Label Profile – Grand Theft Audio – (UK)

05/04/202405/04/2024 Dan Inside DNB, Drum and Bass, Drum n Bass, Grand Theft Audio, GTA, Guddah, Sola, Twitch DNB

10 years in any game is an achievement, but 10 years running a label in drum and bass music is something to be really proud of. This huge milestone consists of many things, like keeping up with current trends, seeking out and nurturing new talent, learning to play the social media and wider media game, and of course keeping a business afloat in the digital realm, where hard product can so easily be used and abused. So, just how is this achieved? How and what are the main rules that need to be adhered to in order to keep that ball of creativity rolling?

We spoke to James & Robbie from Grand Theft Audio to see just what it takes to maintain a DNB label with longevity and integrity, and how to celebrate 10 years in the game!

GTA! Welcome in!

So, give us a bit of background on who is behind the label, and who does what exactly?

Robbie: Me and James have been running Grand Theft Audio since the beginning but Giles joined the team last year, as a junior A&R, when the label was starting to expand. We all make a good team. We all do the A&R together, but Giles also liaises with premiere channels on YouTube, big radio stations and play listers on Spotify.

James: Yeah, me & Rob do all the other stuff like the data entry, social media posting, communicating with the dozens (at last count nearly 100!) of active artists on the label, and contracts. I’m also in-house engineer, responsible for 90% of the masters/stem-masters on the label.

Sounds like you got it licked! What were your individual roles in music before the inception of GTA then?

Robbie: We’ve both been DJs for a very long time, forty years between us, and we both put on events in and around Manchester. I ran events called Uberwang and Up, and James co-ran one called Oh My God.

James: I played most of the DNB nights in Manchester and was a weekly resident at Sankeys (which is a LEGENDARY Manchester based club) for a while in the late 00’s while it was being consistently voted the number 1 club in the world. We only started getting into production seriously about a year before we started Grand Theft Audio.

The play on words in the label name is a stroke of genius! Tell us, who’s idea was it? And how did the idea come about?

James: Haha. That was me! I’m a sucker for a play on words. I had a new idea for a DNB night, but I couldn’t think of a name. I was fully gonna call it “The Drum & Bass Night” when it suddenly hit me.

Robbie: When we started the label, we thought we’d just use the same name, it actually suits a label more than it suits a DNB night, I think.

We agree. It’s definitely not a brand name you’re gonna forget for a while. You’re based in Manchester in the north of England, right? I’m guessing you all met as locals to that area?

James: Yeah we met at a DNB night in Manny I was playing at and then subsequently became friends, going raving together, booking each other for our respective events, and starting to produce together when we were ready to take production more seriously.

The scene in the north is massive right now, with some incredible artists and labels right across the north and the midlands. In fact, our last few points of contact on the site have been towards to top half of the country. Are you involved with any live events in your area?

Robbie: We still run events as Grand Theft Audio. It’s only every now and again, as we’re so busy with producing and running the label, but whenever we do, it’s a special occasion.

Grand Theft Audio - 10 Years - Vibrations

And what about performing and taking GTA out on the road?

James: We’re always down to do room/ stage takeovers whenever and wherever, and have been lucky enough to take GTA to many places throughout the years, including Eastern Europe.

Robbie: We have a really exciting stage takeover down south in July, in a city we haven’t done before that we can’t announce yet, but watch this space!

This album project is absolutely massive, with 50 tracks across 5 separate albums. I mean, you could have just done a double LP and be done with it like many labels might have done. Why 5?

Robbie: For a start, there are so many tracks we love on GTA, that having to all decide on which Greatest Hits went on there would have been impossible, so breaking those up into 3 sections and each getting to choose 10 worked out really well.

James: After that, it just seemed right that for new material, there should also be 10 singles and 10 remixes to keep that 10 theme flowing throughout the whole album.

This represents amazing value for money by anybody’s standards. I’m guessing this was also a major factor for you. Giving back to the fans and all that?

James: Absolutely. This is a stone cold bargain. For £12.99, you can get the culmination of 10 years of insanely hard work by some of the world’s most underrated producers, as well as some big names like Kleu, pyxis, etc…

You’re not kidding. The first LP is a collection of brand new music on the label. This is a treat in itself for any fan of GTA, so tell us a little bit about the tracks in this section. There’s a pretty broad selection of styles in there!

Robbie: Yeah, there’s a bit of everything in there. We had great fun working with MC Fearless, K Jah & Mista X on the A side Party Over Here, and Lights Out is on there by Debice, who is a close friend of mine and someone whose music I absolutely love. It was also great getting Data Roaming – Shambles on there too. We were doing a group production lesson in Brisbane when we were on tour last year, and Shambles was the first track we were played to give feedback on. We signed it on the spot.

