Label Feature: In This Dunya
Click here to listen to the Carhartt WIP Radio Show featuring In This Dunya
“It’s like a family business, but not in the traditional sense,” say the founders of independent Gothenburg label and creative management platform, In This Dunya. “It’s a peer group, your cultural zone, in which you navigate with your friends.”
Perhaps it’s an approach that sets the platform apart from the standard practices of today’s major record labels. Championing its artists’ full musical autonomy, In This Dunya instead collaborates with its roster to shape and develop an artistic vision around their work.
Founded by Leon Hammarberg and Foad Hersi, the label has roots in Sweden’s live music and nightlife scenes, yet is fast expanding from its Nordic origins to a global stage. Its name stems from Arabic, meaning "In this life" or "On this earth," which reflects the label’s core mission: to engage with and push forward in the world of music, transcending both boundary and genre.
The platform has hosted events in Paris, London, Copenhagen, and Oslo, with a forward-thinking roster of acts such as Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Venus Anon, Gothenburg multi-hyphenate Raghd, and Åland alt-rap artist Faaka.
In 2024, this culminated in the debut of Dunya Fest, which welcomed over 2000 attendees and 20 international live music acts – including Oklou, Swank Mami, and Flowdan – to the label’s hometown of Gothenburg.
For this month’s episode, In This Dunya’s founders created together with their buddy MC Hache a mix spanning alternative R&B, dance, and hip-hop, featuring original label releases and new demos, as well as some special, exclusive edits. In an accompanying interview, Hammarberg and Hersi discuss the label’s natural evolution, the 360° scope of their work, and their guiding ethos of, “Don't talk, do it.”
Can you tell us about the origins of In This Dunya? How did everything come together?
Leon Hammarberg: We started working together in music about eight or nine years ago, through DJing and organizing club nights – mainly here in Gothenburg, but also in Stockholm. About six years ago, we hosted a club night at a venue called Oceanen in Gothenburg, where we booked several artists. One of them was Raghd, who would later become our first signing. We initially booked her because of a song she had on Soundcloud – it was her only release at the time. She had a smooth, alternative R&B sound, which was perfect to start the night with. But during soundcheck, Raghd performed about five new tracks that blew our minds. So we rearranged the event schedule and had her headline the evening, because she was just that good. A few days later, we met up, not really knowing what we wanted to do other than that we wanted to step into a closer relationship. This evolved into a management role for her, then the management role naturally transformed into a dual management and record label relationship. We needed a platform to release her music, so we became that platform. That's how In This Dunya started.
That sounds very organic.
Foad Hersi: Yes, but today we work with more structure. In the beginning, we had no business plan. Music was just a natural part of our life – it still is.
What does the name stand for?
FH: Dunya is Arabic, that in direct translation means Earth, but with a rather philosophical nuance. Within the context of the Arabic language, it refers to ‘life on Earth.’
How involved are you in the artists’ development? Since you’re more than a label, do you have input or influence on song production, for example?
FH: The music comes completely from our artists. They are very much their own entity when creating music. But once the music is ready, it then becomes a collaborative effort. We’ll work together on things like cover art and everything else that’s needed around a release. It’s like a family business, but not in the traditional sense. It’s a family business in that it’s a peer group, your cultural zone, in which you navigate with your friends.
How would you describe the musical styles on your roster?
LH: We have no specific genre, but naturally, we have a kind of ID. We are open to everything, but I think our roster and the people we work with reflect the culture of the moment. It's contemporary. We don’t have a guitar band on our roster – not yet, I would say, as we do come from that background. But we want to reach people in a contemporary way, and not only in Sweden. We want to export music to the rest of the world. We don't see ourselves as only local. Of course, Sweden is the biggest market for most of our artists right now. But we're not afraid to aim high and push beyond borders.
What drives the majority of your output? Is it physical releases, digital, or streaming?
FH: We do all of those things, it depends on the campaign and is very artist-specific. We don’t just follow one route. Each artist has different ideas and tactics. But we love all those formats and see potential in more vinyl drops. Soon, we’ll launch our website with a shop, too. Also, product development is something fun to do! Sometimes there’s music that needs to get released immediately. So waiting six months for vinyl production, then another six months until it reaches stores can conflict with the contemporary energy mentioned.
