The co-founder of the mighty MN2S reveals all about their 20th anniversary celebrations
Interview by Dan Prince
Hey David welcome to DMCWORLD. Let’s kick off with a mighty congratulations on a fabulous achievement, MN2S hitting the big 20th anniversary. When we all started out on this insane dance music journey all those decades ago, none of us envisaged all this. Did we?
Thanks Dan, it’s come a long way since the early days and I don’t think any of us could have predicted house music in particular would still be so popular, nor that commercial music would be dominated by electronic music of various sorts. There was a sense that something different was happening and that there was huge potential and real excitement for what we were doing in those days.
My father Tony Prince has been a supporter for the charity Nordoff Robbins for many years, his dance music committee in the noughties was like a who’s who of the industry. You are organizing Nordoff with a month-long fund raising initiative for the music therapy charity. For those around the world who haven’t heard of it, can you please explain what this amazing organization does…
Nordoff Robins is a fantastic charity that works in various ways using music to enrich people’s lives. They train therapists and offer music therapy to children and adults. Music has been our core business for 20 years and has transformed our lives and many of the artist’s we work with so we found this a particularly fitting charity to support.
As part of the fund raiser you are unveiling 20 exclusive mixes from 20 of your leading MN2S DJs…please give us some details on who is on board and some of the tunes they are reworking…
We thought it was a fitting way to celebrate and showcase some of the acts we work with while offering others a set of good music to enjoy. We have some incredible mixes from Joey Negro, Doc Martin, Roger Sanchez, DJ Spen and many more. We are extremely grateful to all the artists who have supported us over the years. In terms of the tunes they are reworking, it’s probably best you take a listen as there are too many to mention!
{http://soundcloud.com/mn2s-agency/sets/mn2s20}
One of house music’s most loved figures is the mighty Kerri Chandler, I understand you are hosting an event with him at ADE this year?
We will be showcasing his new label Kaoz Theory on Friday at Sugar Factory, we also have Stephane Ghenacia, Voyeur and DJ W!LD. Look out for more Kaoz Theory shows including Fabric later this year.
When the term EDM was created a few years ago you shuddered. “It sounds like a disorder of some kind” I remember you saying. As I lover of house music though, surely a sound that drew in millions of new dance music converts into our world and away from rock was a good thing? Now they have a chance to amble through the supermarket music aisles and see what else is on offer?
EDM, as slated as it is, has brought house into the spotlight and opened the doors to a much wider audience. Personal preferences aside it’s good to see more people getting into new music – what people prefer is a personal thing and the fact that more and more people are becoming passionate about house isn’t a bad thing at all. Underground can only stay underground for so long and after so many years it’s no real surprise that its become mainstreamed in that way. What comes next is an interesting question and remains to be seen. It feels a little like the end of the road for EDM in some ways but the beginning of something else is never far behind.
“The music business is a great industry to work in, but to be a manager requires drive and determination which is driven by a passion for music.” A wee quote from you from a few years back. So let’s rewind for a moment, when did your passion for music begin…who were the artists, the sounds and the dreams that a young David Elkabas first stumbled on…?
Google is a wonderful thing – you have done your research!! I went through a few phases and was into a lot of different music. My discoveries went in the following order: The Beatles – Jimmy Hendrix – The Doors- Nirvana etc. which led me to pick up the bass guitar. This led me onto discover jazz funk with my brother who was a drummer. We spent years jamming and listening to rare groove and artists like James Brown, Curtis Mayfield and James Taylor. This went on for a while until I had an epiphany standing in a Shoreditch club called Whirly Gig which played a variety of world music, trance, techno and house, which eventually led me onto what was underground house music in the 90s – in the years that followed my love for house music grew and grew, and after various “twists and turns” we are still listening to house today.
We were so lucky in the beginning to have voices of the caliber of Robert Owens, Barbara Tucker and Michael Watford booming out on the dancefloor. Who are some of the artists today that you love?
The golden day of vocalists like Watford and Tucker seems behind us now but perhaps an underground vocal revival is what’s next to come. We went through years of underground music featuring no vocals and this is starting to change a bit now. I’m really into UK singer Janai who featured on single by the excellent Kayper recently. We work closely with Robert Owens who still delivers the goods – he has a single called Ocean Drive on Duke Dumont’s album which works really well.
