Om Records celebrates 15 years in the music biz this year, which is kind of insane. I owe a lot to this label - really my whole career for the last 6 years. I never would have started VimLab if I hadn't met some key Omies in SF. I remember the exact moment I started my musical evolution from a "normal" Lilith Fair/commercial radio listening sheep like everyone else to someone who wanted to know who the incredible DJ spinning at every bar and boat party was, and started paying attention to which label they were on so I could discover more DJs like them: when Josh, a close friend of my brand new beau Jeff (back in March, 2000) came to visit us in San Francisco and played Mark Farina's Mushroom Jazz 1 CD. I went straight to Amoeba Records in the Haight and picked up my own copy, which is still in high circ on my iPod to this day. About a year later at my first PR job, I worked on the grand opening party for Ian Schrager's Clift hotel - a gorgeous Alice in Wonderland inspired art deco extravaganza. As I meandered around sipping free lavender cocktails, checking out the celebs, I found myself standing right next to the DJ booth and a tiny little man with curly hair was playing those opening notes from Mushroom Jazz 1. I realized I was about a foot away from the talented man himself, Mark Farina. From that point on, I was sold, and followed the Om DJs to various clubs and happy hours around SF, my favorite one being the weekly OM happy hour at Wish Bar in SOMA. The music was always deep and amazing and the cocktails were just right. It's still the best bar I've ever been to in any city, around the world. Period.
My second PR job a couple of years later led me to contact Om to see if we could hire one of their DJs for a breast cancer benefit at the W SF called the Big Bam! I talked to their then booking agent, Charlotte, who was British, sassy and became a fast friend who invited me to some amazing underground parties. She sent me a little known DJ (at the time) named Kaskade to spin at the event. I didn't really meet him at the W event but remembered thinking his set blew me away and I wanted to hear more. We wound up hiring him for 2 more Big Bam! events but I still never really talked to him other than saying hi and thanks. Then at some point, when Jeff and I decided SF was just too expensive/annoying to deal with anymore after 5 smashed in windows, a boot on my car, about 19897785r678 parking tickets and no work for him, we decided to move back to where he was from and where we had about 100000 more friends - the mini-apple. After a brief search of PR firms and the clients they represented here, I realized I would not be able to find a firm like the one I was leaving in SF where my clients included restaurants, bars, hotels, wineries, spas, benefit events, etc. So I decided to start my own, at age 25. Not really sure what got into me, but I thought I would just start throwing parties here and see how they went. The first was a 4th of July Boat Party out of Harriett Island and somehow, we packed it. Then we decided to start bringing Om Records DJs from SF to spin in Minneapolis, because the sound that was popular in the scene here was quite similar to the sweet, sexy sounds coming out of SF. Charlotte wound up inviting me to an exclusive party at Cloud 9 one of my favorite SF haunts, with all of the Om DJs, where I wound up meeting Kaskade and Andy Caldwell for the first time. Kaskade was confused that we would be bringing him to Minneapolis the following month, even though we were still living in SF. It takes a while to say goodbye to that city, and I had to see if VimLab would work in MN before making the big move. But, somehow it all worked out and we packed our Kaskade show and have been close friends with him ever since. We've also brought Om DJs Marques Wyatt, Colette, Andy Caldwell, Afro-Mystik and Rithma to spin here for some truly fabulous shows. So, thanks Omies - you're the best. Also, check out this article with a little Then & Now on some of their artists - I have to agree, Andy Caldwell is definitely the prettiest man in house music.
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