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10 Years of Waxploitation :: Interview with manager, label head and altruist Jeff Antebi

By Joshua Glazer   Photography by N/A

10/15/07 :: URB web

The line between producer and artists gets thinner year by year. And Jeff Antebi's Waxploitation company has been walking that line for a decade. Best known for their success with Danger Mouse/Gnarls Barkley (a true producer/artist if there ever was one), Waxploitation has served as a label, publishing, management company for artists as diverse as Al Jourgensen (Ministry), Chris Vrenn (NIN) and King Britt (Digable Planets). But perhaps most impressive is Waxploitation's commitment to charitable causes, most notably several CDs and fundraisers for Darfur, including the new Cause 1 disc featuring exclusive and live cuts from Animal Collective, Death Cab For Cutie, The Cure and Spoon.

URB: Waxploitation is more than just a record label. How would you describe the company?Jeff Antebi: It's an Entertainment Company with a focus on music. Artist Management Company for Gnarls Barkley, Danger Mouse, Dangerdoom. Record Label for Tweaker, Teargas & Plateglass, and our Causes charity series. Publishing Company represents classics like 'Funky Cold Medina', 'Wild Thing', 'Bust a Move'.

What was your inspiration for starting the company? What prior experience e did you have? What were your goals?
I really didn't have any experience.  I loved music and wanted to be in the music business.  I just started doing it and hoped I'd get to keep doing it.  So it was a lot of trial-and-error.      

You're first release was in 1996. So wasn't last year 10 years? Were you just too busy to notice?
It's a long story.  I'll tell you about it for our 20th Year Anniversary in 9 or 10 years. Something like that.

Your biggest project has been last year's Gnarls Barkley success. How has that changed the company?
The staff all wear solid gold Ugg Boots now.

Your roster have been incredible diverse over the year. How do you decide what artists to work with?
I like working with things that come out of nowhere.  Things that I can get involved with from the ground up.  Things that are going to be a challenge and hopefully do well in the marketplace.  When I first got started, there were already so many established companies, I had no choice but to work with left-of-center artists who were too crazy or too far from the mainstream for other people to understand them.  But in the end, those were the artists who were the most fun to work with, the most inspiring, and in many cases they've become part of what is driving the best in music now.

You've done quite a bit of activist work as a company. How does this element of the business affect the day-to-day routine of running a music company?
For me, that element is what makes the day-to-day routine make sense.  A commitment to humanitarian causes -- working with Doctors Without Borders or Oxfam or Human Rights Watch -- keeps things in perspective.  A reminder that music can be much more than simply entertainment.