Danny Ryan set up London-based music distribution company Kudos Records 20 years ago, recognising the need for a specialist distribution service for the then newly emerging dance music genres. Quick to embrace digital music when it started to take off a few years later, Kudos now supplies content from the labels it represents to all sorts of digital services, from the big players to the more innovative and niche platforms. As such, he knows a thing or two about the digital market, which made his response to last year’s backlash to Spotify et al all the more important. Ryan is generally of the opinion artists and labels should be embracing the streaming services.

Tomorrow night he will bring those insights and viewpoints to the latest MusicTank debate, which is titled ‘Can Streaming Go Mainstream?’ Spotify’s Steve Savacoa, Beggars’ Simon Wheeler, EMI’s Cosmo Lush, the FAC’s Mark Kelly and One Fifteen Management’s Paul Loasby will also take part in the debate. A small number of tickets are still available, while MusicTank members will be able to watch the event streamed live, more at www.musictank.co.uk.

Ahead of the MusicTank event, CMU Business Editor Chris Cooke spoke to Danny Ryan about his background, the current state of digital music, and its future.

CC: Tell us a little about your background, how did you end up in the music business?
DR: I worked for Tower Records in New York in the mid 80s. They transferred me to London when they opened their Piccadilly Circus store (mainly because I had an Irish passport so they didn’t need to organise a work visa!). From Tower, I went on to work for a couple of distributors (PRT and Greyhound) before setting up Kudos in 1992 with Mike Hazell (who has since left the industry).

CC: What motivated you to set up your own distribution company?
DR: In the early 90s, the DIY ethos in dance music and ‘electronica’ was really coming into its own. Distribution for many small labels consisted of running around a network of wholesalers and one-stops, selling 50 twelve-inches here and 100 there. I felt there were enough quality labels operating in this fashion to warrant a specialised distribution service that could effectively pool this talent and get it to a wider audience. Our first labels included Rephlex (Aphex Twin’s label), Touch (Biosphere, Fennesz), B12 and Pork Recordings (Fila Brazillia).

CC: Kudos was set up before downloading was invented. When and why did you get into digital distribution?
DR: We got into it pretty early. It was a natural progression. I viewed it simply as a format change. I am also a bit of a geek, so the tech side of it didn’t really scare me.

CC: You now offer all sorts of other services – including marketing, manufacturing, e-commerce solutions – how do you decide what areas to move into?
DR: We just try to consider what services our labels might want or need. It’s worth pointing out that, on the distribution side, we work entirely on commission only. As a result we are very A&R led. We are a music company first and foremost.

CC: Are your primary clients still labels?
DR: Yes, though quite a few are “producer run” labels.

CC: What kind of digital platforms do you deal with?
DR: We deal with all the major platforms, from a la carte services like iTunes, Amazon MP3, 7Digital, Beatport and Juno, through to streaming services like Spotify, Rhapsody, MOG, Rdio and We7. We also work very closely with the more niche stores like Boomkat, Soul Seduction and Bleep. We probably have one of the widest account bases as we think covering these more specialist services is really important. We have over 70 different delivery points, many of which serve multiple store-fronts. All our tech is in-house which enables us to be pretty flexible.

CC: When new digital business models come along, how do you assess which ones to engage with?
DR: We start with deciding whether there is actually a market for the service; is it something the consumer actually wants? We then look at the model and consider its viability. After that, we take a similar approach as we would with a physical store. What are their accounts like? Will we ever get accounted to and paid?

CC: Is it hard to persuade your labels about the benefits of new platforms?
DR: I think for the most part they trust our judgement. There have been a couple of labels who have removed their content from the streaming services – which, of course, is entirely their prerogative – but 99% of our labels have stayed on board after we stated and explained our broadly supportive position.

CC: Vinyl was important in the dance and electronica genres long after other areas of the business had dropped the format, but then the dance community seemed to suddenly go all digital overnight! Would you agree with that observation?
DR: I think that’s more true of what I’d call the ‘main room house’ world, where Serato and Traktor are now the DJ medium of choice, but we carry a lot more leftfield dance – and funk, soul, jazz, and more experimental music – so we actually still sell quite a lot of vinyl, as DJs in those areas are, perhaps, a bit more traditional.

CC: There seems to have been a real backlash against the streaming services, and especially Spotify, in the last year, why do think that is?
DR: Partly down to simple fear. I think we are an industry that is still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder! I think many have looked at streaming income and placed it in the wrong context; comparing streams directly to download sales. It’s a very different sales profile that works over a different time frame; it’s about a piece of music earning from a much wider audience over a longer time period. It can be a difficult concept to grasp, especially when you have spent the last ten years getting punch-drunk from the effects of piracy. There has also been, in my opinion, a lot of misleading information and some very skewed analysis doing the rounds.

CC: You’ve been something of a defender of Spotify as some artists and labels take there content off it, why is that?
DR: Dictating to the consumer how they consume music has never served us well, so Kudos doesn’t favour one type of service over another. The lion’s share of our digital business does still come from a la carte downloads, but, over the past two years, we have seen our streaming income grow dramatically with, at this stage, no perceivable evidence of a negative effect on our a la carte business. It now represents a very significant part of our digital income, and is still growing.

However, the viability of those services depends on a decent conversion rate from the free options to premium paid-for options, and that really depends on catalogue availability. Consumers simply won’t pay a subscription unless the service is top notch. So we all have an interest in as much music as possible being in there.

As criticism of Spotify became more vocal last year, I felt it was important to share our experience with it and streaming services in general. It seemed to me that only one perspective was being listened to. We also need to remember that if the consumer wants a streaming service, they will get one. The danger is that it won’t be a licensed service. Rogue services will (and already do) fill the vacuum.

CC: Do you see a la carte download revenues declining in the future, and other digital revenue streams growing? Or can download and streaming platforms co-exist, meaning more revenue overall?
DR: I think they can co-exist, but ultimately the consumer will (and should be allowed to) decide what is right for him/her. For many, ‘ownership’ is an important quality that the ‘access’ model doesn’t provide.

CC: Do you think the digital music industry will develop along the lines of pay-as-you-go downloads and subscription-based streaming – with some ad-funded platforms – or do you think there are all sorts of digital business models we just haven’t thought of yet?
DR: Who can say, though I don’t think ad-funded alone is viable. It’s a great gateway for selling subscriptions, but there needs, at least as it currently stands, to be an up-sell avenue. I am very encouraged by the amount of diversity in terms of service types and business models already available. There is something to suit everyone. Though I honestly believe we are nowhere near realising the full potential of digital music.

High Contrast, aka producer Lincoln Barrett, has been a leading light of drum n bass for more than a decade now, signing to Hospital Records in 2000 and releasing his debut album, ‘True Colours’, in 2002. His last album, ‘Tough Guys Don’t Dance’ was released in 2007, and in the subsequent five years he’s grown ever more in demand as a DJ and remixer, having created reworks of tracks by artists as diverse as Adele, Utah Saints, Calvin Harris, Kanye West and Coldplay, many of which were collected on his 2009 ‘best of’ compilation, ‘Confidential’.

His fourth studio album, ‘The Agony And The Ecstasy’, is due for release on 27 Feb, and was previewed last year with the release of ‘The First Note Is Silence’, a collaboration with Tiësto and Underworld. This week he releases the second single, the album’s title track, which features vocals by Kid Adrift singer Selah Corbin. Other guest vocalists on the album include Claire Maguire and jazz singer Liane Carrol.

With the new single out, and the album on the way, CMU Editor Andy Malt caught up with High Contrast to ask a few questions.

AM: It’s five years since you released ‘Tough Guys Don’t Dance’. When did you start work on this album?
HC: It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the album began, as many tracks just start as little sketches, germs of an idea that take varying amounts of time to reach fruition. But it was over the last eighteen months that work on the album became very focused. I needed to take a little break from production after releasing my third studio album and then the ‘greatest hits’ record.

AM: How would you say your sound has developed since your last album?
HC: It seems like this is a more mature album, going deeper than the last one I think. There’s certainly more melancholy in it. Also my previous albums have been very sample orientated, but with the new one I wanted to set myself the challenge of not really using any samples. Often I would write the melodies on keyboards and then get them replayed by musicians on real instruments. This is also the first album where almost every track has a full vocal, and I wrote the lyrics for quite a few myself, something I haven’t done before but really enjoyed.

AM: How did the collaboration with Tiësto and Underworld, ‘The First Note Is Silent’, come about? What was the process by which that track was written?
HC: Underworld got in touch a few years ago wanting me to collaborate on some tracks for their last album and it worked so well that it seemed obvious to get together again for my record. The Tiësto connection came about through his manager who is a big fan of my work. I thought it would be interesting to put him and the Underworld guys on the same track, and a drum n bass track at that. We worked on it separately, sending parts back and fore online, which seems to be the way a lot of people collaborate these days as it’s hard to get three busy artists together in the same room at the same time.

AM: Did you have a list of collaborators for the new album in mind before you started, or did they come along as you worked on the tracks? Selah Corbin appears on three tracks, what drew you to her voice so much?
HC: I prefer to let things happen organically and not chase after them. The collaborators just seemed to fall into place as I progressed through the production of the record. Selah Corbin sang in a band called Kid Adrift, who I directed a music video for, and I was so taken with her voice I had to get her on the album.

AM: In the five years since you released ‘Tough Guys Don’t Dance’, you’ve become something of a go-to guy for remixes. Not that you weren’t remixing stuff before, but did your more recent prolific remixing work influence the way you produced your new album at all?
HC: Remixing is a fun thing to me, the hard work has already been done really, you just get to play around with the great track parts that have been given to you. Calling the new album ‘The Agony And The Ecstasy’ became rather prophetic as it did end up taking an agonisingly long time to finish, and the final mixdown stage got pretty painful, but you do get that special rush when you finally finish it.

