SANTOKU RECORDS is a record label based out of Atlanta that just celebrated their 5 year anniversary. Thomas, the label owner is also known as Logam, a Drum and Bass artist and producer. You may have heard of Logam as he is also signed exclusively with RAM Records. This Artist has a love for the Drum and Bass music, a passion for playing live instruments and I do hear that he is an avid Chef. RAM Records started a bi-monthly cooking piece for him called Logam’s Recipes. It was great to catch up with him and learn a bit more about his label.
Chelsea:
Being a label owner I would guess that you receive a lot of Artist submissions, what is one tip you would like to give to artists who are trying to get a release on a label?
Logam:
Don’t let unanswered emails get you down, labels do get bombarded with submissions regularly. If no one is taking your tunes then work harder until they do. Not every single song you make needs to come out, some are just learning experiences. Only your best tunes should be released..
Chelsea:
What should we be looking for next from Santoku Records?
Logam:
Up next we have an EP by an Australian duo known as Dead Zodiac & Profane. The EP is titled “Entrapment” and features Hijak MC and a remix by Tobax. Following this will be an EP by Instinkt and another by Kodin. Aside from this we are also working on a dLo EP and a Diode LP. Both of which will have some top names on remix duties.
Chelsea:
Santoku Records is quite a unique name, what was your inspiration behind the name for your?
Logam:
It’s actually the name of my favorite knife to use in the kitchen which is a Santoku knife. Santoku is Japanese for “three virtues” or “three uses”. The knife was designed to give Chefs a multipurpose tool that could be used for meat, fish, and vegetables. When I first started the label I was doing three styles of music: Drum and Bass, Dubstep, and Electronica. I had also divided each into a color or a shade, Drum and Bass was white, Dubstep was black, and Electronica was grey. So the color of the frame for the artwork indicated what style it was. This is why SAN004 has a black frame and SAN005 has a grey background. Fun fact: Those are the only two non Dnb releases on our discography…so far.
Chelsea:
Besides being a chef and artist, can you share what lead to you becoming a label owner?
Logam:
It was actually a suggestion from a friend because at the time I was writing a lot of tunes and the idea of having total control of the release details for my work sounded appealing to me.
At first I teamed up with my buddy TL to make the label a home for all of our work but that never really came together the way we had envisioned so I ended up continuing with it on my own.
When I started working with Mayhem it became the primary home for our work. Once I signed with RAM things had to change, so I started releasing more tunes by other artists. Now I’m pushing newer artists that I believe in, while getting bigger names that I’m a huge fan of, on remix duties, to help bring attention to the releases.
To celebrate the 5 year anniversary of Santoku records they released a LP called Go Nen, featuring tracks from Des McMahon, Pish Posh, Instinkt and Logam himself. If you want to connect with Logam you can find him on Facebook or SANTOKU RECORDS on Soundcloud.
