'Dropping Spanners': An Interview with 40GRIT Records
A few months ago, a new venture exploded onto to scene in a flurry of breaks, hi-vis, wubs and polyfilla. 40GRIT Records, the combined efforts of Scart Lead and Toerag, was born, promising the freshest talent from producers up and down the country.
Beginning with their free download series, the label has quickly advanced to the point of physical releases, with their first vinyl featuring Denham Audio and Groovy D.
This Friday at Leeds venue Hifi, the 40GRIT boys will be taking their first steps into the events world, with their debut party 'The First Fix'. Powered by Rebel Spirit Sound, the night promises hard hitting hammers from across the spectrum - from dubstep to jungle.
We had chat with the lads to get beneath the hard hats, and to find out what drives their operation.
How did 40GRIT first come about?
We both like tunes and work on the tools so thought we'd take the bits that we like from the industry and put it into a label whilst leaving all the less desired parts on site.
What did you want to achieve when you first set up the label? We originally set out to be stocked by the best distributors in the game, Screwfix, Toolstation and Travis Perkins. Unfortunately this hasn’t happened as quickly as we hoped, but we have made some achievements we are proud of, all down to the talented artists that have been kind enough to work with us.
Tell us about your upcoming event in Leeds this Friday.
On Friday we've teamed up with our mate Dave (Tracks Magazine) to put on a no mucking about affair at HiFi. We are bringing in the full stack of Rebel Spirit Sound to give the foundations a run for their money, propa chest rattling business. We wanted to get some of our favourite Leeds powerhouses so Groovy D and Savvy will be bringing the noise. We then have the bassweight connoisseur Rareman on an exclusive dubstep to Jungle set. As well as this we want to bring labels together as its what the scene is about, so Liverpool's finest Outhouse Sounds and Local heavyweights Gimme A Break are gonna be dropping spanners.
Your first vinyl release is on the horizon. Was this always something you wanted to do as a label?
We both love that sweet spot of garage and breaks combined so thought we would get 2 of the best in each field and put them on an EP together (Denham Audio & Groovy D). It was one of the first things we did when setting up and it was released the other day on a limited vinyl only run. We are lucky our artwork has stayed in a similar style since sending it out to press so it fits in comfortably with the other releases.
What do you have in store for us after your first physical? Ideally we want to collaborate with either Makita, Gold Screws, Oakey Sandpaper or Dewalt. These all lead the path for the scene and are permanently on the cutting edge of the next big thing. What's one tip that you would you give to DIY labels starting out?
Make sure you get a PayPal business account not a personal one!
