NYC Producer & Label Owner Kozlow Speaks on His New Pleasure Pack Series

It’s hard to find an artist with a more unique story than New York City’s own Kozlow. In the music industry, you often find someone wearing one or two of the following hats: producer, DJ, live instrumentalist, event planner, promoter, label owner, A&R. Remarkably, Kozlow wears all of them with pride. A classically trained violinist, Kozlow is widely known for his skills on the instrument (he’s played alongside Carl Cox at Burning Man twice). He’s also renowned for his production skills, producing some of the cleanest fusions of deep & tech house we’ve heard in quite some time. His party brand, ANTHR FCKNG PARTY (AFP), saw over 10,000 attendees across all its events last year. And, recently, he turned that brand into a new label. While it’s mainly served as the home for his own music, today, it takes the next step. AFP’s first various artists compilation, “Pleasure Pack Vol. 1“, dropped today, featuring six tracks. It includes a new track from Kozlow, as well from other New York-based artists who have who are a part of the AFP live family. Each track has a home on the dance floor: focusing primarily on tech house, you can expect thick basslines combined with shuffling, deep percussion & the occasional acid synth or jazzy piano chord. For those looking to see what AFP as a label and an event brand are all about, this is a great way to dip your toes in. There’s also going to be a release party at NYC’s Outer Heaven on January 10th – if you’re in New York, we recommend you stop by. “I started the ‘Pleasure Pack’ VA series to show what we’ve actually been building in real life, not just online,” says Kozlow. “It’s about the crew. All the artists featured are working DJs who are in the rooms, playing our parties, moving dancefloors, and DJing all over the city on any given night. This is the music we’re playing and listening to right now in NYC. It’s about shared taste, trust, and tracks that have already been pressure-tested at our parties.” To celebrate the release of this compilation, we sat down with Kozlow to learn a bit more about him, his events, and his label. Throw “Pleasure Pack Vol. 1” on in the background and read on to learn more about one of the most prolific artists we’ve ever come across – from the start of his career and AFP to today’s monumental release. First, let’s talk about you. You’ve got a pretty unique background. When did you first start playing the violin, and did that or music production come first? Hope you guys had an awesome holiday season and NYE. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. I started playing the violin when I was four, so I’ve been playing for about 25 years. I began producing music around ten years ago, on and off, in different waves of seriousness. It wasn’t until more recently that it became an everyday focus and a real part of my routine. When did you realize that you wanted to start an event brand? I never set out to start an event brand. I just wanted to DJ, and it’s more fun to DJ when it’s a great party. Once I started throwing parties, I realized it was a lot easier to say, “Hey, come to my party,” than, “Hey, come hear me DJ.” The party itself ended up taking on a life of its own. What niche does AFP fill in New York City’s musical landscape? What are the calling cards of an AFP show? AFP keeps the focus on the party, and to me, the party is about the music. My background as an instrumentalist always made me skeptical of treating DJ sets like a “show.” Coming up through hospitality and nightlife in New York, the party was always the priority: the energy, the feeling of the room. AFP is a party-first pop-up. The music is the focus, and the DJs and venues we work with support that vision. When people come to AFP, I hope they understand it’s not a spectator event, it’s a participant event. The goal is to create the party together, not just watch something unfold. Have there been any major hurdles along the way, or has AFP been smooth sailing? Other than a couple of scorned venue relationships and a few damaged friendships, it’s been smooth sailing. That’s only partly a joke. Most of the time it’s been awesome, and I’m really grateful to work in an industry where people care deeply about what they do. That shared passion is what makes each night special, and it’s energizing to work with people who believe in the same thing. © Cody Lidtke At what point did you realize you wanted to expand AFP into a record label? There’s something inherently ephemeral about a party. You can take photos or videos, which might help jog a memory, but releasing music is a way to capture what the energy sounded and felt like at a specific moment in time. Since so many of my friends are producers and DJs, it felt like a no-brainer. I just had to figure out how to get it started. Now, about half a year after the first release, I love that we’ve built a platform where we can showcase the artists and music this crew is making. Are there similarities between running a label and running an