GOLDSWEAT
Events
Brand Strategy
Identity
Marketing & Promotion
Print and Collateral
Ragers
Back from Japan, I couldn’t stomach the San Francisco night life. By 2007, Jungle was still the prevailing party music. I craved Tokyo’s worship of new sounds — my hours spent in record shops, discovering labels and entire genres I had never heard of. And I wanted to bring that home. I found a like-minded partner, came up with a great name, and went knocking on venue doors.
What followed was a party and a label over 15 years in the making, and some of the most memorable times of our lives; not just new sounds and images, but a micro-culture that stretched to Atlanta, Baltimore, Minneapolis, and beyond.
GOLDSWEAT #001 / 2007
NAIVELY NEW
It’s impossible to get a new party off the ground in San Francisco. The city is too self-conscious to be fun, too transitory for anything new to stick. We had to shoehorn our way onto the scene with a strong brand, a funny name, and print collateral unlike anything else. We didn’t have the benefit of social media. It was a word-of-mouth endeavor.
Parties that are successful get preyed on by club owners and promoters {Looking at you, Madrone]. Breaking even is tough, making money – basically unheard of. That was what we were up against.
GS15
Luckily, we didn’t know how difficult the business was. We were busy printing posters, booking bedroom DJs, and navigating the small club scene. Two years in, Goldsweat started catching on. We got a residency at the now defunct Triple Crown, got a ne'er-do-well promoter, and launched in a couple new cities. By 2009, we were talking about launching a label. But 15 years later, we existed in memory only. The question is: how strong is that memory?
GOLDSWEAT / $5.00 SINCE 2007
GS15 × BRLSQOTHEQUE: “THE PARTYIST”
BLASTYBLAST
[GS × BRLSQOTHEQUE]
Does GOLDSWEAT even exist anymore? I can’t think of a better time to bring the party back, but is the night itself what’s important, or is it the brand — a residual feeling?
If there were to be a second life for GOLDSWEAT, I’d look to Mike 2600, one of our favorite guest DJs, and his Burlesque North America moniker: the greatest print-house around. Posters, tees, and merch for the idea of a party might be the best move now. The key metric is fun. Are we having a Blasty Blast, or not?
