When people come to visit me in Los Angeles, especially if it’s their first time, they naturally want to take in the culture. Occasionally, this means walking to the Hollywood sign, visiting one of its many museums, or seeing any of the well-known bars located in WeHo that will happily overcharge you for any drink.
Yet every single time, I double-check to see if their visit aligns with “Listen to Music Outside in the Daylight Under a Tree”. The monthly event is exactly what it sounds like: people show up to the lush Elysian Park — a stone’s throw away from Dodger Stadium — and grab blankets, umbrellas for the sun, and any number of picnic baskets as families, hipsters, and citizens of all type take in performances by the likes of Mia Doi Todd, Dntel, Sam Wilkes, or any number of prominent experimental scene figures. They could be exposed to ambient drone sessions, saxophone loops, eccentric hip-hop, the violin work of Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, or any number of styles. Every month, it’s a different curation of acts, with genres rarely repeating.
It’s an eclectic, memorable concert put together by the Los Angeles-based Leaving Records. Attendance has risen to the point that Matthew McQueen, the Leaving Records co-founder who also records under the name Matthewdavid, says they now under-promote the free event since turnout is basically guaranteed at this point.
It’s a remarkable testament to holding the power of Leaving Records, one of the most dynamic and forward-thinking labels operating today. In 2024, the label are celebrating their 15th year in existence, and to mark McQueen’s 40th birthday, he dropped a new beat tape called Uncleared, which deliberately samples artists both obscure and extremely well-known to craft a twisting, fun ode to the beat scene McQueen grew up with after moving to Los Angeles from Florida many years ago. This scene is where acts like Flying Lotus and Daedelus started brewing their game-shifting sounds.
There are many things Leaving Records are celebrating this year, including their first-ever charting record on Billboard. McQueen grew up with a revered love of the legendary rap group OutKast, and decades later, ended up playing on André 3000’s long-awaited solo album, 2023’s New Blue Sun, a spiritual ambient-jazz record that featured many Leaving Records collaborators. That album’s co-producer (Carlos Niño), keyboardist (Surya Botofasina), and guitarist (Nate Mercerau) put out the lush full-length Subtle Movements together, and it ended up hitting the Contemporary Jazz charts in its week of release.
“My mom was stoked,” jokes McQueen from the Leaving Records headquarters in Elysian Heights. “It did equate to us recouping that record really fast. Unbelievably. That was an Amazon Music thing, to be honest. Someone over there, I’m just going to be totally transparent, is a fan who is helping program one of the flagship meditation stations for Alexa. So one of the songs from that record was programmed onto that playlist, so it’s kind of a global ‘Alexa, play me some meditation music’ [thing], and [it’s] either the Andre 3000 record or that song or one of Fabiano‘s songs will pop up for people to listen to, so it’s a little passive.
“We got lucky,” he continues, “so I know what’s going on behind the scenes, and it’s like, great, we can make a little streaming money. We can have that in our bag now in our little chest, and on our resume, check that box. But I know it’s not really equating to fans necessarily with streaming culture. That’s how this playlist culture stuff goes, so onto the next thing. It definitely was a nice little celebratory moment for me in the band.”
Carlos Niño, in particular, is considered a scene legend. He collaborates with a tight-knit group of forward-thinking musicians to create new journeys into ambient, jazz, or electronic music, and several of his albums have come out through Leaving. It’s no surprise that McQueen has referred to Niño as a mentor figure.
“He’s just been championing sort of me and my artistic vision and label vision together since before even I started a label and before, really, I was getting my music out there,” expounds McQueen. “He is one of the first people I met when I moved to LA, interning at Dublab and Plug Research Records. He’s a founding DJ and a founding member of Dublab. […] I was already a fan of Ammoncontact, Build an Ark, Life Force Trio, and a lot of the stuff that Carlos was doing, [including] Space Waves Radio. I was in Florida and already a fan of a lot of the LA scene stuff. That’s what gravitated me towards Los Angeles.
“I introduced myself to Carlos really early on, and he just really liked my energy and saw my vision; he’s always been holding my hand, mentoring me, introducing me, and facilitating things for me since day one.”
Leaving started as a blog before evolving into a record label in late 2008. McQueen founded it in conjunction with his then-partner, Jesselisa Moretti, who is no longer involved. The first record Leaving ever put out was Standthis by instrumental hip-hop figurehead Dakim (sometimes just referred to as Dak).