AM: How do you approach your remixes – presumably it’s different working on an Adele track to working on an Enter Shikari track?
HC: I try not to go into any production with preconceived ideas. I take each tune on it’s own merits. It’s like beginning again every time which can be time consuming but keeps it fresh for me. This is why my back catalogue is so diverse, I think.

AM: Hospital Records turned fifteen last year. Having been signed to them for more than ten of those years, how have you seen the label develop? How important would you say it’s been to drum n bass?
HC: It’s been an incredible journey best illustrated by the fact that our first label residency club night was at Herbal in London, with a capacity of 250 people, and now we do sell out shows at Brixton Academy with 5000 people. I think Hospital has been a great force for good in drum n bass on many levels. And I get overwhelmed by the amount of fans who tell me that it was one of my tracks that got them into drum n bass in the first place.

AM: Drum n bass has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity over the last few years. What’s your view of the current drum n bass scene? How has it changed from when you started out?
HC: It’s changed so much since I began; it was very much the underdog of dance music back then. I remember house and trance DJs I knew looking down on the genre in the late 90s. Whereas today it’s a complete turnaround, where someone like Tiësto has played some of my tunes in his sets and drum n bass gets a lot of love from daytime Radio 1.

AM: You have various live dates coming up in the next few months, what can people expect from the shows?
HC: I’ll be touring the album extensively, doing the first Hospitality tour of the US in March alongside Netsky and Camo & Krooked. A lot of the shows after that will feature Dynamite MC and a vocalist from my album, Jessy Allen. I’m also getting into mixing visuals live as I DJ so that’s an exciting new avenue of expression for me.

AM: What’s next for you?
HC: Finding ways to combine my love of film with my music production is very intriguing to me and something I’ve wanted to do for years. I’m sure there’ll be some choice remixes coming in the wake of the album too!

Rodrigo Sánchez and Gabriela Quintero, aka Rodrigo y Gabriela, first began playing together in a thrash metal band in their hometown of Mexico City. When that band split, the duo moved to Dublin and began busking and performing acoustic gigs in the city. A support slot with Damien Rice gave them their break, and they have since built up a rather large following for their mix of metal covers and original songs.

Released last week through Rubyworks, their latest album, ‘Area 52′, sees them recording with a group for the first time. The group in question is a thirteen piece Cuban orchestra from Havana, called CUBA, with whom Rodrigo y Gabriela reworked a selection of songs from their earlier albums.

With UK tour dates, complete with CUBA in tow, coming up next month, CMU Editor Andy Malt spoke to Sánchez to find out more.

AM: You started out playing in a thrash metal band in Mexico. How did you get from there to being an acoustic duo supporting Damien Rice in Ireland?
RS: Our metal band fell apart and after that experience we decided to go travelling and we brought acoustic guitars with us. We went to Dublin because someone said it was a good place for musicians. We really didn’t know very much about Ireland as a country, but it felt good to put ourselves in an alien place. We used to play on Grafton Street; it was cold for us but it was good fun. Damien was a busker then and we met each other playing on the streets.

AM: Metal has remained a heavy influence on your work, both in your original songs and those you’ve chosen to cover over the years. Did you have a plan for your sound when you first started playing together as a duo, or did it just develop naturally?
RS: When we started playing on the street we used to play a lot of cover versions. These were songs that people recognised and we would get a good reaction from. We played the songs we knew from Metallica, Testament, Led Zeppelin. This is the music we like and which inspires us. I think our style developed naturally from this time to what it is now on our original songs.

AM: ‘Area 52′ sees you performing nine of your original songs with a thirteen piece Cuban orchestra. How did that come about?
RS: The record company was asking when we would record new music. We had done two film soundtracks after [2010 album] ’11:11′; and we were on the road for two years promoting it. ‘Area 52′ was an opportunity to take a break and do something fun and different. And we were interested in going to Havana for the cultural and musical experience.

AM: How did you originally foresee the album turning out, and how close is the finished result to that?
RS: It was an experiment at first, to see what it would be like to play with a big band over other musicians. We were curious about Cuba and the music that comes out of there. It started as an interesting experiment but then it grew into something much bigger. It was supposed to be a fill-in album but it became the most ambitious thing we’ve done. It opened our eyes to a lot of things, and opened up paths we were maybe afraid of in terms of experimentation and collaboration.

AM: It’s the first time you’ve recorded as Rodrigo y Gabriela with another group of musicians. Was it easy to adapt to each other’s styles?
RS: We were blown away by the quality of the local players; Gabriela says it was like going to music school, and she was right. They didn’t know who we were – but then again they don’t know who Coldplay are either – it was just about playing together and listening and learning. Those rhythms, you really have to adapt to them. In the beginning, it was painful. I was like a beginner again.

AM: You worked with Alex Wilson on new arrangements of the songs on the album before recording them, did the group then add their own input? Was there much room for improvisation?
RS: Alex was great for bringing all the Cuban musicians together, for guiding them and helping them to adapt to our style, because our styles are very very different. He wrote out the parts for the musicians. They learn classical music from the age of four but they learn Cuban music from their parents. There was a mixture of written down and improvisation. They let fly on their solos.

AM: On ‘Ixtapa’ you’ve also got Anoushka Shankur playing sitar, adding yet another cultural layer to the mix. Did you ever worry that it just wouldn’t work?
RS: It was a risk to mix the two styles, but we have known Anoushka for some time. We met through some friends in India. The whole album was an experiment, a trip into the unknown – that is where the title ‘Area 52′ comes from. We don’t work with other musicians often, so this was the chance to work with Anoushka.

AM: How have the songs changed from their original versions?
RS: The Cuban rhythms are everywhere on the songs. They really change the feel of everything. On ‘Hanuman’ and ’11:11′ I am playing electric guitar for the first time on a record. ‘Hanuman’ was written as a tribute to Carlos Santana – and that sound comes through much more on this version.

AM: You begin a European tour with CUBA next month. What can people expect from the shows?
RS: It is a very new experience for us. It will be the first time ever that it will not just be the two of us on stage. We are still getting used to the idea and figuring out what will work for the show. We will be playing lots of music from ‘Area 52′, but will also have sections where it will be just me and Gab playing songs from other albums.

AM: Will this be the first time you’ve performed live with CUBA?
RS: Yes, it is a completely new show, a new tour. We are beginning the rehearsals now for the tour and we are excited for it to begin. It will be different for us to travel with other musicians around the world. We are used to it being just the two of us and our guitars.

AM: What are you planning to do next?
RS: We will be playing this tour of Europe and then we go to America for a tour there. We also hope to come back in the summer to play at the festivals.

Regan Farquhar, aka Busdriver, began rapping at an early age, releasing his first album with a group called 4/29 when he was just thirteen. From there, he began attending workshops for aspiring musicians at The Good Life Café in LA, and later the Project Blowed open mic workshops which grew out of them. Here he began to develop his trademark style, first heard when he guested on various tracks, before he released his debut album as Busdriver, ‘Memoirs Of The Elephant Man’ in 2001.

His smart, funny lyrics and distinct delivery broke through to a wider audience with the 2002 follow-up, ‘Temporary Forever’, and yet further when he signed to Big Dada for his fourth LP, ‘Cosmic Cleavage’ in 2004. A second Big Dada album, the brilliant ‘Fear Of A Black Tangent’, followed, before Busdriver moved to Epitaph for 2007′s ‘RainKillOvercoat’ and 2009′s ‘Jhelli Beam’.

Over the years, Farquhar has collaborated with numerous other artists, including Daedelus, Abstract Rude, Boom Bip and Z-Trip. And in 2010 he formed a band, Physical Forms, with The Mae Shi’s John Byron, releasing a split single with Deerhoof the same year.

Next month Busdriver releases his latest album, ‘Beaus$Eros’, which was produced by Belgian producer Loden, via the label Fake Four. CMU Editor Andy Malt caught up with Farquhar to find out more.

AM: When did you first start making music?
BD: When I was thirteen. I was in a silly rap group. We were like a conscious Kriss-Kross without the charisma. Luckily, I discovered the Good Life Cafe after the group disbanded. I was fourteen by then.

AM: At what point did the distinct style you’re known for now emerge? Was it a style you consciously worked on?
BD: By the time Project Blowed had started in late 1994, I had some idea as to what I wanted to do. Years of performing, recording and experimenting further informed the approaches, but the key inspiration was from my mentor Chu Chu. He was the primary host of The Good Life and a bit of a rap savant. We would session all the time in his Mom’s attic in South Central LA. He managed to stress the importance of the exact kind of bebop jazz that I needed to inform the styles that I was looking for.

AM: How would you say you’ve developed since your debut album?
BD: I’m less afraid. More in command. And unfortunately too self-aware… If I wanted to be the best rhymer in the world for a year I could do it. The key word is ‘if’ though.

AM: When did you start writing ‘Beaus$Eros’?
BD: Immediately after ‘Jhelli Beam’ was released in 2009.

AM: Did you have a clear vision for the new album before you started, both sonically and lyrically? In some ways it seems like your most ‘pop’ release – particularly ‘Kiss Me Back To Life’ – but at the same time it’s very experimental.
BD: It took six months of recording for me to firmly understand what was the proper direction. Loden and I were dabbling with more playful songwriting at first. But when we stumbled upon ‘Utilitarian Uses Of Love’ we started to hear the world that we wanted this album to inhabit. My personal problems had begun bleeding into the work and melody took on a new weight in the vocals. It was very organic. It required us to be a lot more patient than I had been in years, but it ultimately paid off.

AM: Talking of Loden, how did you come to collaborate on the album?
BD: I forget. It feels like I met him a lifetime ago. It was most likely through Mush Records. He put out a couple of records on that label a few years ago.