LH: It needs to be music that lives. That captures a contemporary moment and that stays with people beyond the first release week. So sometimes it’s good to release things faster through digital or streaming formats.
You don’t come across as typical music managers, nor do you seem like musicians. How would you describe your roles at In This Dunya?
FH: We call ourselves a creative management and creative label. Or simply, a music company, to make it easy. We're quite hands-on in almost every part of the work. For example, if we want to shoot a music video, one of us will be the producer and the spider in the web that connects the dots.
LH: I would say it's a lot of managing, but not in a traditional sense, as it’s built on real relationships with the artists. It's not a cold thing. I would say we see ourselves as tools that help translate a vision, make the vision a reality in the best possible way, and get it into people's ears. We like everything. It's fun to do music. It's fun to sit in studio sessions and listen. That means also you're fully embedded. That means, on a Friday night, if one of our artists is performing, we’re there to see them. Or maybe we’re DJing ourselves. It’s more than just a weekly job – it’s a 360° experience.
Will your Carhartt WIP Radio show offer a 360° journey through the label’s catalogue, too?
FH: We have already written some tunes down, but since we work with many different people, it won’t be a single sound. Our artists don’t always naturally blend with each other, so we have the challenge of mixing that together. But it's a fun challenge, and I believe you can expect an eclectic mix with sounds spanning alternative R&B, EDM, hip-hop, and dance, all from Scandinavia. We will do the mix together with a producer on the label, and it will feature original releases, new demos, some edits – maybe made especially for this mix – as well as some unreleased tracks.
Earlier, you mentioned that you also host your own events. How is the event scene in your hometown? Can it be hard getting your foot in the door?
FH: Of course, it's always hard to do events. You always take risks, but that’s natural. To me it's always worth it. I love to communicate with our audience and community. We've been doing it for a while and 2024 was our biggest year to date. Recently, we organized our first festival called Dunya Fest, and it was a huge success, featuring over 20 acts and 2000 attendees. We got started the year before the pandemic hit, so just as we were about to launch our events and start building our community, everything got shut down. So we had to start all over again. Slow but steady. But now we're coming back and just wrapped the first edition of our festival. We're already talking about a follow up, and have begun planning our events for next year.
LH: But it is hard. The current scene in Sweden can be unforgiving, as nightclubs aren’t so into the return of this kind of music. Also when we host events, we want them either to be free or at a very low entrance cost, to be fully inclusive. We work hard to make the price point as fair as possible to resonate with our own values.
Are you also working to address contemporary ethical, social, or environmental issues through the label?
LH: Our artists are good at taking their stance, and we’ve left it at that so far. We heal with music. I see culture as the healing of the world, the healing of nations. I believe the best we can do is provide spaces for the community to share experiences.
FH: I totally agree. As you said, internally, we move in a certain way from a certain place within us, so we synchronize with the people we meet. I don't think we've ever encountered artists, or a label relationship, where we did not synchronize politically and ethically. For the festival we wanted a good balance in terms of gender. Women, men, non-binary. And we are the only festival in Sweden that does that, but we do not advertise it. We don't announce it to the press. People can find out by themselves. If you want to change things, you need to do it. Don't talk, do it. That's how we see it.
What is something that inspires you besides music?
LH: I would say culture, different cultures, I like to nerd over cultures. And I have a background in fashion, so that's a huge inspiration for me. Basically, I'm a nerd in every aspect.
FH: He's a crazy chef as well. He's a food guy.
LH: Yes, I'm one of those. Of course food, of course wine. Of course just life and friends. I'm a very social person. I love big family conversations. But mostly – sorry for the boring answer – its music and everything surrounding music that inspires me.
What’s life like in Gothenburg at the moment?
FH: We’re here, and we love it. Compared to Stockholm, the only other major city in Sweden, Gothenburg has a different mentality. It’s much calmer and less competitive, and I think that’s why we stay here. You can quote me on that – it’s the best city in the world.
LH: It's more supportive. Usually when you have success, you move from Gothenburg to Stockholm, because that's where all the companies are, where all the money is. But we are one of the few that have stayed. We travel all the time, and that’s not an issue for us. People are really supportive because of that. They’re so happy we’re still here and that we held our festival in Gothenburg instead of Stockholm, which is usually the obvious choice. But we're not trying to champion Gothenburg in any way. It just works for us. So, we speak to it.