I understand you are a neighbour of mine in Ibiza, I’ll look out for you when I’m next doing the Saturday morning shop at Mercadona! What are your views on the island this year? It’s been the busiest, the hottest, most clubs have done well, there is a lot of different music genres going off…think the white isle is in a happy place?
I now spend most of my time enjoying the quiet side of the island, but it seems the island has changed towards a more commercial model. It’s a very different place to what it used to be with the new laws and new crowd seeming to have made an impact. As the gap between underground and commercial widens, a lot of clubs are trying to sit somewhere in the middle and finding it hard, they are trying to be cool while their crowds haven’t caught up and you often see gaggles of girls and guys looking a bit miffed by pseudo underground tracks with ‘no vocals’ blaring out of the speakers all night. I think this feels like a year of transition and it’s interesting to see what next year will bring.
How often do we find David Elkabas out on an evening checking new talent?
Being stuck in the office makes that harder these days, once in a while when a client is in town perhaps I find it useful to check out clubs now and then to see what’s happening for myself, unfortunately it’s more often an early night these days.
Okay on the spot time!
3 of your favourite DJs of all time.
Kerri Chandler, Loco Dice and Giles Smith.
3 of your favourite club nights of all time
Whirlygig, Kubicle and DC10
3 of your favourite tunes of all time.
Robert Owens – I’ll Be Your Friend, HardDrive – Deep Inside and Loco Dice – Moving Shadows.
MN2S is one of the largest independent music management and talent booking agencies in the world. The days of just securing a recording deal and thinking that’s my life sorted are long gone for an artist, making your contract work for you in 2015 is so much more complex these days with the digital music world, separate revenue streams, royalty rates changing and even having a good termination clause are all major issues for newcomers to try and figure out today. What chance does a new young artist have in obtaining a good old fashioned contract in today’s mad, dance music gone crazy age?
It depends on what you mean, the chances of getting music released (if you are good) are greater than ever. If you are waiting for a major label to spot you before you have had an independent release and come running with their cheque book, you may be waiting a long time. You need to be pro active and get your music heard, once you have some momentum get a manager and a good experienced team around you.
The mid 90s saw many agents killed off during the recession. How did you survive?
We had just started out and were keen, eager and weren’t going to take no for an answer – we had been booking DJs for our own events and had a good grasp of what we wanted to do and how we wanted to be perceived and I think that carried us through the early days. Recession aside there was a real buzz in club land during this time and brands like Cream and MOS were just gaining momentum which was a huge inspiration to many of us.
Give me three artists you would have LOVED to have managed…
James Brown, Jim Morrison and Masters at Work.
A big question but one I hope you won’t skirt around. Streaming, piracy and the future of recorded music. In a nutshell please?
Don’t get me started. I don’t believe streaming models are the way forward for our industry and feel we should reconsider the model before it’s too late. It’s not possible to run an economy for the top 2%, and unless rewards to artists for their music are addressed I feel the future looks quite bleak.
And finally – we hear you’re putting out a MN2S anniversary album. Tell us about that…
We have amassed an amazing catalogue of music over the years and this was a great opportunity to stop and take stock of what we have worked on or been behind. The final list was just a small sample of tracks we felt were important to the acts we work with and to us as a business. It’s called MN2S20 – 20 Years of MN2S and includes releases from MN2S, 1Trax, Hard Times, Hypercolour and Leftroom Records, from the likes of Huxley, Maya Jane Coles, Jon Cutler, Todd Terry, Robert Owens, Mark Knight and more. It’s out now as a digital download on iTunes and Beatport.
Keep up to date with anniversary news and announcements using #MN2S20
Donate to Nordoff Robbins http://bit.ly/NordoffRobbinsMN2S20
Buy MN2S20 – 20 Year of MN2S
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/mn2s20-20-years-of-mn2s/id1030336799
https://pro.beatport.com/release/mn2s20-20-years-of-mn2s/1591198
https://soundcloud.com/mn2s-agency
