Mixcloud has published a generous long-read on SEVEN, written by Yemi Abiade and built around an interview with co-founders Glenn Elliott and CRYME. The title says it plainly: Why SEVEN is More Than a Record Label. It is a portrait of a label, a record store, a mix series and a support system for artists, all run on the same belief: that community, transparency and genuine artistic care should be how a label actually operates, not just lines in a press release.
A store that looks people in the eye
The piece opens on the spring afternoon SEVEN threw open the doors of its first physical store on Torstrasse in Berlin. Inside is a music lover's dream: crates to flip through, record players set up so you can test before you buy, books, accessories, keychains and hats, and a custom-built DJ booth striking enough to have appeared in Wallpaper and Architectural Digest. On opening day, CRYME, Jonny Mojo and Rachel Noon took turns on the booth while Glenn and Alex worked the Kasse.
That last detail is the whole point. "Algorithms are very good at giving you more of what you already clicked on," Glenn tells Mixcloud. SEVEN's answer is human curation and real-world connection: the label catalogue is hand-picked by CRYME, the store catalogue by Jonny Mojo, who hand-delivers records around Berlin by bike. The store, Glenn says, is meant to be a community hub and a first home for vinyl for producers who have never had one.
How SEVEN started
For anyone who does not know the backstory, the interview fills it in. Glenn and CRYME met around four and a half years ago as boyfriends and that developed into Glenn managing CRYME and later taking on his artist bookings. After a couple of years of talking about it, they committed to the idea of starting a record label one night in Estonia at a friend's film premiere. The name SEVEN came from CRYME's fifteen years playing football in the number seven shirt: short, symmetrical, nothing bad in any language. A chance approach to Berlin-based French designer Milla, who as it turned out had designed a CRYME flyer years earlier in France, gave the label the visual identity it has kept ever since. She has designed every SEVEN sleeve.
Artist-first, in practice not just words
The heart of the feature is SEVEN's artist-first ethic, and Glenn is candid about why it matters. Having run CRYME's releases on other record labels, he has seen how poorly some labels treat artists: no contract, no offer letter, no release date until it appears on Instagram. SEVEN does the opposite. There is a WhatsApp group for every release, a contract written in deliberately plain language, promo shoots in Berlin, and home-city bookings before anyone looks elsewhere. "If an artist has to ask me something, I've already failed," Glenn says. CRYME points to Ackermann, who has put out more than a hundred records across two decades and ten aliases and still called SEVEN one of the best labels he has worked with. His eight-year-old daughter mailed in handmade SEVEN stickers she had coloured herself.
Financially, Glenn calls it "a beautiful financial disaster." With realistic vinyl runs of 300 to 500 copies it almost impossible to even cover costs on most releases. To help fund the model and serve the wider scene, the label now offers merch production and dispatch services to other small labels.
Queer and FLINTA* at the core
SEVEN describes itself as Queer and FLINTA*-leaning, and the interview makes clear that was a conscious founding decision. "We want to put more Black, queer and women artists on the stage," Glenn says, while being honest that representation on the release schedule is still a work in progress in their corner of the genre. CRYME notes that across the mix series, where most people first discover the label, around 70% of artists are Queer or FLINTA*. That series doubles as a pipeline: a mix that clicks can lead to a Various Artists slot, and from there to an EP.
The conversation also turns to Pride, which CRYME argues "should be 12 months," and to the debt electronic music owes its roots. "House and Techno are Black music," he says. "That's where it all comes from."
A roster with reach
Since launching in 2024, SEVEN has moved fast. The feature notes dozens of releases from artists including Roza Terenzi, JakoJako, MCR-T, Sparkly Pony and Posture, with the label's music landing in sets at Panorama Bar and festivals like Dimensions. Glenn's proudest moments, though, are the quieter ones: being a first home for artists like Moody Mehran, a known Amsterdam DJ who had been producing in secret for a decade, and releasing music featuring trans and non-binary artists that he simply thinks more people should hear.
There is a lovely Berlin footnote, too. André Zimmer messaged SEVEN after Glenn complimented one of his tracks, came to stay for a month, then six, and now lives around the corner. He runs Big Trouble Records, which SEVEN now handles logistics for, and releases on SEVEN's label himself.
Read the full feature
This is exactly the kind of thoughtful, in-depth writing we love to see, and it tells the SEVEN story properly. Our thanks to Yemi Abiade and Mixcloud for taking the time.
Read the full interview, Why SEVEN is More Than a Record Label, on Mixcloud.