AM: What was the recording process? Was it a case of firing files back and forth online or did you get together?
BD: During the year and a half that we worked on the album we never met. It wasn’t until a couple of months ago that I saw him briefly in Brussels. But aside from that we hadn’t spoken, Skyped or sexted. It was all via email. All through the exchange of ideas in the form of beats, wav files and rough mixes. The process was incredibly pure.

AM: How did that process differ from how you’ve worked in the past? What would be your preferred method of recording?
BD: I spent less time over-thinking lyrics, more time trusting my instincts. The textures and vocal layering were all very important. I’d never spent so much time focusing on my bridges, but this time around those became super important. The bridges for ‘Bon Bon Fire’, ‘Utilitarian Uses Of Love’ and ‘Picking Band Names’ all took up most of the focus at a certain point in those songs’ production.
The scale of the songs just seemed larger. The methodology behind it this record has become my favourite way to get songs done. I just feel that the sense of accomplishment is far greater than what I’d experienced in a while.

AM: How did Physical Forms come about? Was it a weird adjustment working as part of a band and switching to singing rather than rapping?
BD: Jeff Byron from the Mae Shi reached out to me one day. He said that he wanted to do some recording, but more importantly he opened up about his fight with his hulking drug and alcohol addiction. A musical endeavour seemed like the best way to strengthen his recovery in his eyes… so we started a band. I quietly learned tons about pop/rock song composition and how to deliver heavily layered vocal parts over the course of our first two weeks of all night sessions. I welcomed the opportunity to exist in his universe. The first six months were really fantastic. We made a lot of colourfully irresponsible songs.

AM: Has that informed or changed the way you work on your solo material?
BD: The Physical Forms debut is ‘Beaus$Eros’ sister album for me. They both represent different facets of a singular happening in me. At least from my perspective.

AM: And when will that album be out?
BD: We’ll release our record this year. Soon after ‘Beaus$Eros’.

AM: It’s now more than a decade since you released your debut album, how has the industry changed in that time? Do you think it’s easier or harder to get your music out there now?
BD: It’s way easier to put music out in 2012 (almost effortless), but very difficult to be heard and quite impossible to actually “sell” any of that music. The industry that I arrived in with my breakthrough album ‘Temporary Forever’ doesn’t resemble the current climate at all.

It feels like the amount of prep and market-based knowhow required to reach an audience today has all but lapped how much people spend developing actual musical directions. That being said, there are a lot of great artists breaking through right now. I just have no idea how people fund these acts. The field is so fiercely competitive! Everyone’s content is flying through the air in thick flocks of labelled folders hoping to find a place on your desktop. It’s all a bit maddening.

AM: Do you have any plans to play live in the UK?
BD: Yep. In April hopefully.

AM: Which other artists are you listening to at the moment?
BD: Sonnymoon tUnE-yArDs, Dark Time Sunshine, The Weeknd, Freestyle Fellowship, VerBS, Etta James, Phillip Glass (always)… and other stuff that can’t find anyone responsible for.

AM: What else have you got coming up in 2012?
BD: The Physical Forms album will be released, probably mid year. I’m working on an EP with Del The Funky Homosapien, which I am writing for right now. There is also an EP that I’m producing for a Los Angeles rapper friend of mine. And I don’t know what else – it’s just January so I’m sure other things will present themselves.

Formed in 2003, Enter Shikari drew somewhat unprecedented hype with their hard-touring reputation and 2007 debut ‘Take To The Skies’, a searing meld of breakbeat, post-hardcore punk and techno elements that defined their signature style. Having released its sequel ‘Common Dreads’ in 2009, the band recorded their third full-length ‘A Flash Flood Of Colour’ between London and Bang Saray, Thailand with co-producer Dan Weller (Gallows, Young Guns). Mixing expertise came courtesy of a Canada-based Mike Fraser (Metallica, Biffy Clyro), with the LP thereby readied for release earlier this week via the band’s own label, Ambush Reality Records.

With ‘Flash Flood’ on a direct trajectory with a topmost position in the weekend charts, CMU Editor Andy Malt questioned frontman Rou Reynolds on the band’s career to date, and what it’s like to face the very real prospect of their first number one album.

AM: You’re on track to have your first number one album this Sunday. How does that feel?
RR: Very surreal indeed. I think in a few days time Adele and Bruno Mars will have caught us up again and we’ll back into the underground oblivion from whence we came, ha! But we’re not too fussed, the reception of the album has been great so far, reviews have been great and fans all seem really happy so we’re happy.

AM: When did you start working on ‘A Flash Flood Of Colour’?
RR: In the womb. Ha. Well some little bits here and there are years and years old but the bulk of the actual material started taking shape about a year ago.

AM: Some of your lyrics touched on ‘Common Dreads’ touched on political and social issues and seem to more on ‘A Flash Flood Of Colour’. Since ‘Common Dreads’ was released the coalition government has come into power, how has that changed your political outlook?
RR: It hasn’t whatsoever. It has once again proved that politics will not solve today’s problems. All Politicians basically do, is sit around bickering like schoolgirls. The only reason we still have ‘governments’ is because they work to compensate for the inefficiency of our economic system. The problems we face today are symptoms of a faulty system. Sorry to use the cliché but we need to start thinking outside the box. Way outside the box. We need to go back to the factory that produced the box, analyse it and redesign the box.

AM: Do you see yourselves as a ‘political band’?
RR: Not at all. I’ve grown to utterly detest the word. The word ‘politics’ itself derives from a Greek word meaning ‘of, for or relating to citizens’. It is now very clear that politics does nothing to help unite us as human beings and is neither ‘of or for’ the people. Real change and societal progress will come from the people, not from politics.

AM: Recently there’s been a lot of discussion in the music media about the death of ‘guitar music’, but both The Maccabees and now you have had considerable chart success as this has been going on. What’s your view on the state of guitar music?
RR: I don’t think guitar driven music is any less healthy than it ever has been. I’d argue the opposite. Metal, hardcore, punk, rock seem to be thriving, especially in the underground scenes. Rock bands that we started out playing with have risen loads recently, like Lower Than Atlantis and Twin Atlantic. Bring Me The Horizon must be bringing metal to new and younger and bigger audiences everywhere. Punk bands like Gallows and Letlive are getting bigger and bigger.

AM: You’ve always been very forward looking with your sound and quick to incorporate sounds from other genres into your music. Do you think more bands should be experimenting in that way? What, for example, do you think of Korn’s dubstep album?
RR: A few people have been asking me about this so I really need to check it out. But as yet I haven’t heard it. I’ve heard one track they did with Skrillex which seemed to mix really well. I would suspect though that that is the style of dubstep they’ll use, the hyper, fit as many loud piercing synths as you can in a minute kind of dubstep for the rest of that album, which isn’t really my thing.

AM: How has your own sound developed on your latest album?
RR: We’ve again built up more confidence to explore every nook and cranny of our spectrum of musical influences. So it really is rather vast in it’s emotions, textures and instrumentation.

AM: You’re in the position of having released music independently and (in the US) through a major label. What have been the pros and cons of each system?
RR: Well our first two albums didn’t really get any support over there. And that was when we were on a major. They literally didn’t know what to do with us so just gave the releases zero support, no marketing, no press, no tour support. We were a small fish in a big pond. I think with the benefit of hindsight now we can take some positives out of that experience though because what did end up happening was we carried on touring the US by ourselves and ended up building up everything slowly and organically over there just as we did in Europe. We’re now on [US indie label] Hopeless Records, and we’re happy with everything that’s happened so far. Everyone there is awesome and really into us.

AM: What are your plans for promoting the new album in the States?
RR: A load of touring, including our first proper headliner which we’re really excited about.

AM: What other artists are you listening to at the moment?
RR: A lot of progressive classical guitar music, Jon Gomm and Erik Mongrain; some of the techniques these dudes use when they play are totally incredible! Noisia, the kings of electronic music production, always been a big influence on us. And Scroobius Pip’s new album is awesome, I’ve been spinning that a fair bit too.

AM: What are your future ambitions for Enter Shikari?
RR: Just to continue our journey as a band, be able to play our music to as many people as possible and keep creating music.

The Big Pink’s Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell first struck up a collaboration in 2007, releasing their debut single, ‘Too Young To Love’, later that year. Having signed to 4AD in 2009, the London-based duo earned due plaudits with the anthemic noise of their fourth single ‘Dominos’, serving up a debut album, ‘A Brief History Of Love’, shortly after. Seeking to touch on all facets of love as its overarching theme, the LP was a forward-looking foray into brash Britpop pastiche, rich in new-romantic notions, driving drum beats and dark, knotted electronica.

Having co-produced part of ‘A Brief History’, Paul Epworth’s gilded touch is also ever-present on The Big Pink’s forthcoming second album, ‘Future This’, due out via 4AD on 16 Jan. As he and Robbie prepare to begin their UK tour at Bristol’s Thekla on 8 Feb, Milo Cordell spoke to CMU Editor Andy Malt about the making of ‘Future This’, sharing studio time with Paul Epworth, and how he balances his role as CEO of Merok Records with being in a band.

AM: When did you start working on the new album? Was it written in one block?
MC: A friend offered me some advice once, that, whatever you do, don’t ever stop writing as if you do, you kinda have to start at the start again. And we’ve listened to that and never really stopped. I think it’s put us in a good position, as when we finished touring in September 2010, most of the record was recorded straight after, between then and February last year.

AM: Was the writing and recording process different this time around?
MC: We used a few samples, which was a different process and an exciting way to start a tune for us. We knew we were going to properly work with a producer this time around so we didn’t have to go mad and finish all the tracks ourselves, just record demos to work on later.

AM: How has your sound developed on this record?
MC: There are pretty much no live drums, so we really had to work on our drum programming. I think we took the bits we still liked off the first record and developed them.

AM: The title of ‘A Brief History Of Love’ references that the songs on the album were connected by the theme of love. Is there a connecting theme on ‘Future This’?
MC: Not really, and not in the same obvious way. I guess this is a record that looks forward into life and doesn’t spend much time dwelling on love lost.

