When did it WEDIDIT get together?

We say it was 1990 because that is when we were born, but Henry [Laufer AKA Shlohmo] and I met in seventh grade in 2002. We were friends because we listened to the same music. We both liked the Misfits and punk music, so we bonded over that. If you want the official year, it was 2008.

How’d you come up with the initial idea?

We started a website called WEDIDIT because Henry and Joe were making music, and I was DJing and making all these weird graphics. We had a bunch of other friends who were doing the same thing so we were like, “Let’s just start a website where we can put it all up.” Then Henry’s music started to catch on so people started checking the website. We were like, “Fuck it. We should just say this is a label and every time we put up music we should say it’s on the label, WEDIDIT.”

So what were you putting up on the blog?

I was putting up old vinyl rips and blogging about other people too. We posted about Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler the Creator right when the guys had just uploaded their videos to YouTube—nobody knew about it and it was crazy. I was putting stuff up to give shine to other people and then realized what I was doing was music journalism. So then, I was done.

So how you guys end up in New York?

I moved to New York for college. It was at the end of high school in 2008 and Henry moved to Oakland for college. I was going to drop out of college and take WEDIDIT seriously my freshman year. We found a place to move to in San Francisco and went to there to hand out resumes to cafes and shit. I was applying for jobs and my parents were like, “this is one of the worst ideas you’ve ever had, but if you’re really adamant about it, go ahead and do it.” Then I was in my college dorm room and thought, “I think this is a bad idea.” So I didn’t move and Henry got the apartment still—so I would go stay out there all the time while I was still in school.

When did Henry join you in New York?

Henry came out to visit me two years later while I was living in Chinatown for the summer. He had just dropped out of college to do music. He was my best friend so I wanted him to move there so we could work together and he was like, “Man, I just don’t know about New York.” He spent two or three weeks in New York and got a girl and all of a sudden he was like, “Ok, let’s find an apartment.”

So my last year of college I moved into an apartment with him and that’s when it really started. That’s when we did The Weeknd remix and when OVO reached out. That’s when we did the Jeremih remix. Everything started happening in this apartment. Three of our best friends from L.A. were living next door to us—RL Grime with Ben [Persky] and Mason [Klein], who started Mixed Management. We were all together.

As far as starting from such a young age, did you realize you were starting a business? 

 I didn’t know there was a real business in until a couple years ago. I worked for people my entire life. I did internships and jobs all over the place and I had no problem with authority in that setting, but I did in school. I’ve never gotten along with those type of people. I have a respect for the workplace and my dad is an entrepreneur, my grandfather is an entrepreneur. I like the natural chase of it.

What’s your specific day-to-day role in the collective?

It’s kind of ever-changing, but I’m constantly designing clothing, setting up sessions with artists, and figuring out roll outs and finances. It’s all the business stuff and a big load of creative shit.

Do you do a lot of A&R too? 

People know I’m always looking for music all the time, so they’ll send me stuff if they think it’s worthwhile. I do a lot of A&R and I constantly show everyone in the crew other producers. I show them what people are doing so they’re just aware of what the landscape is. I also sign kids or bring them in and try stuff out. I’m really lucky that I have a group of friends that is as talented as they are producing because it allows me to explore these kind of creative collaborations and ideas with really talented people. I’m so lucky I already have Shlo and D33j on my phone to try something out. Maybe an idea or recommendation comes from me, but the music is coming from them.

What do you guys have coming up?

The clothing stuff is always happening. It’s funny, we used to plan ahead so much in terms of events and pop-up shops, but now it is much more spontaneous. If we think it would be fun to do two weeks or three weeks ahead, then we’ll just go for it. Music-wise, we just put out an EP from this kid out of D.C. named Swan Lingo. He is making this really beautiful kind of lo-fi, shoegaze guitar music.  Shlohmo’s working on his next project. Groundislava is another person I grew up with—he’s coming out with another project that is really impressive. So things here and there—and lots of collaborative projects that are probably too early to talk about.