unseelie was founded in New York City in 2018 by Dasychira, QUALIATIK, sentinel and Kodi Fabricant. The collective and label has over 20 releases in their catalog and has published work by Yikii, galen tipton, Himera, 7038634357, Drumloop among many others in addition to throwing events in New York and across the world.

Where are you based?

Dasychira & QUALIATIK: unseelie is based in New York and Baltimore. Originally the collective was founded in NYC while we were doing events before we threw a couple at the Floristree (a legendary now-defunct DIY venue in Baltimore). We also have team members in Montreal, Pittsburgh and Brisbane.

Tell us about your label mix.

D: The first 30 minutes are by me and include rare tracks by unseelie friends, as well as unreleased songs and music that influenced me in my own artistry and the sound of the label. I wanted to blend newer releases on my radar with what I would consider timeless music. I feel like everything that has that unseelie spirit meshes naturally. Q: The second half of the mix is a combination of unseelie-released songs that I have been inspired by lately, in their sonic atmosphere and their emotionality. I think that a core unseelie trait of this mix is a sort of whimsical, wistful sensitivity that many of the artists themselves possess, which can live within a wide range of sounds and stylings that can be stitched together and all have a distinctly “unseelie” feeling. So I think the mix overall represents that unseelie is more of a feeling, rather than any one distinct sound or sound palette. It really is eclectic, and the spirit of unseelie lives more in the energy of the music than it does in any style or technique.

What inspired you to start a label?

D: QUALIATIK and I went on a US tour in 2017 and met so many artists we were excited to perform with. While we were on the road I started to work on music more collaboratively and it was exciting to see what other collectives were doing. I got booked for one of the first S.M.I.L.E shows in Vancouver and made an insane track with Baby Blue that we released beforehand - that made me feel excited about the prospect of releasing music that celebrates and archives these special gatherings. When we got back to New York we organized a show together with our friend sentinel and booked Embaci, ADR, Teengirl Fantasy and FaltyDL. It went so well we decided to start our own series. At the first unseelie in 2018 we made mixtape CDs with our drawings on it that included an unseelie voiceover, music by the performing artists, and a few songs that friends in Europe sent us. I remember ssaliva sent us this abstract ambient piece they made with Munix under the name nevrland. It felt really meaningful to hand those out to people attending, because it was one of those moments where you needed to be there to experience it, and you’re left with this souvenir of it that reminds you of the community.

Q: I recall that we felt very inspired by the cohesive influence - a certain ideology or visual/emotional tone can have across many forms of media, and wanted to create a platform for exploring sentimentality through music, visuals, storytelling, worldbuilding, and community. Touring and meeting friends and other small communities with similar visions was hugely inspiring, and made us really want to contribute to the burgeoning “nodes” of what felt like a much larger conversation. We wanted to bring this feeling with us back to NYC and create a space where people could come together over shared values and energies. We also wanted to take this into the digital realm, where a project can really feel like a world of its own that you enter, and dig deeper into. unseelie wouldn’t exist without our experiences in digital communities, so we also wanted the label to function as somewhat of a virtual hive for connection and cross-pollination. Releasing music and visuals as a label has allowed us to cultivate this community, and to put out meaningful expressions and allow people to find it and gravitate toward it on their own. This is the most rewarding part.

Does your label have a sound or a mission?

Tell us about your scene(s).

D: unseelie is amorphous, I feel like the art and music we want to share with our audience interfaces with electronic music, poetry, fantasy and a generally “otherkin” spirit that encourages our audience to engage with the art anyway they want. It’s where the personal becomes the universal, in that there’s elements of recognizable styles and aesthetics that emphasize nature, technology and spiritually with this mystique and detail that gives you insight into a parallel realm to what is familiar. For me that unseelie attitude lies in the ether between trickery and magical realism.

Q: It has actually been a running joke since the start of unseelie for the question “what is unseelie?” to prompt hours-long discussions where we end up in a totally different place each time. So unseelie, and therefore its community, evades definition and seems like it just wants to stay that way. In fact, this might be one of the biggest traits of unseelie and those in the unseelie community: evading definition, by nature. It is interesting to see a pretty specific kind of scene develop organically about something that feels so intangible and vague. There is a definite kinship and inherent understanding between people in the unseelie community, almost a similar temperament? It’s hard to say the material, content, or apparent ethos where the connective force makes itself evident. I think it is energetic. unseelie is a feeling more than it is anything definable by aesthetic, ideology, or intent.

What's your A&R process?

D & Q: It varies, often our releases stem from naturally meeting artists at their performances or discovering their work online. 

What labels do you look up to?

D & Q: S.M.I.L.E, Blueberry Records, Orange Milk, Éditions Appærent, Slagwerk, YEAR0001, Recital, NewMem The Litefeet Collective, UNO NYC, NMBRS, PAN, WARP, XL, Príncipe, immunity, Legendarium, MIND CLUB, Akoya Books, Lynn, PTP, Bala Club, NON, JANUS, Halcyon Veil, Madjestic Kasual, Creamcake, Bloom, 理会农音乐帝国小组, AQNB, Genome 6.66 Mbp, Vague Terrain, PRECIOUS METALS, Absurd TRAX, BUILD, WET are a few that come to mind. We also love the self-release approach more artists have been taking in embracing their fans.