Last year, I found this amazing Dutch label & curator by accident. Diving deeper into Vokall Records, I found so many matches - from their love for Tom Misch, FKJ, Jordan Rakei, Anderson .Paak, etc. as a curator, to working as a label with delightful acts around the world - like Tally Schwenk & Synga.
They recently signed an exciting new publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music and dropped by for a chat to share more about it, as well as their vision and future plans.
Make sure to follow them @vokallrecords.
So, how did Vokall Records start?
We, Jerome and Guillaume, just used it as the record label name for our own project called Keys & Copper. We learned how to promote and get traction for new releases through working on Keys & Copper and by collaborating with our distributor LAB Music. When we got our own first successful playlist with Funky House, and later on Dinner Chill, we noticed a lot of artists started reaching out for support by promoting their music. That is when we first started thinking about signing artists other than just working on our own projects.
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Why did you choose this name? I know you also release instrumental-only music.
We can't exactly remember to be honest;). We've just been using it for quite some time. We do believe though that a song's success is really dependent on the quality of the vocal. But when developing the label and expanding the musical range later on, we indeed release instrumental stuff like lo-fi.
If you had to put Vokall's mission in a nutshell, what would that be?
Our mission is to support and discover quality pop and house music with a soul, funk, jazz edge to it from artists all around the world. We want to offer them a fair deal and help them gain traction. And whilst doing so further develop the tools to support them, like our playlists.
Tell us about your recent publishing deal with Warner Chappell.
We have been working with the A&R's of Warner Chappell for some years already and feel they - through this new collaboration - could offer an additional channel to promote and monetize Vokall releases in. And we think it could be good for our artists to get more briefings, writing camps, and sync pitches that might lead to exciting opportunities in the future.
From left to right: Luca Sarsanszky (A&R manager, Warner Chappell Music), Guillaume Warmerdam (Label manager, Vokall Records), Jeroen Slutter (A&R manager, Vokall Records), Aron van der Ploeg (Sync & licensing manager, Warner Chappell Music), Arno van Berkel (Managing director, Warner Chappell Music)
What's the most exciting story you had while working with an artist?
The story of discovering Flo Naegeli we really like. He just submitted some music to us through SubmitHub if we remember correctly.
We reached out to him feeling it was a great quality he was delivering. Our relationship had been great ever since and we have helped him finish the songs he sometimes was afraid to share with the world and generated millions of streams, editorial playlist support, and a new audience.
Share a bit about the journey of Synga so far and what else you have planned.
Well, we are based in Amsterdam, Synga lives nearby in Haarlem. We got to know her through shared friends and found out she's steadily working on her musical profile. Earlier this year we released her debut ep with pretty good results as New Music Friday support on Spotify. Next to promoting her music online, we are working together on social media and radio promotion. She will be playing The Netherlands' best showcase festival to get traction as an artist called 'Popronde' and we will keep working with her to make sure the right releases are sent into the world. Excited to see how far we can bring this!.
If you had the chance to work with any artist, who would that be?
I guess the obvious choice for us would be FKJ or Tom Misch. Or Anderson .Paak. We support a lot of their music and really like their sound, songwriting, and production.
Someday hopefully!
Tell us a bit more about your A&R work - how do you scout for new talent?
Jerome, who does our A&R, usually finds some hidden gems from wherever in the world. This could be by them reaching out to us or him or someone else on the team discovering an artist by chance. If we all like the artist and feel it would be a match with Vokall we start the process of talking to the artist to see where and on what music we can work together. Whilst doing that Jerome is really involved in selecting the right tracks and coaching the artist where needed to get to music to where we feel it should be.
There's a lot of talent in the Netherlands, I'm personally a big fan of acts like Room Eleven, Joya Mooi, Finn Silver, etc. What's unique about the Dutch music scene, in your opinion?
It's a bit hard to say what is unique about the Dutch as we are Dutch ourselves :) but we would guess we are open to trying new styles and ready to go out into the world and try to make it work. And the production level is pretty decent in the Netherlands we feel. There are quite some big and successful producers and songwriters around raising the bar for the rest.
Aside from a label, you're also a curator - what's your vision there?
We are really not as data-driven as some other playlist networks. We just need to feel the music and think it is a fit for Vokall's sound.
A sound we are developing and fine-tuning as we go. A playlist just needs to have a good flow where you are always keen to hear the next track without wanting to skip the previous.
We live in such an interesting music era. How do you see the music industry evolving in the past couple of years? And where is it going, in your opinion?
The music industry never gets boring does it!? ;) It is going to be interesting how the battle for subscribers continues between Spotify, Amazon, Apple, Youtube, and Tiktok. The streaming and playlists we feel are here to stay but the form they take and how much influence you have on them as a label really depends on the platform you are working with. YouTube might just become the biggest platform for music (if it is not already).
What advice would you give to up-and-coming artists - in terms of creating music and working with labels & curators?
Find your own niche! Don't try to do what others are already doing.
As a final, what should we expect on the Vokall Records front in the near future?
We just want to steadily grow by supporting quality artists. We are not going for quantity but for quality.
We want to build a strong catalog and playlist network that will form a decent basis for many years of great Vokall Records music and playlist to come.
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