“That’s still one of my most prized and precious records ever,” reflects McQueen when asked about Leaving’s first-ever release. “Regardless of being in the Leaving catalog, meeting Dakim through Ras G (Rest in Peace) was like I had unearthed this mad scientist genius, and it’s that catalyst moment to sort of solidify and ensure or assure the idea of Leaving. I told Dak at the time when I met him, ‘My partner and I have this idea. Would you be down to be our guinea pig first release?’
“He was so excited, and I’d go over to his house, and he’s cutting stuff to VHS and bouncing audio to it from VHS and his floorboard. So many fond memories. It’s so precious. It’s my favorite shit. I still listen to it, too. His floorboards were kind of coming up, and the room looked kind of crooked and a little mutated, but it was how it should be for him because he was just in his lab making things work out of nothing. He’s just so inspiring, constantly and inspiring, dude, a man of very few words, also super introverted.”
From those early Dakim releases, the label has grown and expanded, putting out records from the likes of ambient legend M Geddes Gengras, the bass and sax duo of Sam Wilkes and Sam Gendel, the soft-synth pioneer Green-House, the New Age legend Laraaji, and the India-born, modular synth experimentalist Arushi Jain, who recently saw her profile escalated after being selected to open for Oneohtrix Point Never‘s recent tour. As Leaving’s influence continues to grow, certain guiding philosophies remain unchanged, including the one that the label has even printed up on bumper stickers: “Leaving Records Will Never Own Your Masters”.
“We allow artists to [self-release] if they want,” explains McQueen. “We would never hold artists back from their autonomy, and that’s a big part of our mission statement for the label and the relationships that I have with my artists who are my friends that I respect.”
In our tour of the Leaving Records operations, almost every person working there was a recording artist, all clearly invested in the label’s success. PopMatters briefly met Collins Oboh, who was helping organize and pack some vinyl LP, who hails from Baltimore, was born in Nigeria, and puts out downright funky modular synth compositions under the name Colloboh. There is truly a sense of community around the label, which can be felt during the “…Under a Tree” live series. Yet between not owning any artist’s masters and putting on these free events, one has to wonder how a label can fiscally sustain itself when putting out such raw, genre-breaking, and sometimes defiantly uncommercial music.
“It’s always been a labor of love, passion-fueled, heart-fueled,” notes McQueen. “We’ve been in and out of different financial crises throughout the last 15 years. Now, we’re at a point of stability. A year ago today, we were in a weird crisis point where I was going to have to start slowing things down, and then there was an opportunity that we took to provide us with some funding. I also have a small team right now writing and applying for grants for us, which has been super helpful. We got one to fund our last park show, which is incredible. So we’ve had to be creative with sourcing funding left of center. Music doesn’t necessarily all the time sell that well, but there are certain acts like Sam Gendel and Green-House and Ana Roxanne [that have] certain successful campaigns and records that will profit and then continue to profit, which is great. It’s in our catalog, and they continue to work with us.
“We don’t lock in albums or artists like other labels do,” he continues. “We want to allow artists the freedom and the autonomy, and because of those terms, artists like to stay with us and work with us and tell other artists about us too. It just feels good. But yeah, it’s been a roller coaster. I’ve been in and out of joint ventures and partnerships. I almost sold a majority ownership of the label and its brand to somebody who then pulled the plug (blessing in disguise), kind of left us high and dry, and then scrambling to figure it out, taking out loans to pay other loans. Now we’re kind of stable, which is a godsend.
“When I resigned from Stones Throw, which is a big partnership in a joint venture, we sort of had to start over, but with a lot of knowledge, experience, and relationships intact. But that was an interesting time for us to kind of learn how to do the things that other people were doing ourselves. You know what I mean? So, we’re figuring it all out, including bookkeeping, accounting, distribution, and stuff like that. Once we sort of got established a foundation of that knowledge of how to do that stuff, we’re like, ‘Okay, now we can sort of identify potential help and partnership and see what we need and what we don’t need, what we can do ourselves.’ So it’s been a really interesting just timeline for us, especially during the pandemic. When I resigned [from Stones Throw], it was a weird calculated risk, and I knew that I was giving up a lot of help, but my integrity was on the line and all these other things.”
