Guest Mix + Interview – Wylie Cable
With over a decade in the game, Wylie Cable is a true OG. The California-based producer and DJ is most well known as the Founder of the underground powerhouse DOMEOFDOOM. The independent label is renowned for its eclectic roster and impressive physical offerings that include tapes and vinyl. Their roster is made up of a slew of exceptional names like thook, Jon Casey, Dabow, QRTR, DMVU, DJ Ride, Huxley Anne, DAEDELUS and so many more. To showcase Wylie’s talents as a selector, the power of DOMEOFDOOM, and to learn more about what makes them special we’ve connect with Wylie Cable for our latest Guest Mix + Interview.
The mix is completely bonkers, bouncing between genres and moods ranging from groovy bops, to brutal off-kilter filth, classic hip-hop, and everything between. The mix showcases predominantly DOMEOFDOOM releases along with some of the artist’s personal favourites. Be sure to look out for some unreleased heat!
As for the interview, we explore the chaos that is balancing an artist project and running a label, what the future holds for the label, music NFTs and web3, his favourite books, and much more. Dive in below.
What should we expect from the mix? What was your goal in putting it together?
Expectations are dangerous man! I put together the mix just to share some of the music I’ve been inspired by lately, as well as intentionally leak some of the crazy tunes we have coming out on Dome of Doom Records this year. Oh! Also the first beat on the mix is an unreleased one from me that I made pretty recently.
How do you balance your artist project and running the label? Are there efficiencies and learnings from doing both that benefit both sides?
Balance is probably not the word I would use, more like unadulterated chaos? Being an artist is hard and usually pretty deeply profound emotional and spiritual work for those who are in the act of creating things. Running a label is very business oriented and I have to maintain an extremely high level of professionalism and navigate communicating effectively with many different personalities and be able to calmly yet assertively keep things moving on multiple overlapping projects across various time zones and creative teams. When I make my own personal art, I have to very consciously shut all of that off and go away into my own personal safe artistic space and just make stuff.
I think whatever modicum of success I have had in the past decade mostly has to do with the fact that I truly love music and the creative force entangled with it…
DOMEOFDOOM recently celebrated its 10 year anniversary. Congrats, that’s an incredible milestone. What do you view as your keys to success over the years?
Success is always pretty objective and results may vary. I’m really amazed that an idea I had as just a concept inside of my brain over a decade ago is now a living sort of amoeba/organism of many peoples’ collective creative work. I think whatever modicum of success I have had in the past decade mostly has to do with the fact that I truly love music and the creative force entangled with it, that being the driving force behind all of my business decisions for the label has landed me in a place where I feel respected for my creative achievements but also free to continue to explore new thoughts and ideas.
Where are you headed for the next 10 years?
Sell out Dodger Stadium. Get some plaques, idk. I would like to be the music director for a movie or tv show, not scoring it per say, but the way placing all the songs and finding the perfect tunes that go lock in step with the moments and emotions in film can influence the whole feeling of visual media is super cool to me. There are some soundtracks that I love that feel like they could exist as stand-alone albums even though they are collections of a bunch of different artists’ music. Also if someone handed me a proper budget I feel like I could help support a lot of independent artists with the sheer amount of catalog I have access to in the label archives. If any producers are reading this, hire me to be the music director for your next project. I would totally kill that.
it’s cool to be able to interact with the records in the physical plane and having vinyl, tapes or CD’s of your favorite artist with the artwork printed all beautifully has an undeniably special and magical quality and effect on the people who truly care about the music.
Physical releases are a big part of what makes DOMEOFDOOM unique. In a digital world, why do physicals still matter? What makes them special?
Digital media is pretty inherently fleeting but on a long enough timeline so is physical media. I just think it’s cool to be able to interact with the records in the physical plane and having vinyl, tapes or CD’s of your favorite artist with the artwork printed all beautifully has an undeniably special and magical quality and effect on the people who truly care about the music.
You were one of the first labels to get into NFT space through Catalog. What drew you to the platform? How has the experience been?
Please don’t shoot the messenger but what I visualize a big part of my job being is helping artists navigate the ever-shifting landscape of the ‘music industry’ at large. The whole explosion of digital artwork and all these new marketplaces seem at least for now to be part of how people are finding new music and artwork, as well as a new revenue stream for artists. I think there are lots of issues with all sorts of aspects of what people are calling ‘web 3’ but I felt to be competitive and current for the artists we represent on the label, we at least had to navigate and understand the space and be able to offer it as an option to our artists, and support artists who release music with us that are interested in exploring and experimenting with new ways of distributing and sharing their work.
NFTs are a polarizing topic in music right now. Do you think any of the criticism is justified? Does the good outweigh the bad in your view?
