Label Love #4: Is It Balearic?

Is It Balearic? have been putting out top dollar music for the last 7 years. Helmed by Timm and Ampo who also make up Coyote, they've steadily churned out slabs of the good stuff from the likes of Max Essa, The Deadstock 33s and The Hardway Brothers, most of it swathed in a particular chugging, slo mo fug. Having just released Coyote's third album, Glide Time, we sat down for a chat with the two label heads to talk keeping it Balearic through the Nottingham winters, the pros and cons of running a label in the modern world, artwork and dream releases… there's also an Influences piece on R$N TV that you can check here.

Hello. What made you initially decide to start Is It Balearic?, what was the drive behind it?

Timm: It was a vehicle to release Coyote EPs. We had been producing music pretty much for a year or two before we started IIB and felt doing it ourselves was better than sending demos and waiting for a reply that never came.

Youve been running Is It Balearic? since 2006 with over 30 releases to date –  what are the things you like most and least about running the label?

Increased costs and distributors going bust owing you 1500 quid is the downside.

Plus side is just the pleasure of putting really good records out that we love and connecting with like minded people all over the world.

Theres a broad musical palette at play throughout the back catalogue of the label, if you were to isolate one particular thing that yolks together the music released on Is It Balearic? what would it be?

Well we try and produce well rounded releases with interesting remixers. The common thread maybe is that me and ampo can see something in the tracks that we identify with.

How do you find most of the music for the label, is it through a network of friends, through unsolicited demos, both?

Both really

Tell us about the new Coyote album, how long was it in the making?

The album took a couple of years to put together. Some of the tracks came about pretty quickly in the final stages and some had been around for a while. It is a little more electronic but still has all the coyote sounds. Samples and a dub influences a little less acoustic sounding than the last lp.

Who does the artwork for the label, I see that Andi Hanley did the great art for the new Coyote LP Glide Time, is he someone youve worked with before? Who designed your logo?

Christophe from futureboogie does all the label artwork. Andi is someone we asked to do the lp artworks because we wanted something unique and original. Andi's illustrations are something else!

Being based in Nottingham, how do you channel the spirit of balearic bliss come the cold grey days of mid January?

Estrella and Youtube and the Ku fanpage on facebook.

What would be the one track youd most love to release from throughout recorded musical history?

Sister Sledge – Thinking Of You maybe But ask me tomorrow and it would probably be something else.

Final question has to be: Is It Balearic?

Always

Coyote's Glide Time is out now, you can buy it on this here link.

Keep up to speed over on that there soundcloud thing too.