iCrates travelled to West London to meet Alley Cat and talk about her label Kokeshi, from the early days of drum n bass digging in America, the gentle beginning of a label intended for her own productions, to the discovery of inspiring new producers that are helping to take the label to the next level.
Tell us a bit about who you are and how you came to be Alley Cat.
I’m American from California, San Francisco. I moved to London in 1999. The Alley Cat name was something my friends called me before the DJing thing started, it was more of a joke and we all had funny names. Because my first name is Alicia and my second name is Katherine. It was all very tongue in check, but the nickname for me stuck even after the novelty of this joke wore off. When I started DJing in 97 I decided this was going to be my name because it was my nickname already.
How did you start DJIng and what was the thing that pushed you into it?
The thing that pushed me into DJing was my love for vinyl. I always had vinyl all my life and my older brother as well. He was a big vinyl collector and got me into a lot of bands. But then I got into drum n bass, started to collect loads of vinyl and I’d go to the shops on Fridays, when they put out their promos. I would hit up different shops to get the newest thing that was coming out. All the DJs would be there, at the time I knew a few but then the people at the shops I would run into, just assumed I was a DJ because I was buying all this vinyl and putting it on my credit card. It was really naughty, because I didn’t have any money at the time. I went out to a lot of parties as well and I watched what the DJs were doing, I thought it was really cool but I never thought I would be the type of person to go for it. So after a year, I thought I would just try and didn’t tell anybody. At the end I got one Technics turntable and a really crap stereo system from the 80s, I got a mixer from a friend of mine, a techno DJ, that was putting all his material in a pawn shop because he had no money. Then I got some old speakers from another guy, so basically I put this system together, with one good deck and a shitty deck and we just started practicing at home. I guess, I didn’t want to announce it until I was serious about it.
But was it drum n bass from the get go?
Well, I was really into the mid 90s electronica, like trip hop and hip hop as well, the DJ Shadow Endtroducing album, Doctor Octagon and stuff like that. So it was kind of a mixed bag, really. Also a lot of the parties that I would go to were mixed genre parties. But when I finally played out the first time it was a drum n bass set.
After you became a DJ, was the idea of music production already there?
No, I didn’t really think that far ahead and didn’t give myself enough credit that I would be able to do that.
I really love DJing, so I was really focused into improve my craft and my mixing. Obviously when you are younger you are trying to figure out what you want to do with your life and make enough money to survive, so I was juggling all that.
Back then it wasn’t as easy to produce, there was only the hardware, there wasn’t the flexibility there is now. I had one friend that was a proper producer and she had all the gear, but I wouldn’t have dreamed to say help me or I want to learn. I was still getting my head around DJing. But when I moved to London in 99 I joined up with the Skunkrock Productions crew. They decided that the next single would be me and this other guy and they just threw me into the deep end of a studio with this pressure to get a record out quickly. So, that was my first experience and I guess that’s why it took me a long time to get going now, because at the beginning it wasn’t so much about playing around for fun, it was more you and this guy having to get something together.
Tha Countamen & Alley Cat – Payload (Konflict Remix) – Skunkrock Productions
You moved to the U.K. in ’99, when the whole drum n bass thing was exploding. Were drum n bass and the UK music scene the reasons why you moved to London or was there something else?
It was a combination of different things. As I said I linked up with the Skunkrock guys, who were like a mixed bag of German and English, one of the guys Mark is now my husband and we were seeing each other at the time. Mark and another guy were moving to London because they wanted to study, so I could just move in with them, work on the label and some tunes and obviously try out this relationship and see what happens. So I left everything behind, not really thinking that I would still be here all these years down the line. So, it was a combination of music and relationship.
You are also doing the ESP Agency. How long have you been doing it and what drove you into that side of things?
