How do we achieve this?

  1. Our people are everything. We don’t move unless everyone moves with us, and we will never have it any other way. We operate on an open-door policy in which not only do we listen to what our community has to say, but actively encourage them to get involved in the project – be it through flyer sharing, submitting content, joining our team, joining our DJ directory, or just telling us what sucks about us in the group chat. We constantly evolve the scope of our work to adapt to the dynamic environment of the underground scene and the growth of our own brand. We don’t care how unorthodox or unfavorable to industry types a move we make is. If it makes sense to us and meets our community’s needs, it makes sense. Period. Stagnation is death!

  2. We don’t take shit from anyone, and don’t care who you are or how ‘useful’ you are to our growth. Too many people in this industry step on one another for five minutes of clout and a few hundred bucks. From day one we have made it clear that we aren’t going to play that game. Our relationships are built on mutual respect and love for what we do. We painstakingly ensure that our people are taken care of and that everyone is uplifted. If you try to screw someone over, or abuse someone, or try to sabotage an event, we call it out publicly. Too many sleazebags get away with way more than they deserve. Consider us a check and balance, an anti-brand, if you will.

  3. Life is absurd in many aspects, we acknowledge this, and in turn have fun and don’t take ourselves too seriously. We shitpost and engage in a little tomfoolery. Is it excessive sometimes? Maybe, but we’re real people with real experiences and real personalities, not a faceless corporate entity. This project is first and foremost an expression of ourselves, in which like-minded people can see a bit of themselves in this-or-that aspect. 

  4. We promote music/artists based on merit, not status. Pretty much every other collective’s strategy is to simply book the biggest artists they can get, with no coherent vision or reasoning behind it. Everyone thinks Instagram/Spotify followers = quality. WRONG! We keep a level playing field for artists irrespective of their fame. If you fit the vibe, you fit the vibe, and if we see your potential, then we will bend over backwards to see you succeed. Very often, artists reach out to us for bookings because they want to take part in what we are building. This is not to say that we don’t enjoy the work of big artists – so many of them genuinely deserve their fame. But name recognition is not our priority, our vision and our values are. Slist events are Slist events, not [insert international DJ of the day] events.