Kingpin Dubstep Label Disciple Recordings Brings The Heat

One hundred dollars. That’s how much money Disciple Recordings label bosses Rob Talbott and Rossy Burr had in their pockets when they moved to Los Angeles from the UK after founding the imprint in 2013. Since then, the two have been a key part in taking over the American dubstep and riddim scene.

While living in Long Beach, Calif., the pair crashed on a friend’s couch for about six months, living off of 7/11 dollar slice pizza just to survive. However, they spent all their time working to build the label, and through their persistence, they were able to build up Disciple Recordings.

Burr swore he would never run a label again after starting his first imprint at 15-year-old, despite it being a success. This knowledge, though, was integral in making what is now one of the most renowned labels in dubstep successful. He spotted Barely Alive and Virtual Riot on Soundcloud, who at the time had next to no followers but have since become some of the biggest acts within the scene in America.

Founding the imprint in 2013 was quite the feat as it was arguably one of the worst times to start a label, particularly in Europe since dubstep was dying there—there went from multiple dubstep shows per week to house music taking over the scene. However, dubstep was booming in the United States, thanks to legendary artist Skrillex. While Burr was broke, he had some cash saved up from his previous drum and bass shows in the United States. With that and Talbott’s money, they were able to fly to Los Angeles as the duo still had working visas. Moving was their only option in hopes of making Disciple Recordings a success.

Between 2015 and 2020, the label made a name for itself as they began to sign multiple artists that Burr even saw perform during his teenage years. Their success can be seen in selling out the Hollywood Palladium twice and touring with a massive castle production around the United States as part of their Disciple Kingdom show. Indeed, the imprint has since made a name for itself despite its humble beginnings.

Here, Burr and Talbott take the time to share with Forbes their key to success with Disciple Recordings, what they look for when signing a track, advice for those looking to start their own imprint and more.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Kocay: What would you say is your key to success with having Disciple be so successful?

Rossy Burr: “I think 50% of the success comes from working harder than everyone else around you. And 50% of the success comes from, I don’t know how I would really describe the other fifty, I guess the easy way to say it is luck, but I also don’t believe in luck. I think it’s just going for long enough until opportunities arise, and it’s hard. The harder you work, the more luck you get. It’s pretty much that: 50% hard work [and] 50% luck.”

Kocay: Can you talk about what were some of the most pivotal moments for Disciple?

Burr: “I think the first pivotal moment we had for Disciple was one of the first Disciple tours. We were traveling around as a label doing shows. Five of the main artists on Disciple [were] all playing shows across America together, and up until that point, we had played a few shows in Los Angeles. But we knew that if we wanted to get on those big festivals, like [Electric Daisy Carnival] and Beyond Wonderland, who were all owned by Insomniac, we had to get the opportunity to play an Insomniac club show and we had to sell it out.

“So it was a big deal for us because we got the opportunity. They finally came to us and said, ‘We think Disciple is growing and it’s getting some buzz in [Los Angeles], so we’re gonna take a chance on you guys. We’re gonna book a Disciple club show.’ It was an 1,800-cap venue in downtown [Los Angeles] called The Belasco. This was back in 2016, so the whole tour was leading up to this one show and we are all anxious about it because we know that we had to sell it out the night before we all played a Disciple show in Dallas, Texas. The next morning we are all together in the airport, and the news comes through that the weather was so bad that they grounded all the planes and we couldn’t get back to play the show.

“I got the text message from the promoter at Insomniac while we were at the airport and he just said, ‘The show is sold out.’ So it was this really strange moment where there was all this euphoria from being so happy that the show was sold out. We’ve done it but [there was] so much sadness because we couldn’t get there. Then Rob [Talbott], being [Talbott], and this is where one of his strengths is…[Talbott] managed to find a private jet company that just happened to have a jet that was flying back from Dallas to Los Angeles. We all chipped in and everyone paid all this money to get on this private jet. From taking off in Dallas to landing in Burbank airport, getting in an Uber from Burbank airport and getting to downtown [Los Angeles], the first act from Disciple that was on made it to the stage literally one minute before we were supposed to go on stage…we didn’t know if we’re going to make it to. We just hired a private jet because we care about our fans and we wanted everyone to see the show, and we didn’t want to let anyone down.”

Kocay: What do you look for in a song when you sign it to your label?