AM: What led you to choose a sample from ‘O Superman’ by Laurie Anderson as the basis for ‘Hit The Ground (Superman)’? Is Laurie Anderson a particular influence?
MC: Not particularly, but I find her a very interesting lady. I had just been to the Barbican to see an art show of hers and I was talking to my brother, who is fifteen years older than me, and he said he remembered when ‘O Superman’ first came out and when he heard it on the radio how weird and out of place it sounded. I immediately went to search it out, found it, and knew from the opening ten seconds that I could sample it and make something fun around it.

AM: How did you end up working with Paul Epworth on ‘Future This’, and what effect did he have on how the album turned out?
MC: Paul worked with us on a couple of tracks in the past, most notably ‘Dominos’. We talked to a bunch of American producers but really didn’t want to go through the process of getting to know them while recording. We knew Paul well and trusted him even more.

AM: What was Paul like to work with?
MC: He really pushed us and we never relaxed. It was always try harder, think bigger, do better, which was great. It was like having some intense karate teacher.

AM: Did you work with other musicians again on ‘Future This’, or is it just the two of you?
MC: Mostly just us, we worked a lot with Paul on melodies and worked with our friend Daniel O’Sullivan on the title track ‘Future This’. Zan Lyons and Victoria Smith from our live band played bits and pieces here and there too.

AM: Talking of your live band, what cane people expect from shows on the upcoming tour?
MC: Zan and Victoria (noise and drums) are two of the most talented musicians I have ever met, so expect a higher level of playing! The shows are gonna be a lot more upbeat and faster, we are using computer software which enables us to loop drums, and to delay both drums and vocal so the show is constantly mutating in a really fun way.

AM: How does being in The Big Pink affect your involvement with Merok? Are you still as hands on with it as you were?
MC: It does affect it at times, but I have surrounded myself with really great people at Merok that take care of most of the day to day stuff. To be honest, I love getting involved and see it as breaking the boredom of being in a band. While everyone is watching TV or playing computer games while on tour, I just go and answer my emails.

AM: Does being able to view the music industry from different angles help you in your roles as artist and label owner? Do you consider yourself foremost one or the other?
MC: I prefer the title label owner to musician, that’s for sure.

AM: What other artists are you listening to at the moment?
MC: Deptford Goth, Araab Muzik, Juicy J, Zomby, Spector.

AM: And finally, how would like to see The Big Pink develop from this point?
MC: I’d love to see us develop on our live show and really make it into something massive, like a cross between The Chemical Brothers and Spiritualized.

Brothers Ollie and Matt Jacob formed indie label Memphis Industries in 1998, releasing Blue State’s ‘Forever’ EP later the same year. Since then they have gone on to work with The Go! Team, The Pippettes, Field Music, Theoretical Girl, Frankie Rose And The Outs and many more.

This year marks the label’s thirteenth anniversary, which, as they failed to do anything to mark the company’s tenth year, the Jacob brothers have chosen to celebrate instead. To commemorate the occasion, tonight they will head down to Koko in London for a show featuring performances from The Go! Team and Field Music as well as newer signings Dutch Uncles and Colourmusic. Some tickets are still available from www.memphis-industries.com, where each purchase comes with a free download compilation featuring past, present and future tracks from the Memphis Industries catalogue.

Ahead of the show, CMU Editor Andy Malt caught up with Ollie Jacob to find out more about the label, how it came about and what it’s like running an indie record company in the modern world.

AM: What were your backgrounds before you launched Memphis Industries?
OJ: I was promoting clubs and shows down in Brighton, Matt was training to be a lawyer.

AM: When did you first decide to set up the label?
OJ: In 1998 I left Brighton and moved back to London. For some bizarre reason (perhaps a love of music, although that doesn’t entirely explain it) I thought I’d start releasing records, and knew Matt could put some money in and wouldn’t rip me off, so I asked him if he fancied setting up a label. He stupidly said yes. I remember even then being told by literally everyone that the glory days of the record industry were over and there was no future in it.

AM: Were there any other labels that inspired you, or you aspired to be like?
OJ: As well as doing our press in the early days, Tony Morley at The Leaf Label probably gave us the most practical sense of how to set up and run a small label. In terms of aspiration, I think we just wanted to be able to put out whatever tickled us rather than having a rigid musical aesthetic – the label identity was and has been a secondary thing to the artists.

AM: What were your ambitions for the company at that point?
OJ: Right at the start it was literally to figure out how to get a bit of music off a DAT, onto vinyl and then into the shops. I mean there were vague and ill defined notions of what success might mean in the future, but since neither myself nor Matt had ever worked at a label we were very much amateurs.

AM: Did you have any particular ethos for the label when you first started, and have you stuck to it?
OJ: More out of financial constraints than anything else, we exclusively signed bedroom recording artists back then. We only started signing “bands” in around 2005. It’s funny that we’ve kinda gone full circle back to signing home recording types now, with the likes of Hooray For Earth and Elephant.

AM: What have been the highlights of the last thirteen years?
OJ: The first reviews in print we got were always super exciting. And the first time we had one of songs played on daytime radio, The Squire Of Somerton’s ‘Transverberations’ on Mark and Lard (now that carbon dates us). Obviously The Go! Team provided a lot of giggles, cos it took us to a whole new level, with their first SxSW and Fuji Rocks being particular highlights. And working with Field Music is a constant source of joy.

AM: What would you do differently if you were starting out again now?
OJ: Ha – aside from go and get a proper job? In a purely practical sense, we’d take publishing much more seriously.

AM: You started Memphis Industries just before Napster launched. How do you think illegal file-sharing and the rise of the internet in general has effected you?
OJ: I guess it’s largely helped us – the speed a band can work on a global scale, for a label like ours, is unimaginable without the internet, and without file-sharing. Sure there’s the idea that people don’t pay for music any more, but the fact that the rules are constantly being rewritten, and have been since about the time we started, has meant that the playing field is a little more level – everyone is, to a degree making it up as they go along, just like us, and there are new dimensions, new tools and new pitfalls almost every time you go to release a record

AM: Many record labels are now diversifying into other areas of the music business, in addition to recordings. Is this something Memphis Industries has done, or plans to do?
OJ: We’ve been managing The Go! Team since 2005, and have added Field Music and Elephant to that in recent times, although in retrospect we realise how much of what we did in the earlier days would be considered a manager’s remit anyway. We’ve also got a publishing company called Man Mountain Music, that’s started doing some good stuff and is gradually building up nicely.

AM: What’s the most challenging thing about running a label in 2011? And what’s the best thing?
OJ: Persuading people to, y’know, buy music. And I also think the desperate desire for the new has a debilitating effect generally. The best thing is that technology has led to the democratisation and automation of lot of aspects of the biz so a couple of hard grafting monkeys like us can easily run a label.

AM: What can people expect from tonight’s birthday gig? Do you have any surprises planned?
OJ: Four massively different and unique bands showing off their wares for a start. Some free stuff. We’re trying to get the bands to agree to do a ‘We Are The World’ style sing-a-long at the end, but it’s taking some doing. Oh and me drinking expensive booze as if my life depended on it. Although that last one isn’t a surprise.

AM: What’s your favourite version of ‘Walking In Memphis’?
OJ: I’m partial to a bit of Cher myself.

AM: And finally, it’s a tough one, but are there any Memphis Industries releases that you’ve been particularly proud of?
OJ: Well that would be like saying which of your kids is your favourite, and that would be bad parenting. How about it’s always the next record that we’re releasing? Does that neatly get us out of upsetting any of our bands?

Lucky Thirteen – 13 Years Of Memphis Industries:

Next month, on 10 Dec, the teams from numerous independent record labels will gather at Spitalfields in East London to sell their wares direct to the music-buying public at the latest Independent Label Market. The brainchild of Joe Daniel of the Angular Recording Co (pictured left, with fellow Angular founder Joe Margetts), the first Independent Label Market took place in Soho earlier this year, with a second event in Brooklyn in October.

This time around, aside from it just being cool to have label founders selling their own records, there will be the double benefit of music fans being able to help out those indies hit by the fire at the Sony/PIAS distribution centre back in August, many of whom are now feeling the bite from having no stock for a month or two this summer.

Ahead of it all, CMU Business Editor Chris Cooke caught up with Daniel to find out more about the Label Market idea and the Angular record company.

CC: Where did the idea for the Independent Label Market come from?
JD: I ran the merch stall for one of our bands and really loved it, and thought other label bosses would enjoy it too. Selling something that’s close to your heart to someone who’s asking you interesting questions about it is really great.

CC: Was it difficult persuading so many other label chiefs to get behind their own stall for a whole day for the first market?
JD: Not really. I knew some of them already, and then word got around and people seemed to like the idea. Indie labels tend to start as one or two people shouting their mouths off, trying to persuade other people to buy music that they like, which is a lot like the scene you find at a market. I reckon all label bosses are barrow boys at heart really!

CC: As a label owner yourself, how did you find the experience of selling your label’s records directly to music fans?
JD: Really fun. It reminded me of how we used to do it when we started out, stood behind a table at the Paradise Bar in New Cross, trying to get locals on the fruit machines to slot three quid into our pockets instead of in the fruities.

CC: Do you think such direct connection with the customer can help improve the way you run your label?
JD: That kind of engagement and direct feedback is edifying, and I suppose you get to check out your demographic, and that’s cool. Though it wouldn’t influence my taste or what bands we sign.

CC: With the upcoming second London Independent Label Market, you’ve noted how this event will also help those labels hit by the fire, during the riots this summer, at the Sony/PIAS distribution centre in North London, where many indies lost large amounts of stock. Was Angular affected by the fire?
JD: Yes, we lost all of our stock. It was quite distressing. It reminded me a bit of the end of ‘The Wicker Man’ actually, so who knows, maybe we’ll have a great harvest next year and sell more records than we lost!

