Toolroom Academy

DMCWORLD checks in with Mark and Stuart Knight to talk about the mighty Toolroom Academy as it hits it’s 1 year anniversary and continues to help the next generation of budding DJs and producers break through…

Interview by Dan Prince

 

Guys a big welcome to DMCWORLD. Let’s kick off off with the label, are you happy how 2016 has gone down at Toolroom towers?

Mark: It’s been a big year for us musically I think. Particularly for our family of artists here – Adrian Hour continues to astound us with his talents, he’s picked up a lot of big support in 2016 and is now playing all over the world. Weiss has launched his own Weiss City brand within Toolroom, which has gone great, and he had a huge summer record in ‘You’re Sunshine’. Prok & Fitch are going from strength to strength too. And our new boy Ben Remember is already making a name for himself. So yes, from an A&R perspective I’m really happy we’ve built a close team of artists, plus a whole host of new signings – the likes of Solardo, Mat Joe, Mambo Brothers, Raumakustik & many more! And for me personally, I’m really happy with how my own output has been received, particularly ‘Yebisah’ which I’m pleased to say got a lot of love.

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Stuart: As well as the music it’s been a successful year for the brand in the live space. We’ve moved our flagship London party to The Egg this year, and sold out for both parties – total roadblocks. Plus we’ve done some big international shows in LA, Miami, BPM Mexico and ADE. And of course moving the label into education has been a massive focus for us this year with the Toolroom Academy – the reaction to which has been more positive than we could have imaged!

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Has it been a good year for electronic music?

Mark: Yes and no, in my opinion. At one point it seemed the world was against us with the whole Fabric situation, but thankfully the decision makers have seen sense thanks to the whole scene coming together. Also Space closing down, and the final Coxy show there seemed to be an end of an era in some regards. But on the other hand, I feel like it’s been a great year for dance music. Within our scene there have been some strong new producers coming through, and a movement away from the generic big room sound that had dominated for so long.

Stuart: Looking at the whole industry, I think it’s been a positive year in terms of labels, artists, consumers all working together to make the scene stronger. Fabric is a great case in point in how the scene can collectively mobilise together to change something. Also from my experience at attending the various international conferences in Amsterdam, Dubai, Brighton this year, it just feels the electronic scene is working more professionally than ever before, certainly in the 15 years I’ve been involved in it.

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You launched your Toolroom Academy at ADE last year and to date held events in Brighton, Birmingham and Dubai. Why did you feel the time was right to head into the education space helping the next generation of budding DJs and producers?

Stuart: Well education is something that we’d been thinking of for a while, and it was a case of finding the right moment and having the right idea before we jumped in. There’s a big movement, outside of music, of brands moving into education – if you look at what the Guardian Newspaper are doing, even Vogue magazine, Sky – they are all offering education and training from tutors who actually do what they are teaching.

Mark: Exactly, I personally learned my craft as a producer with Dave Lee (Joey Negro) as my mentor. I don’t think it would have been the same if I’d have learned from someone who hadn’t seen success in their production career.

Stuart: Also we felt like we were the right label to be doing this. I’d like to think we’ve always been approachable as a company – the people who send us demos every day are the people who support us in our releases and our events, so we’re always really happy to hear from them and help them with feedback whenever we can. But as we’ve grown as a label, and we’ve seen some success, we get sent more demos than we can reply to at times, so we wanted to create some new products that could help these budding producers, and that’s where the Toolroom Academy was born.

Mark: Intially we started with online courses –these are a great starting point for people to learn how to make the kind of music we love – House, Tech House and Techno – by seeing how our own artists do it. Our mantra is real artists, real education – learning from the guys who have been there and done it. People like myself, D.Ramirez, Umek, Funkagenda, Rene Amesz, Eelke Kleijn, Harry Romero.

Stuart: And as well as the online courses, we also do our Academy Live events – it’s kind of like picking up the Toolroom office, and placing it in different parts of the world, inviting people to come in and see. We have live production sessions with our artists, we offer A&R feedback to people, we do business and career talks. They are some of the best events we’ve ever done, so we’re excited to take it on the road in 2017 and go to even more places around the world.

Mark: And then recently we launched the Toolroom Academy Masterclass course – which is an intensive 1-1 production mentorship; and a new DJ school at Toolroom HQ. So there’s lots going on!

I understand you are just about to hit Tokyo with the Academy, what can you tell us about the trip?