Burr: “The number one question we always get from fans [is] how do I get signed to Disciple? I’ve always given the same answer. The answer is you have to make great music…I say you have to make great music and you can’t be a [bad person]. Those are the only two requirements that translate into that. Great music is really, really important, and we pride ourselves on the fact that we believe that when it comes to production. The artists at Disciple…some of them might not have the best songs, but technically speaking, I think we have the best producers. The personality of the artist is so important to us as well because everyone at the label does so much together.

“We’re always playing shows together. We’re always going out to eat together. We’ve even done things called Disciple Week where 20 people on the label [and the] staff all go on holiday together. The last one we did was in Thailand. The personality is a really, really important part to the process.”

Kocay: Delving into that a little bit more, what do you define as great music?

Rob Talbott: “I think it’s quite a complicated thing to answer because the reason that people listen to music is complex. Obviously a lot of it comes down to what they’re familiar with and what they’re exposed to. I think great music can mean many different things in different ways. What might be great music and what might be successful. Music is not always the same thing. I think it’s easier to define what makes successful music, and successful music is just memorable. It doesn’t really matter how it’s memorable. It could be a gimmicky catch phrase or it could be one of the best melodies ever written, but either way, it sort sticks in your head.

“It comes down to feeling if a track makes me feel a certain way—the goosebumps go up on your arms and the back of your neck. If a track makes you feel like that, then, to me, that’s a great piece of music. It’s got nothing to do with technicality, because I remember tunes that used to give me that effect. If I listen to them now, the production’s horrible, but that didn’t matter when I wasn’t listening to them with such an analytical ear and ruined it for myself forever. So it goes down to a feeling.”

Kocay: Can you talk about paving the way for riddim in the US?

Burr: “I think the honest answer is that it was an accident. I don’t ever remember a moment where we had a label meeting and said, ‘We need to switch things up and we need to tell everyone to start making more riddim sounding music.’ Another part to the [artist and repertoire] process when we’re signing an artist exclusively is we’re not just signing their music—we’re signing the person. If we’re signing the person, then we’re effectively saying we believe in whatever direction you want to go because we believe that much in you as a producer. So I think there was a moment where Virtual Riot, Barely Alive and Dubloadz at the time all started making more riddim sounding music instead of straight out dubstep. Because we trust them as people and we trust them as producers, we just started releasing it.”

Kocay: Looking back over all the years, what do you think are five highlights that you’d want to point out?

Burr: “Moving to America was a big highlight. Flying in the private jet to make it on time for that first Insomniac club show is a big one. Moving into the Disciple HQ in Hollywood was a big one. Hitting a 100,000 followers or subscribers on YouTube a few years ago was a big moment for us. The biggest highlight for me was the first time that Disciple sold out the Hollywood Palladium, which is just under 4,000 people. That was a huge moment for us. I think that was the last time I cried.”

Talbott: “The next big one that’s coming up is the fact that it’s going to be our 10th anniversary next year. Big celebration. I think surviving in this climate is tough in itself. To be honest, there’s not a lot of dubstep labels left—not ones that are focused on dubstep. Obviously there’s lots of labels that do dubstep, but like dubstep labels, per se.”

Kocay: When you say it’s tough in this current environment, can you talk about why it’s so difficult and what you’re doing to overcome that?

Talbott: “I’ll start by saying that we actually started the record label in 2013 and what we were being told at the time was [it] the worst time ever to start a record label because the music industry was in a big decline. Streaming was in between that stage where you couldn’t physically sell vinyl and CDs had already dropped, but streaming hadn’t really taken off that much either. So it was in this weird middle period where no one really knew how to make money from music. But we did it anyway. Since then, things have evolved to a point where it is all about streaming. We’ve figured out how to make money as a record label from streaming platforms like Spotify in a really effective way.”

Kocay: What advice would you give those who want to launch their own label?

Burr: “To start any sort of business, and that is that if you want something bad enough, it will happen for you. And if it doesn’t happen, then you never wanted it bad enough. What that phrase means to me is that if you are willing to put in the hours and work harder than everyone else around you and you are willing to carry on going for however long it takes, whether it takes three years, five years, 10 years, 20 years, if you are willing to go to your grave fighting for this business that you are starting…then it will happen for you. You have to really be prepared to put yourself into that position.”