CC: While there was a definite outpouring of sympathy and support from the music community after all that indie stock was destroyed, some people did say “but surely these guys are insured?” Why was it such bad news for so many labels, even if ultimately most affected record companies would be reimbursed?
JD: It’s bad news because of the sales lost whilst labels were waiting for replacement stock to be manufactured, which in most cases would be about a month, but would have been longer for labels without sufficient funds to replace the stock immediately. So a lot sales were lost immediately after the fire. And because PIAS pays three months in arrears, we are only feeling the effects of this now. The market at Spitalfields will be great, as it is an immediate cash injection for labels that are struggling. That’s the plan anyway.

CC: Tell us a little more about Angular Records – why did you set the label up, what’s your motivation?
JD: My friend Joe Margetts and I originally set up the label as a reaction to the art department at our university. They were hung up on the ghost of Damien Hirst, and we thought we could do something equally as meaningless as what they were doing, and maybe find some meaning along the way. Thus ARC was born and we’ve been charting an errating course through popular music ever since.

CC: It seems like running an indie in the internet age is both thrilling and challenging. The web means a more level playing field in terms of reaching music fans, but declining record sales across the board affect everyone. Would you agree?
JD: I can’t really compare now with before, because when we launched ARC in 2003 the web was already very much part of selling music. But it’s challenging to sell records, certainly, and thrilling when you manage it.

CC: Do you have an opinion on the recent debate over whether or not indies should be licensing their music to services like Spotify? Some smaller labels seem to think the royalties are too low, and that being on subscription-based all-you-can eat platforms has a negative impact on conventional iTunes-style download sales.
JD: I think Spotify, or something similar, has to work as an alternative to file-sharing or else this business may be fucked, which is why I’m trying to have faith in it. Though until recently Spotify payments were a joke, and so our stuff wasn’t on there. Then they changed the rules, and now that usage is more limited and payment to labels has improved, I’ve decided to try it out. I don’t let other reports on this kind of thing sway me too much – often the authors of them have an agenda – we’ll see how it goes for our own artists. I do like that, conceptually, and as an experience, Spotify and the Independent Label Market are about as far away from each other as you can get, but that they could both co-exist happily and be a good thing for music consumers and musicians.

CC: Do you think events like the Label Market prove that – despite the boom in digital – there is still a place for physical product, especially in the indie label space?
JD: Of course there is. Everyone likes a record.

CC: You staged an Independent Label Market in Brooklyn too. How did that come about?
JD: It just seemed like the next logical step. It happened in a similar way to the original London event on Berwick Street – I asked around some labels, everyone was keen, and so one thing led to another.

CC: Do you have ambitions to take the Market to other cities or countries?
JD: Yes. It would work in any city that has a rich musical history and record labels which represent that.

CC: While you’ll be there to sell, obviously, is their anything the other labels are likely to be selling at next month’s Label Market that might persuade you to do some buying too?
JD: It’s always the craft type things on sale that are the most fun – home made mixtapes, home baked mp3 cakes etc. I’ll be looking for mulled wine with a download code at the bottom of the glass. Also, Sonic Cathedral are releasing an incredible new record by Fairewell that week; people should look out for it.

Chromeo’s David Macklovitch (Dave 1) and Patrick Gemayel (P-Thugg) met at high school in Montreal, later signing to Canadian DJ/producer Tiga’s label, Turbo, for the release of their 2004 debut, ‘She’s In Control’. Breakthrough single ‘Needy Girl’ then placed an international spotlight on the band’s flair for instant electrofunk gratification, recasting the duo as in-demand remixers for the likes of Cut Copy, Feist and Vampire Weekend.

Macklovitch and Gemayel made a bigger impact, both critically and commercially, with second album ‘Fancy Footwork’, which proved a mine of crossover hits, as popular as an ad campaign soundtrack as it was a credible club success story. Most recently glimpsed collaborating with Solange Knowles on their latest single, ‘When The Night Falls’, the duo have toured non-stop in support of their most recent LP, ‘Business Casual’, which was released last year.

Ahead of a headline date at the London Forum on 25 Nov CMU Editor Andy Malt caught up with singer Dave 1 to discuss Chromeo’s past exploits, present progress and future plans.

AM: When you first started working on music together at high school, what sort of sound did those early songs have?
DM: This was in like 1992, I was fourteen years old. I’d say the songs were acid jazz inspired at first. The first Jamiroquai album had just dropped. We were into that, Incognito, Brand New Heavies – I’ve just started re-listening to those records by the way. It’s time for an acid jazz comeback! The first Roots album was a huge influence on us as well. Then we got deeper into 70s and 80s funk and started producing hip hop with the record collections we amassed.

AM: How long did it take to develop your sound into something that was recognisably Chromeo? Was it a direction you intentionally went in or was it something that happened naturally?
DM: It took a while. We had no defined creative direction when we first signed to Turbo, we didn’t know what we were doing. We just started producing tracks that weren’t hip hop and it naturally evolved from there. Pee got deeper into synths, I wrote more lyrics. Somewhere along the line the 80s funk influence gelled. We picked up on it on records like Les Rythmes Digitales and Daft Punk’s ‘Discovery’, and wanted to take it even further. We had ‘Woman Friend’, we had ‘So Gangsta’. By the time we did ‘Needy Girl’, the direction became clear…

AM: How do you see Chromeo progressing over time? Is it something you could continue with indefinitely, or do you see it as time-limited in any way?
DM: Indefinitely, inasmuch as we’ve proven to ourselves that we can expand our sound enough to include ideas that don’t initially correspond to the typical Chromeo style. Take ‘Momma’s Boy’ or ‘J’ai Claqué la Porte’, for instance. ‘Momma’s Boy’ remains one of our biggest tracks – once we saw how well it was received, it was like: “OK, we can make anything work within Chromeo”. Same with ‘Don’t Turn The Lights On’. Our artistic challenge is to refine our sound, make it more sophisticated, richer, even more polished, become better writers and better players, and all the while maintain the ingenuity of tracks like ‘Tenderoni’ or ‘Bonafied’. It’s a tall order and we could be at it for a while.

AM: You’re preparing to go record your fourth album now. When do you start? Do you already have it mapped out, or will the songs form in the studio?
DM: I’ve been coming up with song ideas for the past year and Pee’s about to start making demos next month. We’ll both be writing during the spring and come summer we’ll most likely start to record.

AM: You produced Adam Kesher’s album, ‘Challenging Nature’ album. Is producing other artists something you’d like to do more of? How does that differ from producing your own work?
DM: I did the Adam Kesher album because they’re on my good friend’s label. There was a personal connection there. I want to produce more projects but I also want to keep up the Chromeo momentum, so we’ll see. When I get to the producing phase of a Chromeo album, I want to be able to look at it with the same critical perspective as if it were someone else’s music. I think I’ve learned a lot from things we could’ve done different on our last couple of releases and I look forward to being way harder on myself on the next one.

AM: How did your collaboration with Solange Knowles on ‘Business Casual’ come about, and what was she like to work with?
DM: She’s a good friend of my brother A-Trak. We wanted a female vocal for a hook and she was the first one we thought of. She’s truly a pleasure to work with. The session was fun, her sister was there too, we were all just chatting. We actually just performed that track on a big American TV show ['Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'] with Solange last week.

AM: Who else is on your wish list of people to work with? Are any of them lined up to appear on the new album?
DM: No, there’s no list. Whatever happens organically.

AM: It’s now just over a year since ‘Business Casual’ was released, have the songs changed as you’ve played them live in that time?
DM: We’ve tinkered around a bit with structures, lengths and arrangements to make them as effective as possible live. ‘Night By Night’ has barely changed; ‘Don’t Turn The Lights On’ and ‘Night Falls’ keep getting modified, so it depends.

AM: You’re playing in London on 25 Nov. What can people expect from your final show of 2011?
DM: Lots of dancing and singalongs, as usual. And an emotional outburst of gratitude on our part!

AM: You’ve just announced Skream as your support act. Are you fans of his?
DM: Absolutely – he gave us our first remix on this ‘Business Casual’ campaign. He’s a good dude.

AM: Which other artists are you listening to at the moment?
DM: The new Drake stuff, the new M83 album, the ASAP Rocky mixtape. And oldies, of course.

Originally launched as a poll of readers of the Virtual Festivals website in 2004, the first proper UK Festival Awards ceremony took place two years later. Since then the event has grown each year, splitting off from Virtual Festivals to become an entity in its own right in 2009.

Now the Festival Awards company operates two annual ceremonies, the UK awards, which this year take place at London’s Roundhouse, and the newer European Festival Awards, which is held during the Eurosonic Noorderslag festival in the Netherlands.

The UK event is now also accompanied by a conference of its own, bringing together the British festival promoter community to discuss issues affecting their industry. Taking place on the day of the awards ceremony, that will this year be held at The Forum in London with a keynote speech from industry veteran Melvin Benn.

Ahead of this year’s UK Festival Awards and Conference on 15 Nov, CMU Business Editor Chris Cooke caught up with Festival Awards Ltd Managing Director James Drury to find out more.

CC: How did the Festival Awards come about?
JD: The awards were launched by Virtual Festivals in 2004 as an online poll of its readers. For the first two years there wasn’t a ceremony and the trophies were driven to promoters’ offices across the country! Then, following demand from the industry, an actual awards ceremony was launched in 2006.

CC: At what point did the event become its own entity, rather than something run by Virtual Festivals?
JD: Festival Awards Ltd became an independent company in its own right two years ago.

CC: When did you join the Festival Awards?
JD: I joined eighteen months ago, from Live UK and Audience magazines where I had been News Editor.

