Mister Bear Records, founded in 2023, is dedicated to curating the finest in Deep, Jazzy, and Soulful House. The label has quickly made its mark with standout releases from some of the genre’s most respected names, including Michele Manzo (Italy), Alton Miller (Detroit), and Vick Lavender (Chicago), all of whom have delivered exceptional projects over the past year.
The label is also home to a regular party series, with a quarterly residency at Berlin’s House music mecca, Paloma. Looking ahead to 2025, Mister Bear Records is set to release highly anticipated albums from Alton Miller and Vick Lavender. In addition to the music, the label is planning more international parties in London, New York and beyond.
Mr Bear Records is run by Craig White is a DJ, event organizer, and label owner operating out of Berlin’s underground House music scene. With a deep-rooted passion for crate digging and an ear for soulful, dance-floor-focused tunes, he brings the same sharp curatorial sense to his DJ sets as he does to his beloved Mister Bear label and party series.
From its inception, Mister Bear has quickly garnered a reputation for pushing quality underground House music, attracting support from industry heavyweights.Craig’s influence has grown with Mister Bear events popping up in New York, London, and Amsterdam, all while continuing to hold court in his hometown at legendary Berlin spot Paloma.
Catch Craig at his next events at Paloma for Mister Bear as well as 19th October at Beate Uwe’s Sweet Spot
Hi Craig, when was the first idea to create the label?
In Early 2023 Michele Manzo, the first artist on our label approached me and asked if I wanted to release an EP of his under Mister Bear so I decided to run with it and start the label. I just hit the ground running from there.
Do you have any statistics since the label was created—how many releases, how many vinyl, and how many units have been sold?
4 EPs released, sales wise 700 vinyl sold, 400 digital tracks, 20,000 streams
From which country do most buyers come from?
On the digital sales its UK & USA which makes sense based on the artists & genre we release
Which release are you most proud of?
Vick Lavender Essance EP just released has been an EP that has different dimensions & energy throughout the tracks which has made it probably my favorite release to date. On the A Side it opens with jazzy piano keys taking you into a playful world of cosmic synths & dancing drum patterns over the two tracks Move & Change. The B side has a more soulful feel with Vocals on both tracks from Angel-A ‘Daylight‘ with its soulful house feeling and then the EP shuts down with a Latin-flavored sound on ‚Somebodies Samba
Do you produce yourself or are you a DJ?
Just a DJ
Which distribution channels do you use?
For the vinyl pressing & distribution we use Juno and then Digital Distribution EPM
Where do you find young, hungry, and ambitious artists?
Generally my favorite artists are of an older generation stemming from the US, I generally feel when it comes to music production the youth have lost a lot of the fundamentals that the older generations from New York, Chicago & Detroit still carry.
If you’re looking for new music, what are the key elements and factors you’re looking for, apart from the fact that it’s obviously a great track?
The main thing for me is that the track has a nice groove and good rhythm. This tends to be the missing ingredient when I listen to promo’s. With the age of modern technology it’s too easy to make things which lack these, and without this you can’t capture the dance floor. The best house producers know how to give tracks that swing & i’d say people should compare their tracks to the best out there and ask yourself why it doesn’t have the same feeling, this is the missing ingredient in a lot of music today.
How would you describe the label’s style and vision?
Our label’s style is really Deep, Soulful & Jazzy House Music which comes out of the US which is where we take our influence and inspiration from. The vision is to be an outlet for music we believe in which may not be mainstream but has solid foundational following for nearly 50 years and we want to be a stream & support branch to keep what we love going and growing
For the producers out there who send their demos via email, what tips would you give them if they send their tracks?
Listen to our releases and our soundcloud and understand what our musical flavor is before sending anything. I’ll always listen to demos but I can never understand when I receive ones that don’t fit the labels sounds and I wonder if they know what music we’re putting out and what we represent. Writing about the fact they know the label and our sounds also helps :) as long as they do haha
