Goldenfang Records
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FRESHTABLES: What is the origin story of Goldenfang Records, and what was the driving force behind its creation? Who founded Goldenfang Records?
GOLDENFANG: Goldenfang Records was founded by Mike Lavage and Kyle Butrymowicz. Childhood friends from New Jersey. Mike being a local DJ/musician and Kyle being a graphic artist. It was initially set up as a website so people could find all our work in one place. It was primarily tshirt designs in the beginning with some DJ mixes and old songs to download.
We were inspired by and def trying to copy the whole ‘Ed Banger Records’ framework coming out of France around the early 2000/2010s. We loved the idea of everything being done in house with such a distinct style. You had graphic artists doing the artwork for their musicians and musicians playing shows to help promote visual artists and/or fashion lines all coming out of the same brand. The idea that if a new release was coming out, you couldn’t wait to hear the song, see the album artwork, and watch the music video because it was all being done by the same team.
FRESHTABLES: Goldenfang Records describes itself as an “independent multi-media group.” Can you elaborate on what “multimedia” means in the context of Goldenfang’s work?
GOLDENFANG: Again, I think it goes back to trying to keep everything in house. The music, the mixing, the album artwork. the promos/videos. all the merch is done here. “Records” might sound like it’s limited to just the music part, but for us it definitely incombisuses it all. If you like our style/branding, you’re hopefully going to like everything we are doing.
Calling ourselves a “Record Label” def makes us squirm a bit. Anyone with $40 can get their music out there nowadays. So if we can bring a little more to the table as far as an overall style and look we think that’s cool.
FRESHTABLES: How does Goldenfang Records’ environment foster collaboration among multidisciplinary artists to help them hone their sound and skills?
GOLDENFANG: So we have a different kind of set up that’s been working really well for us. All of the artists work on each other’s projects. We will have community recording sessions and take bits and pieces from each to create multiple songs for each artist. I guess it comes from all of us being DJs at one point. We tend to try and come up with loops and melodies instead of traditionally crafted songs.
One artist might start a song and scrap it. And another artist might hear that bassline and now decide they are going to design a whole new track around it. “In my heart” is a perfect example, that was not a Palace track. It belonged to another artist at first that had the melody and structure. But decided to scrap it, it then sat on a harddrive for months. Palace got some vocals on there, switched up the rhythm and it really took off.
As we’re getting older and some of us have families now and still work our day jobs, I think this style really keeps everything fun and pressureless.
FRESHTABLES: GoldenFang Records has an amazing roster of artists with sounds ranging from electronica, electro-clash, house, synth-pop, lo-fi, indie dance, and nu-disco. Their sounds are very complementary of one another and very on brand.
Walk us through the process of how an artist is accepted into Goldenfang Records’ roster.
GOLDENFANG: As you can tell, we are very tight knit. Most of us are childhood friends, friends of friends. We’re lucky to be surrounded on all sides by creative people. We tend to keep it local only because we have to, it makes things alot easier. That being said, there is no shortage of talent around our area so we are always one dm/text/email away. Most of the artists that end up joining the team were people who we asked to come in and add something to a track, whether it be live drums, bass, guitar. And then that progresses into working on their own projects with us.
FRESHTABLES: Do artists typically approach Goldenfang Records, or does the label actively seek new talent, or is it a mix of both?
GOLDENFANG: We do get alot of submissions and tbh most of the music is above and beyond! It’s always so good! We tell most of them the same thing. “You don’t need us!”
We aren’t doing anything that they can’t do themselves. You don’t need much to get your music out there today, just upload it.
We tend to lean more toward the straight up ‘music heads’ Artists that want to just make the music and might not really have a clear direction on how to get it out there.
That’s def where we feel we can help out. Give them a little more guidance and the right packaging.
FRESHTABLES: What are Goldenfang Records’ plans for the rest of 2025, including any new releases, artists, or other initiatives?
GOLDENFANG: 2025 has been huge for us. It’s the most releases we’ve ever pushed out. We have a few new releases for the end of the year from Palace. Actually one is out today, “Untucked”
The official 3rd album for Palace should be available by early next year. We also have Goldenfang Records Vol. 2 being pressed up as we speak. That will finally showcase some new artists and tracks