It’s the 15th anniversary this year, but I only got involved around 2004 or 2005, so about seven years. Again, it was also my partner Mark. That was his baby that he started in Germany. He was one of the first people to bring a lot of drum n bass acts to Germany as a promoter and he would try to get the DJs bookings in other places in Germany as well, and it just grew from there. When he moved to London I wasn’t involved for a long time because I didn’t want to be on the business side of things at all. But it got to a point where he could only do so much himself, so somebody had to help and I was there. It’s grown from there a lot since I started working with him.
Have you been involved in any other labels?
The Skunkrock thing was the main one and that finished around the same time I started working with ESP. Our distribution company, Vinyl Distribution, went bankrupt and there was loads of drum n bass labels with them. After that it was basically the end of it, there wasn’t any opportunities to take it anywhere else and Mark wasn’t really interested anymore. Even though I wasn’t officially working for other labels, I did promotion for some other labels and also through the agency, helping people out to promote their stuff.
From there, what experiences did you bring to creating Kokeshi in the end?
Over the years eventually I got to a point where I’m trying to help other people and get involved with other people, but in the end it would be really nice to just do something for myself. I think that’s why finally I got the whole Kokeshi thing going.
Was it from all that experience that you felt confident to do it on your own?
Yes, I felt confident to do it on my own. I had cool music that I discovered, some new artists, I knew the name of the label, I had a logo, I had the design idea, I had all this stuff that came together. I had the whole package ready and then went to the distribution guys and said what I wanted to do, my release schedule, the artwork, the theme of the label, and I took it from there.
Did this have anything to do with your development in music production? Did you want to create Kokeshi for your own music?
After the Offshore track got signed, which I was really happy about, I wanted to carry on producing so I thought it would be a good platform for me to just focus on my own stuff. Originally I just started it to do stuff on Beatport for myself, but within a few months Lung sent me all this stuff so I linked up with him and then Irrelevant, I linked up with him as well. It was a very short period of time between me thinking that I was just going to throw some of my tunes out, just to get them out there, and all of a sudden all this other stuff came together and I started thinking that maybe I should try and push it a little bit further.
Alley Cat – Sweet Spot – Offshore Recordings
Was it finding these new people that made you want to release them, as well as making the switch from digital-only releases onto vinyl in 2009?
There was this sort of vibe to everything that I heard from Lung and from Irrelevant and some other guys who I still haven’t put their stuff out yet. I was starting to develop the podcasts as well and there was a whole spirit coming together of this sound I´m really into, and these guys are making that sound. I just felt like I had a release plan on my mind, what I could do and I felt that it should come out on vinyl.
Since you’ve started releasing vinyl, how would you compare the vinyl sales with the digital sales?
The one thing with digital is that it keeps going on and on, whereas with vinyl, usually you will sell those within the first few months. With the Lung stuff, for example “Afterlife”, that still sells. I don’t know how long that’s gonna go on but I think because that’s the biggest tune so far, it’s gonna carry on as more people discover Lung as he releases for other labels, so it’s gonna carry on. It seems fairly matched I guess.
You’re doing limited pressings as well?
Yes, we’re doing limited pressings. We’re not in the thousands. I think the Calibre remix will do well, more than the others have. The Lung Kryptic Minds remix 12” I had to re-press a couple of hundred more because the first set sold out pretty quickly.
Lung – Afterlife (Kryptic Minds Remix)
Is there any particular reason behind the colored vinyl and is it something you want to keep on doing?
When I did the first vinyl release, which was Lung “Afterlife”, I wasn’t really too concerned with it, I was just happy to get it out and then the next one I wasn’t thinking too much about that as well but then as the interest in the label grew I thought I could maybe take some more risks. Obviously if you see the stuff selling ok then you realize it’s gonna cost more but you want to try and push it a little bit. When this remix 12” came out I wanted it to be as special as possible because I had the Kryptic Minds remix and it was a pretty special release. People seem to like that, I like the way it looks as well. For the next release I’m gonna do colored as well. If it keeps selling then I’ll keep doing it. If I start to loose crazy amounts of money then I probably have to think about it again.
