Don’t Take Drugs, Take Camomille!

Vince: I love that free music is getting more and more popular and more and more sought after, don’t get me wrong, but the state of the current netlabel scene sure does have a lot to envy to the early tracker days. I mean I remember chatting with friends and the scene actually had legends and heroes, like xerxes, purple motion, necros, etc. There was a real following and every time someone released something it was a really exciting time. Now the scene is flooded with netlabels and releases, it’s so hard to keep up that people don’t have that passion anymore. I mean sure it’s still exciting when one of the big netlabels release something. But but good music gets lost in the myriad of releases you see each day.

And I’m pretty sure there’s great music in there too. We need a central, other than archive.org - which is amazing but its just a hosting platform, not a place where you can easily find good quality music, we need reviews and articles like you guys are doing. A place where everyone from the netlabel world can meet and chat. Sure there are a good couple of newsblogs but again it’s hard to keep up with them. I rarely get excited anymore to anything that’s being released, just for the simple fact that I don’t know where to look anymore, there’s just too much.

Vince: Well, the idea made its way back in the end of 2001. I was in a deep depression and after taking drugs which made me feel nothing; my doctor suggested I could maybe drink Camomille tea. And I started doing so. So late at night I was having panic attacks and I started drinking camomille tea listening to Chimera’s “A long way from heaven” (released on Hellven) and I can say that Camomille tea and Chimera’s emotional ambient music actually saved my life. So realizing the importance of music, the importance of ambient music and the importance of free music, I decided to start camomille music, a place where, originally, you could find deep, emotional ambient music.

Camomille at the beginning, was a newbie netlabel but as time passed I got more and more people on it with some recognition, especially from the older tracker scene like xerxes, mv and later mikael fyrek, makunouchi bento, grandma etc.

So I’m starting to think that at number 100, Camomille has made its dent into the scene and it’s a testament that Camomilles there to stay. We offer an honest ecclecticism, that I think our fanbase appreciates. Personally, looking back and looking at it now, I couldn’t be happier, and I feel more like someone who operates a machine in the sense that camomille kind of became its own entity.

Vince: We’ve just released camomille 100 and I must say it’s been a lot of hard work and I’m very, very proud of what it is. Lackluster, Twerk, Proswell, Khonnor, Ilkae, Julien Neto, Hunz, ST, Anders Ilar are just a few of the names on there and they’re all people I deeply respect and of who I’m a big fan. And that goes for everyone on the compilation. And for the first time we’ve added the graphic design side to it, showcasing 13 different artists with their takes on “Cycles.”

Vince: As far as advice, I’d say, do it for fun, and be sure to release something that you love, not that you like, not that you feel is mediocre, but the artist carries some weight on whatever’s left of this scene. Passion always brings good things and if you always stay pertinent you’ll eventually get a following of fans just as dedicated to the music you release as you are.