Featured: Akamady Records

Interview with Gerhan of Akamady Records

Tell us about yourself, how you start DJ-ing and your influences, tell us a little bit about QUIRK IT!, The Akamady History, when and why, and how it came about.

I started DJ-ing in 1997 as a hobby while I was studying in the Bay Area SF, USA. I was influenced by genres such as rock, reggae, dub, funk, disco, house, acid house, techno and many other popular music. 

QUIRK IT! was a platform to share our love to dance music and music of all kinds (ranging from the 70s to present day) with my close friends (Aditya, Ridwan, Heru and Leo) at that time. It is a DIY dance party that moves from place to place with very intimate vibes. 

Akamady Records was born in 2013 as a new label that has similar visions and ideas with Space.Rec. It began in my studio that I rented on the 3rd floor of Rossi Musik Building in Fatmawati, Jakarta. In the beginning, we had a collaboration of 12 and 7inch vinyl releases, then evolved to digital media in 2019 on Bandcamp. 

The Akamady sound, label curation and overall aesthetics is surely a unique one. What would you consider an Akamady release? Sonically and aesthetically.

Actually, any sound or music that is good in my ears. Doesn’t matter what the genre is. We aim to help and grow local music producers and to collaborate with International music producers as well.

Can you tell us more about Akamady’s process in releasing music? From production, artwork creation to marketing the music itself.

Usually we scout for local music producers and ask them to submit demos if they have new materials that fit for Akamady. We choose the music / tracks that we find suitable for us. Sometimes we ask for revision but not always. When the tracks are ready we master it and pick a date to release it. For the artwork most of the time it is up to the artist, we let them pick an artwork they like. If they don’t have an artwork ready, we usually collaborate with local graphic artist(s) we know to create an artwork that fits the EP. As for marketing we usually just make a poster/ flyers on our Instagram account and also post a sound clip to our soundcloud and submit details about the releases on discogs.

How did you pick your roster? formula? Did they come to you or vice versa? How would you value networking in this day and age?

We are always looking for new artists and new materials. We do receive some demos through emails sometimes but we also have a team that scouts and help artists to collaborate and make edits, remixes and original material music. Working closely with other local labels / international labels and artists are very important as we like to have them collaborate to create new music.

Akamady has a strong international link, how did that come about? Do you have any upcoming plans? 

Mostly from my own personal network / friends around the globe that I have been involved in the music scene. My plan is to keep on finding new artists which make good music locally and internationally.

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The entire Akamady Records catalog will be available on The Store Front, with its first 3 releases now available and we will upload 3 more releases every month, until its full and most updated discography!

Akamady Records releases on the Store Front