Exactly two years on from releasing ‘Two Sides of Everything’, Riya & Collette Warren release the full remix album ‘More Sides of Everything’, featuring remixes from Bladerunner, Paul T & Edward Oberon, Myth, Acuna, The Vanguard Project, Phaction, Georgia Phoenix and two VIP’s from L-Side & Sl8r, set to drop on October 13th 2023.
The 5 singles have been making headway over the summer, with support from DJ Marky, Doc Scott, Loxy, Sigma, Roni Size, Voltage, Serum, Natty Lou, Conrad Subs, Telomic, Random
Movement, Charli Brix and many more. The album also features the Luke Truth vocal VIP of ‘Surrender’ which was produced by Phil:osophy and features Tali. Back in 2021 Carnelian Music did a competition for a vocal re-do of ‘Surrender’ where the verse’s were taken out and we asked vocalists and MCs to replace with their version and submit. The winner was Luke Truth, who then went on to release ‘The Way’ with Motiv in 2022 on the label.
‘Two Sides of Everything’ was sponsored by ‘PRS Women Make Music’ and went on to receive 5 nominations at the Drum &; Bass Arena Awards in 2021 (Best Album, Best Single, Best Artwork, Best Vocalists, Best New Label, so Riya & Collette are delighted to deliver this remix project to you which involves good friends of theirs, as well as brand new artists they have never collaborated with before.
In this interview, Riya & Collette get together for a chat and interview each other about about the first couple of years running a label, what they’ve learnt and how it’s been generally etc, and of course they talk about the remix album ‘More Sides of Everything’
Collette: So Riya, it’s been exactly 2 years since the launch of Carnelian Music and the release of ‘Two Sides of Everything’, tell us, how has it been for you?
Riya: On the label-side: eye-opening haha. I have so much more respect for labels now that I know just what’s involved in running a label and putting music out there. But I’m so glad we did it though because we’ve grown and learned so much professionally and personally.
What I love the most is that off the back of releasing the album and starting the label, we’ve not only brought new artists through which has been a beautiful thing to do, but we’ve been able to gig together around the world, we’ve hosted a vocalist stage at Sun and Bass, released our own custom carnelian merch, crop tops & dresses with sewdnb, made our own podcasts, and now we even have our own Kool FM radio show. So yeah I never thought any of this would happen as a result of making that album so to look back at how far we’ve come makes me smile.
Riya: What about you Collette, how does it feel to be a label owner?
Collette: It feels great actually, we have both been working in D&B for 12 + years and raving to it for 20 + years, so to be working behind the scenes now, and like Riya says, helping other artists come through, is really special and rewarding. Like you, I also now have a lot more sympathy for record labels now because it ain’t easy haha, there is a lot of admin and things you have to do that you don’t even think about as an artist, but I love that we are putting our own stamp on D&B and having full creative control, and obviously it helps that I’m not doing it on my own, and I’m doing it with you, my best friend and soul sister, so we bounce off each other don’t we, and I might have an idea that you wouldn’t, and vice versa. But don’t get me wrong, owning a label comes with its challenges.
Collette: Riya, with that in mind, what are some of the challenges Carnelian has faced in the past 2 years?
Riya: One of the first major challenges we had was with the album vinyl pressing back in 2021. We ordered it and it was meant to be delivered in September of 2021, but due to a worldwide shortage of materials as a result of Covid, and because the major labels kept taking priority at vinyl pressing plants, they didn’t get delivered until April 2022. April 2022!! That’s an extra 8 months that we had to keep our customers waiting. Every month that passed we were waiting for good news, but it just kept getting postponed. Then we were told the original price we paid had doubled. So we lost money. Honestly, we were so stressed, especially as this was new to us. Thankfully, all of our fans were very understanding and only one person asked for a refund. But we said after that, we’re not doing vinyl again for a long, long time!
Some of the other challenges we’ve had just come with starting and running a new label, like all the admin that comes with putting a tune out, the cataloging, accounting, contracts, royalty splits, the artwork, mastering etc. There’s a lot of steps involved and there were moments where we thought, this was a bad idea haha.
Building up a reputation and followers from scratch, finding new artists & music to put out there that you believe in, and just generally finding ways to promote that music are all challenges. Knowing what people will like and won’t is also hard. So it’s a bit of a gamble when it’s your own money you’re investing, and you have to be in it for the right reasons to want to keep going, and try not to overspend.
I’d also say that being heard and cutting through the sheer amount of music that’s out there is tough, even more so if you’re promoting liquid or a new artist. People tend to listen to the labels and artists they know, and also right now people seem to want the harder side of D&B and we’ve had to adapt to that to make some money back.
Riya: And Collette, what’s been the highlights?
Collette: Of course our first release ‘Two Sides of Everything’ but also we have a USP where it’s vocalists first, so with Gemma Rose, Luke Truth & Stuart Rowe, it’s their names first on the release, where it’s usually the producer first featuring the vocalist, so we have flipped the rule book and done it the other way round, which I’m sure has ruffled some feathers in the scene, but we are proud of what we have done and we are champions for the vocalists! Another highlight was being nominated the last 2 years for Best New label at the DNBA awards, we actually can’t believe people have voted for us 2 years in a row, and in fact it’s that time again soon, so feel free to vote for us again everyone as this year is the last chance we will get in the Best New Label category hehe.
