Kenneth Scott brings a soulful new house track to Legwork’s eponymous label, with twitching hats creating a groove that is impossible to ignore. Scott’s syncopated kicks and shuffling hats punctuate Tonight’s thick baseline, before a swaying lead line, crunchy claps and panning synths build the track into something truly special. On the flip, Legwork’s remix speed it up and add intricate drum work, also bringing a vocal element to prominence.
We were delighted to speak to Legwork about the label and its ethos.
Andrei Sandu, Bizarre Culture: You’re clearly influenced by classic house and the pioneers of the genre. What is it that you want to achieve with the label?
Legwork: We’d like to contribute our of knowledge, spanning the last 20 years of house and techno. We hope to one day inspire the world to consider peace through music. Think Wild Stallion from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
BC: What inspired the name?
Legwork: When I was considering starting the label, I had been thinking a lot about how producers, musicians and labels are forced to focus almost entirely on everything except making good music, and the name just stuck out.
BC: How has naming the label after your production project affected your approach towards the label’s sound?
Legwork: It was actually the other way around. When the shadowy figure they call Leopold came on with the label a couple releases in, we decided to just call our productions the same thing, to keep confusion to the minimum. We try to keep the same ethos behind the music that we have with the art and name: keep it simple, raw, and fun.
BC: The Legwork website also shares music by other artists not on the label. Do you see yourselves as tastemakers, or wish to?
Legwork: I guess since we’ve been into this music for a good while now, it seemed reasonable to share some stuff we like that newer and younger heads may not know about. There are so many good, old records on Discogs for under two dollars, I just wanted to highlight some of those unsung heroes of house music. Some of those people are probably working good jobs now, but we want to let them know they’re gone but not forgotten!
BC: There’s a lot of different arguments for releasing on vinyl. Why do you do it?
Legwork: Both of us here at Legwork headquarters are vinyl junkies, and that’s been since day one. When I DJ and dig through my records looking for the next one to put on, I hear the music in my head when I see the label. I don’t really get that with DJ software and CDJ’s, so I’ve always stuck to wax. We’re not vinyl snobs though, we’re working on a digital compilation right now that will have music from all the first Legwork releases, and a couple unreleased things. That should be out soonish.
BC: How did you come to work with Kenneth Scott and release his new track?
Legwork: I’m in London now, and Kenneth is in Berlin, but we’ve known each other for a long time, both doing time in the rave trenches of San Francisco. He’s not only super talented, but he’s also a good dude -what I call a humorist – so it was a no-brainer when he sent us this banger.
BC: Are there any other artists you’re keen to release on the label?
Legwork: We’re keeping the family tight for now, as there’s too much music and not enough time or money to release it all. I’m originally from Dallas, and there’s some super cool stuff going on there, so I hope to get more stuff going on with those guys soon. We’ll just have to see what comes from the fruits of our labour.