CC: What is your role, and has it changed since you joined?
JD: I take care of the day-to-day running of the company and its direction and I seek opportunities to expand and improve the business, often working in close relationship with the industry. Since I started, we’ve grown the awards to be at The Roundhouse, launched a series of regional seminars, added an industry website, and the European Awards have really taken off – it means my daily role is incredibly varied, which is very exciting.

CC: How has the UK Festival Awards grown since it launched?
JD: Since first starting as an online poll it has grown into an awards ceremony in its own right – the first one was at the O2 Academy Islington – and from there it expanded to Indigo2 at The O2 and, this year, at The Roundhouse. We’ve also added the UK Festival Conference, European Festival Awards, a festival industry website called Festival Insights, and a regional seminar programme called The City Sessions.

CC: You’ve introduced more ‘expert judged’ categories this year, why was that?
JD: The Festival Awards celebrates the hard work of everyone in the festival industry and my aim is for it to be as inclusive as possible, so all festivals can benefit. In the past, most awards were decided by public vote, but I recognised that for some festivals, their fans might not be of the demographic to go online and vote. By introducing more judged categories, it means that all festivals can take part – and it’s really produced results: last year we had about 170 festivals taking part, this year it’s just over 200.

CC: Why did you launch the Festival Conference?
JD: Our awards event is probably the only time you’ll get so many people from the festival industry in one place at the same time, so there was an opportunity to enable everyone to get together on the day of the ceremony, with the aim of enabling the festival industry to become stronger through better networking and intelligent knowledge-sharing. Many festivals are run by very small teams and there are few opportunities to meet other people in the industry and discuss common challenges, so the UK Festival Conference aims to provide a platform for that to happen.

CC: How do you see your conference fitting in with the other live sector and general music business conventions?
JD: While many music industry conferences will feature a session on festivals, the UK Festival Conference is dedicated to this sector, meaning if you work in the industry you can have a full day of focus on topics which are of relevance to you.

CC: What do you think will be the highlights of this year’s conference?
JD: The tragic deaths at festivals this summer have really brought bad weather protocols into sharp focus and I think that session will see a lot of interest, as will our Q&A with Festival Republic MD Melvin Benn – he’s at the top of his game not just in the UK but globally, so his insight will be fascinating. We’re also going to be giving festivals advice on what can be achieved with social media, as well as how – in such a competitive landscape – festivals can maintain loyalty and interest. What’s particularly exciting me, though, is our discussion of RFID technology, which I feel is about to take off in the UK following its successes in the US at festivals such as Bonnaroo and Coachella.

CC: How did the European awards come about?
JD: Many European festivals used to come to the UK Festival Awards. Following a meeting with Christof Huber from European festivals association Yourope, he offered to help us grow into Europe. Eurosonic Noorderslag threw its support behind the event (the European Awards is the opening event of the annual conference and showcase festival in the Netherlands) and we were up and running!

CC: How do the European awards differ from the UK awards, in terms of categories and voting process?
JD: There are thirteen categories in the European Festival Awards, while the UK has 23 awards, otherwise they’re very similar in format. We have over 200 European festivals taking part, from around 32 countries, which is an incredible number of events considering this will be only its third year. We are very fortunate to have the support of so many promoters from across the continent.

CC: As someone with an overview of the industry, do you think the UK festivals market is in good health at the moment?
JD: There have been many media reports of the decline of the festival industry this year, but although it’s been challenging, the market remains healthy and people are still very keen to attend festivals – even making sacrifices in other expenditure in order to get tickets. The fact that so many festivals, such as T In The Park, V Festival, Green Man, Kendal Calling, Bestival and so on, sold out this year is proof of just how popular festivals still are.

CC: What are the big issues affecting festival promoters?
JD: With the economy hitting consumer confidence – and therefore making them cautious with expenditure – it’s more important than ever to keep a tight control on budgets so ticket prices don’t increase dramatically, no mean feat with many costs going up. The UK festival market is one of the most competitive in the world and promoters have to exercise great skill to stay on top.

CC: How many festivals did you go to this year and what were your personal highlights?
JD: I was at twelve festivals this year – including one in China, which was an incredible experience. It was fascinating to see how this nascent industry is mushrooming, and how enthusiastic the public are about festivals there.

Musically, Pulp’s set at the Isle of Wight Festival was a real treat, as was seeing Odd Future at Gaymers Camden Crawl and Reading Festival, and Metallica at Sonisphere. But I think for me, the best thing about this summer has been the little snippets of conversation you overhear from people at festivals – from absolutely hilarious nonsense to the genuine excitement from people who’ve never been to a festival before.

In the next few days the government is expected to make an announcement about the future of so called Low Value Consignment Relief in the Channel Islands. This is the tax relief system that means that mail-order companies based in the Channel Islands, selling products back to customers in the UK, don’t currently have to charge VAT on goods under £15, giving them a 20% advantage over mainland retailers. LVCR has been used by mail-order operators in various industries, but its use – and, some would say, abuse – has been most obvious in music and film, partly because CD and DVDs nearly always sell for under £15.

Play.com was one of the first to build a whole company from the competitive advantage the VAT loophole delivered, but soon numerous firms, including many of the traditional bigger UK retailers, were basing their mail-order operations in the middle of the English Channel, so they could undercut the opposition and still make a bigger profit.

Of course some of the savings were passed back to the consumer, making these services very popular with music fans. But, some have argued, in the long term the music industry, and music fans, not to mention the British tax payer, have all lost out, because many of the traditional specialist high street music retailers – already facing the challenge of declining CD sales – just haven’t been able to compete with bigger rivals which have a 15-20% advantage on price, sending many over the edge. Independent retailers have been worst hit, but the big guys of entertainment retail have suffered too, even those that ultimately relocated their own mail-order operations to the Channel Islands.

After years of government doing nothing, despite increased opposition to LVCR, it is thought the Coaliton is about to phase the tax relief system out. Ahead of that, we spoke to Richard Allen, an import and export specialist who ended up running an independent record company, and who was one of the first to begin prolifically campaigning against the VAT dodge, and the way it skewed the retail market to the disadvantage of already struggling independent music sellers. He was involved in the setting up of the RAVAS campaign and website, which was arguably crucial in forcing the government to act. CMU Business Editor Chris Cooke found out more.

CC: What’s your background – how did you become involved in the music business?
RA: I was a commercial executive, and spent ten years in import and export. So I was present at the HMRC [Revenue & Customs] presentations at Heathrow when the customs barriers came down in Europe.

My life in music started off as a hobby that subsequently got out of control. I ran a label called Delerium from 1991 and the biggest signing was a band called Porcupine Tree, who are a now a well respected internationally recognised serious rock outfit. I spent twelve years managing them and traveled all over the world with them, so have a pretty broad experience of the industry from almost every perspective.

I also developed a cult online mail-order business from 1991 to 2007 called The Freak Emporium, which went online in the mid 90s and was frequented by the likes of Julian Cope and Jello Biafra, and acknowledged by Stuart Maconie’s ‘Freak Zone’ as a cool place to pick up the best music you’ve never heard before.

So, unfortunately for the offshore fulfillment industry and the government, I had a thorough background in both VAT and music retail, so have been able to get into the real detail of the technical arguments in the LVCR debate with some confidence. When it comes to VAT or music retail you certainly can’t bullshit me with pseudo facts!

CC: When did you first become aware of mail-order CD sellers capitalising on the VAT loophole?
RA: One of my employees asked if he could have some mail-order packages sent to the office. A few days later an armful of jiffy bags turned up with bright orange Play.com stickers on them. This must have been around 2003. I asked him why he was buying so much stuff, and he said: “It’s great – no VAT! – stuff the government!”

I wasn’t so enthusiastic. I immediately realised the implication of a VAT-free competitor, and explained to my employee that such competition in our market could threaten his job. As with many of my LVCR predictions, I was later proven right. I stumbled across the mechanics of Play.com and LVCR at a direct mailing industry trade fair in London, where a company in the mysterious ‘offshore fulfilment’ section of the show explained to me exactly how it all worked

CC: For the uninitiated, can you explain why Channel Island retailers don’t have to pay VAT?
RA: Basically, the Channel Islands are outside the European Union for VAT purposes, and goods that enter the UK from outside the EU below £18 in value (just reduced to £15) are exempt from VAT. This is because of the action of an import relief that was designed to reduce archaic manual VAT collection costs before everyone used a computer and the internet.

Some bright spark worked out that if you deliberately sent stuff out of the UK to the Channel Islands and then sold it off a website, you could then mail items back into the UK and avoid the VAT. They also thought nobody would notice this was going on, and for many years nobody did. Until I came along!

CC: At what point do you think the use of LVCR actually started to have a detrimental affect on UK music retail?
RA: LVCR had a gradual insidious effect up to 2004, but generally the offshore retailers operating then only matched UK retail prices and gave free postage. They also really only sold more mainstream products. Play.com, and a few minor players, were ruling the roost up to that point, so it made more sense for them to keep the extra profit from the VAT advantage rather than translate it into lower CD prices.

However when HMV – albeit reluctantly – moved its mail-order to Guernsey they decided to commence in an aggressive pricing strategy to gain market share. HMV started offering all new releases at £8.99, delivered free, even if they were over £9.00 from the dealer. Play.com reacted and a price war began.

This hit the specialist retailers the hardest, as it forced prices down to within the VAT advantage even on products that people really didn’t mind paying a premium for. Once margins dropped to within 17.5%, all UK mainland retail was excluded from the game. It was then that everyone on the UK mainland obligated to pay VAT started going bust. We actually told the Treasury this would happen. It was very sad watching the prediction gradually unfold into reality.

CC: What other sectors were affected?
RA: The horticultural sector had been doing this for years, but nobody really knew about it. Vast amounts of plants grown in the UK travel in a big circle during the growing season to packing centres in the Channel Islands where they come back again by mail-order through companies like QVC, or those adverts for plants you see in the newspapers.

