[Series] WHO – Purple Tea Records

A Short Story of How It All Started

What is Purple Tea Records; At the time, Justin Blanc (Justin Rodrigue), a budding artist from Quebec City, met Camille (Camille Hamel) from Montreal, who had recently released a track with Toolroom. During their conversations, they made plans to meet at the upcoming ADE. However, after four flights, countless drinks, and many sleepless nights, their meeting in Amsterdam fell apart, with their plans ultimately sinking into the canals.

Back In Canada

That Tuesday, Camille returns to Montreal, Canada’s second-largest city, just three hours from the quieter provincial capital. Shortly after, Justin reaches out. “Let’s meet up,” he says. Cam grabs his calendar, flipping through the pages. Justin interrupts, “No, today.” That urgency defines Justin. For him, tomorrow is too late—everything happens now. With his drive, Rome might have been built in a day.

They meet in a secretive, high-end studio—a space few have entered (or, more accurately, Camille’s parents’ basement studio, cough cough). The connection is instant.

A Bromance Story

“It felt like meeting someone I’d known for years,” Camille says. Their first meeting was supposed to be about making music, but no music was made. “If you listened to the project files from our first collaboration, you’d want to burn my computer,” Camille admits. Instead, they spent the time talking—deep conversations that built mutual respect. “He was the Yin to my Yang,” Camille continues. “We complemented each other in ways I never thought possible in this industry. And it all started on day one.”

What is Purple Tea? Tea or a Record Label?

Purple tea, therefore, stands out as a rare and unique variety of tea crafted from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant—the same plant used for green, black, and oolong teas. Moreover, its distinctive feature lies in its purplish-hued leaves, which are naturally packed with anthocyanins, the powerful antioxidants also found in blueberries, grapes, and red cabbage.

Justin Blanc and Camille Hamel launched Purple Tea Records in 2018, establishing it as a dynamic Canadian tech-house music label. Headquartered in Montreal, the label quickly carved out a prominent spot in Eastern Canada’s vibrant electronic music scene.

What is Purple Tea Records Today

Fast forward two ADE’s, some legal paperwork, countless shows, two labels, four artist projects. The duo feels like an unstoppable force when leaning on each other. Their third silent partner gels in perfectly as someone who gives thumbs or thumbs down to their ideas and is more than willing to travel with them when the occasions occur… Purple Tea is more than a label, it’s a friendship, it’s a meeting place, it’s relationships with artists. The label bosses understand that’s what made the label what it is in the first place.

For that reason, the Purple Tea family had a new child in 2020, bringing into this world their BLK Leaf imprint. The latter was to expand into the more niche yet growing genres of the underground. They were making so many new relationships and receiving so many demos that they loved but couldn’t sign previously that it was just a matter of time before BLK Leaf would take shape.