In conversation with twominds records

Words by Hannah Powell. Images by Javi Wilde and Fran Scrimgeour.

From left to right: Jake, Dan, Corban, and Liam from twominds.

Well-known Ōtautahi creative collective twominds has just launched its very own record label. A fixture in the Christchurch DJ scene and, more recently, abroad, twominds has been hosting gigs since 2020. Earlier in the month, the collective held a launch party at the city's Flux nightclub to celebrate their new venture. We caught up with stalwarts Liam, Corban, and Dan to chat all about twominds records.

Hannah: Kia ora, guys! Congratulations on launching your record label. How did the idea for it come about?

Liam: I suppose it was kind of just like the natural progression of the stuff that we'd been doing at the time. Quite a few people had been sending me music, really good music, and there weren't really any other avenues for them to get it out locally and within a particular style. - apart from overseas labels, which are difficult to get onto while living in NZ. It was also a combination of me making my own music and needing a platform to release it on. It just made sense to use our existing platform.

Corban: Yeah, it's been born out of the need for some sort of mechanism for releasing our own music now that Liam and everyone else who we're rubbing shoulders with has spent a bit more time producing and making music. Like Liam said, just not really having much of a New Zealand-based avenue to put it out, from like a grassroots level, as opposed to releasing with a major label.

H: What is the aim behind twominds records?

C: The idea is to create a record label that services and puts out music of a particular style and feeling, and sound. And to be a place that is attractive for musicians and artists to want to release their music through. We want people to think, 'oh, man, I've got this song that fits really well with this record label. I'd like to release with them because they have a really good reputation & understanding within that style and that genre'. Then, we'll package and service the music as best we can.

H: Considering music distribution is pretty accessible nowadays, what's the purpose of releasing it with a label?

Dan: It's to give the music its best shot at landing with the right audience. Rather than just putting a song up on SoundCloud, YouTube or Spotify, it's going through the process of getting it premiered on SoundCloud channels that have 70,000 followers or the same on YouTube. [It's] releasing music further into the future, sending music to artists that you might have had a relationship with, who might then go and play that song in a set. And that set gets recorded on Boiler Room or something. And then, all of a sudden, 200,000 people listen to your song in that set. And then more people.

C: The record label's job is to package and present that music and put it out into the world, [making sure] that it fits within the theme of the label. The idea with the record label is that it just packages that music in a more succinct way and puts it out into the world with a purpose and a bit of oomph. 

H: How do you actually build a record label?

L: Well, when I started looking at it, I thought it would take a couple of weeks max and then bang, it would be on all the platforms, but that's definitely not the case. We chose a UK-based label distributor just because they had quite good reviews and they distributed for a few labels that we liked. They basically distribute all your music onto all the platforms where you can buy and listen to music. They're not going to do the work for you unless they think it's going to be profitable for them, so that's why it took a while for them to obviously listen to the stuff, see what the whole label was about, like the ethos of it, and then decide that they were happy to go ahead with it. Deciding on artwork took us quite a while, [but] Charlie has done a really, really good job.

H: What do you want to do with twominds records long term?

D: Long term, the purpose of the label is something that can have an international presence without having to be based in other cities because the content and the music we release can be shown to the world. So, kind of grow the brand to an international level. Rather than just hosting gigs in NZ, you can release music and music-based content everywhere in the world. And as a flow-on effect, host gigs internationally.

H: You've just been playing overseas in Melbourne and Sydney – what was it like bringing twominds to Australia?

C: The twominds attitude has always been 'try by doing', and we knew that we wanted to start doing things in Australia. In that initial trip, it was just an exercise of putting something on in Australia, seeing what it's like, testing the waters, seeing who we meet, and then just going from there. That's how it all started. So yeah, the tour certainly wasn't like a glamorous DJ tour. It was a budget yet really awesome and fun trip, and you know, that started us off on this.

D: It was kind of based around travel plans and deciding to actually make something of it, I guess, like Corb was keen to come over to Melbourne. And then we're like, Alright, we've actually got the opportunity to add this to a piece of the tour. I'm living over here; you're coming over here; we can find some places that are willing to host us. And then when Liam had his EP coming out, we had options where we could just release the EP and host a party at Flux, or we could release the EP and do some shows in New Zealand and Australia…[we] obviously chose the latter just because of shooting for the moon or whatever. And as a result, Liam ended up playing at one of the more prestigious house music parties in all of Australia – S*A*S*H Sundays.

H: You talk about releasing a 'various artists' EP. How can people send their music to you? How is it chosen?

L: The email for people to send demos to is liam@twomindsnz.com. Because the music submitted will probably be from people that we know initially, I'm going to show it to the other fellas without any names on any of the music. That way, you don't have any bias towards who's made it or the name of it, or anything you've already listened to, which is the way that it should be. The idea is that the best music gets on there, not [because of] who it's been made by or anything else. It'd be cool to sit down in a room and listen to heaps of music and not know anything about it, [and only] decide whether it's good or not. That's basically the idea.

C: The whole intention of the record label is to just focus on putting really good quality stuff out, regardless of who you are or of any existing relationship you might have. The idea is just to service the music. That's the focus.

D: It's just like the whole conversation of quality of the product - release the best music, then surely in the long run that product will get recognition.

The essence of twominds is a platform where people can put things out into the world and, in Corban's words, be stoked about it – whether that's through parties and events, artwork, decoration, clothing, or now through twominds records. A creative collective by nature, it goes beyond its founders and aims to create opportunities and experiences for its growing community and continue to live up to the mantra, 'try by doing'. 

See what they're up to next by following the boys' socials, @ttwominds.