Twisted mister

>> DJ Rob DiStefano, head honcho of Twisted Records, on the corporate world of underground dance

by KRISTA

Mirror: So are you ready for Gay Pride weekend in Montreal?

Rob DiStefano: I haven't been the last three years, so I'm pretty excited. I've been so busy lately. We're only three at the label right now, and I'm doing a lot, like all the copy for the Web site and answering mail, and then all my usual work. The label has gone through a lot of changes in the last four months. Twisted started out as a joint venture with MCA, and now we've just moved into their offices and let some people go because it was getting too hard to support our overhead. Working in the record business is tough. There's a lot of money to be made in places like Europe, but MCA was controlling all the cash and not working the records enough. We're really trying to break into a bigger market, take this all to another level.

M: A lot of people would say that that's the opposite of what's good for the "underground" music scene.

RD: Sure, but you gotta support the lifestyle. Nobody in this business is a martyr. And it is a business. We've all got to eat and put clothes on our back.

M: Let's get some history here. You're responsible for starting Tribal America, which was a hugely successful and popular label. How did all that come about?

RD: It was all just a big accident. In college I was listening to a lot of noise and weird industrial stuff, and working for IRS records. I was really bored there and wanted to leave, but the president at the time, Jay Boburg, gave me the dance label to run. I invented Tribal, got distribution in the U.K., and just started signing artists. Unfortunately Miles Copeland, the chairman of IRS, and I didn't exactly see eye to eye, and so eventually we decided to leave. Boburg had gone to run MCA, and so we ditched Tribal, started Twisted and went there.

M: So it was literally an overnight thing? Like a midnight run?

RD: Pretty much. It's funny too, because as it turns out Tribal had been making a lot of money for IRS. So when we left, they shut down. Tribal was like a big toy to me, all I had to do was sign artists and sell. When we first signed the deal with MCA, it was like a slap in the face. Suddenly I had all this other stuff to worry about, like how many units we were producing, market research... We were really lucky because we had Funky Green Dogs' "Fired Up" to kick us off, which was a huge track. It saved us. It could have been even bigger, but then MCA kind of screwed it up for us. I mean, it went gold in Belgium, but it could have gone gold all over.

M: What's all this new stuff on the label, like Lowpass, Prince Quick Mix and Twisted Pop?

RD: We realized that just putting out compilations wasn't going to do it for us, so we started looking for new artists to sign. Lowpass and Prince Quick are a departure from the usual Twisted sound, but hopefully that'll open us up to a larger demographic. Twisted Pop is just a flat out blatant attempt at making money. The first release is already huge in Europe. If it doesn't get on the radio here, I'll quit.

DiStefano, joined by Jennifer Folker from Lowpass, DJs at the Twist party on Saturday, July 31, 10pm, $30 advance/$40 at the door