Drip Creator Profile: Ghostly International
Drip’s network of creators is so diverse and unique that we felt the need to tell their stories. This is our first editorial feature of the kind, and along with the text and photos, you’ll find a mix below and a few special tracks in Drip’s Mainline feed.
It was the late ’90s in the college town of Ann Arbor, Michigan, when a recent high school grad by the name of Sam Valenti IV (pictured above) arrived with a DJ bag and an eye on burgeoning independent record labels. While gigging around town, the aspiring mixmaster met fellow electronic music aficionados Matthew Dear (below), Tadd Mullinix, and Todd Osborn, who inspired Valenti in many ways. “These were some of the most exciting artists in the world to me,” shares Valenti. “They deserved the attention from the world, but needed context to share their work from.” And that context he created became the record label known as Ghostly International—”Of Art & Artifice Since 1999”.
The Ghostly aesthetic was initially inspired by all-encompassing lifestyle labels like 4AD, Mute, Mo’Wax, or Factory, but has since grown into its own distinctive brand, a bastion of cutting-edge creativity and curatorial refinement. Based on the idea that a record release is its own event—or as Valenti puts it, “a storm of craft and experience that results in an indelible moment”—Ghostly has remained unencumbered by genre constraints. “We lived through IDM, electro-clash, glitch-hop, etc. by focusing on what inspired us, regardless of expectations or trend. What you may lose in loyal fanbase, you make up for in longevity.” So maybe that goes to explain why the forward-thinking culture hub is now celebrating 15 years of innovation, exploration, and expansion, and doing so completely on its own terms.
But, of course, none of this came quickly or easily. “Just trying to get heard was the first job,” Valenti remembers. “I did a lot of door to door introductions. Brought journalists soup when they were sick in bed. I remember taking a train to Boston to meet a distributor, and they told me to ‘go to Paul Revere’s House,’ which I think means to fuck off. It’s good to develop that resilience.” It was a passionate struggle for the Ghostly team in the beginning, and with plenty of ups and downs. One day Sam would be fatigued from the non-stop grind of owning your own business, trying to solve some kind of financial or release issue before it’s too late, and the next he’d be in the middle of Ghostly’s first European tour, watching kids in Glasgow draw pictures of Dabrye while he blasted his cutting beat abstractions through the soundsystem.
One particularly memorable Ghostly milestone came in 2003, as producer Tadd Mullinix (above) was readying his next record for the label, and the crew went to discuss collaboration with a local Detroit artist. “Tadd and I took a beat CD over to J Dilla’s,” starts Valenti, “and he and Phat Kat sat and listened. When the 'Game Over' beat hit, they flipped and jumped on it. A few days later, it was done.” Dabyre’s 2004 12” would go on to be one of Ghostly’s most iconic releases, but Sam holds his meeting with the hip-hop legend in equally high regard. “The man was kind, cool, and quiet, and embraced Tadd’s sound and ideas with respect. He even shouted out Ghostly on a track. Unreal.”
This is only a snapshot of the many interwoven stories that make up what Ghostly International is today, a place where contemporary art, music, tech, design, and fashion thrive without limits. With breakout albums from wide-ranging electronic and indie artists like Tycho, Matthew Dear, Gold Panda, and School of Seven Bells in their catalog—not to mention cutting-edge projects with video game studios, product designers, and emerging fine artists—the brand is now bigger than ever, but its core ethos remains the same. “Ultimately, I think of Ghostly as an example of a group of friends making something on their own terms,” Valenti says, and he’s not self-deprecating; he treats that grassroots, DIY spirit like a badge of honor. “It’s the same as it was in 1999: Ghostly is about the artist and continues to be. But how we focus our energy has been diversified, and the rules, if there ever were any, have been further eliminated.”
Photo credits (top to bottom): Sam Valenti IV, 1999, Ann Arbor / Tadd Mullinix (Dabrye), 2001, Ann Arbor by Doug Coombe / Matthew Dear, 2006, Miami by Will Calcutt / Sam Valenti IV, 2006, Los Angeles by Jessica Miller
To further compliment Ghostly’s story, Sam Valenti IV has put together a special playlist of 15 tracks from across his label’s wide-reaching catalog. The selections have been aptly titled Deep Cuts & Collaborations, as it features a number of one-offs, remixes, unreleased tunes, and b-sides that only someone who has been there from the beginning could curate. You can stream the whole thing below, as well as head over to Drip’s Mainline feed to download a few of the tracks for free.
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