Since it was co-founded in 2024 by Glenn Elliott and CRYME himself, SEVEN has managed to carve out its own lane in the underground scene. Championing community, representation, and creative freedom, it has quickly established itself as a standout fixture in a sea of music labels. Proudly FLINTA leaning and uplifting overlooked voices, SEVEN has been shaping a space where music, community and fairness co-exist side by side and is celebrating its first anniversary with an all-star cast of scene-defining artists reimagining CRYME’S London Boy.
A fixture in Berlin’s queer underground scene, CRYME has built a reputation for his energetic sets that bridge house and techno with the latter’s bass-heavy energy blended meticulously with the joyous uplifting vocals of house music. From local gigs at renowned club nights such as Pornceptual to international stages, he has experienced first-hand the power music has to unite people, which led him to co-found his label with Glenn Elliott. Through it, they challenge traditional label models and work to redress the balance with financially transparent artist-first deals and creative freedom. With several sold-out releases, a mix series and compilations under its belt, SEVEN recently celebrated its first anniversary in great style with genre-defying EP London Boy: The Remixes. UK garage, electro, grime, ghetto house and modern club populate the EP with remixes of the track by revered tastemakers of the underground. We talked to CRYME about his label’s past, present and future as well as collaborations, community and personal reflections on club culture, life as an artist and more.
Your new London Boy remix EP celebrates both the track’s success and SEVEN’s first birthday. What does this moment represent for you personally and artistically?
London Boy was on my first ever Vinyl, The “Back Room” EP released by the wonderful Tom Peters on his …is serving label. I remember it was so amazing to have a vinyl in my hands. I’ve released several vinyls since and it is so nice to go back to this first one and bring it back. London Boy was the B side of that original vinyl, I didn’t realise then it would be a track that would capture so much attention and get such good club play. It was amazing to hear it played by some incredible club DJs. I’m super grateful that four of them made the time to give me a remix of it, it really means a lot.
You’ve spoken about Honey Dijon’s 2018 Sugar Mountain set as a turning point. What changed for you that night, and how did it shape the kind of DJ and producer you’ve become?
I remember that night like it was yesterday. It was magical and the hairs stood up on my arms. The way she approached her performance was incredible. Everything about it, the selection, the mixing, just her presence, the way she holds that booth had a huge effect on me seeing a super strong, confident woman create a magical atmosphere like that. I was hooked and she became, and still is, a huge inspiration. She has always advocated for Queer and Trans rights, I was certainly influenced by that. I think I owe it to her for the realisation that if I started a label I needed to do more than release great music, it also had to stand for something, to have a go at making our little corner of the world a bit better.
From your early days at Grießmühle to touring globally, how has your understanding of community and emotional connection on the dance floor evolved?
Well, like most DJs, I started on the dance floor and moved to the booth, so you get a very different perspective seeing the party from there. On the dance floor you are literally lost in the music with your friends and the emotion. It’s music about you and the people physically closest to you. As you do bigger parties you see it more as a whole, the emotion and the action across a bigger space. It can be quite magical when you see the atmosphere you’ve created. I love that feeling of helping a huge group of clubbers go on a journey to forget their work and home problems and just, for a few hours, live in the moment. It's a magical feeling.
SEVEN launched with a clear FLINTA and queer-led mission and artist-first 70/30 deals. What pushed you to build a label around fairness, and what challenges have you faced advocating for that model?
I think we all know that the music industry has become increasingly unfair for artists. Spotify and the tech lords have sucked the vast majority of money out of music and kept it for themselves and a handful of big record labels. The secondary problem with this is it leaves scraps for the indie labels which then can barely survive and then, sometimes, that can make them forget the artist and think more about themselves as they are struggling so much.
We wanted to put a flag in the ground for the artist and say that the artist has to come first. Our hope is that if we do that, artists will work with us, give us their best music and then we can all grow together. It's tough when you’re committed to paying a lot to the artist but actually the margins are super thin. So that’s one reason why we got into merchandise so much because there, on a good day, you can still make some money. So next time you pop to the SEVEN store for a vinyl we might ask you, “would you like a charger for your Mac with that?”
We wanted to put a flag in the ground for the artist and say that the artist has to come first. Our hope is that if we do that, artists will work with us, give us their best music and then we can all grow together. It's tough when you’re committed to paying a lot to the artist but actually the margins are super thin. So that’s one reason why we got into merchandise so much because there, on a good day, you can still make some money. So next time you pop to the SEVEN store for a vinyl we might ask you, “would you like a charger for your Mac with that?”
In just one year, the label has put out an impressive volume of music with a strikingly diverse roster. What do you look for in artists, and how do you ensure their identities and stories remain centred in your process?
For me running A&R at SEVEN, it has to all start, kind of obviously, with the music and I am super lucky that we’re in a place where I can focus completely on that, not how big the artist is or how much they will or won’t sell. Describing genres in detail I always find it hard, but I’ve got a good enough ear. I know what I want and am looking for. That’s ninety percent of it. Obviously, we want to work with nice people, and we've been really fortunate in that aspect.
Once we’ve signed an artist it's important to get to know them a bit so we can make them, like you say, the centre of the story. We like to book and draw from our label roster so for our mix series, our events, label showcases and also for remixes we look first at the people we've already worked with. We like to share their stories on our website and social media through interviews and features because we want people to get to know the artist behind the music. I’m quite excited that from SEVEN7011 onwards (an EP by Ackermann) we are bringing back sleeve notes so we get to share an extended interview and track by track analysis by the artist themselves on the inner sleeve of the vinyl.
The remixes come from Roza Terenzi, JakoJako, MCR-T https://metalmagazine.eu/en/post/mcr-t, and Stef de Haan, four artists who’ve supported London Boy from the beginning. What does collaboration and mutual support look like within your community?
I do find the scene we are in particularly collaborative and supportive. London Boy is a great example. I mean those artists are very very busy. Especially Roza and JJ (MCR-T) who are basically out touring all the time and they could easily have given us a polite pass. They certainly didn’t do it for the money or the exposure but because they loved the track and because they are still true community musicians at heart, they made time for it even though it wasn’t easy. JJ actually finished his remix from a motel room in LA when he was on his USA tour. I am super grateful to all four of them for their support, it shows real kindness and community spirit.
Looking ahead, how do you hope SEVEN and your own musical journey will contribute to a more equitable, queer led future for club culture?
I really hope that in a small way we can show other queer artists that they deserve a space in the spotlight, on the stage and that maybe one or two record labels might also join us in doing better for the artists.
