If you want to know what the Brussels label and collective HE4RTBROKEN are all about, simply look at their name. T2 and Jodie’s bassline classic “Heartbroken” is the source of the crew’s moniker, and the music they release is in that general spirit. Their brand of club music is hefty, both sonically and emotionally. There is simply nothing like dancing and crying at the same time, and the HE4RTBROKEN Nina Label Mix is the perfect soundtrack to that activity. Give it a listen, and read an interview with Liyo—who co-founded HE4RTBROKEN along with London-based DJ STEFF—below.

Where are you based?

Liyo: Brussels.

Can you describe your label mix?

The tracks span from 2015 until now, most of them are edits but there are also a few original tracks from our compilation secret songs for you that we released in 2017.

What inspired you to start a label?

We are not really a label so to speak, so thank you for including us in the label mixes nonetheless :) Our main activity as a collective is to organize parties and to run a monthly radio show, but it happens from time to time that we use our online platform to release edits and music from the collective’s members and entourage.

Does your label have a sound or a mission? 

We try to keep an unapologetically emotional approach to (club) music, thus our slightly dramatic name, inspired by the T2 and Jodie track “Heartbroken.” We want to offer a space for our audience to feel bigger feelings, to embrace and explore that healing catharsis that music can bring. It’s our way to make a statement that sensitive souls are welcome in the club and we’ll take care of them, and that this is not about who’ll play the biggest banger with the loudest sound. In a way, this approach was very freeing for us, it allowed us to shamelessly play our favorite secret tear jerkers in the club, and to search for this emotional quality across many genres.

What inspired you to start a label?

We have been running HE4RTBROKEN for almost a decade now, and we are very grateful for the little family of sensitive souls who have been following us online and offline for so long. Being based in Belgium, I feel like we’ve been a bit sheltered, in the way that there are not so many industry’s big players here and it allowed us to keep things more low key and truly community based. Besides our local scene, we also connected with a lot of artists online and got people to know us online through the releases and our radio show, so we got offered to organize events abroad for special occasions, in Paris, London, Berlin and Shanghai.

What's your A&R process?

I’m sorry but I don’t know what A&R is haha.

What labels do you look up to? 

Off the top of my head and I'm surely forgetting a lot of them, Yegorka, Anyines, Seedlink, 99cts, High Heal, SVBKVLT, Genome 6.66Mbp, Doyenne, PTP, Blackest Ever Black, 5 Gate Temple, Country Music, World Canvas, Citylink, Stroom, Slagwerk, Boomerang... And trailblazers like Hyperdub, Warp, Rephlex, Fade To Mind, Night Slugs, Hippos in Tanks, Uno NYC, Janus, Allergy Season, Halcyon Veil, Pan, and Presto!? have been very defining for us.