RS: How do you think that dance music has changed in the four
years you've been gone?
Simon Dunmore: The music industry has changed and dance music has
changed because of that. The market forces of digital sales, illegal
downloads, etc has effected all genres of music. So where I'm sitting
and standing, there's as many people going out and dancing and
listening to dance music every Friday and Saturday night than there
ever has been. Dance music is still popular.
RS: Will there be new releases on Strictly?
Simon Dunmore: One of the first things that Mark and I discussed
when we initially got together to discuss working together was 'sure,
the catalogue and the records have a certain amount of mileage, but
that interest will wane at a reasonable rate if you don't spin your
label into a new label and find new producers and make it
contemporary.' Mark is supervisor of the catalogue, and I'm honored to
be working with him, and the goal is to make Strictly a force in the
contemporary dance music world again.
RS: Can we look forward to the remixes of all the classics?
Simon Dunmore: There is going be an element of that, but it's going
to be about finding new talent as Strictly was famous for back in the
day.
RS: And I'm assuming we'll get all this on iTunes, Beatport, and
all the other online distributors?
Simon Dunmore: It will be available on your Beatports, TraxSources,
Xpressbeats, and wherever people buy digital downloads.
Mark Finkelstein: Simon is going to design a website like he's done
to sell music directly along with traditional distribution. Simon's
taught me this more than anything else, that one of the future revenue
streams of a record or a music company will be from several different
revenue streams. You can't call it a record company because nobody
buys records. Streams such as digital distribution through a third
party, in-house distribution, marketing, merchandising events,
anything that we can brand up, and strategic alliances and ways to
make money for a music company. Defected just recently launched their
website and it's gotten rave reviews. They've got a tremendous number
of eyeballs going through it and they're doing very, very well selling
their music directly, and that'll be a part of it as well.
RS: Mark, I want to take you back to the day a bit. From my
research it seems like the first really major huge smash you had
crossover-wise was Reel to Real's "I Like to Move It." Apparently
this was the first big check that you gave to producer Erick Morillo,
something like $500,000.
Mark Finkelstein: $390,000.
RS: What was in your mind when you wrote that check over?
Mark Finkelstein: I loved it because I also made $390,000. Are you
kidding? We got $780,000 from EMI, and I wrote him a check for that
amount and he and I both smiled and had a great time with it. That
was the biggest paycheck I'd ever had up to that date and that's why
he and I are very close friends to this day. Not because of that, but
because of the great tradition we have of friendship and working
together.
RS: You've mentioned Ultra Nate, Venga Boys, Reel 2 Real.
Thinking back over the years, what were the biggest Strictly records?
When you think of Strictly, which are the biggest records in your
mind, and not necessarily the biggest commercial successes?
Mark Finkelstein: Logic's "The Warning" was the record that got us
noticed. That was the first and it was deep house …
Simon Dunmore: It's classic house. In those days, house music
didn't really have subgenres - it was just house music.
Mark Finkelstein: Logic's "The Warning" got us noticed and Roger
Sanchez's Underground Solution record got us on the map and was a very
important record. Then of course Kenny Dope came in with The
Untouchables and we can't forget that DJ Pierre and Todd Terry gave us
some great music. Then we put out Josh Wink's first record, "E
Culture" with King Britt. Then Erick Morillo's Reel to Reel project
and Barbara Tucker's "Beautiful People" and River Ocean featuring
India's "Love and Happiness" was a monster and we were on fire.
Domestically in the US, in the mid 90s, we had Planet Soul's "Set You
Free" which was huge, the biggest selling single I ever put out in the
United States.
