Made Now Music
Label Spotlight. January 19, 2022.
Made Now Music is a prolific Meanjin based independent music label, concert series and community of local artists. What started as a collaboration between three friends is now run mostly by Brodie McAllister with the help of his partner Catalynne.
Over the last 5 years, MNM has released 19 records across jazz, post-classical & experimental music. They've put on countless gigs at venues across the city, most recently calling KEPK a home away from home.
"We are committed to putting out art from artists that we believe in. MNM focuses on releasing music from artists not categorised by genre, but by a common ethos - quality, honest music, made now."
Beginnings
At the time MNM started in 2017, it didn't feel like there was a space for people to come together that were making experimental music. Don't get me wrong, there were still people doing things at that time - but for the community coming out of the con, it didn't feel like it.
I was trying to start a live concert series at Fat Louie's which didn't end up happening (for obvious reasons) but my friend Caleb wanted to start a label so we thought screw it, let's combine our passions and make it one project.
When we had a larger team it was awesome - Caleb could track and mix the music, I could work design, and together we bounced off each other to fill in the gaps and just about take an album from idea to completion all in-house.
Ethos
Our goal from the very beginning has been about building a sustainable, empathic, compassionate community that comes together for all these types of music. Having a label alongside the shows has allowed us to document the work of the artists that were playing and it just worked great hand in hand.
We owe a lot to Peter Breen and Jugglers Art Space - he would let us put shows on that certainly lost him money and probably sucked but he just cared about community so much and it's stuck with me. He's an absolute legend. Jugglers was really championing underground art for such a long time and Peter has always been so amazing in helping us put things on. He also does The Stairwell Project which everyone should definitely check out.
The only thing that's really shifted from our beginnings is the frequency of what we do, now that I'm the only one founding member remaining. Also we aren't as strictly Meanjin with releases now which is great because there's so much good music from all across so-called Australia.
Common threads
In terms of the sound of the label we started with a focus on contemporary classical, and it's remained steeped in acoustic arrangement. But, as there've been more releases we've seen more electronic and other influences which has been refreshing.
Honestly we are open to all types of music, we don't fuss over genre. These days I am more picky with the releases just because I can only do so much on my own and I really have to love the record to put the hours in.
The thread really seems to be that we just work with people that we'd hang out with or have a meal with you know. I feel like I'm stealing that from somewhere... Anyone that has or will be a part of MNM are beautiful people. Now that I say that it sounds weird, why would you release music for people that you hate?!
Meanjin/Brisbane scene
I was born and raised here and I feel like we are having a real moment right now which is incredible. There's a lot of amazing stuff popping up, lots of people are coming out of the woodworks with this new energy which just builds community up.
Honestly, everyone here is just so lovely. The community is really open minded, people will go to a bunch of different gigs that aren't even that related and just show up for the scene which is beautiful.
The blank canvas of Meanjin is a big draw card right now I reckon, there's just so much room to do whatever you want. We have roots as a counterculture city and that vibe has come alive again in recent years.
We're getting even better at cross pollinating locally and nationally too. In other scenes, artists and musicians don't easily gel; scenes are clicky. That's way less of a thing here which is rad.