Who is Pastland?

My journey into the world of electronic music began unexpectedly when I was 11. I was just trying to build a mid-2000s hip-hop station on Pandora when a track called "Fortune Days" by The Glitch Mob came on. I was instantly captivated. I’d always loved the instrumentals from producers like Timbaland, but this was different. Every element was so clean and powerful, a complete sonic world without any vocals. That moment sent me down a rabbit hole, and when I discovered tracks like "How We Party" by R3HAB & VINAI, I found my home in the explosive energy of Big Room and Melbourne Bounce. Labels like Spinnin' Records, Revealed Recordings, and Mainstage Music became my textbooks. Friday mornings were a ritual; I’d spend hours digging through SoundCloud and Spotify, sometimes sifting through over 200 tracks in a weekend to find hidden gems for my mixes. I wasn’t just listening; I was weaving together a web of artists, labels, and collaborators, developing a tastemaker’s ear for the sounds that would define that era.
This obsession with discovery naturally led me to want to share the stories behind the music. I noticed that while superstars were covered extensively, many of the rising talents I admired didn’t have a platform. I founded The QR Network as a blog to change that. I wanted to give every artist a chance to share their story, and soon I was interviewing producers I had looked up to for years, including Maurice West (now Mau P), Dannic, Maddix, Seth Hills, Olly James, KAAZE, and Chocolate Puma. We even secured press passes to cover festivals like Imagine and Shaky Beats. Through these conversations and the network I was building, I started hearing incredible unreleased music that many labels were passing on. I realized I was in a unique position to not just write about the scene, but to actively shape it.
Hearing all this amazing unreleased music ignited a new passion in me: to help get it out into the world. After a brief A&R role at Madox Records, I had the incredible opportunity to take the reins as label manager for the legendary underground imprint, Loca Recordings. This was my transition from fan and blogger to a genuine force in the industry, responsible for sourcing demos and nurturing the next generation of artists. During my time there, we signed and developed producers who would go on to do great things, like AXMO, Ezra Hazard, Olly James, and most notably, Declain, who has become a key collaborator for my Pastland project. My proudest moment was orchestrating Loca’s 100th release, "We Rise Together," a massive supercollab that united TBR, OUTRAGE, EMKR, and many others, proving the power and unity of the underground big room scene.
My time at Loca was invaluable, but I knew that to truly execute my vision, I needed to build something from the ground up. In May of 2020, I founded Intensity Recordings. Carrying over the momentum, we quickly became a go-to label for high-quality festival music, collaborating with other imprints like Glow Records and the iconic YouTube channel Nik Cooper. The results blew away all my expectations. Under my leadership, Intensity amassed nearly 40 million streams across over 200 releases from 300+ artists. Our tracks were used in thousands of videos, received support from the world's biggest DJs, and built a community of over 25,000 followers from scratch. As proud as I was, Intensity became an immense undertaking for one person alongside a demanding full-time job. I eventually sold the label off to a reputable artist and company based out of the Netherlands which I felt was best to continue that legacy I had built.
After selling the label, I took a much-needed break, but the music never really leaves you. I had a collection of fantastic tracks from the Intensity era that deserved to be heard, but the original artists had since changed their sound or moved in new directions. I decided to relaunch The QR Network, this time as a record label, and created Pastland, an artist alias to serve as a home for this "past creativity." Pastland is my way of honoring these amazing festival-ready tracks and giving them a proper release. We’ve kicked things off with our first chapter, an homage to the golden age of festival music, and have already collaborated with incredible artists like Declain, SaberZ, and Skytech. The vision is to move through different eras of sound, with our next chapter set to explore tech and bass house. Pastland is the culmination of my entire journey: a project built on a deep love for the genre’s roots, a commitment to pushing its boundaries, and a dream of one day creating something truly timeless.