The podcast series is hosted by UK music journalist Chal Ravens<\/a> and we had the chance to ask her a few questions.<\/p>\n HHV: For those who are not familiar with your story and your work: Could you tell us about yourself and your relationship to music, culture and fashion? <\/strong><\/p>\n Chal Ravens:<\/strong> I\u2019ve been a music journalist for almost 10 years, shockingly. I\u2019ve written for FACT, The Wire, Pitchfork and a lot of other music magazines. For a while I hosted a show on Red Bull Radio called \u00bbTop Flight\u00ab where I played genres like kuduro, dancehall, drum and bass and the ever-mutating thing we call \u00bbclub\u00ab, and that kind of music is my main beat still \u2013 but as a listener I\u2019m totally omnivorous. The same goes for culture in general \u2013 I don\u2019t remember a time where I haven\u2019t wanted to just inhale it all at once. Unfortunately my pressing need to know a little bit of something about everything has made me a hopeless generalist. Being a writer is the best way to put all that skimmed info to use. When it comes to clothes, I\u2019m going to lean on an old cliche and say that I\u2019m more interested in style than fashion \u2013 people should wear what they want. But ever since I dressed up as the pilot Amy Johnson for a school play I\u2019ve had a thing for boilersuits.<\/p>\n HHV: How did this project with Carhartt WIP come to life?<\/strong><\/p>\n CR:<\/strong> In much the same way as any creative project these days \u2013 through many, many emails! But obviously we had to navigate all the obstacles that 2020 laid in our path. The initial, pre-pandemic plan for recording the podcasts was much more glamorous, involving me turning up on the doorsteps of all these international record labels, vintage camera in tow, to document the whole meeting. Then the virus set us on a different timeline so we decided to do the whole project remotely. In the end it was surprisingly friction-free, which just goes to show how much the world has been transformed by digital technology and high-speed internet.<\/p>\n HHV: You were lucky enough to sit down with the founding forces behind some of the most important independent record labels and tastemakers of global music culture. People who have taken incredibly great risks, chosen their guts over reason and tirelessly fought for their visions. What were the most (or some) inspiring and maybe even surprising motivations behind their decisions? <\/strong><\/p>\n CR: <\/strong>The thing about running an independent record label is that it doesn\u2019t really make a lot of sense. From a financial perspective it\u2019s a bit like trying to carry a suitcase full of cash over a piranha-infested river, not knowing if the rope bridge is going to collapse with the next step. So the kind of people who do it well are the ones who are completely bloody-minded about it. In the case of the label bosses I speak to in Volume One, they\u2019re also incredibly level-headed. With Peanut Butter Wolf and Stones Throw, for example, there was just no other option \u2013\u00a0he wrote a high school essay about how he was going to run a record label one day. With Sam at Ghostly, he knuckled down and learned about business and worked out what he needed to do to stay ahead of the curve. I think that kind of dogged persistence comes from the suspicion that you won\u2019t really be able to do any other job \u2013\u00a0they\u2019re just hardcore music obsessives. They\u2019ve basically turned an illness into a career. It\u2019s very inspiring.<\/p>\n HHV: Tastemakers were opinion leaders before the term influencer was even invented. How would you characterize these kind of creatives? What is it that transforms nerdism and passion into a real influence and even a business?\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n CR:<\/strong> Again, it comes down to sheer bloody-mindedness. You can\u2019t beat persistence. It helps to be smart, of course, and it\u2019s easy to burn out if you end up spending too much time flapping about unpaid invoices and uncleared samples. But there\u2019s only so much that\u2019s within the control of the label boss anyway. Being in the right place at the right time is often the difference between an interesting label and an influential one. It seems to me that the most powerful legacies have a lot to do with drawing artists into the same orbit and creating a community that captures a sound or a place or a moment in time.<\/p>\n HHV: There are many similarities between the world of music and the world of fashion. Both are mediums of cultural expression and in both worlds there is a mainstream vs. niche polarity. Undoubtedly fashion is greatly influenced by culture, especially subcultures, music and art. Just like record label founders, creators of independent fashion brands often have to face the same obstacles and challenges and sacrifice a lot for their creative vision. Did you ever come across this common ground in your conversations with the founders of these record labels?<\/strong><\/p>\n CR:<\/strong> One thing that successful label bosses have in common with successful fashion designers is an ability to ignore passing trends and put their weight behind a creative vision that might make no sense to everyone else at the time. You have to just believe in what you\u2019re doing \u2013 if you\u2019re really good at it, you\u2019ll have either carved out your own niche or perhaps even pre-empted the coming zeitgeist in some way. Stones Throw is a fantastic example of that. Peanut Butter Wolf told me that none of the hip-hop magazines were covering what they were doing in the late \u201890s \u2013 he was living in a house with Madlib and DOOM, listening to them make this incredible, game-changing music every day, yet feeling pretty much ignored by the music press. We all know who was right in the end, of course. The lesson there is not to worry what writers or \u00bbtastemakers\u00ab or gatekeepers think of what you\u2019re making, because if it\u2019s really, really good, they won\u2019t understand it yet anyway.<\/p>\n HHV: Could you please name 3 records that define the teenage you or records that may have lastingly shaped your taste of music starting in your teenage years?<\/strong><\/p>\n CR:<\/strong> \u00bbThe Miseducation of Lauryn Hill\u00ab was foundational to me as a music fan \u2013 I used to sing those songs over and over. But a lot of my teenage favourites were pretty ropey in retrospect. I didn\u2019t have any money and my house was on a dial-up connection, so I didn\u2019t hear all that many records. Sometimes I\u2019d leave Napster on all night and hope the connection didn\u2019t time out before some Smiths B-side downloaded. I borrowed Deftones\u2019 \u00bbWhite Pony\u00ab from a boy at school who had a cool record collection and remember being blown away by that. And one afternoon I sat and wrote out all the lyrics to \u00bbOriginal Pirate Material\u00ab, with one finger on the pause button. All of that makes me sound almost cool but I was also in an emo band. I definitely stand by Rage Against The Machine, though \u2013 I probably love them even more now than when I was 17.<\/p>\n The prelude to the podcast series is a conversation with none other than Chris Manak a.k.a. Peanut Butter Wolf about his legendary label Stones Throw Records<\/a>. Based in Los Angeles since 1996, Stones Throw has been mixing up the global music scene with unique sounds and artists from a variety of genres, ranging from hip hop, funk and jazz to experimental psychedelic rock. We have Stones Throw to thank for incomparable artists such as J Dilla, Madlib, DaM-FunK and The Egyptian Lover. Among the highlights of recent years are names like Sudan Archives, MNDSGN, Mayer Hawthorne and Knxwledge. There are many stories to hear and many things to learn:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hhv-journal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Relevant_Parties_Chal.jpeg?resize=640%2C439&ssl=1\")
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\nRELEVANT PARTIES VOL.1 \u2013 Stones Throw Records<\/h2>\n
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