Blog: Lotte Van Den Berg

I set up my own label, mainly because I wanted a more professional platform for my band, Luna Pines, to release music on. Having done a production degree at Leeds College of Music, I was working with all sorts of electronic producers and artists, and just really wanted to carry all of my work over to one platform. That’s when I got thinking about what is Sixteen Records now, and so far it’s been such a success! We’ve had our first compilation come out, and a great launch night last week at Hyde Park Book Club in Leeds, with eight bands playing to celebrate.

We’re a DIY record label in Leeds, focusing on electronic and alternative music. When I say DIY, I really mean it – either the artist or myself produces all his or her own stuff, I master it, and we put it out on the label. We have a bit of help from PR, but it’s all local. At the moment Her PR is helping us out – they’re a fantastic local PR company predominantly focusing on females in the industry.

The album we’ve just put out is a compilation record, full of fantastic under-the-radar artists from in and around Leeds. Beginning at the start is my band Luna Pines, who featured our new single Spring on the album. Spring brings the record even closer to home for me as it’s such a personal song. Originally I began writing it with the band about the death of my mother’s best friend when they were both in their twenties, and it masked itself in the form of an 80s almost-love song. Track 2 comes from LELO, who is an artist from Leeds I’ve had my eye on since his first EP, Different Types of Love. I’m a big fan of The Cure, The Smiths and any band from that era and I feel LELO pulls that off perfectly. Track 3 is from one of my best friends in the whole world, Hannah Slavin. Her single U & I we worked on relentlessly, both on my production and her parts, for a long time. It evolved into something incredible and I think it’s a standout track now.

Track 4 is Loris’s tune Bitter, which I mixed and helped out on. Loris is the product of Charlotte Jones, another close friend of mine who is incredible. She’s in a band called Laminate Pet Animal who are one of the best bands around. Regista’s track is next, and comes from another best friend of mine, Arthur Rowan, who’s a bit of a musical genius. He showed me the instrumental originally, and I was like, we need to have that on the record. When he added Kaya and Amber it just elevated the track to such a great level. Track 6 comes from Jack Segal, who I know through one of my best friends, George Gretton, who’s featured on the last track on the album. They were both in a Nottingham-based band called Suspect Alibi ages ago, and when I heard a demo of Touch Me Silver I just knew I had to work on it and it came out great!

Track 7 is from Dokkodo Sounds, who is Thomas Trueman from Laminate Pet Animal. To be quite honest he’s a genius and one of the most talented musicians I’ve ever met – it’s pretty insane. I love the fact that he brings a sense of more obscure dance music to the record, to really show all sides of the Leeds electronic scene. Imi’s Monolith is another track that took me ages to produce, and we both worked tirelessly until it was perfect. She’s such an incredible talent, and is absolutely insane live. Ryan Hawkins’ Cinnamon is amazing too; he’s also in my band, and possibly the best guitarist I’ve ever worked with. JOULE & Eyre Llew provides an enticing ambience to the record, and they’re just beautiful artists. The last track is my own project, Magic Hour Soundtrack, which shows my weirder electronic side, I loved writing and producing that track with George and Charlotte.

So far the label has been such a success and we have so much more in the pipeline! Visit and get in touch with us at sixteenrecords.com