MORR MUSIC: an interview with Thomas Morr
by Philippe Petit

Morr Music is a label which was created by Thomas Morr, and ranges among the very few labels with a very precise and strong identity. So interesting that you want to hear any records which comes out. We sent questions to Thomas.

	I'd like to know a little biographical information about you, such as how old you are, where you grew up, your schooling... Any sort of information that helps me to understand how you got to be who you are today ? Thomas Morr : born 1970 in hameln, a german smalltown (70.000 inhabitants) near hannover, in the same hospital like arovane. normal school development. university entrance qualification 1990. civil service until 1992. 1992 i´ve started to study german language and history. 1994 after my intermediate examination i´ve quit and started to study social education, also managed the intermediate examination and also quit after i´ve had an accident and not being able to go to university for 3 months. this happened while working as a technician at a concert in a club, i was regulary working for. i started dj ing at 18 and was involved in the booking for several clubs for 7 years, worked in record shops since i was 20 and also did the alternative programmation for a popular german mailorder/distributor. through this jobs i was introduced to the hausmusik family. Before you started your label you had been involved in the business of distribution and you still work for Hausmusik. Could you tell us more about that company ? What is your exact position there ? Thomas Morr : i´m doing the buying job for the electronic section and care for new labels and distribution contacts. so export and buying that´s what i´m doing, beside negotiating the general direction of the distribution each month. hausmusik was founded by me boss :) hihi and friend wolfgang petters, who runs the hausmusik label. in the beginning intended to find some distribution channels for kollaps, hausmusik & payola and later joined by indie rock oriented labels like k and the labels of revolver us distribution. after 3 months i was asked if i could imagine to do the music-selection and after 2 months i was moving to the more southern parts of germany. Obviously, working in the distribution business is a great advantage to create a record company. How has it helped you ? Is Hausmusik involved in Morr Music ? Thomas Morr : the most difficult thing about finding distribution is to fullfill some kind of control and to be able to offer an interesting bunch of releases, it´s always more complicated to find distribution as a single label. so my idea was to combine the efforts of labels that i like, a) to provide a distribution that stands for some specialized music genres in germany and b) in the long run also to offer special genres to foreign distributors. hausmusik is not involved in morr musik, but as i´m working for the company it´s some kind of healthy interdependance - i suppose. even if it´s hard to be involved each part of "doing-a-release" i still prefer to have a maximum control. Which friendly piece of advice would you give to someone who wants to start his label ? Thomas Morr : work with people you like, that are into the subject, even if the company is smaller & if possible get some advice from labels you know – simply to avoid expensive mistakes. we all do enough of those all the time
	There are a lot of labels throughout the world, so what gave you the reason, or motivation to start yours ? Weren't you satisfied with other labels'music ? Thomas Morr : actually after two months in my new job I was sure that it was the right time to start the label. b.fleischmann - my first artist - was introduced to me through an autrian radio presenter & markus acher (lali puna - notwist - tied & tickled trio), who was my flat mate for a while - at a time where i´ve already confirmed a release with lali puna & isan. i got in touch with bernhard and then everything developed very fast. I suppose i´ve started the label by the same ideas that often cause the start of a new label. first of all i was fan and collector of labels like wurlitzer jukebox, skam , static caravan - labels that mostly work as a project label. as i was part of this collectors scene i was able to get all of the interesting releases, but realiesed that most of the artist have a higher potential than only 750 copies limited editions - still i love the idea of tracks and still love singles - that´s why morr is more focused on albums, maybe taking my part in a network and as there are lots of fantastic uk single-only labels it was only natural trying to reach more listeners with releases that will mostly be kept in print. with isan i´ve asked one of my favorite projects, they agreed and so the idea got more and more concrete. that's where morr music tries to keep going with his releases. on the one hand as an "artist-label", in order to "build up" certain musicians, and, if possible, keep them closer, connected to the label for several albums - which refers to the "resident artists". But on the other hand morr music is definitely not up to speed down people's activities. but as most of the artist are friends and so we´re always discussing releases on other labels upfront. so there's also the intention of being a "project-label". which includes always being able to promote newcomers with a quick e.p.