“Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten 
From the Battery to the top of Manhattan 
Asian, Middle-Eastern and Latin 
Black, White, New York you make it happen“ 

TPDG’s latest movie “Street Jazz” is a love letter to New York City. While Gerrit Piechowski was in charge of filming and editing, Falk Schacht curated the soundtrack, which will see the light on his own label “Catch The Beat”. Dive into Falk’s Love for New York, what we can expect from his label and how he selected the tracks for “Street Jazz”.

What was your intention to start your own label ?
I had the idea for almost 20 years, but it never seemed realistic. The changes that the internet brought us and to see many of my friends releasing successfully their own records, moved the old idea into a fresh focus. Additionally I get shown so much music that deserves to be released on vinyl that at some point it all made sense.

How did the collaboration with TPDG for “Street Jazz” come together?
Ben Wessler of TPDG clothing showed me the raw material of the video and it blew me away immediately. I had only problems with the music.. Since I already played with the thought to found my own label all I needed was the right project — and here it was, a little bit like fate.

What is your personal reference to skateboarding?
I started skating in mid-80s. I loved it a lot. But making music and everything that belongs to it increased so much in the early 90s that I lost the connection. Digging for records, producing pause button tapes, writing rhymes, practice scratching and doing live gigs etc. At that time my friends and I were also the only skaters that where part of the HipHop culture in my city..

What means New York to you?
There was a time when New York was EVERYTHING for me. It was my absolute dream city and I would have given anything to be able to live there and witness all these things that fascinated me since I was a little child. It was an incredibly naive and romantic view of things that has changed during the years and my visits to New York. My perspective is different now, but when I see such great images like the "Street Jazz" Film, I can still feel this old enthusiasm. And that was one of the reasons why I wanted to do the soundtrack .

Which NY story pops into your mind?
The craziest night in New York was when my wish to witness a classic 70s blockparty came true. I went with Kurtis Blow in the context of a report and therefore we visited parties in the Bronx and Harlem which were in gymhalls. There were artists such as Grandmaster Melle Mel, The Cold Crush Brothers, Love Bug Starski, Doug E Fresh, DJ Hollywood etc. And because I was traveling with Kurtis Blow I had a total different approach to these architects of the culture I love. This night was like a dream come true and taught me a lot about the culture.

How did the tracks and sections in the video come together?
There were a number of problems on the side of the director and the side of the producers to be solved. It was for all of them the first time to work this way. Since I had the experience on the cinematic side and on the music production side I was the one whith the mediating role.
The director usually uses publicly released songs and cuts his images to the evolving arrangement of a song. We worked basically with unfinished songs, demos or sketches without an arrangement. Such a concept driven environment, was new to the producers as well. Instead of doing a dope beat, they had to fit an emotional context, and the director and me as a label had to like the beat too. 

What was the concept of the soundtrack?
I'm into soundtracks for a very long time and have read a lot about it. Composers telling about their tasks and relationships they have with directors etc. The concept was to have beats in a 90s sound. It should be Jazzy. And it should capture different moods. Mood keywords such as "power", "melancholy", "danger", "adventure" etc. Dexter for example devolped the easiest workaround technic: He sent me 60 songs and told me to get what I want. LOL.

What can we expect, after the debut release on "Catch The Beat"?
There will be release parties in Stuttgart, Berlin, Hannover (and hopefully more cities) to celebrate the "Street Jazz" soundtrack. After that, our next releases are all in preparation. This year I want to release three to four records. The next record is an album from producer Kova — a beat producer that I'm following for years. He works with jazz samples and a crazy concept that I like a lot.

You just released the "Jeep Beats Vol.2" Mixtape with four exclusive beats from the "Street Jazz" soundtrack. What is the Jeep Beats series about?
For me the future beat devolpment (that labels like Soulection for example are pushing forward) is a direct relative to the 90s boom bap sound. I wanted to proove my point and bring back the term "Jeep Beats". Therefore you get instrumental beats from a range of 20 years. 

The "Street Jazz" soundtrack is available on vinyl-only and can exclusively be ordered here.
Follow Catch The Beat & Falk.