Sparked from an idea to fill a void in the online music world, best mates Liam Rowan and Broderic Jewson can now be identified as the names behind Music For The People.
Established in mid-July of 2015, Music For The People started out from humble beginnings as an online music-sharing platform.
“It all started with me and my best mate, who was my housemate at the time… There was a bit of a gap where people couldn’t really find music. Ages ago there was this thing called ‘Fake Chow’ that you post all the music that everyone likes on there, but that kind of died out and ‘Fake Chow’ closed down. So there was kind of a gap and he [Broderic Jewson] was like, maybe we should just make a sharing platform called ‘Music For The People’ – he thought of the name – and I thought yeah, that’s an awesome idea,” says Rowan on how Music For The People first came about.
Music For The People is now breaking grounds into being known as an organiser of events, with the guys having hosted a string of Geelong-based events over the last couple of years.
“It caught on and people started talking about it and it got bigger and bigger. We always kind of had the idea of hosting events, so we looked more into that and had a beach party just out of Airey’s Inlet called Ambient, which was actually really good. That was the first sort of party we held and it was a really good introduction into hosting an event,” Rowan says.
Following this was two showcases of Music For The People’s artists at St. James Bar & Nightclub and a proceeding day party at Uno Danceclub, which featured mostly heavy techno and psy-trance genres.
Music For The People also have an upcoming event on the cards titled ‘IN DA’ HOUSE’, which is inspired by the their love for all things House music.
“I have a massive passion for House music. I think that was when I passed that stage of the young seventeen year old and started getting into House music and I’ve loved it ever since – just how it feels and everything about the genre. It’s awesome and I’ve listened to a lot of the old-school Chicago stuff so I really appreciate where it came from and so we just figured, why not share that with everyone else?” Rowan says.
While both Rowan and Jewson work part-time and study as well, DJ’ing and Music For The People has been a sort of side-project for the duo, but they remain insistent that their love for music will continue to grow the project.
Music For The People ultimately aim to showcase up-and-coming DJs and/or producers from the Geelong region and surrounding areas, with founders Rowan and Jewson looking to begin proceedings of becoming an official record label.
“I’ve gone through a third-party digital distributor and hopefully for anyone that signs, we haven’t actually got anyone signed, but people that play for Music For The People and make music, they’ll be able to actually release their music on the internet and not just put it on Soundcloud. So, we’ll be able to release it on Beatport, iTunes, Spotify, Juno Records and pretty much any other music spot on the internet”, he says of the sights they have set for becoming a label.
Rowan says they have both big hopes and little things in mind, for the near and distant future, but mainly that Music For The People will continue to ‘Unearth the Underground’, as their slogan states.
“Even though the slogan kind of goes back (to our roots as a sharing platform), we’re still about ‘Unearthing the Underground’, because a lot of underground music is that – underground – and it’s hard to find and listen to and you don’t really know how to get it. ‘Unearth the Underground’ is like ‘reveal the music that needs to be heard’,” Rowan says.
Check out their Facebook page here.
When & Where: The Deck, Geelong – June 3
Written by Helena Metzke