James: It was sick getting Guzi and Plasmator to team up again for In The End. It’s one of my favourite tracks on the label. It really nails that Camo & Krooked vibe but they make it their own. The pyxis & Maykors tune is lush AF, as are the ones by Simple Souls X Umax X MC Fedora and Blean. It was also sick getting label vets like Charlie B, Jfal and Replete involved too, not to mention getting our MC RivalTechnique doing the vocals and production on his.

I’m just trying to visualise the amount of planning that has gone into this project. Collating 50 tracks and bringing it all together must have taken a lot of time!

James: Yeah! It took about a year and obviously a lot of cajoling and checking in with people, to make sure we were hitting deadlines and didn’t need to commission extra remixes. But it literally couldn’t have gone more smoothly. We’re lucky to have so many extremely professional artists on our label.

Robbie: Yeah for how much work was involved, it was pretty painless, and you can hear the quality of the end result. It’s probably our best release to date.

LP two is a selection of remixes of previous GTA releases. Were these already in the bag or were they specially commissioned? And how and why were those particular tracks selected?

James: We sent the artists who we wanted to do remixes shortlists of tracks, where the producer was happy for the track to be remixed and still had the project. So all the remixes you hear were ones that had been picked by the remixer and they were excited to do.

Robbie: That definitely helped keep things on track, that they had chosen the tracks themselves. It was the most exciting section to see come together, as you get to hear these tracks you’ve heard 100 times be reimagined, often in ways you never expected.

Just by looking at the first two albums, there is clearly a ‘no particular’ style policy entrenched within the label, and I love this concept. Have you ever considered running subsidiary labels that are more style specific? Do you think there’d be any benefit in it?

Robbie: To do something like that properly would be very time consuming and there’s no point doing it unless you really commit. It means starting again with branding etc… Also we love the full spectrum style of our label and funnelling a certain sound into another label would take away from that.

James: Yeah, far better for us to just keep pushing the narrative and idea that we’re a full spectrum label, and then we can put out anything we want. We genuinely believe there are good tunes and bad tunes in every sub genre. We just love putting out good tunes and would hate to limit ourselves to just a small section of DNB

I totally get that! Albums three, four and five are personal picks from the three of you as individual drum and bass fans, so please tell us a bit behind the selections from yourselves:

James: I chose mine purely based on crowd reaction when I’ve played them in clubs. It does mean that some of the gentler styles aren’t as represented but that’s the only way I felt like I could choose them.

Robbie: For me, I wanted to showcase some of the amazing tunes we’ve put out over the years that may not have gotten the traction they deserved at the time or that newer fans of the label may have missed.

There’s also a mix LP from man like Guddah. He was incredibly helpful to me in the very first days of the website, and was actually our very first interviewee! He will always be considered a part of the INSIDE DNB family, but how and where will the mix be available, and why did you choose him as your DJ?

Robbie: When we started on Twitch, he was incredibly helpful showing us the ropes. He’s also a really good DJ, and when we last played in Leicester, he invited us round to his house to play on his stream and show us his unbelievable studio, which was really fun.

James: He also had a segment on him at the last Drum And Bass Awards because Dave Columbo Jenkins (1 More Thing) was so impressed with him. It’s been a really fun process working with him on this project, and it’s been premiered by Data Transmission, as well as being available on the Spotify version of the album.

Yeah. Big Up Guddah. He was massively helpful to me too and I’ll never forget it. Running a label between three people must have its challenges, so how do you get around making vital decisions and pushing ideas forward as a team?

James: We all have quite a similar vision of what it means to run a full spectrum label. Within each subgenre there are certain vibes we like, and certain vibes we leave to other people. We deffo have a type of liquid, a type of neuro etc… and we all broadly agree on what sounds good and suits the label.

Robbie: Yeah it’s very rare one of us wants to sign something and the others are dead against it. We tend to be pretty unanimous in most decisions.

Sounds like a blissful partnership! So what are your immediate plans after the album launch?

Robbie: We’re gonna have a strict week away from admin just making tunes. We’ve almost got everything until the end of summer now completely locked up now so we’ve earned the break.

James: Haha, yeah. Obviously the admin load increases for a huge project like this and making music is our primary passion, so it’s good to hit that balance so you don’t burn out.

Well, I’d like to thank you for your time and wish you all the best with the project. I’m a huge fan and think this concept offers what is probably the best value for money album anywhere within drum and bass music right now. Mad love. Hope to catch you in the dance one day!

James: Cheers man, really enjoyed speaking to you.

Robbie : Yeah man, thanks for this.