Greece-based From A Tree responds to igloomag.com’s Five questions profile. Learn more about the imprint, their starting points and where they intend to take electronic music.
[Shop] Igloo Magazine :: When did From A Tree start up and what was your inspiration?
From A Tree :: From A Tree began in 2008 and it’s a project from Anastasios Papalias, a producer/sound engineer from Greece. There were two factors that affected the birth of the label. The first one was the need of a place that we could promote and distribute music from musicians that played mostly in the experimental/electronic field. At that time we found that there were more musicians that we expected that wanted to release this kind of music so we started gradually releasing albums and making some gigs. In the beginning we found by ourselves musician to promote the label but in the next two years, musicians from all over the world knew our work and begun sending demos. The second factor and inspiration was music labels like Warp Records, Planet-Mu, Morr Music, Ninja Tunes and Fat Cat. This was the kind of music that we wanted to have in our label and we think that until a certain point that we made a very good start.
Igloo :: Who were some of your initial artist relations and did your location help or hinder progress?
From A Tree :: The first artist that we released were Leaf, Ovia, Once We Were Wolves and Perro Lulú. Even if we had music material from local artists like Perro Lulú and Fabrics, we wanted to release albums from artists from Europe and USA as a start just to promote the label globally. We believe that we have close relationship with most of the artists just to insure that every step we make as a label is for the good of our musicians. Recently we released the compilation album ONE, which is a good start to attract new musicians and to gather new music from our musicians and also from new ones. It’s a kind of a label gathering, and we are proud that before we finished the mastering of the album, we already had some very interesting entrees for the next two continuations.
Igloo :: What were some of the challenges (if any) starting up a label? …and how did you envision the label to stand apart?
From A Tree :: There were few but there were some. The most difficult challenge was the one called catching up. As you can understand it is the difficulty when you start something new and in this situation something that it is not very used in our country. We had to find the right musicians, do the right promotion and find strong allies that will help with the continuation of the whole idea.
We think that the best motivation is the correspondence from the people and the increasingly rising interest from our fans. This is the best motivation for every company or label to keep going with its purpose. When people stop being interested in something, it automatically dies.
Igloo :: What is your motivation in keeping the label moving forward into the next decade?
From A Tree :: In one word: music. In a few words: we think that the best motivation is the correspondence from the people and the increasingly rising interest from our fans. This is the best motivation for every company or label to keep going with its purpose. When people stop being interested in something, it automatically dies.
Igloo :: Tell us more about how you (and your staff?) take the label’s “sound” to the listeners and fans. Distribution, campaigns, live shows, word of mouth etc.
From A Tree :: Our sound label has specific interest on music releases. Our main interest is electronic, ambient, experimental and with our entrance on Beatport and Juno we are starting to release also minimal, microhouse, techno, deep house material. You can check our releases up to now, at fromatree.gr/
In the field of distribution we are currently releasing our material through iTunes, Amazon mp3 and our more rhythmic styles through Beatport and Juno. Our campaigns have to do with Greek and international radio and magazine promotion.
By this year we started getting in touch with international festivals and we can start by this summer sending our musicians in festivals to promote them and the label. We also setting up for this May a label showcase to promote the local scene.
For more information about From A Tree, visit their website at www.fromatree.gr.
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