Keeping the label’s integrity has always been key for McQueen, and his Unclearedbeat tape explicitly stems from an incident he alludes to in that record’s release notes: “I was recently served an uncleared sample notice from a bigger label entity. It’s the first time this has happened, so I suppose we’ve been lucky. It’s honestly the first time I’ve reconsidered casually releasing this type of material – particularly on major streaming platforms. I’m not sure what lies ahead for sample-based music culture – but I’m hopeful it will be able to sustain and evolve as we attempt to emphasize the reclamation of the spaces on the internet where this music can be safely & responsibly shared, supported, and appreciated.”
Designed as a challenge to create 40 beats for his 40th birthday, Uncleared chops and distorts soundtrack cues, Joni Mitchell ballads, David Bowie samples, and so much more to create a breezy, fun listen that sounds like someone playing with their music just for the love of it (which is in part why all profits from the release are going directly to the Gaza Relief fund). While Uncleared gives a glimpse at McQueen’s musical influences, he also enjoys being defiant in the face of larger label pressures for sample-based records, which is something that came up in the design of Uncleared‘s vinyl art.
“I turned in the project, and the center labels had all of this funny faux copyright label logo/appropriation language on it, just sort of middle finger up, like jabbing at all of these oppressive systems sort of thing,” he beams. “That was our angle for the design, and they wouldn’t press it because of the labels. It was too much of a liability because [the pressing plant is] actually starting to work with some of these bigger entities, and if it was in their catalog, maybe it would be visible. So that would place them liable for, I don’t know, getting in trouble.
“They were afraid that their legal team wouldn’t allow it, and so we had to amend the center labels with redacted marks and had to resubmit before the project was pressed. There’s a notice: ‘The graphic design team has been informed that the project wouldn’t be submitted due to copyright infringement.’ So [artist] Andrew C.S. put a funny notice on, so they just gave you even more content to work with the theme. That’s amazing.”
Graphic design pranks aside, Uncleared remains a spirited listen at 29 tracks, with only two cresting past the two-minute mark. Yet for McQueen’s goal of having 40 beats ready for his big 40th bash, he was mindful of quality and had to make some informed cuts.
“I was trying to sequence drum breaks in interesting ways that didn’t work out, or I threw a couple of originals in there, and a lot of the fails were just me trying to sample things that were in my own recording archive from experimenting with different devices,” he details. “I was also trying to remix some friends on the Leaving catalog. There was an AshTreJenkins remix. There was a Green-House remix. I just couldn’t finish them. They weren’t really going anywhere.
“Swarvy, who’s a friend and an amazing producer, released these sample packs. A lot of producers are releasing sample packs for people to support/buy stems, whether it be drum hits or just one-shot samples or whatever. I was using a lot of this material, and sometimes I’d be using a drum break from Swarvy in a weird way that wouldn’t work out as trying different time signatures and interesting ways of chopping that wouldn’t work. I spent too long on this. If I go back the next day and it’s feeling good, I’ll continue working on it, and if not, I’ll just start over on a new thing.”
During our talk, McQueen detailed the challenges in creating a work-life balance with his family, finding times to responsibly trip (the label sells a guide of recommended records for those looking for “psychedelic integration”), and his fascination with the burgeoning ambient-country and psych-country movements. Yet, in a feature detailing the 15 years of a record label, we couldn’t end without asking the trickiest question you could ever pose to a label head: What is the most underrated release in the Leaving catalog?
“Oh, love this question,” starts McQueen, who then starts bouncing ideas off of co-worker Colin Blanton, a fan of the label who now not only works there but releases records under the name Brin. “Maybe Ahnnu’s Perception. Underappreciated. That might be the one, but it does have a cult following. AV Moves’ In a Pause. So good. Needs more shine. That’s like a ketamine record. Insane K-hole record.”
He also notes that More Eaze’s Strawberry Season is a favorite that could use more love, although he notes it makes sense that that project’s mastermind, Mari Maurice Rubio, is now making music with one of 2024’s breakthrough experimental artists, Claire Rousay. These connections all point to Leaving’s true strength: its deep and carefully curated roster of artists. The label’s socials all proudly declare “All Genre” because they don’t feel they should be limited by any commercial considerations, and the artists that they’re fostering are the ones shifting the cultural needle.
As Leaving celebrates their 15th year active, their artists are now showing up on the charts, spreading their influence, but are never above connecting with fans directly by performing at a free concert, outside, under a tree.
A perfect Los Angeles destination if there ever was one.