Anything new that happens fast and has a wide influence is usually pretty polarizing. Yes, I think most if not all of the criticism is justified and if buying and selling artwork and in some cases even intellectual property rights using what the SEC basically recognizes as volatile securities is going to become part of the mainstream entertainment industry then there will inevitably be a lot of criticism along the way. If things stay exactly the way they are currently with digital/crypto art it will probably be a passing fad, but if the communities and companies supporting these marketplaces can adapt to the criticism and evolve then maybe it will become more commonplace long term. I think it’s far too early to say anything conclusively about whether the good outweighs the bad and that’s so subjective that I don’t feel qualified to make a broad stroke gesture and say ‘yay’ or ‘nay’.
Last year you cut off your signature dreads. What prompted the change? Is it representative of something larger in your life?
Haha! Oh man, signature. F**k me. Yeah I gave myself dreads when I was 17 years old just about to turn 18 in between my first and second semester in college, so it was a decision I made at a pretty juvenile age. I rocked dreads for 15 years, and then last summer I got totally wasted with Huxley Anne and let her cut them off with scissors on the 4th of July after we got back from a party in the Malibu hills. There is a video of that floating around somewhere I think. It wasn’t meant to be deeply symbolic, just something that I felt was overdue and I’ve been enjoying the fresh start feeling and don’t regret the decision at all.
DMVU was bigging up your taste in books on Twitter. Can you recommend 5 of all your all-time must-reads and what makes each special?
Oh wow this is awesome and I love DMVU for saying that haha.
Frank Herbert – Dune – A creatively unhinged sci-fi story spanning multiple generations of characters that addresses the failures of colonialism and globalization through the story of a native Fremen people who are continually exploited by various intergalactic despots seeking to harvest the rare natural resources of their planet. It addresses the hero messiah myth in a lot of interesting ways and has an overarching theme to the story about how absolute power corrupts absolutely.
J. R. R. Tolkien – Lord of the Rings – I don’t think I will be introducing many people to this text as it’s one of the more famous collections of books in western literature, but still the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books are some of my favorite fantasy stories ever. Recently I also got obsessed with ‘The Green Knight’ after seeing the A24 film adaptation and then DMVU sent me a copy of Tolkein’s translation of the original prose that the movie was based on.
Charles Bukowski – Pulp – An essential American author, if you don’t like Bukowski I will happily fight you in the parking lot. The way Bukowski writes about Los Angeles and the Bay Area feels comforting to me like a warm blanket of familiarity having grown up in California my whole life. This is just one of my favorite short novels from him, and I don’t want to spoil the plot too much but it’s basically a mystery story about a private detective that gets way in over his head. Read this book, it’s so awesome.
Jane Austen – Pride & Prejudice – “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife,” is arguably one of the most famous opening lines in the history of western literature. This book is basically the blueprint that every modern romance novel or rom-com movie was based on, published in 1813 this story still remains a frequently referenced work across multiple mediums and continues to be repressed generation after generation. Read this yo. Jane Austen really understood the dynamics of relationships.
Jorge Luis Borges – Labyrinths – Labyrinths is more a collection of short stories and poems than one contiguous novel, it is representative of selections of Borges’ writing, something like forty individual pieces from various books Borges published over the years. This is the book that got me into Borges’ extended catalog, a legendary author from Argentina who’s influence on modern literature really can’t be overstated. If you end up reading this and like Borges please also check out: The Garden of Forking Paths, The Aleph, and The Library of Babel.
I ride my bike all over LA, I try to make it out to the Angeles Crest mountains as often as I can and see the trees and go touch grass, swim in the ocean, ride my skateboard, play dumb videogames on switch, kiss my friends on the face, howl at the moon, etc.
What do you enjoy doing when you need a break from music?
Honestly lately I have been trying to just spend as much time with my friends as possible and go out into the world and experience things and places that I wouldn’t ordinarily. I ride my bike all over LA, I try to make it out to the Angeles Crest mountains as often as I can and see the trees and go touch grass, swim in the ocean, ride my skateboard, play dumb videogames on switch, kiss my friends on the face, howl at the moon, etc.
Any final words for fans?
I’ve got a bike, you can ride it if you like
It’s got a basket, a bell that rings
And things to make it look good
I’d give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it
You’re the kind of girl that fits in with my world
I’ll give you anything, everything if you want things
Tracklist:
Wylie Cable – New Loops (DEMO) – unreleased
Alphafox – We Back (DEMO) – unreleased
CLYDE – escort rs turbo 90’ – unreleased
QRTR – Nossa (Daedelus Remix) – Dome of Doom Records
Dabow – Trap On My Mind (Tsuruda Remix) – unreleased
BOSTN – Violence – Dome of Doom Records
goropi – two of us – unreleased
dvr & Kenny Beats – low life – XL Recordings
Fellsius – The Drum – Dome of Doom Records
DMVU – Chrysanthemum – unreleased
QRTR – Nossa [Interlude] – Dome of Doom Records
Ivy Lab – Everythingmustchange – 20/20 LDN
Madvillain – Accordion – Stones Throw Records
Daedelus – Experience – Magical Properties
Thook – ID – unreleased
