Where are you based?
Tony Price: Greektown, Toronto.
Can you describe your label mix?
This mix is made up of an eclectic selection of songs from the Maximum Exposure catalogue that have been released between 2018 and 2024, including a few unreleased songs. Most of these are selections that lean toward the more abstract, bizarre or atmospheric side of the label's output. Some of these tunes are cuts from the Maximum Exposure Sound Catalogue, which is a library of recorded music and sound design that is available for licensing and sync use in film and advertising.
What inspired you to start a label?
I started Maximum Exposure in 2017 as a means to tie together and house the various strands of work I do in music as a recording artist, producer, songwriter, mix engineer and graphic designer. To this day, I have a hard time defining what Maximum Exposure actually is. It is a label that puts out records digitally and physically, it acts as a creative agency that helps to produce and oversee the marketing of music related projects, It's a graphic design firm, a sort of bespoke music and sound design agency that has done work for many fashion and beauty brands, it is an Instagram account, a confusing mess, half a joke and registered corporate entity.
Does your label have a sound or a mission?
Maximum Exposure is largely an experiment that explores the boundaries between art and modern digital media ecosystems and all of the discrepancies, possibilities and ridiculousness inherent in this relationship.
If there is a sound, it is largely rude, crude and unrefined.
If there is a mission, it would have something to do with finding new ways to express, produce and promote music in a way that emphasizes its aesthetic and textural dimensions above all else.
In other words, the goal has always been to keep things raw and make sure a musical release looks as interesting as it sounds.
Tell us about your scene(s).
Currently, this label is located in Toronto, but it was started in London, England and it developed into what it is while I was living in New York City, so it is not connected to any geographical location or scene.
The music on this label almost entirely revolves around my production work. In almost all cases, I have had a hand in the writing, production or mixing of the music. None of these artists have met each other in person, and they all make very different types of music, so it would be inaccurate to say that there is any scene connecting them even online.
What's your A&R process?
My A&R process is pretty much non-existent. These releases have come to be as a result of being projects that I have either been directly involved with, or organically through meeting an artist in person with whom I have struck up a friendship with.
I always accept demos and I do my best to reply to anyone who submits music to the label, but the truth is that above all, I am not simply seeking “good music” to release. I am only interested in working on projects with artists where there is an aesthetic compatibility and a shared interest in producing and promoting work in a manner that often goes against the grain of contemporary trends.
What labels do you look up to?
I was inspired to start Maximum Exposure by 2010’s rap labels like Griselda Records and artists like Roc Marciano who were finding unique and direct ways to promote underground music at that time. They were very much about “creating a world” for their work to live in, and people like myself have been enjoying spending time in those worlds ever since. Labels like L.I.E.S. Records and L.A. Club Resource did the same thing at around the same time with electronic music, creating a world with a very unique and specific aesthetic dimension to their sound and visuals that instantly connected with me and continues to inspire everything that I do. Above all else though, I hold Tony Wilson and Factory Records in the highest regard and would say that I have looked up to him since day one.