The infrastructure of this industry provided the base for the ink cartridge circular shipping that followed, as well as the contact lens fulfilment business. After that CDs and DVDs were just a logical extension since they are popular, relatively cheap, and fit neatly into a jiffy bag. This was followed by memory cards, phone spares, garden items, toys, computer games, cosmetics, perfumes, car spares. You name it, it was a gold rush!

CC: How did you get involved in the campaign to stop LVCR?
RA: When I first properly came across this issue in 2005 I could see where it was heading. However, having met totally ignorant indifference within the music industry, the only organisation I could find campaigning on the issue was the Forum Of Private Business. It just so happened that in autumn 2005 they were giving evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Shops Group, who were compiling a report called ‘High Street Britain 2015’. I gave evidence on LVCR abuse at the hearings, and then I was part of a delegation that met with HM Treasury in early 2006.

From there it really snowballed. I realised the ultimate consequences of doing nothing for both my business and UK music retail in general. Frankly it was do or die. I wanted to save my business and the industry I loved.

CC: Both the UK and Channel Island governments seemed to initially pay lip service to the campaign, but little more. Was it frustrating in the early days?
RA: Understandably the Channel Islands didn’t want any attention. They denied everything or tried to blame it on this company or that company. Tesco’s got all the flak at one point, but they had actually complained to HM Treasury in 2004 that if nothing was done they would have to go offshore as well. I think that because Tesco got lots of flak over their domination of the high street they were an easy target, but really they were not a major player.

The UK government were also covering it up during Labour’s watch because nobody had the political guts to tackle it. Those in charge thought they would be vilified for damaging consumers’ interests. That’s an issue that was constantly raised before the current financial crisis, but the truth is you won’t be consuming much if you just lost your job because an offshore VAT-free company destroyed the business you work for. The issue here is the damage to the economy and business. It was so short sighted.

CC: The campaign seems to have gained a lot of momentum recently, why do you think this is?
RA: The battle went through a number of phases. In the early days every possible political angle was pursued. I met countless ministers and politicians, many of whom couldn’t actually understand the technicalities of the problem, which was extremely disheartening. With the previously mentioned FPB, we had two early day motions and an adjournment debate in parliament. Later, as things got worse, I was involved with a judicial review that was funded by Fopp and Music Zone, but they both then went under, so it couldn’t be completed.

Then, in December 2007, my own business had to close as it became impossible to compete. I had even seen CDs I myself had released coming back into the UK VAT-free, undercutting my own mail-order service and the few remaining mainland outlets that survived. It was surreal.

By 2008 I was on my own, and out of a job, but having a bit of finance I managed to carry on, and it was then that we filed a complaint with the European Union, because we believed (and a respected tax QC had told us) the way LVCR was being used, and the UK government’s failure to stop it, breached EU rules. On that I worked with a great guy called Martin Smith, who had previously worked for the FPB, and who knew how to work with the EU. Together with Martin I made real progress, and with the help of Simon Bowers at the Guardian the issue was highlighted in the press, so that in 2009 I started making contact with independent traders affected by the impact of LVCR in other retail sectors.

Chris Holgate, an ink cartridge retailer, set up the RAVAS [Retailers Against VAT Avoidance Schemes] website and then it just snowballed, and before I knew it I was an expert in horticulture, cosmetics, memory cards and all the other products being sold VAT-free. Retailers who were affected were overjoyed to find a focus for this issue. It’s very lonely being gradually strangled to death by VAT!

In late 2010 it was clear the EU agreed that this [the use of LVCR by Channel Island etailers] was abusive, and that same year the current government began to make positive noises, helped by our EU complaint and, I believe, a genuine understanding of the issues. Lord Lucas, in particular, has been a real ally and a bringer of light.

Ultimately, those that live by the sword die by the sword, and in this case LVCR abuse grew because of the rise of the internet, and our campaign to end it also grew because of the rise of the internet.

CC: What do you say to people who argue that, as music fans got access to cheaper CDs, there was a good side to LVCR?
RA: I can’t deny that lower prices through LVCR are good, but at what real cost ? With all the independents wiped out you can’t find any specialist music retailers, most shops are gone and the market is dominated by corporate companies with bland price-focused websites based offshore. I can’t see how that can be good for the consumer or the music fan.

Everything is now based on price whilst it used to be based on knowledge and advice. Less choice can’t be good. It was diversity and choice that made British music so interesting. However, I really think that something good will come back if this LVCR situation is corrected, and the eccentric specialist retailer can trade again. That’s assuming some of the other online monopoly arrangements that have developed recently can also be dealt with… but that’s another issue!

CC: Why do you think that the big music companies, and big music retailers, who seemed to turn a blind eye to the rise of the VAT-free mail-order companies, didn’t lobby harder over this ten years ago?
RA: I have to say that the UK music industry trade bodies, with one exception, have been pretty much useless in dealing with what is probably the most damaging issue for music retail other than piracy and illegal downloads.

More recently I have had the opportunity to work with trade bodies in other sectors, such as health foods, and they have been much more pro-active in dealing with this problem. The Entertainment Retailers Association, or BARD as they were, who were probably best placed to lead the legal charge, couldn’t do anything because its membership was dominated by those with offshore interests. Even when I explained to them how LVCR activity was breaching European laws.

The one exception has been Alison Wenham and the Association Of Independent Music, who have done a fantastic job supporting RAVAS at the EU through [pan-European indies body] IMPALA.

Other than that the music trade bodies have been utterly impotent. I recall meeting with the BPI to try and get them interested in the damage LVCR was causing. They just dismissed it as “an issue for retail”, even though it was resulting in their members having to dish out huge discounts to UK retailers to allow them to compete with VAT-free competitors. Of course the market distortion ultimately caused prices to fall and the UK has the lowest CD prices in Europe as a result.

When that letter supporting [a by then struggling] HMV went into The Times earlier this year, from all the various major label big wigs, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The best support they could have given HMV was to not supply offshore tax avoiders that were undercutting HMVs bricks and mortar business. Instead they merrily entered into TV advertising campaigns with them.

It’s hardly surprising, is it, that HMV is having a hard time, when you can walk into a store, find an album you want, then look it up on your phone and order it VAT-free, so for 20% less? As for the big music companies, they are far too slow and ponderous to be able to deal with an issue like this. If you have to justify everything to shareholders you have a major handicap, although if I was a shareholder in HMV I’d be asking some really awkward questions.

CC: We don’t know what the government is going to announce, but assuming LVCR is phased out, is it too little too late for British music retail?
RA: The damage was critical in 2008. They should have acted in 2005 or 2006 when the ‘High Street Britain 2015′ report recommended strong action on LVCR. Instead the silence on the issue was deafening. Hopefully, with a level playing field in VAT, we shall now see some green shoots.

Vinyl was very cheap in 2006, but the price seems to have gone up with no complaints. It shouldn’t all be about price anyhow. I like wine. I don’t buy the cheapest bottle I can find. I value it. The same should be true of music. We’ve seen the glory days, digital won’t go away, but hard formats have a way to go yet and nothing ever dies completely. You can still buy brand new phonograph cylinders.

CC: Do you think the online mail-order companies will find other ways of undercutting mainland retailers?
RA: I’m sure they will, but it’s up to the music industry to get their act together and help the government stop it, rather than join in on a ‘hand cart to hell’ like they have done with LVCR.

CC: It seems like fighting this campaign has involved a steep learning curve on the art of lobbying and the intricacies of the European tax system. What has surprised you most?
RA: Well, firstly the biggest surprise is that I got a result. I went in assuming all kinds of bizarre conspiracy theories, but realised that government is not always as clever or knowledgeable as people might assume and that many things happen by accident. Of course there are always some shady goings on, but that appears more to be people taking advantage of the situation when nobody is on watch. You can’t get anywhere in government if you don’t believe it’s possible.

I also had a great deal of help from people who agreed with my views. There are good people in government, as I said, Lord Lucas in particular has been very helpful, and a number of lawyers and other experts have given their time for free to correct what they regarded as an injustice.

When everyone is apathetic and believes that nothing can be done that’s when you have a problem. Don’t let party politics get in the way of common sense either. I really don’t care what the political party is as long as they make sensible decisions, and sensible decisions with regards to LVCR were sadly lacking for a very long time. I really hope the government makes the final sensible decision and closes this VAT avoidance arrangement down for good. I’ll happily pay 20% more to see UK mainland music retail flourish again.

Photo by Rebecca Maynes, courtesy of Classic Prog/Future Publishing

Steve Levine has been working in the record industry since the mid-1970s, when he joined CBS Studios as a trainee tape-op. Working as an engineer and later producer he has worked with countless artists over the years, including The Clash, Stevie Wonder, Ziggy Marley, Motorhead and, perhaps most notably, Culture Club – he produced their first three albums. He continues to produce today, but has also expanded his role, providing an incubator for new bands through his own record Hubris Records, allowing new talent the space and support to develop.

A prominent player in the wider record business, Steve has had roles in various industry organisations over the years, and, perhaps most notably, is currently Chair of the Music Producers’ Guild. He is also an accomplished broadcaster, most commonly popping up on the BBC discussing the music industry, the recording process, and new bands and releases. His most high profile radio project to date is certainly ‘The Record Producers, the BBC programme that explores the work of individuals whose recordings have had a lasting impact on popular music history.

Steve is set to take part next week in BASCA’s Songfest event, taking place at The Bedford in Balham from 31 Oct to 2 Nov. Ahead of that, CMU Business Editor Chris Cooke caught up with Steve to chat about his long career, his current projects, and the role of the record producer past, present and future.

CC: When you joined CBS Studios as a trainee tape-op in 1975 what were your ambitions – did you aspire to be a record producer from the outset?
SL: Not really. Initially I just wanted to make records, but not as an artist. The first aim was to become a recording engineer. I was inspired by seeing a picture of Larry Levine, Phil Spector’s engineer. Though that was probably because I knew that role would provide part of the skillset I’d need to become a producer, and it’s a route many producers take.

