Rise Audio is a new drum & bass record label launching with a single featuring tracks from Audio and Allied respectively. We spoke to label owner Kulak to find out more...

Please introduce yourself...
Hi, I'm Nick Sheffield. Since spending time living in Nottingham, Bristol and Brighton I have settled for the last few years in London. I have been DJing across the UK and internationally for the last ten years under the name Kulak. For now I'm focusing on running the label and events full time.

Why have you set the label up?
The label is something that I have thought about doing many times at various stages through my life, finally I felt the time was right due to a number of things. I have had experience of working with some widely respected drum & bass labels and decided I wanted to do things my way, with no compromises. I aim to try and do things a bit differently... so expect the unexpected!

Who is involved with running it?
The only people involved in running the label and events are myself as well as my good friend Rich Green, also known as Ironman. We also work very closely with our key artists and take onboard their ideas, thoughts and opinions on most of our major decisions regarding the label.

What's the ethos behind the label?
There is no set ethos, as we wouldn't want to prevent the label from progressing into new territory. Currently we are just trying to establish Rise Audio simply as a quality drum & bass label. Releasing only tracks we believe in 100% we aim to build a solid and collectable catalogue that will still sound fresh in years to come. We value our artists highly and are very committed to them, we do everything we can to treat them as well as possible. We want the label to continue taking its influences through a variety of different artistic perspectives.

Is it a digital label or will you release vinyl too?
We love vinyl and want to keep it alive for as long as possible. The label will be both limited edition vinyl and digital releases too. We have just received the artwork for our first release RA001 and it looks great. Throughout this year we will have several digital and limited edition vinyl releases, distributed worldwide via our distributors ST Holdings.

Can you tell us more about your key artists?
The key artists of Rise Audio so far are Allied, Audio, Billain, Cause4Concern, Future Signal, Nocturnal and The Sect. These artists are already well established within the scene, so really need no introduction. Allied are a really exciting duo from Brighton making some great music at the moment, as is Billain our man from Sarajevo.

Are you looking for more artists and if so where should producers send demos?
We are always interested in receiving new demos. So far we have releases scheduled up to the summer, however there is always room for something genuinely exciting, fresh and new. We are already receiving a high volume of demos, and we try our best to listen to all of them. If you would like to send a demo to us please only send your best track and make sure you label the file with your contact details! Demos can be submitted to us via our SoundCloud account or send to our AIM address 'RISE AUDIO'.

Tell us more about your first release...
We are really excited about this one... our first release will be a track from the mighty Audio entitled Fire In The Sky, a track we loved as soon as we heard it. It's something a bit different from Audio with a really nice timeless and vintage feel to it, razor sharp drums and huge bass - simply great drum & bass. On the flip we have a big track from Allied entitled N-Sphere, this is a classic piece of the Allied sound which has been smashing dance floors worldwide recently with its high energy running techno influenced vibes.

 

Audio - Fire In The Sky by Rise Audio

 

Allied - N-Sphere by Rise Audio

 

Got any other releases in the pipeline you can tell us about?
We don't want to give too much away really... but following RA001 we have big releases coming from Cause4Concern, The Sect, Future Signal as well as a project Allied and Future Signal have recently been working on together.

Anything else you want to tell us about?
Alongside the label we operate Rise Audio label events both in the UK and abroad. Our next event is January 21st in Brighton featuring a selection of our label artists: Cause4Concern, The Sect, Future Signal, Allied, Kulak, Ironman and MC AD. We also use our own 30k state of the art 'Nexo' sound system at all our events to ensure we get a consistently crisp sound with plenty of weight. If you'd like a Rise Audio label event in your area please get in touch by emailing [email protected]

Our website will soon be going live but for now you can get all the latest news on our releases, artists, events, podcasts, videos, competitions and merchandise by joining our facebook page.

Related Links:

• Kmag Presents Rise Audio
• Allied Guest Mix
• Promoter Profile: Signal (Bristol)
• New Label Profile: Dual Signal
• New Label Profile: Dual Signal

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