The mighty breaks record label Finger Lickin’ would be nothing without the dedication of Justin Rushmore and Jem Panufnik, also known as Soul Of Man. From running the day to day admin work, to sourcing new talent, and designing the iconographic and wonderful album art, as well as produce fine singles, remixes and mix albums, they’ve certainly got reason to be a little less prolific than other artists. Add to this Panufnik’s recent marriage and Rushmore’s recent baby, and the fantasy of running a label starts to look less like a fun time sitting around listening to good music, and more like real work!
One of the things that make Finger Lickin’ stand out beyond the incredible music is the artwork decorating every piece of vinyl they release. It’s bright, funky and attention grabbing, and all done by Panufnik. “We wanted to have a really strong visual identity,” Panufnik says of his artwork. “It’s important that the music is upfront, funky and in your face and the visuals to reflect that. And it’s great fun for me to do that,” he adds with a smile, “and more often than not it’s a piece of music that inspires it. And especially now that vinyl sales are very much in the balance it really makes a difference to have something that grabs people’s attention and is something they want to buy and keep. It’s much more exciting than downloading an MP3.”
“However,” he continues, “doing the Artwork is a full time job, so on top of the admin it is very time consuming, and Justin and I want to do less of the 9 to 5 drag and concentrate on producing music now. But it is kind of hard to let go. Whilst I may moan about doing the artwork and other things I’m often frightened to let anyone else take it over, and the same with Justin really. It is our baby, and it is frightening to start to let go, but having said that the whole of this year has been geared up to let things run themselves and to let go of the reigns and let us get along with our own thing.”
Even as touring DJs they don’t do things by half. Last year I was lucky enough to see them at Field Day in sweltering 44 degrees heat in Sydney. “Field day was particularly agony because it was a pretty full on tour. By the time we arrived in Sydney we had already done a gig in Perth, a gig on New Years Eve in Hobart, had to go without any sleep to Melbourne to do Summerdayze in the afternoon, and then literally take the last record off, leg it to the airport, and, I think our plane was the last allowed to land before the tarmac was considered too soft for planes to land! The whole baggage system broke down because of the heat!” he laughs. “We were really lucky to get there – we arrived maybe half an hour before our set, we were stinking of booze and sweat and it was pretty hardcore but we soldiered on,” Panufnik chuckles again.
Due to their recording commitments, they unfortunately won’t be back in Australia until next year sometime, but the first step on their way to getting back amongst the music is to produce the annual Finger Lickin’ Thang mix CD. Always funky, vibrant and featuring the best Finger Lickin’ has to offer, this year is no different, but does offer a slightly different sound. With computers and music software becoming more advanced, breaks are shifting from sampling funk and hiphop to producing its own sound, becoming a little more electro in its direction. “The whole electro angle is a production thing, and I think it’s probably kicked a lot of breaks people up the arse when they realise that there’s some amazing music being made out there that has fantastic dancefloor appeal,” Panufnik enthuses.
“The grooves are wicked, and apart from anything else the production sounds absolutely amazing. That’s the sound we’re very inspired by at the moment, because of the way it’s heading really. It’s giving breaks a really good shake up showing there’s a lot of great stuff out there. For example, I think it was a good move to put the D.Ramirez remix of the Plumps on Finger Lickin’ Thang 4. He’s woken a lot of people up to this sound, and the Plump DJs track adapted brilliantly as well.”
Finger Lickin’ Thang 4 Mixed by Soul Of Man is out soon through inertia.