Where are you based?
Montreal, Canada
Where do you work? What do you do?
I run a record label called Hot Tramp
What are you listening to?
I really like Paul Jacobs’ album Pink Dogs On The Green Grass that recently came out and also locally I really like Magi Merlin and am very excited to see what she puts out next.
How do you discover new music?
I’d say mainly social media since my facebook and instagram networks are mostly music folks – this makes my music discovery pretty localized but then since I do most of the PR for my artists I’m often on music blogs hunting for writers so if I see a release that keeps popping up on the sites I like I check them out.
What formats do you usually listen to? LP, CD, Cassette, Digital, Streaming Services? Why?
I listen mainly to streaming services but obviously there is more enjoyment around vinyl – I loooove thrifting for old records and then a lot of my collection was purchased directly from the artists after shows so there is a memory attached to many of them
“there is more enjoyment around vinyl – I loooove thrifting for old records”
Where do you do most of your music listening?
Well these days I’m alwaaaaays at home so home and my set up is not impressive so I won’t bother describing it
How do you find and listen to pre-release music?
I’m constantly sending around pre-releases to press + radio for my artists and for the first time I did a pre-release premiere with Cult MTL for Alicia Clara’s album using the exclusive embed feature bandcamp has. I like the bandcamp pre-release move because it drives folks to that platform where they are more likely to actually buy the music while still giving us release day to push for our spotify streams.
What are your frustrations with listening to music digitally? Any benefits?
My frustrations with digital music would be more money-side than anything just because with the option to stream vs buy a download most people will stream on Spotify and with the low payouts over there it makes it hard to sustain a music career as an indie artist (or label). Initiatives like Bandcamp Friday help push download sales but I have a feeling that will be short lived and end as soon as the initiative does.
“most people will stream on Spotify and with the low payouts over there it makes it hard to sustain a music career as an indie artist (or label)”
How do you keep track of everything you are listening to?
I don’t really keep track of anything – if I really like something it’ll just stick around in my head. I used to playlist things on spotify that I liked and wanted to further explore but then that led to just having 2439 random playlists that I never listen to again so ya I could use a better system.
Do you tip other people off to new music? How?
I mean my job is to sell the music of my artists so yes I’m alwaaays trying to tip people off to listen
Anything you want to “promote”?
YES HAPPY YOU ASKED:
Alicia Clara’s Outsider/Unusual album just came out. You can listen here.
Maryze’s latest single ‘Too Late’
And Janette King’s debut LP What We Lost is coming out June 25th you can pre-order the record here.
And check out her latest single You Don’t Love Me (for which there will be a music video coming out on May 26th) here.