Stuart: Yes that’s right, we’re delighted to be part of the inaugural Tokyo Dance Music Event which is in association with Sony Japan and Red Bull. We’ve got a whole day of brilliant sessions – a Techno Masterclass with Umek, Prok & Fitch will be building a groove live in the studio, I’ll be doing a talk on careers in dance music and we’ll also be doing live A&R feedback as well. Then in the evening we’re doing a Toolroom Live party at Womb – which I think is one of the first ever branded showcases at the venue.

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There are 5 elements inside the Academy. Please can you give us a few words on each of the courses…

Stuart:

Production – So there are two options here. First – learn online with our in-depth tutorials taught by Toolroom artists. Umek’s Techno Masterclass is our most recent course, 5 hours of building a track from scratch with a true master of the genre! Secondly – the Production Masterclass, which is a more intensive, 3-month 1-1 mentorship programme we run in LA and London.

DJ School – We’ve been wanting to do this for a while – essentially our very own DJ school at the label HQ. You’re taught by Seamus Haji – a professional DJ who’s played all over the world and done two Radio 1 Essential Mixes.

Academy Live – Come and meet the Toolroom team, see live production sessions from A-list artists, get A&R feedback – I’d like to think nobody else is doing these kind of events right now.

Sample Packs – great production tools for all budding producers. Again, you’re tapping into the creativity of our artists, with the likes of Mark and Rene Amesz providing you the sounds and one-shots to get creative.

Mastering – the final piece of the production process, we now offer a Toolroom Mastering service. Our in-house engineer masters for 99% of our roster, so if you want your track sounding as big as Toolroom releases, this is the place to come.

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January 2017 sees the next opportunity for wanna DJs to enroll in the Academy’s DJ Masterclass Course, 12 weeks at Toolrooom HQ with superstar producer Seamus Haji no less teaching students everything from looping on the fly, how to build a set to simple mixing. I have to say, it’s rather good value for money!?

Mark: We’ve wanted to open a DJ school for a while – we’re fundamentally a DJ’s label after all, always have been. The key things about our course are that it’s taught by Seamus Haji, who has played all around the world and been in dance music for 30 years; you’re surrounded by people who LOVE House and Tech House, and that’s what you’ll learn to mix; and the class sizes are tiny compared to other schools, because we’re being quite selective on who we take on, meaning you get loads of 1-1 learning. We’d like to think it’s great value for money, and it’ll be an amazing experience for those who get to come along.

It has always baffled me that so few companies within dance music get involved in the next generation. DMC, Ministry of Sound and Richie Hawtin have all rolled up their sleeves alongside yourselves. Why aren’t there more people out there helping the next stars of the future…?

Stuart: I totally agree – when we started, I personally felt there was a massive barrier in the way before we could get ourselves heard. Maybe the industry used to be a little guilty of having a closed-shop mentality, possibly because of the way it started back in the late 80s, when it was quite a counter-cultural thing. But I think it’s changing. We’re seeing more and more innovative conferences starting up, aimed not just at industry, but those wishing to break into dance music, either as an artist or behind the scenes. Hopefully we’ll play a big part in this evolution in the coming years.

Have you spotted any potential stars of the future yet?

Mark:  We’ve already signed three tracks from our Toolroom Academy Live events, which is proof that it’s working as a way of finding talent, as well as just teaching people.

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What can you tell us about future Toolroom releases over the next few months…

Mark: Our release schedule is looking pretty strong over the next few months I have to say! We’ve got a very big remix of a legendary dance act coming before Christmas; we’ve signed a huge E.P. from Solardo who are on a roll right now; we’ve got a very special release from Adrian Hour ready to drop, and much more…

Mark – best 3 gigs of 2016?

•    Egg London in March – absolute roadblock, I think I finished around 11am in the end
•    Novi Sad Serbia in May – playing in front of 4000 people was simply off the chain
•    Cacao Beach, Bulgaria in July – it’s my favourite country to play, and this year was more special than ever.

An up and coming producer to watch out for next year?

Mark: Ben Remember – we signed him this year on a long-term deal, this guy is really getting better and better every single release. Expect to see and hear much more of him in 2017.

And finally guys with the New Year around the corner, what is the Toolroom New Years Resolution for 2017…?

Stuart: To keep giving our fans the best quality music we can find. To keep being innovative in everything we do. And to find a better quality of biscuit for the office!

http://www.toolroomrecords.com/academy/