Los Angeles Dance Label Is Vying For The West Coast Crown

Questions:  Dimitris George     Answers:  Eli Smith

In the not so distant past, Los Angeles set off the Mash Up scene that quickly transformed the playlists of every major club in the United States.  When that became status quo they quickly moved on to something bigger, Electro Dance music, thanks to tastemakers from the late DJ AM and, more notably, Steve Aoki.  Kid Millionaire Aoki has seemingly scared away all competition by securing artists from Bloc Party to MSTRKRFT but to believe that there can, a la Hilander, would be naive.

DJ/Producer/Entrepreneur Eli Smith ditched a promising career as a band musician with Hollywood ties (his first band The Tigers were managed by Eva Mendes) to reinvent himself both artistically and politically in the music business.  So Sweet Records has quickly become a contender for West Coast dominance with a string of releases from heavy weights like Crystal Castles, Shinichi Osawa, remixes for Hot Chip to S.M.D., to developing a stable of prominant up & comers.  This summer they solidified their presence by hosting their own stage at the annual Electric Daisy Carnival (The U.S.'s largest Dance Festival) as well as the Nocturnal Festival.  Hipster Overkill's (and fellow DJ/Producer) Dimitris George drops some questions on Mr. Smith to find out more...

Hipster Overkill: I see that you come from an indie rock background as you we’re thedrummer in some indie bands.  Whatgot you to transition from indie rock to electro and ultimately DJing?

Eli Smith:  Yeah I come from a pretty musical family.  My mom ran an arts academy when i was a kid so I've been playing all kinds ofrandom instruments and writing music my whole life.  Theinstrument that i took to the most was drums so after high school I moved out toLA to play professionally.  I started in a band called The Tigers.  It was kinda something between The Stone Roses & Peter Bjorn& John.  We were managed by [actress] Eva Mendes and her boyfriend George Augusto.  It was kinda this strange situation where Eva was talking aboutus on TV talk shows and we had our songs in the movie "Stuck on You"but things weren't translating that well, so I moved on to another band called Giant Drag as the drummer/synth player(I played Drums and synth simultaneously by hitting sustained bass notes on ananalog synth).  Shortly after joining we did a 10 city tour of the UK, CMJNew York, Dim Mak Tuesdays @ Cinespace & the Troubadour twice in LA. We got signed to a satelite label of Interscope Records called Kickballbut I quit shortly after.  Ithen started playing and writing songs with Blake Miller, the singer of Moving Units and recorded on some othervarious albums with other artists who have done well but ultimately Irealized that playing in a band didn't allow me the control that Ineeded to showcase the abilities that I knew I had, both musically and business wise.

former manager Eva Mendes

This is why I decided to do So Sweet Records and focus on being a DJ/Producer.  It was a perfect way to fulfill my desireto run stuff on the business side of music and showcase song ideas that Ihad built up from years of producing and song writing. I always liked dance music and integrated dance beats and bass lines into the indiemusic I wrote and now I produce dance music with influences from the indie stuff. Kinda cool how that transition happened actually.

H.O.:  Do you think that the indie rock and electro scenes overlap?

E.S.:  Definitely.You can see that perhaps more than anywhere else with one of the artists on my So Sweet Records crew, Le Castle Vania.  His music is definitely influenced a lot by artists such asSmashing Pumpkins and Mars Volta even though it would be categorized as Electro in terms of sound and tempo.

H.O.:  You'recurrent single "Party All Knight" is an all out banger.  Whatare the influences behind that record?

E.S.:  Party “Party All Knight” was a culmination of a few different stages in my production background.  I have always had an obsession with really heavy dirty bass so that’s one thing that’s omnipresent in all my tracks.  But, there is also a bit of old school hip hop and some very abstract rhythms which stem from my drumming experience.

H.O.:  Will a full length or other singles have a similar sound?

E.S.:  A lot of the songs that I've been working on and releasing since “Party All Knight” do have some similar sounds and production techniques such as really intense builds and drops to minimal parts with heavy bass (E-Nuff Bass 2 Melt Yr Face).  I guess with my newer tracks I’m starting to try some more risky stuff by going more minimal at certain parts and in terms of song structure.

H.O.:  You're now the Vice President for So Sweet Records, was it always your intent to get in on the business side?

E.S.:  Yeah I remember years ago I used to sit down for dinner with my current partner at So Sweet Records, Paul Nugent, and we would talk for hours and hours about the business side of the music industry. It's always been really interesting to me and something that I wanted to be involved in.

H.O.:  Since So Sweet is much more than a label, tell me what are the different things that are happening there? 

E.S.:  So Sweet Records is a lifestyle brand.  We are a record label that also incorporates artist management, booking agency, events & promotion, and a clothing line.

H.O.:  What otherartists do you currently have on your roster?

E.S.:  We have releases that we've put out by Le Castle Vania, Shinichi Osawa, Crystal Castles, Kelevra, Fukkk Offf, Bird Peterson, Sharkslayer, Bass Weazal, Foamo, Computer Club, and [myself].  Then we've put out remixes by Hot Chip, Simian Mobile Disco, Vicarious Bliss, Dan Le Sac, Kissy Sell Out, Felix Cartal, and The Teenagers.  As far as the So Sweet Crew goes, that consists of Le Castle Vania, Frankmusik, Computer Club and Me Eli.

H.O.:  How does being an artist influence your business decisions?  And does being an executive influence your artistry?

E.S.:  In so many ways, but I think it’s really important to limit the amount to which they affect one another.  For example, I’m always tempted to write songs a certain way based on business potential but I think I've done a good job of just writing what comes out naturally without contriving anything. Being an artist who produces all of his own music helps me immensely when dealing with other artists and gaining a respect for their music.

H.O.:  Since you're an artist, DJ, and label exec, that puts you in a unique position to see things.  How do you see the scene in Los Angeles?