This Saturday, April 13, sees the Clashmouth Drum & Bass Market return to House Of Vans, London.
Now in their third consecutive year, it’s another rare opportunity to catch such a vast cross section of labels, artists and fans together in one real life place where you can support our scene where it counts and get ahead of the queue for exclusive releases, limited edition vinyl, new merch lines and plenty more.
Cutting out the online middle men, Clashmouth guarantees your money goes directly to the people who work tirelessly to keep the genre alive and evolving. Live sets, panels and workshops will be also held throughout the day while 26 of the finest and most authoritative labels in D&B history – ranging from Hospital to Reinforced by way of RAM, Inperspective, Dread, Critical, Rua Sounds and beyond – will be representing and packing serious specials. Most of the stalls will be run by the label founders and artists themselves, meaning a fair few bonafide legends will be in the building.
Clashmouth takes place from 1pm-6pm this Saturday. In the meantime we spoke to another legend, one of the Clashmouth founders Chris Inperspective to hear how this unique seasonal event came to be, what benefits such an event has and how the event is also raising money for Music Minds Matter. Get to know…
Introduce us to Clashmouth – What is Clashmouth and why did it begin?
About four years ago, myself and many other people who ran events at the time, would all have these events placed on the same night. This problem would often happen, causing all of the events to clash. It just made me think, how if we just all sat down and started speaking to each other, then we would be able to either have events on in different nights, or even collaborate. This was how Clashmouth originally was born.
After a while, the idea adapted and grew. We started seeing how label markets were selling vinyl (and a bunch of other things) for labels, but mainly focused on house and techno. There was a realisation that there was nothing like this for drum and bass. So it sparked our interest in doing drum and bass markets.
What is the aim for Clashmouth?
We want these markets to help out labels, often those that are completely underground. Not every label is in the spotlight, and Clashmouth is a way that all labels and all drum and bass fans can come together and can find new labels. With finding these new labels, they can also support the brands and discover more music. On occasion it was noted, that some can earn three months worth of online sale in a day! The revenue generated via the market, will help them grow and that’s what we’ll like to see. We want to help all jungle and drum & bass.
How have past events gone, is the aim becoming a reality?
We had our first events back in 2017 at Cafe 1001, which went well. At the time we’d only have a handful of labels attending. We then grew in size, having a larger crowd attending the markets and more labels becoming involved. Which was great! We pulled in more workers, and also changed location. Our most recent home for the market is at the House of Vans. Which we’ve hosted three previous markets there, with often one in April and one in October. The spring and winter drum and bass markets. Now we have over 50 labels connected to Clashmouth, with more labels wanting to work with us, although we don’t have enough room at the moment for all to have stalls. We’ve also had to increase the amount of people working behind Clashmouth, to be able to balance everything and to make sure everything is taken care of properly. So we have between 5 and 10 people now who help run Clashmouth.
What can we expect on Saturday>
So on Saturday we host our first market of the year at the House of Vans. In the Cinema Room we have Education & Bass taking over to provide production and feedback workshops. So bring your music. And of course the market stalls within the main area including 26 labels from the biggest within the scene to the underground. It’s a great way to discover new labels and music.
Could you tell us some of the labels in attendance?
You have loads! You have Hospital Records and Med School which have been to our previous markets. You have Viper Recordings which is there first time attending the market. You have Critical Music, RAM Records and many others. As well as underground labels such as Inperspective Records, Diffrent Music Nomine Sound, Trouble on Vinyl and a host of great brands, You’ll have to check the flyer for them all.
How about the talks?
So as I’ve previously said, you have Education & Bass in the Cinema Room. But, we have AIM providing talks on licensing and sync, which will be great for labels wanting to generate alternative revenue streams. There will also be an MC panel, which will be hosted by Goldenchild MC. That will have guests such as Visionobi, MC Fokuz, Miss Trouble, Sense MC and many others.
Are there any artists which will be confirmed to attend this event?
There aren’t any artists confirmed to attend, but artists will definitely turn up. At previous events of ours we’ve had Pola & Bryson, Fracture, GLXY and others. We’ve even had Marc Mac turn up at one of our events, which was intimidating to everyone! Having a legend in the scene walk around you, definitely gives you a weird feeling. We’re not worthy!
This event, just like previous, is linked up with Music Minds Matter charity. What made Clashmouth select that charity, and how can people get involved?
When it comes to Clashmouth, we aren’t looking to make money from it, in fact we’re pretty transparent with our earnings. We wanted a way to generate money from the drum and bass scene to help others. Music Minds Matters was first introduced to us, when we sadly lost Apex – also known for being one half of Unknown Error, due to suicide. Since then we’ve supported Music Minds Matter, with raising money for the charity via raffle tickets and online JustGiving campaigns.
Get involved: Clashmouth takes place April 13, House Of Vans, London. Details.