-statement, and, in doing so, placing them in a more established context. last but not least by visual means: my best friend, graphic artist jan kruse is responsible for the corporate cover design. Most labels have an example, or a favorite other label which they like, and you ? Any label you could say was an influence on you ? Thomas Morr : i´m in the lucky position that some of my friends run labels that i like a lot. hobby industries is run by opiate, city centre offices is run by mr herrmann of herrmann & kleine and our friend who started a fantastic uk-distribution called baked goods, atomic is run by styrofoam and din runby our friends from hard wax, who also care for distribution. somehow we support each other and became friends this way or where before.addiotionally we try to collaborate with some miami and westcoast us labels. it´s a friendly competition but i´m trying to combine our efforts and i´m planning to start a sub-distribution together with christian kleine from herrmann & kleine here in berlin next spring, to give our labels the best support with a common office and the plan to build up new structures for our artists and labels that we like. i´m still a collector so naming some labels could cause a long list! How would you describe a typical Morr Music act ? Thomas Morr : musically open minded, not fixed to one music genre and actually a bit better informed like most artist i know. or similar to this. it´s people who are interested in what they and others are doing. very often with a quite similar music socialisation as i have. Could you give us some precisions on the actual scene in Berlin ? Any other local label, activists that you feel close to ? Thomas Morr : we´re planning a release with six labels from berlin: din, cco, lux nigra, hey rec, a.d.s.r. & morr music. something like a statement - how we see berlin - more in the hard wax sound. of course also labels like scape, monolake and others act in the same field, beside the 100% dancefloor. Anything to say on the musical situation of Germany today ? Thomas Morr : too confused with too many releases :) ähem. actually it´s very exciting but i lost interest in several genres, cause there´s nothing happening. for me it´s important to build up a special image for the label to stand all the competition, of course also with the design concept. i´m not a fan of loveless disco-sleeves. Morr music has a very personnal artwork, covers. Who design them ? Thomas Morr : my best friend from school days jan (08 design), who´s responsable for the red line. i think we´re right with doing it, even it´s hard to negotiate with some artists, who have strange ideas about artwork. anyway that´s what i expect of an artist. we already won an award at a design competition for the covers in 2000. Is there anything that you regret or that you'd change if you could ? Thomas Morr : each mistake or problem is part of the label and i´ve learned my lessons. like the grand lady sings : " non je ne regre ... " Any album or band that you wish you had issued on Morr Music ? Thomas Morr : it´s mostly fine as it is. honestly - i don´t understand all those labels searching for the new boarda and autechre. Why did you decide to use your own name for your label ? Would you say it is like your child ? What are your goal as a label. Futureplans ? Thomas Morr : the name was somehow a playing with words, i was running through each status you can imagine about the name and in the end, i decided to use morr as it was my first brainstorming-joke. i partly have problems with the speed the label was developing, cause whenever i got used to a situation - it has already changed. as i´m still doing my job for the distribution, i´m actually busy with two more than fulltime jobs. christian kleine will start to work for the label in 2001 and than i hope the label will be able to grow with some of the artist and distribution partners we chose. i´m quite happy with most my distributors who care a lot for the label and several other labels that are part of our network idea. as the artists caused some interest and as they all got offers by bigger labels, it´s natural that i have to try to do the next step but i´d love to do it in the established structure to keep control. additionally i´m going to do p&d for some connected labels and we have to see, how it develops.
	morr music catalogue morr 001 b.fleischmann - poplopops for breakfast lp (cd as charhizma 001) morr 002 lali puna - tridecoder lp (cd as darla 096) morr 003 isan - salamander lp/cd morr 004 phonem - phonetik lp morr 005 accelera deck - halo ep, with rmx´s of arovane, cda & volvo spy morr 006 b.fleischmann - sidonie ep morr 007 herrmann & kleine - kickboard girl ep/cd morr 008 panic amigo - piano magic remixed 12" feat. future 3, isan, opiate & ensemble morr 009 phonem - hydro electric dlp/cd morr 010 styrofoam - point_misser lp/cd morr 012 va - putting the morr back in morrissey dcd feat. isan, notwist, tied & tickled trio, wechsel garland, kandis, blond, schneider tm, lali puna, micha acher, hessen, b.fleischmann, flowchart, kevin & paul (console & snowe), solvent, herrmann & kleine, manufracture, e*vax, phonem, arovane & styrofoam morr 014 tied & tickled trio - ea1 ea2 rmx lp/cd feat. opiate, christof kurzmann, thomas brinkmann, console, wechsel garland, kandis, gustavo lamas morr 015 styrofoam - a short album about murder lp/cd morr 016 wechsel garland - s/t lp/cd roughly schedule : 2001 repressings of morr 004-006 & 008 02.01 isan - salle d´isan mlp/cd (morr 017) 03.01 manual lp/cd tbc 04.01 múm mlp/cd with rmx´s of b.fleischmann, isan, phonem, styrofoam, arovane, christian kleine tbc 05.01 isan - lucky cat dlp/cd (morr 022) 09.01 herrmann & kleine lp/cd tbc 10.01 lali puna lp/cd tbc planned for early 2001 : 2001 manufracture ep/cdep tbc 2001 bomb the bass vs lali puna ep/cdep with rms´s of arovane, opiate, christian kleine, herrmann & kleine 2001 arovane ep/cdep tbc (morr 011) 2001 solvent (can) mlp/cd with rmx´s by skanfrom & lowfish (morr 013) planned for late 2001 : 2001 arovane lp/cd tbc 2001 b.fleischmann lp/cd tbc 2001 borkø (iceland) mlp/cd tbc 2001 christian kleine mlp/cd tbc 2001 lali puna ep/cd with rmx´s by herrmann & kleine & 2ls tbc 2001 phonem lp/cd tbc morr music c/o thomas morr prenzlauer allee 216 10405 berlin fax 0049-30-44044791 info@morrmusic.com www.morrmusic.com