Born to Shine

Born to Shine is a German record label from Mannheim founded in 2015 by Pepe Hausius. Pepe is a kind of sporadic DJ but since a long time puts all his pocket money into vinyls. For years he had been playing with the idea to establish his own label but was waiting for the “right moment in time”. Which suddenly appeared as he figured out that the Mannheim based Funk-Kollektiv was based just around the corner of his place. Here is where internet archaeologists may find the first point of contact between the two which evidently resulted in the first Born To Shine release ‘Daycruising’ by First Touch. Since then Born to Shine, with a handful of releases, has established itself as one of the funkiest labels of the Federal Republic, not least due to the help of Hausius’ partner Maria, who has worked in the areas of promotion, tour-management and party-organisation for many years and has creatively supported the label in sales and design. Even though there are very little German labels with a love for Funk, the duo stay modest: »I actually think that there is no great creativity behind wanting to push the modern Funk scene. I always wondered why no one else did it and then in the end I just did it«, explains Pepe. Centrally for the project Born to Shine, it is all about functioning as a »platform for the Funk scene«, says Maria, to “connect and to musically reduce people to a common denominator«. It appears to work: acts like Bybo, Frankfurt Funk or First Touch are forever involved in the scene (Bybo, for example, has already played shows with Funkmaster Ozone and DamFunk), now bringing their first solo releases into the market – thanks to Born to Shine. For the label the vinyl medium is extremely important; each release – until now – was either released on 12inch or 7inch single, and that’s the way it should stay. »It’s all about. Vinyl. In fact, the label should be a pure vinyl label«, Pepe explains. »I have personally no relation to digital music. So far I have completely ignored ITunes and such; I have never bought digital music. The biggest accolade is when the release sticks in your memory, and is taken out time and again and makes you happy. »Rather fewer releases – in 2016 there were 3 – and all the more loving. So far it’s working wonderfully and as a fan of the label, you understand what Maria means when she says: »We are a Label Of Love«.