About

Naked Music began life as a production company back in 1992, when founders Dave Boonshoft and Jay Denes scored immediate underground success with releases on indies such as OM, Francois Kevorkian’s Wave imprint, and UK’s XL Records. The “Naked Sound” was born at the intersection of dance, soul and electronic music.

A string of high profile remixes followed with artists as diverse as Sade, Kelis, Maxwell, and Britney Spears (to name a few) getting the “Naked Treatment”.

It quickly became apparent that true creative freedom could only be achieved by starting our own label and following our own muse. Hence, Naked Music Recordings was founded in 1998. Our mission: to release forward-thinking music that defies easy categorization.
Our first CDs were compilation releases, generally leaning heavily on our own artists recordings combined with various singles we bought from independent artists. They were extremely popular and trendsetting – within a year many other companies were trying to emulate our graphic style and vibe. We soon grew tired of the format, it was time to move on.

Around 2000 we entered into a joint venture with EMI/Virgin. Signed a few wonderful artists and made their records. Blue Six, Lisa Shaw, Aya, Miguel Migs, Gaelle, and a number of others. It was nice (being polite here!) for a while, but we really enjoy our indie freedom and are glad to have it back.

Over multiple 12” releases and albums, we’ve tried to keep a consistently high standard of songwriting with top-notch production while steadily refining our basic aesthetic sense. As many have noted, we don’t put out a lot of product, but when we do it’s worth the wait.

Many of our CDs have achieved have a lasting “cult” status and we’re very proud of this. These days we make what we please in a completely unconstrained manner. Although the industry is in a highly volatile state, we are blessed to be able to continue to do our thing on our own terms. It’s often at times of great upheaval that really unique and beautiful things occur. We intend to be a part of this transformation as long as possible.