Cooler Than Cucumbers

When was Cooler Than Cumbers founded?

There is no actual of foundation of the label. I guess we could say it was created ever since the logo was designed by Albane even though the idea and the name of the label was hanging around my mind for quite some time already. So that would give us 1st August of 2009 (one year, already!).?

Where are you based out of?

We are based in the lovely city of Paris where I never get to eat bread nor wear a fancy beret. But our heart lies all over the world, wherever there’s a place for us, music lovers.

Why did you decide to start CTC?

Well, the idea came up while chatting with Rob R-Rock from The Secret Life Of Sound Records (Youth:Kill, PJ Sumroc, Tenshun, Sharkula and many more). He thought that I wanted to start a record label and produce Deeskee because he misread something I said. And then I thought: “Hey, that’s not a bad idea”. I started putting ideas together, if I was to do such a thing it was the perfect timing to do it. So I took some advice from Rob and Pseudzero from Vulgar (Records) who helped a lot too. When I had everything prepared, I decided to look for a graphic artist; I needed a logo that could match up the idea behind the label’s name; it had to be crazy, it had to be cool and it had to burst with musical passion and awesomeness. Only Albane could do such a thing, and she did rocked the shit out of that logo. I decided to create this label because I felt like I had been a fan for too long and I wanted to give back what I received from music. I wanted to help artists to put out their music the best way I could.

AbSUrd 7-inch picture disc

Who did the artwork for your two killer releases (Murmur Breeze and AbSUrd)?

The same artist who did the logo: art-killer Albane / DyN. She’s a really talented graphic artist that will probably never seize to amaze me; every artwork is another shot of happiness for my eyes. Every time she sends me an artwork I open the mail like I’m opening presents at Christmas. She’s been busy making a name for herself in the underground hip-hop community for the last 3-4 years. She has a pretty impressive resume: Existereo, Awol One, Noah 23, The Opus, Avatar, Wormhole and many, many, many others. It’s a pleasure to have her onboard.

Why are there so many awesome European labels out right now?

I don’t have a serious answer to that but all I can say is that I’m happy to see Europeans take the scene to another level of greatness. There’s so many of them, be in Germany with Project Mooncircle and Equinox Records, in Switzerland with Mism and Luana records, in England with Decorative Stamp or even in France with (Vulgar) and Dezord Records. It’s nice to know that today we are representing a big part of the scene.?

What future releases do you have planned?

Lots and lots of things. Some are at a really advanced level, others are at the state where we’re only speaking casually about it while drinking tea and having biscuits. The next thing you can expect from us is a free compilation featuring many of our beloved artists (Wormhole, Kaigen, AbSUrd, …); exclusive tracks or snippets from their upcoming albums. There’s a lot of new stuff to be heard in it and we are quite proud. Artwork will be once again done by Albane (I saw an early version of it  which clearly knocked my socks off). We also have a tape of FRKSE split released with I Had An Accident Records coming soon. Apart from those two releases our main focus will be the Murmur Breeze LP co-released with our friends from Decorative Stamp and a secret project of a French beatmaker and a quite famous underground Canadian MC.?

Murmur Breeze (Absurd & James P Honey) 7-inch

What long term goals do you have for CTC and how do you plan to sustain the label?

I mainly sustain the label with my own money and the money I get back from previous releases. I don’t really care about making money with my label, I just do it out of passion and as long as I can still breath, I’ll do it. That’s my plan to sustain the label. Keep on going for as long as I can. As of long term goals, I’d like to release our first full LP and my ultimate goal may be to sign a deal with a famous French variety singer named Michel Sardou. I’m also thinking of releasing my rap album sometime between now and infinity.??

Top 5 songs to start a label to:? ?

• Company Flow – “Patriotism”
• TV On The Radio – “Satellite”
• Dälek – “Eyes To Form Shadows”
• Tenshun – “Track 04 (from Nihilism)”
• Michel Sardou – “Les Lacs du Connemara”

 Shout outs to:

Rob R-Rock, Pseudzero from (vulgar), Julia LaDense and Justin Bieler of IHAAR, Newton/Digital Mojo of HipHopCore / Substance-M, AbSUrd, Albane, Rémy, Mathieu of Submass, James P Honey, James Reindeer, the whole Papervehicle crew, Babel Fishh, my brother Bizzy Bizkid, every artist I ever met or spoke with, Mich and Manu of Mism Records, Géraldine, all of my friends and family, everybody who’s been supportive, our fans, every cucumber producer in the world.

ctc-records.com