The music world is being rocked like never before - and it’s being done by two college-kids in their early 20s. Neon Gold Records, headquartered in New York, and their owners, Lizzy Plapinger and Derek Davies, are jet-setting around the world, picking up some of the greatest new acts on the scene (Passion Pit, Marina & The Diamonds, etc), producing some great vinyl and having a damn good time while they’re at it.

But don’t take it from me… Let them tell you about it.

What’s it like owning a start-up company in the current economic climate? Do you have any tips for the young entrepreneurs out there who might want to follow in your footsteps?
DEREK: I can’t say we’ve really felt the affect of the recession with what we’re doing. If we were trying to sell a million albums or something we’d no doubt be sweating, but with Neon Gold it’s pretty straightforward: we press up 500 copies of a record and once it’s sold out, that’s it – we close the book and move onto our next project.
LIZZY: Derek and I are really lucky since we are both still at university so this doesn’t have to be our full source of income…yet. Although we have done incredibly well so far and we manage to break about even, which is awesome. I think we both feel that laying the groundwork now will hopefully lead to a full time and fully paid job when we graduate.

What inspires you? (Solids? Liquids? Gas?)
DEREK: Outer space. Bright colors. Shiny objects. Other record labels. Amazing looking chairs. Everything.
LIZZY: We are aesthetic whores, so basically anything that has a good vibe visually. And music, obviously music is the source for all inspiration.

How often do you fly internationally to meet with new acts for the label?
DEREK: We spend as much time in London as we possibly can. We’re both at university in New York, so we obviously spend most of our time here, but if we have so much as a few days off school we bolt over to London. We do most of our business there as that’s where the singles market really thrives, and we also work with a lot of UK-based artists so it’s important for us to spend as much time across the pond as possible taking meetings, scouting shows and just generally staying up on what’s going on over there.
LIZZY: We have probably been back and forth to London (if not together than one of us) almost every other month since Thanksgiving. It helps that my family is still over there so we always have a place to crash for free. We are both desperate to go to Australia and Japan; so, hopefully that is in the cards for us.

Would you say you’re living the dream?
DEREK: Absolutely.
LIZZY: Yes, a resounding yes.

Neon Gold Records
http://neongoldrecords.blogspot.com/
http://myspace.com/neongoldrecords

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What’s next for Neon Gold?
DEREK: Oh man, so much. We’ve got singles coming out in April with Giantess, another Boston band produced by one of the dudes in Passion Pit, and Gotye, this Australian one man band who’s like a household name down under (he won the Aussie equivalent of the Grammy for Best Male Artist in 2007 despite being totally self-released) but no one knows about him in the US… we’re hoping to change that. Then this summer we’re hoping to do singles with Your Twenties (a side project of one of the Metronomy guys), this amazing British singer songwriter Ellie Goulding and hopefully Theophilus London as well, which we’re pretty excited about as we’re pretty sure Theo’s the future of hip hop. We’ve got singles coming out every month between now and October, so we’re definitely going to be busy.
LIZZY: We will also be releasing singles with Wolf Gang, an awesome band out of London currently known as Count Fisher, as well as a brand new group called Lunar Youth, White Lies meets The Cure with added sex appeal, in the fall. On top of all our singles we will continue to throw monthly parties in New York and also do some shows in London and even Paris this summer. We are also looking forward to getting our hand in the festival circuit and start doing showcases starting with The Great Escape in May.

Are you a big coffee drinker? What’s your coffee of choice and where do you get it?
DEREK: I exclusively drink iced coffee. It can be freezing outside and I’ll still be there shivering in gloves sipping on my iced coffee. I can’t explain it, nothing else in the coffee realm really does it for me.
LIZZY: Not a coffee drinker. But let me know when you want to get serious about hot chocolate.

When you’re at your parties, what’s your drink of preference?
DEREK: Double Jim Beam on the rocks. Anywhere, anytime.
LIZZY: Whiskey runs through our veins.

So what’s your ideal evening out on the town?
DEREK: Good music, cheap drinks, hot babes.
LIZZY: “Big One at Jams”

Name one artist (any medium) that you think is really doing the right thing right now.
DEREK: There’s so many musicians doing totally unique, next-level shit right now that’s it’s too hard for me to really pick just one, so I guess I’ll choose a different medium. Kate Moross is someone who consistently blows me away with her work. She’s been one of the hottest graphic designers in the UK for a minute now, and she’s recently gotten her own clothing line at Topshop and just started her own singles label, Isomorph, for which she’s designed some of the best record sleeves I’ve ever seen. She’s just started working in music videos too. I’m pretty sure she’s unstoppable.
LIZZY: Ace Norton, hands down. He consistently blows me away with his work and I know Derek and I both hope to work with him in the future! He is an incredibly talented director who has done a variety of music videos for people like Bloc Party, Sebastien Tellier, Simian Mobile Disco, Teddybears… the list goes on and on. He also does a lot of unique arts projects and really rad commercials. His aesthetic is amazing!

