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FAT! RECORDS FOUNDER PAUL ARNOLD INTERVIEW

Plus exclusive first listen to Fat! Records' new release...

Paul Arnold is the founder of Fat! Records, and the infamous Chew The Fat parties that took London by storm over a decade ago — and are still going just as strong today. Chew The Fat has even emigrated to Ibiza and now runs regular parties at the current No.1 club in the world, Space Ibiza. As such, when this man puts out music, it's wise to take notice! 

Fat! Records' latest offering comes from ALAEV, and is a perfect slice of laidback Ibiza sunset vibes. SoulCircuit's remix builds on the vibe of the original track, adding their own energy-filled styles and some extra motifs that are sure to create some hands in the air moments at Chew The Fat's next Ibiza venture... Listen below:

You can pre-order the EP here, and read our interview with Paul below:

You started out putting out drum & bass on your Ipswich-based Certificate 18 label, didn't you, putting out early material by producers like Photek, Klute, Digital and Source Direct? 
"Indeed, it was a golden age of d&b and it still sounds fresh today 20 years on! The whole catalogue has been unavailale for sometime, now there's a demand for the original vinyl so we're looking to release a few limited vinyl runs of the classics to a new generation of fans. Maybe something digital too!"

You then moved to London and started doing the Chew The Fat parties — did you ever think these were going to get as popular as they did?
"Not really but when all the ingredients are right these things take on a life of their own."

Why did you broaden Fat!/Chew The Fat out from breakbeat after a while?
"It was always pretty broad musically within the night itself. Chew The Fat!'s very ethos was about the party, and the best party music was evolving — as does your audience over a 15-year period. It felt like a natural progression."

You had some great early releases out on the Fat! label in the early noughties - why did you later shelve it for a bit?
"Vinyl and CD sales were dropping significantly, Intergroove our distributor went bust. We moved to Amato Disco they went bust a year later. So the whole catalogue had been lost. Digital sales hadn't really picked up enough to warrant just doing digital. That preceded me getting diaognosed with Leukaemia, so it was time for a break."

Thankfully you recovered from that illness, but what made you bring Fat! back?
"A number of factors, good music primarily, digital sales picked up, the club was really strong as was our promo around it via the blog. If we were promoting artists through the Fat! brand, it felt obvious to be releasing the music as well. Foamo being a good example, he became resident at Chew The Fat! We released all his original singles and developed him through the TFA Bookings DJ Agency. We'll be releasing a Foamo digital compilation of all his works in Feb 2015."  

What else do you get up to?
"Alongside Fat! Records and some artist management, I'm really excited to be European A&R for Patrick Moxey at Ultra Music on both masters and publishing. Publishing-wise, I've recently signed Paul Woolford, Chris Lorenzo, Kokiri, Leftwing & Kody, Huxley and Josh Butler's publishing and a whole bunch of masters including Felon, Ganzfeld Effect, Chris Lorenzo, Tom Ferry, Writers Block & Marc Talein. I also teach Music Business one day a week at Point Blank London, an award-winning music production school in Hoxton." 

Are your beloved Ipswich Town ever going to make it back into the top flight? 
"Second in the Championship. It's been a great season so far, we're playing worse than we were and still winning, so fingers crossed."

Anything else you wanna tell DJ Mag readers?
"Any amazing bedroom producers out there please send me your music, we want to release it and publish it too. Ultra Publishing procured over 1000 syncs in 2014, so is a great place for an artist's music to be." 

"Fat! Records has a busy release schedule in 2015, our first digital compilation 'Fat! Trax Vol.1' has exclusives from the likes of Kokiri and Simba & Morrt — go check it out now https://soundcloud.com/fatrecords