It seems that only sky is the limit for the one we call… PAV4N.
Former member of the iconic trio Foreign Beggars, a legendary British grime group composed of Vulgatron, DJ Nonames, and the late Metropolis, PAV4N is now launching a new imprint: //DarkMode!
Coming into the scene as an MC, the prolific & innovative blue-identified personage PAV4N is nowhere close to being a beginner in terms of label management. The man of many talents has already launched 4NC¥ (pronounced Foreign Currency) in March 2020 with already more than 80 releases (!!). Keeping up with an astonishingly tight schedule, PAV4N has in parallel succeeded in putting in the spotlight many underground artists, from very diverse backgrounds, reaching out all the way to Australia with the rising talent Confusious or going back to his Indian roots with Yung.Raj or J Mist.
With an already heavy routine planned with one 140/grime/dubstep and one drum & bass release dropping each week, //DarkMode seems to be inspired by the same fruitful philosophy as 4NC¥, with PAV4N clearly setting new standards in the scene. To learn more about this new project, we sat down with him to discuss his vision, his ambition, and his inspirations!
So, in August 2021, you’re launching a new label called //DarkMode as part of 4NC¥! Let’s start by quickly going back to the roots of the project. Can you tell us a few words about 4NC¥?
4NC¥ is essentially a record label started to give artists worldwide, especially South Asia, a platform to get their music out. I found that many artists weren’t geographically in the right place and were getting overlooked so wanted to use my connections, experience, and visibility I’ve created through Foreign Beggars, Par Excellence, Dented Records & Brapp to create something new dedicated to supporting these artists and their music.
You’ve mentioned that you wanted to give more visibility to artists around the world, and especially the ones coming from South Asia. Can you tell us more about the bass music scene over there?
The bass music scene in India has been kicking since the late ’90s, early 2000’s, when the Asian underground movements around the world really took off with artists like Badmarsh & Shri, Talvin Singh, Shiva Soundsystem, State of Bengal, Ges-e & Nasha Records, Juttla, Mideval Pundits, Bandish Project who later became Mossilator & Nucleya.
Mossilator can be described as the godfather of Neurofunk from India and Nucleya went on to change the entire face of electronic music in India by mixing Indian hop hop/ Bollywood and hard-hitting bass music & EDM. Nucleya became India’s first modern superstar DJ to break out and play festivals like EDC, Bassrush, Ultra. Since about 2007, there have been lots of crews who have been pushing D&B including the Wobble collective, Krunk. In 2014, I and a team called AMRMSHOUSE started booking a stage at the Goa Supersonic Festival and had 3 consecutive years of a 4-day stage where we booked Indian artists and International heads like Alix Perez, DJ Die, Jenna G, Addison Groove, Mala, Calyx & Teebee, Dj Zinc, Delta Heavy, Culture Shock, Chasing Shadows a.k.a Killsonic, Icicle,…
Between the Krunk Crew, Wild City/ Magnetic fields festival, Third Culture, and Armshouse, we’ve booked a very large cross-section of artists in India over the last 15 years. There was actually one session we did at an afterparty where Goldie, Die, Alix & D-Bridge & Carl Craig went back to back with Jenna G, myself, and Chimpo on Mic Duties.
Damn, that must have been completely unreal. Into //DarkMode now, why did you feel the need to create a new label? What’s special and/or different about it than 4NC¥’s usual output for example? And, why the name “//DarkMode”?
Essentially, with how dubplate culture works and the fact Grime, 140/ Dubstep, and D&B have very genre-specific industries. I wanted to create an imprint that was a reliable source for people interested in those genres, specifically DJs or fans. Although many people who love those sounds also enjoy the cross-section of what 4NC¥ releases, there is a different way of servicing the DJs and the fans who want 140 or D&B specifically.
In a nutshell, if you had to describe the identity of the label in one word?
ICY, top-shelf underground excellence is what we are striving for.
I see, you’re setting the bar high from the start! You have a very precise calendar for your releases with grime every Wednesday and d&b every Thursday. What’s that all about?
We release weekly as we have so much awesome music coming through. Choosing a specific genre on a certain day means people know exactly when the drops are. I chose Thursday for d&b as when I moved to London, I used to rave religiously at Movement, Bar Rumba every Thursday so just keeping that alive is a personal choice.
The first d&b release of //DarkMode comes from the rising stars Duskee & Disrupta, followed by a massive remix from Zero T, and a banging collaboration between Fre4kncy & Swift. What a start! What was the process behind choosing those tracks for the launch of your new label?
Well, we’ve been working behind the scenes on the label for about 5 months and those were awesome stylistic choices, we wanted to start with a bang and show the diversity of what to expect. We also have to take into consideration the artists we are working with release schedules as well.
Speaking of releases, who can we expect to see on //DarkMode in the future?
More Duskee, Disrupta, PAV4N, We have an Alix Perez Remix of a Foreign Beggars track, MYKOOL, Shapes, T>I, Wingz, Glyph & Hystatus, D-Code & Psylence, Subfilla, Hyroglifics, Burr Oak, a brand new Indian D&B producer called SPUTNIK who is about to blow some minds and much more!
//DarkMode is mainly focused on promoting music. However, your solo project PAV4N and Foreign Beggars, have always been far-reaching regarding the art they created. Could we expect other content than music in the future from //DarkMode, like artistic videos for example?
Most definitely, we try to elevate the artists as much as possible and have some awesome music videos coming. DJ mixes & visual sets as well as when things start to open up, the dream is //DarkMode Live and world tours!
With this amount of projects planned, you must have an awesome team?
Yaah, most definitely, building the team has been instrumental in bringing this to life. I have Harry Confusious working with me on the A&R, Denver Fernandes managing the design. We also have our in-house press & pr, artist-liaison, and a great label management team in place as well.
Finally, for all the producers or aspiring producers reading this article, are submissions open? If so, could you give us more details on how to reach you and what you’re looking for at the moment? Any tips on how to get remarked?
Right now, the best thing to do is send private Soundcloud links with all your socials and bio to demos@4ncurrency.com
Well, thank you so much for these great insights regarding your new label //DarkMode. The sick releases are already flowing in!
Don’t forget to follow PAV4N and //DarkMode on socials to keep up to date.