Ideal meal?
DEREK: Something awesome and Mexican.
LIZZY: Burrito from Calexico with extra crack sauce, actually as good as crack. Calexico is a Mexican street cart that resides in Soho in New York (ie. 3 blocks from Neon Gold Headquarters). Sometimes I’ll come into the city early just so Derek and I can eat there before it leaves.

Where do you buy your clothes?
DEREK: It’s pretty cliché I guess, but thrift stores are pretty much our go-to. Brooklyn’s obviously a gold mine, but there’s lots of amazing places off Brick Lane we like to hit up when we’re in London.
LIZZY: Screaming Mimi’s in New York is a vintage utopia and Beyond Retro in London has the best and biggest selection of anywhere I have ever been.

Favorite old movies?
DEREK: I’m majoring in Cinema Studies at NYU, but Lizzy’s more of the classic movie type than me actually. I love pretty much anything Hitchcock and loads of early German cinema.
LIZZY: Way too hard for me to pick an absolute favorite but two that fall high on my list are All About Eve and The Red Balloon.

Who’s the coolest person you’ve met while you’ve been working promotions and publishing?
DEREK: Bloc Party’s first album remains one of our all time favorites, so meeting Kele Okereke was pretty awesome. He’s real quiet and reserved, to the point that it felt like he was almost more intimidated by us than we were by him, but he’s an amazingly nice guy. That was early on, and now we’re meeting more and more amazing people and artists every day, but that was definitely our first “Holy shit, I can’t believe we’re hanging out with this dude” experience. We also just did a single with Marina & The Diamonds, and we can say with confidence that she’s the most wonderful person we’ve ever met.

LIZZY: I like to think that I don’t get too hung up or star struck on artists but that night when we met Kele I was a total tongue tied fan.

The perfect sandwich?
DEREK: Check it: Smoked turkey, swiss cheese, bacon and guacamole, all on a toasted croissant. Recognize.
LIZZY: It’s funny because people at my school (Vassar College) always complain about the food but I LIVE for the Vassar Club and I crave it when I am not there!

How do you envision the future of entertainment?
DEREK: Jetpacks. Lots of them.
LIZZY: what about a chip that you can put in your brain that has every catalogue of every musician ever and you can mentally listen to anything you want at any moment… sigh, what a dream.

Who have you been working with the most in recent years? Are there any behind the scenes people you’d like to give a shout out to?
DEREK: All the people at Puregroove Records in the UK are totally amazing. Everyone talks about Rough Trade in London, but Puregroove is our favorite record shop in the world. They’ve always been the best in terms of stocking vinyl and putting on amazing in-stores, but they recently renovated the space and opened up the floor and installed a full service bar, so you can now get your drink on while watching some of the best bands in the world play intimate shows and it feels like you’re in a proper venue, not just a record store with the racks pushed aside.
LIZZY: We are so incredibly lucky because Derek and I have met so many people that I think really encouraged us from the start to get involved and then they helped make Neon Gold a reality. Pat Riley from Domino Records has been a long time friend for the both of us and he really inspired and helped me to realize what I wanted to do and how. We would also be nowhere without our lawyer Nicky Stein, he is our solid go to man for everything. It seems our best friends in London are also all involved in the industry and we are constantly bouncing ideas off each other like Dan Market, Chris Pearson, and Jamie Lillywhite. Also, we could never thank Marina enough for how far she has helped spread the good word of neon gold.

Name three things you need to have in the studio with you when you’re recording.
DEREK: Talented musicians are a good place to start. But cigarettes and alcoholic energy drinks (R.I.P. Sparks) are pretty key ingredients as well.

If you could reincarnate someone deceased and hang out with them, who would it be? (For our purposes, you also have the ability to reverse the decomposition process).
LIZZY: Otis Redding

Do you have interns yet? If not, who brings you coffee?
DEREK: Lizzy
LIZZY: Derek

Any advice for the youngsters out there?
DEREK: I don’t know, I guess just find something you’re passionate about and work hard at it. We didn’t know anyone in the industry when we started, we just devoured all the music we could, spent as many nights at shows as possible and did our best to immerse ourselves in the music scene in every way imaginable. For anyone trying to do this music industry shit, the best advice I can give is just to take as many meetings as you can. Regardless of whether or not you think a person has something to offer you (or viceversa), networking is key. Just get to know as many people as possible and share tips with anyone and everyone, you never know what you might learn or what it may lead to.
LIZZY: I couldn’t agree with Derek more, definitely meet and greet as many people in your area of interest as possible! Also, whatever it is you want to do in life, don’t wait too long, jump in with both feet when the time is right.

Anything else?
DEREK: I guess we should point people to our blog. Beyond releasing records, we do our best to keep people up on other bands and musicians doing great things in music. It’s not exactly groundbreaking music journalism, but it looks pretty and you can download free music off it.
LIZZY: Stay tuned to all Neon Gold endeavors! We have our eyes set for world domination.

Neon Gold Records
GOLD001: Passion Pit // Sleepyhead 7″ // OUT NOW
GOLD002: Marina & The Diamonds // Obsessions 7″ // OUT NOW
GOLD003: Yes Giantess // Tuff N Stuff 7″ // OUT 3.30.09

http://neongoldrecords.blogspot.com/
http://myspace.com/neongoldrecords