Do you think making your releases colored, limited, and kind of special helps them to stand out in the middle of all the rest?
I think it’s really hard to stand out just in the music business in general nowadays because there’s so much going on, there’s so many people involved, with so many good artists and labels. But in terms of vinyl, I think the people that are buying vinyl at the moment are collectors and they want to have stuff that is cool. It’s not just like the same old thing anymore. I still buy vinyl and I like the stuff on Exit or Autonomic for example, where they’ve got the two sleeves, they’ve got different colors on each thing, the artworks varied, obviously the music is cool as well, I like that. That’s what I would want to buy, and where I would spend my money on. Not that it’s all about the money obviously but I just want it to be interesting for people. It would be great to get to a point where I could start doing different sleeves on every release and hopefully I’ll get to that point, it just depends on how things carry on. But it’s good to mix it up and keep it special.
Obviously within certain scenes vinyl is very important. Dubstep and drum and bass used to be very dubplate based, but that’s changing. Where do you think that vinyl stands at the moment within the worlds of dubstep and drum n bass?
Well the next generation is out there, and they are the ones that are really going out there and buying it, and some of them really want vinyl but don’t have a turntable. It’s not like when I grew up, my parents and my brother had a turntable, there was always one there, so I never had to worry about that. I suppose that if you are a younger person these days, your parents won’t even have a turntable. It’s interesting because with artists, I see people that want to release on Kokeshi and really want it to come out on vinyl, but don’t realize how much time and money it takes to make that happen. Still I don’t see every person out there DJing with vinyl, it seems it´s the both sides of the coin. People want vinyl and people respect vinyl more than digital, but not everyone is playing vinyl.
Since you have so many young people releasing with you, do you think it’s important for them to release on vinyl? Do they really want to release on vinyl?
If it was me and it was my tune I wanted to be out on vinyl. Yeah, I think they want it to come out on vinyl. It’s the achievement that people seem to be aiming for even if they don’t necessarily DJ or perform using vinyl.
So, where does vinyl stand for you?
When you listen to a vinyl there is this analogue sound, there is warmth there that you don’t get on digital. Obviously I do buy a lot of digital to listen on my computer. DJing-wise I enjoy mixing with vinyl and the whole process. I don’t know if that’s the future anymore but obviously I’m going to hang on to it for as long as I can.
How big is your record collection and what does it consist of?
When I moved to London I had to get rid of loads of things. Some of my stuff ended up in various people’s houses over the years and I never saw it again. But a lot of it is drum n bass going back mid 90s. Also 80s that I like too, New Order, Depeche Mode, Ministry, Nu Shooz, that kind of old 80s electro; Kraftwerk, Afrika Bambaataa, Egyptian Lover, that kind of thing. You know those shelves from Ikea? Well, it’s like that and more. I had to get rid of some stuff last time I moved. I’m sure someone like Marcus Intalex probably has twice as many as I do but he didn’t have to move as many times as I had.
What’s next for Kokeshi and Alley Cat?
Well, we just had number 005 coming out, that was Irrelevant’s Better Off In Me, with a Calibre remix, on white vinyl. The next is going to be a single by Bulb, he’s from Russia and it’s called Tenderness, it’s going to be limited to 300 copies, on bright pink vinyl, but I’m still working that out. I’m excited about it! After that it will be Irrelevant’s album, that’s going to be mastered soon. It’s more of a listening album so I’m not sure if that’s going to make it on vinyl. I still have to figure out how to showcase him and see what people want with that one. I’ve just signed some other guys called The Subdivision, one is from Italy and the other from America, one of the tracks is dubstep but not what people think as dubstep. There is also going to be the compilation album with loads of stuff that was featured on the podcasts but never came out, a couple of my favorites from other people that are on Kokeshi. I might do a single from myself and also my track that was on Offshore, its going to be re-released because it never came out digitally, they just did vinyl at the time.
Irrelevant Ft. Brad Sucks – Better Off In Me (Calibre Remix)
