Steve Aoki's long-running Dim Mak label has a new president, with Lorne Padman — vp of the imprint for the last decade — taking over. In the role, Los Angeles-based Padman will oversee strategy for the imprint, which was founded by Aoki in 1996 while a student at UC Santa Barbara.
Dim Mak's current roster includes producers such as Henry Fong, Chyl, Ookay, Deorro, Cash Cash, Cheyenne Giles, Sikdope, 4B and more, with upcoming releases from Ray Ray, Mila Falls, Nostalgix and Aoki and collaborative project Afroki by Afrojack, among others. .
“During Lorne's ten years as vice president, he was an integral part of the label's success story,” says Aoki. Advertising sign. “His ability to cultivate strong relationships within the industry has been critical in elevating Dim Mak's brand reputation. I am confident that Lorne's leadership and hard work will continue to steer the label towards further growth and excellence.”
Padman says Advertising sign that for him, the health and vitality of the label is demonstrated by the fact that artists from across the roster collaborate frequently, without pressure from management. “To me,” he says, “that's an indication that we must be doing something right if we're creating an ecosystem of talent that all want to work with each other and get along socially and musically.”
These artists make many different styles of electronic music, with Dim Mak focusing less on cultivating a specific sound and more on releasing compelling, relevant product. The idea, says Padman, is to offer a “complementary roster of different sounds, from really fresh underground and cool and new. But also, a bit like a financial portfolio, you can't just do moonshots, you also have to have some established things that will protect our reputation and can also financially open up the possibility of being able to make changes to emerging artists.”
Take swings is built into Dim Mak's business model, with the label's New Noise imprint having released music from an entirely new artist every two weeks for the past decade. This structure gives artists what is often their first official release, giving them the boost to Dim Mak's visibility while helping the label identify emerging sounds and trends. Overall, says Padman, it's “an avenue to market growth artists who are potentially too small for some other labels.”
Padman brings decades of experience to the role, having DJ'd in Australia for 18 years. (“Only with six Saturdays off,” he says.) He was part of the development teams for the first releases from Avicii and The Chainsmokers and also has experience in management, radio, television, production and songwriting.
This history gives him the ability to speak the same language as the artists and offer feedback in technical terms. But, he says, “I feel like I only have 49% of the vote” on the creative decisions any artist or team member — which includes A&R, video, marketing, social media and art direction staff — must make.
“I want artists to feel good and empowered, and I definitely don't want to feel like Dim Mak is a distributor and that we're not adding any value,” she says. “But at the same time, I don't want them to feel like they're being told what to be, because they have to choose it themselves.”
Padman's previous label experience includes a run as national promotions and label manager at Australia's Vicious Recordings, where he was working when he met Aoki. “At the time I felt Vicious was pretty successful,” says Padman, “then Steve said something to the effect of, 'But nobody wears a Vicious T-shirt.' That stuck in my head. People will wear Dim Mak shirts and get Dim Mak tattoos, but no one wears Sony or Warner or Universal or Republic shirts. There are labels and lifestyle labels. I always have to be aware of the fact that Dim Mak is a lifestyle company.”
Padman also has a close working relationship with the dance/electronic categories at the Grammys, having co-written submissions including the one that introduced the Dance Pop category at last year's awards.
“I've always felt it's more about reputation than anything really,” he says of his and Dim Mak's place in the wider industry ecosystem. “I have always felt this way if I could live my life through the four principles [of coaching expert Dan Sullivan] show up on time, do what I say I'm going to do, finish what I start and say please and thank you, then I'll be under report.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/dim-mak-label-president-lorne-padman-steve-aoki/
