easy was it dealing with them?
Mark Finkelstein: “They were great and you know why? Because I paid them and I respected them. Gladys had a great ear for music, no doubt, but you wannna’ know the real reason for Strictly’s success? Because we had integrity. When I got into the record business every contract presented to any artist was multiple albums and multiple singles for years and my philosophy was different. I invented the one off contract. And the one off contract said simply, ‘give me your DAT, here’s the money. We don’t ever have to do this again if you don’t enjoy working with me’. Then I realised that conmen and honest men have similar rhetoric. So I would tell these producers that I would pay them and there was only one way to prove that which was to pay them. But I didn’t want to wait six months then 90 days which is nine months, so I invented the foreign revenue split. So If I get a license I’d give half the money to the artist within five days of receipt, whether recouped or not. So for instance I bought Kenny Dope’s first record for $1,250, licensed it to C&R Records in Holland a few weeks later, called Kenny into the office and gave him $1,500. He looked at me like ‘Wow’. Then Louie (Vegas) came through, Todd (Terry) and DJ Pierre came through because of that and they all came running because I was paying them advances on short term one off deals.
So we got hot and I started doing licences daily. It was like a bakery room. I used to say that the only records my competitors got were the ones Gladys passed on and that was true. That’s how we got to be so big because she would sign absolutely everything she liked, We did one a week, then two a week and we became a conduit between producers and DJs.”
Skrufff: Is Gladys involved now?
Mark Finkelstein: “Gladys is doing a label with us called Launch and she will be signing and releasing music on that.”
Skrufff: New York clubland was heavily infiltrated by gangsters in the 90s, how easy was it to avoid criminals running Strictly?
Mark Finkelstein: “It’s never happened to me because I’ve never been in the club business, but it’s a problem sure. How do you deal with people who are a threat to you and your family’s life? If you let them be there then you run the risk of being arrested for promoting the sale of drugs. The club business is one of the toughest businesses around because you get blamed for whatever goes on in your club and most times I don’t think you have a lot of control. I don’t go to clubs.”
http://www.defected.com
