Photo: Monique Poirier.
It’s been very well documented that the music industry can be a particularly nefarious field, where executives feed off the hard work of the artists that they appear to help. In the last two decades, however, we have seen a crumbling of these structures on account of the internet. Sparked by file sharing programs such as Napster and Limewire in the late ‘90s, the information superhighway has revolutionised the way people consume music. Not only that, but it has also completely changed the way even more well known artists — one need to only look at Radiohead’s innovative schemes in recent years —release their music and represent themselves, potentially liberating performers from the too-often toxic confines of overly complicated major label contracts and manipulative management. This changing landscape has led to an exciting grassroots movement in DIY music where musicians have a direct line to a potentially global fan base. Cue Baby Satan Records, a Berlin based label run by Israeli duo Paz Bonfil and Adi Kum.
Initially deriving from a common desire to appear ‘represented’ in the industry, Baby Satan Records started life as an imaginary organisation written haphazardly somewhere on Kum’s Bandcamp page — intended to bring a level of legitimacy to her solo project. This unknowingly bloomed into a real project— cut to a mere 365 days later, and Baby Satan are pressing multicolored tapes and vinyl decked out in Bonfil’s saucy little doodles for indie, punk and goth-electro bands — including darkwave polish solo act SKY, noisy lo-fi Able Bodies, and glam-punk trio Jealous — all over Europe. Though they (still) don’t take themselves too seriously, quite a lot of other people do. Baby Satan hosts raucous, garage-y shows all over the city and have become a staple for Berlin music nerds — to go to a Baby Satan night is to go back in time to an era where everyone’s clothes, hair and synths were handcrafted and homemade. Their ethos is to maintain full artistic integrity for everyone on their roster and to provide exposure and support for the undiscovered, unusual and underrepresented acts. Kum and Bonfil are an important part of a new wave, who are putting the power back into the hands of the artists to work together as cooperative collectives. In the infamous words of the world’s number one punk, John Lydon: “Don’t follow us, do what you want!,” and Baby Satan are doing just that.
What prompted you to start Baby Satan records?
Paz Bonfil: Well, it started as some kind of a weird joke that got out of hand. Adi was about to release her solo album and she wrote Baby Satan Records on it. Afterwards when we saw that other people took it seriously, we realised we’ve got to make it into something real, that the damage had been done.
Adi Kum: I got asked pretty often if there is any label releasing it, and I noticed how other people (myself included) needed this validation of being under a label, even if this label is a super made-up esoteric thing ran by a 13 year old stoner with 2 heads. Which ironically that is basically what Baby Satan is.
Where did the name come from?
PB: It was a mash-up of fake band names. If I recall correctly it involved “Baby Lemonade” like the Syd Barrett song, and then it became Adi’s band nickname
It has only been a year and you have had quite a lot of growth and positive acclaim, to what do you attest your success?
AK: I think that our aesthetics, for which Paz is fully responsible, is the initial attraction. Besides that, our nights are uniting edges of different scenes in Berlin, thanks to our eclectic approach.
What advice would you give to any artists who wanted to represent themselves online?
PBThere are no rules on how do it. Don’t try to fit in with how everyone else is doing it. Don’t over do it, you don’t have to say everything on social media, you can save some of that stuff for the songs. And don’t take it too seriously cause the industry is fucked, the system is broken and no one cares — in a good way.
AKDIY! Try to do whatever you can do for yourself — your visuals, booking, PR, learn basics of recording and mixing. Don’t rest on this idea that you are only making music and other people will do everything around it. It gives tonnes of power and creative freedom.
"There are no rules on how do it. Don’t try to fit in with how everyone else is doing it. "
How do you determine which artists are signed to your label?
PBIf we like it — if it fits the vision of that weirdness we’re looking for. If we’re excited about it and if it’s something we would like to play on a DJ set. And unfortunately, if we have the time. We’re working on a lot of things at the moment and are not always capable of adding new artists.
AK: We like working with nice, talented and devoted people. But yeah, we definitely have to say no a lot of the time just out of lack of time and resources. We want more time and resources.
Is there anything particularly different you do as opposed to a larger, more corporate label?
PBEverything is. We make our own rules, goals, way of doing things. I mean, if you do it like everyone else, why do it in the first place?
AK: Besides not really getting the concept of capitalism? We are both coming from a place of being intense music consumers and makers.
Do you see Baby Satan as being part of a trend in a new wave of artistic representation?
PB: No, we see BS records as the thing we do 24/7. I don’t know, the internet ruined everything but gave us the ability to contact in different ways. Some of it is good – new small labels being able to reach new audiences and being able to find bands to work with from different places in the world. We’re not a part of anything, Adi says we’re a cult, I disagree, but that’s what she tells people when I’m not around.
AK: (we ARE a cult)
Baby Satan Records are celebrating their first birthday today, Thursday 21 March, at Urban Spree, featuring live sets from Johannes Bügeleisen, Palm Squirrel, Jealous and Balagan and more. Details can be found on the event page here.
Photography by Monique Poirier.