Purple Sneakers Launch Singles Label

What started as a Sydney indie club night back in 2005 has grown to become a national concern for the team at Purple Sneakers, with clubs, a blog and now a record label all a part of their influential indie empire.

Today's news of Purple Sneakers moving into the world of releasing music is one that will excite their rabid fan base, who flock to the clubs and website to hear what music Martin Novosel (aka PhDJ) and Randall Stagg consider to be on the cutting edge right now.

Novosel told theMusic.com.au today that a record label was just a logical extension of the exposure they have given some of their favourite music online.

“We were getting like 50 – 60,000 visits a month and people were actually reading that shit!” Novosel says of the Purple Sneakers blog. “You don't plan that sort of shit, you do it because you love it, but one day you realise 'Wow, people actually dig what we do'.

“The label was kind of like a logical progression on that, [plus] we've already put on pretty much every act in Australia that's gotten to that triple j level – right now you're looking at [bands like] The Rubens and Catcall and Kimbra and The Jezabels, they've all gone through our club.

“If you look at the stuff we write about on our website, sometimes we're giving bands their first press, so I don't think it's too much of a huge step to release a single for them.”

While Novosel won't reveal who the next couple of acts the team have signed up are, he does drop a few hints.

“We've got signings already in the can for two more singles before the end of the year. Our next release is for a US band, who are about to release their album in the US, they're a Pitchfork-y type band. And then the one after that is a South African bass/hip hop sort of thing."

Their first release is one of their own tracks; while the duo are renowned for their DJing aptitude at clubs across the country as well as the We Mix You Dance compilations of a couple of years ago, they've cut a tune with Amy Pes of Sydney band Tokyo Denmark Sweden on lead vocals. Last One Standing will serve as the label's first release and comes packaged with a remix from Toronto's Jeremy Glenn and New York City's DJ Wool.

“This is our first official single; it's a good opportunity, we thought let's just launch a label with our own shit,” Novosel says.

Club music is the broad genre that the Purple Sneakers label will be focusing on releasing; more specifically what might be deemed indie club music. And Novosel also says that the label will be used as a method of exposing fresh new talent moreso than old favourites.

“It's gonna be stuff that we would play in our club essentially,” Novosell explains. “Every release will have a remix package; but having said that it's not – quote-unquote – 'EDM'. It's club music; for example, that single we released today [Last One Standing], it's a club track. Sure, it's not fucking Tiesto, but it's a club track. Keeping it broad, club music is what we'll be working on, and we'll definitely be focusing on acts that aren't established and just stuff that we know will work.”