Interview with the Founder of Madox Records: Stephan Tosh

12/23/2018

What inspired you to get into EDM?
In 2013, I saw a video online of Hardwell playing in a club and it blew me away. It inspired me to start DJing that same year. A couple years later, I found that it just wasn't enough for me. So in 2015, I started producing big room until I got bored of that, and I landed on dark progressive music which is what I primarily produce today. For inspiration, I look at what is being done by some of my producer buddies as well as my role models like REGGIO. But I'm working to make my own recognizable style of the genre. To help fund my passion, I work as a plant mechanic during the day. When I get off work, I spend hours watching tutorials and downloading files to help with my productions. It's taken a lot of time to get where I am today, but when you get to that point where you see people loving your music, it's the best feeling in the world.

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A post shared by Stjepan Tokic (@officialstephantosh) on Jul 13, 2018 at 1:20pm PDT

What made you want to start your own label? What are the benefits and challenges that have come along with running your own career as well as a label?
When I started Madox Records, I wanted to do something better than other labels of our caliber. So I made a professional webpage, radio show, artwork for each release, and I help promote our artists to organically grow their fanbase.

Some of the benefits I've seen from Madox Records was the ability to get in touch with a lot of huge producers. We've got a fantastic team with a lot of love for our project. They each take a lot of time out of their day to put in the hard work to do what needs to be done. Right now, we're in the process of optimizing our website and demo system as well as launching Madox Radio. With all of our hard work, we've gotten to see artists which started on Madox Records signing tracks on Revealed Recordings. I personally want to thank NOR3 (Norman Meier) for his work on Madox because he has executed a lot of ideas, and I couldn't have made them a reality without him.

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A post shared by Madox Records (@madoxrecords) on Oct 19, 2018 at 8:46am PDT

What are some of the trends that you hope people will follow in the future? What types of demos do you want to see more of?
People shouldn't listen always to music by big labels. There are lot of smaller labels with incredible quality tracks. As for demos, I would love to get more dark progressive tracks. Unfortunately, there's just a handful of producers making this genre. In the end, the best way to get signed is to send high quality music, at Madox, we are not specific to any genre.

What are some of your goals for the future of Stephan Tosh & Madox Records?
My personal dream is to play at big clubs around the world and a collaboration with REGGIO. For Madox Records, the goal is to release content by big artists like TWIIG, Mountblaq, and Swede Dreams. We're also aiming to start our own label night and bring some of our artists out to perform. We have made a sub-label called Madox Network to release underrated tracks from small artists which didn't achieve the quality standard for a Madox Records release. We want to make sure to open our doors to everyone. Beyond this, we will have a hard dance sub-label as well as one for pop music. There are many things that have been set in motion for 2019 so be sure to keep an eye out for what we've got coming up!

A huge thank you to Stephan Tosh for answering our questions. Be sure to check him out as well as his label, Madox Records.