NAKED MUSIC LAID BARE:
Bruno Ybarra, Styled & Profiled
- by Jianda Johnson

What's not to love (read: lust) about Naked Music? Not only has this ultra-chill, sweet cool collective raised the barre for modern (read: postmodern) electronica, they have indeed set the industry standard for muy suave boutique sounds with a mainstream appeal.

Luckily, Bruno agreed to have a chitty-chat with me about the audiovisual soulcandy Circe that is Naked Music (naked-music.com). Prepare to be seduced.

- How long has Naked Music been going, and who's at the helm?

[Bruno Ybarra] Naked Music was launched as a label in December of 1998 by Dave Boonshoft, Bruno Ybarra and Jay Denes. Dave acts mostly in a CEO capacity, dealing with contracts, budgets and logistics. I act as Label Director and deal with most of the musical side of things: A&R, compilations and artist work. Jay is one of our chief producers working from the New York studio and we also have Becky Wisdom acting as office manager/operations.

- How did you come up with the concept for Naked Music (sleek, sensual, romantic, suave, top-notch production values and musicianship...)?

[Bruno Ybarra] Naked Music started out as Jay and Dave's first studio ("Naked Music NYC") - where Jay was producing some dance material for a handful of labels - mostly 12" stuff. I was working for Om Records at the time doing A&R and signed Jay's first album, 'What's On Your Mind?', for development there. It wasn't until the fall of 1998 that we decided to create Naked Music Recordings (as label) and the concept was to create sexy, forward-thinking, urban-influenced music in several different formats (dance, downtempo, etc.)

- What contribues to the vibe, the spirituality, the aesthetics of these "genres" (for lack of a better word) you deal with? Why do you think it touches most everyone who encounters it so centrally? In such a long-lasting way?

[Bruno Ybarra] I think one of the key reasons is our focus on songwriting and arrangement ... which has always been a major interest for us. There is such a surplus of 'tracks' available out there nowadays that we all felt we could make more of an impression by really trying to craft some real songs based on compelling vocal performances. Of course, we also wanted to marry that with a production aesthetic that could speak to the audience we were most familiar with - the dance/underground community.

I think the hybridization of these two elements is what crafted our signature sound, more or less, from the get-go. These days, it really takes alot to make any real impression with new music, given the landscape out there and the shorter attention spans, so we're constantly seeking to evolve the sound somewhat and take it to a new level!

- The presentation is so sleek, sensual, well-thought out, seductive, and the talent is so great! How do you find all of the visual, music, production and multimedia artists for your label?