we're definitely a label that doesn't
only chase the big hits if anything we
don't chase to hit at all we just go for
songs that we like and we think everyone
who like but for every record that goes
really far there's another record that
might be sort of the label of love
there's always that balance a track and
make catch notes when they got together
with the artist dust the room for one of
the leaders in an era of small labels
who use the Internet to help break new
artists the mixture of digital singles
sought-after vinyl and infamous parties
have been a great success and they've
already had a platinum record with Kid
Cudi's day and night through dust the
rocks art direction they've also created
a whole visual identity that's helped
the label stand out we visited their
Brooklyn offices talked to the Ciroc
about his artwork and heard from the
trio but everything's cool what ended up
being the catalyst to to start the label
and really get focused was when I
started making music with kid sister and
then you know pretty quickly we had the
single of hers that was ready it's like
okay let's dress it up but I was like
okay on what label and that's when we
decided to really start this label
together the great thing about the sort
of Internet era is that it's sort of
lowered the barriers to entry you know
it's like it becomes more about you have
a good idea and what are you doing to
sort of like put that idea out into the
world but do I need to have you know a
bunch of employees and people on the
phones and then
and you know he sent some emails like
it's not that deep when it came down to
who was gonna design everything we kind
of knew that our favorite labels and
just a favorite you know creative works
in general like they have such a strong
identity like a sort of you know
signature to it early on in our in our
conversations we thought of having Josh
come in as the art director and really
do our work for everything I actually
started working in fashion design when I
in my early teens after failed a career
at selling drugs and home that were two
years deep and I think we've got 28
releases in the bag in two two and a
half years we've got a platinum record
so it's not bad we were talking about
what he wanted to see you know he's like
you know the man in the moon and he had
these sketches and I still have them of
like him with like a 40 in his hands
like with a moonscape and it's like
signed and everything yeah yeah the
funny thing about it is that you only
ever see the cover so nobody actually
knows who I did this is the most popular
artwork I've probably done in all
honesty I feel like some of Josh's best
work has been for some of my releases
the Running Man cover you know infinity
plus one I mean those are covers that
are really really loved but he knows how
I work
I'd never have an idea for artwork I
don't I don't have a visual mind I just
tell them to show me something what's
interesting with Fool's Gold is we don't
have one specific genre so the releases
we put out a vastly different so we
don't have a formula like an algorithm
that we just run our releases through
like when people pick up a fool's gold
record there's like a handmade quality
to it you know what I mean like it's not
some by-the-numbers
operation like you can tell that love
goes into those records you know for me
for like fool's gold like yeah there's
the digital aspect to the label but you
know we press vinyl you know we put out
CDs we have posters and you know the
written merchandise and having that
tangible product as any other day is
what kind of really you know makes it
worth it you know I don't want to
pigeonhole myself whatever it may be I
just want to always kind of stay fresh
and keep a move
I don't really want to be a you know
limit myself or be limited to one
aesthetic I did a show in April of last
year called best of the beast it was my
first solo show it's kind of like a pop
take on you know esoteric religion and
symbolism and like a friends came
through and I was pleasantly surprised
you know this year in particular you
know we all kind of want to be able to
do stuff on a larger level than ever
before you know more art shows from dust
more merchandise more you know yeah more
ducks
that like it like more ducks kind of
sums up what's going on like you know
signing new artists it's getting
everybody signals ready doing shows at
South by Southwest and winner music what
pours yes I want it I want it all TLC
never said no TLC one is it all
[Music]