Collette: Riya, has the direction Carnelian has gone in been what you thought it would be?
Riya: In many ways, no. I think we were probably naive with our vision and intentions. When we started Carnelian Music, other than releasing our album, the main intention was to push new vocalists and MCs and to release regularly. We were going to do various artist EPs and albums, but the reality is it’s so hard to do that, unless you have a huge pot of money, and time. Which we don’t. I guess we also thought we’d release just vocal-led liquid mostly, but so far, it hasn’t really cut through in the way we’d hoped, for whatever reason, and so we had to pause things to release some of our own music which a harder dancefloor edge as that’s what’s popular now, before moving back to the original plan again.
Riya: Collette, tell us how the remix project idea came about?
Collette: I think it’s something we always talked about doing, even when we were writing the original album, it seems to be the way forward now and most labels are doing remix albums, and it was a chance to give the tracks that maybe didn’t get as much attention the first time round, a chance to shine, and some of the more chilled ones, a dance floor edge so we could could play them out more and ultimately other DJ’s would too as that is what is popular right now. And also we just wanted to keep the Two Sides movement going haha, plus it was another chance for us to take the album on tour, as we love performing together, and we’ve had a bunch of amazing gigs together off the back of it. We just played at Sun & Bass to over a thousand people and it was our best one yet wasn’t it?
Collette: Riya, tell us about some of the people who are involved, how it came about?
Riya: Most of the people involved are good friends like Paul T & Edward Oberon, The Vanguard Project, Myth, Acuna, Phaction, L-Side etc, but then there’s Bladerunner who we really wanted to remix Vices, and thanks to Whiney, we were able to make that happen. The Luke Truth remix of ‘Surrender ’is a result of him winning the Carnelian Music ‘Surrender’ vocalist competition two years ago, where we asked vocalists to remix the original track. This was his version, which we love.
Riya: Collette, how have these remixes been going down? Any special moments for you?
Collette: In some way we feel like the remixes have actually done better and been played more by DJ’s, we got fully repped at Sun & Bass which was nice, even Loxy rewound the ‘All For Something’ VIP in his closing set and it was right at the end, and his only rewind of the night, and obvs I got up and sang it haha! Sadly you (Riya) had left by then booooo! Also the Bladerunner remix of ‘Vices’ reached the top 10 in the Beatport charts which we were so buzzing about, in fact we were just buzzing that Bladerunner even did the remix for us! And we’ve had support from DJ Marky, Doc Scott, Serum, Voltage, Sigma, Roni Size, Loxy, Natty Lou, Nymfo and a bunch more, we are so happy about that!
Collette: Riya, it’s been so fun performing our album for the last 2 years, and now the remixes, but we have our first set together as you djing and me hosting, can you tell the audience more about that? And is this something you would like to continue doing?
Riya: Yes, we just had our first set at Fabio’s night Tribe at XOYO for the godfather that is Fabio! Big up Charlotte Devaney and Fabio for asking us down to perform, and all of the crew that performed that night. It was a dream come true, genuinely. Yeah I definitely hope we do more of this as I think it plays to our natural strengths. You love being on the mic and up front, and I love finding mixes and blends, and to do it together is just perfect as it’s always so much fun! Plus I think being a vocalist myself and then DJing, means I think about the set from a vocalists perspective, which is to make sure you like and know some of the songs, and to make sure it’s not full of vocals so you can shine. I know as a vocalist who used to be a host, how rare that is in a DJ, and so I make it my mission to do that for you!
Riya: Collette, shall we tell them what we have in store for Carnelian?
Collette: Oooohh yes! So we both have another solo release due on the label, we also have another single from our Gemma Rose who us is absolutely smashing it right now and we couldn’t be prouder! We are also looking at doing some Carnelian Music nights in Bristol and beyond in 2024, where again we will be really supporting vocalists so it will be more like a live night. There’s a big release coming from myself and Riya with a big artist soon, but we can’t say who or what but it’s coming. And eventually do a Carnelian songwriting camp, I mean, everyone else is right? But one step at a time, let’s get this album out first hehe!
Collette: Riya, any shouts?
Riya: Shouts to Seb at Skank & Bass & Glitch Audio for the premieres; Michael at Sketchbook Design for the incredible artwork; Haden Ill Truth, Drew Villem, Fabio Alibi, and Teebee for mastering; the promoters that’s booked us for a show this past year; to Charlotte Devaney & Fabio; to Stefano at Sun and Bass; DJ Marky for always supporting our tunes; Doc Scott for the same; to Gareth at SRD our distributor for helping us out no end; Mikey at Dispatch for the press release help; Jess at Kool FM for giving us a show; and our publishers – S2K.
Riya: Collette, any shouts?
Collette: As well as all the people you said, got to shout out Ben Soundscape for being our DJ, we couldn’t do it without you. Shouts to all the remixers and producers on this album, shouts to UKF and Whisky for letting us take the reins and do this piece, and of course everyone that is supporting us, we appreciate you! And thanks for taking the time to read this, bless you.
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