No genre of electronic music is generating as much interest right now as drum & bass. Artists of the genre headline festivals and their songs are becoming world anthems. Respected entities Deadbeats and Brownies & Lemonade have even joined forces to celebrate the genre with a new album.
Brownies & Lemonade takes the pulse of electronic music trends, while Deadbeats is a label known for subverting expectations. The two sides lined up to celebrate the latest drum & bass revolution with a compilation album, Deadbeats + DNBNL Present: D&BB&L's first foray into music release.
American fans' obsession with the genre may seem like a new discovery, but it's an old artifact that has always thrived beneath the surface of our culture.
“I don't think that sound was that nebulous or foreign to American culture,” said Brownies & Lemonade creative director Chad Kenney. EDM.com. 'When we go back to the '90s, house and drum & bass are the fundamental bases of electronic music in North America. You can even go back to my childhood. He Powerpuff Girls The main theme is a drum and bass warmer. You go back to PlayStation 1. You don't notice all this stuff because it's not in the foreground.”
“The seeds have always been there in North American culture, but for it to permeate and be something where Fred is back on the main stage playing drum & bass or Marshmello playing drum & bass, it was a matter of time.” “It's very likely that some of these artists will step up in the last few years and say, 'Hey, I'm going to do a whole set with this.'”
The compilation is the first for Brownies & Lemonade. Deadbeats' involvement in curating the project was a crucial but Herculean task even for a seasoned music label. Deadbeats + DNBNL Present: D&B It took two and a half years to put it together. It's a huge workload compared to Deadbeats' six-month schedule for similar projects.
“It's a monstrous task to sync 15 scheduled artists, make sure you have the windows open,” said Deadbeats label manager Harrison Bennett. “From the label's point of view, it's really about being as flexible as possible and being as available as possible to all of these artists.”
“Deadbeats was always created to reflect what a Zeds Dead set is like because it's a Zeds Deads label. They're very genre agnostic and very fluid in whatever they're playing. Deadbeats will still be in that realm. We're going to make a a little bit of dubstep, a little bit of bass, maybe some house music. We will be everywhere. “We are very difficult to pin down.”
Brownies & Lemonade have been shaking up the events scene with their renegade style of pop-up shows. It's a delicate balancing act growing a company so deeply attached to an underground ethos.
“There are a lot of risks in terms of security and things being shut down if you do things in a non-traditional way. If you do things in a renegade way,” Kenney said. “Obviously, for most of our events, the way we do them is traditional, it's allowed and it's completely legitimate. But sometimes we do something a little more left, a little more secretive and reminiscent of our warehouse days. I think there is also a lot of risk not only in the event but in… the perception. Many things are perception.”
“A lot of people may have heard the name Brownies & Lemonade, but they think we're a big events company. The 'huge' thing is the subjective part. Is it infrastructure? Are they your followers on social networks? So when they come to a renegade pop-up with ISOxo in the middle of San Francisco in an abandoned bunker, I think some people think, 'Is this a produced event?'”
“I think people are surprised to see how real and community-based what we're doing is. I think the question is whether the 'big developers' still have the ability to do things that are so renegade and open to the community. We try to strike a good balance , but I think it's a challenge that a lot of promoters will face because the bigger you get, the more you lose touch with your core audience.”
c/o Press
Community building is the foundation of BNL's success. Keeping that core experience alive is critical to the vision, no matter how far the group goes.
“Identity has always been tied to music and community,” Kenney said. “Music was that sticker where people felt that if you cared and were more detail-oriented when listening, it said something about your values and the way you approach life.
“That's why we work so well with Deadbeats. It's because we identified something that they're doing, especially with their events and music, aimed at a certain type of person who digs a little deeper beneath the surface and cares about the music and what that exemplifies.”
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“It seemed like a really fun event,” Harrison chimed in. “The way things were executed and how things were healed. It seemed so unique and necessary at the time. They have done a very good job fostering relationships with artists from the beginning of artist projects to extremely large artists like Skrillex. They have such a close relationship with a lot of these groups that they can call them at any time, within a week, and say, 'Hey, we're throwing this party at a random warehouse.' Do you want to come here? No, we will not announce you in the lineup. The artist doesn't care about that and the fans who show up don't care about that. “It's a unique angle on this scene.”
“We have always taken great care to ensure that the artists we work with feel part of this family. That they feel supported at the level of release, tour and merchandising or whatever the artist wants to help develop their presence in the markets. “I think we’ve found a very kindred spirit in what Brownies does at that level.”
You can find Deadbeats + DNBNL Present: D&B on streaming platforms here.
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