News

Paul Reset

Nerve is a drum & bass / breaks label based in Glasgow and they recently decided to give away all their releases - past, present and future - for free. Label boss Paul Reset tells us why...

Tell us more about Nerve and its history...

Well, myself and Pyro started Nerve back in mid 2001 as an output for our own material and material from other new producers. We'd had a couple of releases on labels such as TOV and Flex and thought it'd be nice to have our own imprint.

That way we'd have more control over what was released when and would also be able to bring the focus to some of the amazing new producers that were around as at that time it was a lot harder for new producers to get released.

We've put out debut releases from the likes of Noisia and Psidream and also had early releases from well known producers such as SKC, Gridlok and Kabuki. Over the years we've put out 23 vinyl releases and last year decided to go completely digital. Since then we've had six digital releases.

Why have you decided to give away your entire back catalogue for free?

We'd been involved with Beatport for many years, we got in way back when they first started, so had a fair amount of experience in the digital market and sales weren't exactly fantastic for a label such as ours. I had the idea of giving away the back catalogue - this way it'd expose it to a much larger audience than if we were charging for it and I also just realised that releasing music for free these days is pretty much the best way forward. It'd help to expose the new artists to a larger audience and end of the day it's just a nice thing to do!

Since we started the site in August I've had countless emails from younger drum & bass fans saying how glad they are that we've given away the back catalogue for free as they probably would never have heard the tunes otherwise.

I basically believe that giving music away for free is the best plan of action in today's music industry - most people just won't pay for downloads and that's the reality, instead of trying to constantly hold back the waves of progress it's better to embrace the future and if you plan on music giving you an income in this day and age then you have to be a bit smarter about it - the days of half arsed tunes selling 2000 copies are LONG gone!

You're also giving away new releases for free, what sort of thing can people expect?

We've got a collaborations EP lined up from Pyro - some amazing tunes on there with producers such as Amex and CRS. We've also got some new material coming from Linden and Morphy and we have a release from brilliant new Russian producer Megadrummer also in the pipeline. We're always open to new producers so are always open to hearing new demos.

Next up though we have the giveaway of Morphy's 'Dubtopia EP' - as well as the original tracks we're also including a "bonus disc" as it were with new remixes from exciting new dubstep producer Aeroplane Dope amongst others.

How do the artists feel about this?

All of them have reacted positivitely to it - at the end of the day, it exposes them to new audiences and helps everyones karma a little!

What else is on your new site / blog?

We're relaunched our breaks / downtempo sublabel Nerve Breaks - we had seven vinyl releases on the label and then it had died off as sales weren't great - but the new format has given me new enthusiasm and since launching in August we've had three new releases on the label with hopefully many more to come!

Also I'm posting more general blog type posts on the site - with links to other good MP3 giveaways, good new releases, general banter etc and I'm planning on a "new producer profile" section where I'll do short interviews with new producers coming through on the scene. Pyro won't be as involved with the label anymore as he has in the past so my personality will probably come over a lot more on the site - which may be a good thing or a bad thing!

I've also used the site as a place to host all my mixes from over the years going back to '97, I'd had mixes all over the place over the years and it finally gave me a chance to have one central home for them all! So all my new mixes will be on the site and we'll have guest mixes from both Nerve artists and guests.

Also, as well as the official Nerve and Nerve Breaks releases we'll also have lots of giveaways - extra remixes and extra tracks.

So pop on over to www.nerverecordings.co.uk for everything! You can also now follow Nerve on Twitter at www.twitter.com/nerverecordings

You can download Paul's September 2009 mix here

Tracklisting

'Floating Tribe' – DBR UK & Marginal (dub)
'Ringtone' – Calibre (Red Seal)
'Barn' (Break rmx) – Sato (Ingredients)
'1998' – Kantyze (Influenza LTD dub)
'Sabotage' – Linden (Broken Audio)
'I Was 10" – Spectrasoul (SGN:LTD)
'Alien Wings' – Zardonic & Brandon Miles & Tricky Pat (dub)
'Blackout' – Megadrummer (dub)
'Hi Top (Ed Rush & Optical rmx)' – Sigma (Viper)
'Jump Around' – Temper D (dub)
'Optimus Prime' – Chook (Full Force dub)
'The Void' – Gridlok (P51 dub)
'Treacherous Woman' – Genr8 (NVision dub)
'Eastern Promise' – Skynet (Corinthian)
'Aura' – Linden (dub)
'Planet Fall' – Audio (Virus)
'Contact (Noisia rmx)' – Foreign Beggars (Dented)
"Into Illusion' – Counterstrike & Katharsys (Algorythm dub)
'The Sickness' – Amit & Outrage (Commercial Suicide)
'Dead Man Tell No Tales' – Morphy (dub)