CC: Different record producers seem to approach the job differently – some playing a more creative role, others more involved in the actual sound engineering, others act as the coordinator. What kind of producer are you?
SL: Very much all of those!

CC: Has the role you play as a record producer changed over the years?
SL: Yes, very much so. The role of record producer has gone full circle to that originally conceived by producers like [Sun Studios founder] Sam Phillips in the 1940s and 50s, where record production means recording, producing and manufacturing records.

CC: You joined a studio and worked your way up the ranks, whereas a lot of the new generation of producers teach themselves the ropes at home. Do you think that’s a good or bad thing?
SL: Home recording has its good sides, in particular you have much more time to develop your technique. But collaboration is also very useful early on in your career, so you can see how other producers and engineers work, and sadly that is much harder for the new generation to get with the demise of so many studios.

CC: Not only are bands now expected to write their own songs to be ‘credible’, because many now record their own first EP or album before getting signed, they often become producers too. Is that a good or bad thing?
SL: Good and bad. New bands must be careful of suffering from ‘demo-itus’. But learning the skills of record production can be useful, especially when they do start working with a producer, because if they can explain what they aspire to achieve in “production terms” that partnership can be much more successful. But I think ultimately it’s best for bands to have an external voice involved when making their records, if nothing else it often helps prevent internal squabbles

CC: With more bands self-producing, and record labels cutting budgets, does that make it harder to be a new record producer?
SL: Not really. With so many bands having to make their own first records, a new producer should find a band at that stage and help them develop the sound they are searching for. That’s a great way in, and both band and producer benefit.

CC: So, assuming the option to join a recording studio and learn on the job isn’t available, aspiring producers should look to hook up with new bands in need of some production help?
SL: Yes, definitely. Go to as many gigs as you can and find a band you think have potential, and who you think you could help develop and just ASK THEM!

CC: You now have your own label, Hubris Records. Why did you set that up?
SL: When I worked with 6 Day Riot we needed a way to get the EP, and then the album, out there, and whilst we had some approaches we didn’t like the “vibe” of the other partners, so we decided to go alone.

CC: Is the aim of Hubris to cut other labels out of the equation? Or is it more of an incubator operation – helping bands develop so they are in a position to sign deals with other record companies down the line?
SL: Hubris is definitely about A&R development – as you say incubation – the sort of development work that sadly the major labels just don’t really do any more.

CC: Where do you find the bands you work with via Hubris?
SL: They approach me. Or I go to gigs and hear them. Daytona Lights are a prime example of that – they supported Patch William and I loved them so much I had to work with them – they were so impressive live.

CC: How did the ‘The Record Producers’ radio programme come about?
SL: I have known Richard Allison since about 1994 and I was a guest on his Radio 2 show talking about record production. We had such a great response to that show, we went to see Lesley Douglas, the then controller, who commissioned the series.

CC: The record producer is often the unsung hero of pop music. Have you found an appetite among listeners to find out about the people who worked behind the scenes on our favourite records?
SL: Yes, definitely, the main focus of the series is to show the listener how, with many of their favourite records, it’s often the production tricks that they love as well as the song.

CC: You’ve covered so many great music makers in the series – which record producers past, present and future do you most admire – and are there any producers you’re yet to cover on the radio show that you’d really like to make a programme about?
SL: All the producers that I have featured I admire in different ways, however I think every producer past and present has to admire the work of Sir George Martin. I also love the work of HDH and Gamble & Huff, and greatly admired Norman Whitfield, who is sadly no longer with us, and I never got to meet him! But there are many other producers we want to cover on the programme, and we have more in the pipeline. Watch this space!

CC: You have a unique perspective on the record industry – obviously it’s just coming out of a tricky decade. Are you optimistic for the industry’s future?
SL: Very much so. I have never been busier – but you have to find other ways of earning a living, because the standard record producer royalty has very little value with so much piracy around.

CC: From Culture Club in the early 1980s to Daytona Lights today, you’ve worked with so many artists over 35 years, and a fair few at the start of their careers when you first meet them. A lot has changed in the music industry in that time, has what makes a great band with real potential changed do you think?
SL: Not really. I still believe great songs, and great ideas for songs, will shine through. The best artists are those who are willing to experiment, to be inventive and different, and who have hubris!

You may know Adam Ficek best as the one time drummer with a modest little band called Babyshambles. Though many of you will also be aware Adam has many other strings to his bow. His solo project Roses Kings Castles – or, as of now, RKC – has been brewing for a few years now, and the third album from that venture, ‘Plastic British’, will be released by Adam’s own label next month, with various limited edition packages available to pre-order now through the RKC Bandcamp page.

Ficek’s most accomplished album to date, it will be preceded by single ‘Kittens Become Cats’ on 31 Oct and a tour with the RKC band kicking off at 93 Feet East in East London on 25 Oct. CMU’s Chris Cooke spoke to Adam about the Babyshambles experience, the evolution of RKC, and the ins and outs of releasing your own records.

CC: How did you first start playing music?
AF: I first started playing music when I was about twelve after I got hooked on a cheap Casio keyboard. Plus there was always a guitar knocking about the house so I’m sure I probably had a twang on that too. Drums came a bit later during secondary school, I just fancied having a bash. The rest is history.

CC: So how did you end up drumming for Babyshambles?
AF: I was doing the usual musician thing of playing in loads of bands and doing some teaching to make ends meet. I’d definitely done my stint on the ‘Chitlin circuit’, spending years playing in bands who were chasing that elusive record deal, busy luring the charms of the most hip A&R person of the moment. In the end, with Babyshambles, it was right place right time. I was playing in another band which had the same manager, they suddenly needed a drummer, he said why don’t I do it, and there I was, suddenly a member of an already famous group.

CC: Babyshambles was obviously an explosive band to be in, was it a rewarding experience?
AF: Babyshambles had incredible highs and incredible lows, playing Wembley was an amazing experience and the fame thing was a buzz at first. Although I quickly realised the music industry wasn’t what I had imagined it to be. I come from a place of wanting to make music for no other reason than creating, so I became very cynical for a few years when I finally realised that the whole machine really dictates what products get media, which obviously is in turn dictated by money. I’ve managed to pull through the whole sausage machine process now though, as I make music for me. But, I digress. To answer your question, yes, Babyshambles was an amazing experience.

CC: How did the Roses Kings Castles project come into being?
AF: I wanted a platform to air my own compositions. I was writing for Babyshambles but lots of my songs weren’t getting used, so I set up an alias and created a MySpace. It was never intended to be anything other than a place to put songs online, but then EMI got wind and wanted to release a solo album, moving the whole thing on. As it happens, the EMI album never came to fruition – this was 2007, Terra Firma arrived as new owners, budgets and rosters were slashed and the project was halted. But with the album finished I decided to release it myself. It cost me a fortune – I was quite green at the time and made quite a few bad decisions. I learned the hard way shall we say, and I’m still trying to recoup on that project!

CC: Despite that experience you basically self-released your second album – albeit with a little help from a small indie label – and with your new album, that’s totally DIY again. What are the pros and cons of this approach?
AF: The big pro is that you control every element of the release. And that can be very satisfying. But there are many down sides too – there’s this fist-in-the-air punk rock chant at the moment “do it DIY, sock it to the man”, but it’s very hard for a DIY artist to compete with the big players, especially when it comes to getting media exposure. Despite everything happening online, radio is probably still the biggest platform for promoting artists and music in the UK, and that’s a media still locked into the “radio plugger pulls favour and gets an artist airplay” thing. It is possible to get some airplay working on your own, and to get exposure in other kinds of media, but it’s incredibly challenging. If you’re driven by the thrill of creating great songs you’re proud of, which I think I am, then it’s all very do-able, but if you’re looking for overnight fame, then more likely than not you’ll be disappointed – because big attention costs cash.

CC: Is there still a stigma attached to self-releasing an album rather than signing to a label?
AF: I wasn’t aware there was one, at the moment DIY actually has kudos attached to it. I constantly read about how big name bands are self-releasing and doing their own videos and things. It’s highly commendable, especially for those bands that don’t have the money to pay for someone to do everything their label used to do.

CC: Tell us a bit the new record ‘British Plastic’. What sort of album were you setting out to make, and is that how it turned out?
AF: With ‘British Plastic’ I wanted to make a much grittier album than the previous two. So the goal was to change the sonic make-up of earlier releases. I was slightly bored of the restrictions of using traditional instruments, and I didn’t want to play acoustically for a while, so I set about using a combination of computer generated sounds and more effected guitars. I also learnt to produce as I went along, mainly because the only way I could afford to do another record was to have a go at the production myself, so I set about trying to get to grips with Logic. The overall album turned out much as I had hoped, although in hindsight I could have shaped the production more. But I’m now really looking forward to getting out live with a four-piece band, a sampler and the new songs.

CC: You wrote most of the new album not long after parting company with Babyshambles. Did that experience impact on the album?
AF: Hugely. I was pretty broken when the whole Babyshambles debacle ended. It was an upsetting and unsteady time. I won’t bore you with the ins and outs, but it was a messy end to something I gave so much to. The impact of a break up is far worse in the music industry, because you suddenly wake up to all the people that were just there for the ‘good times’. But, as with most horrid things, they can be the most strengthening and reaffirming of experiences when the dust settles.

CC: You play every instrument on the album except one – you got your former Babyshambles bandmate Patrick Walden to play guitar. Why was that?
AF: I’ve always stayed good friends with Patrick, through his struggles with substance abuse and far before Babyshambles. Patrick plays like no other, I can play most instruments to a basic level but that’s about it. I needed some proper frenzied, angry guitar expression. They don’t come much better than the mighty Walden. He was just in the process of getting himself together, so it seemed only right I grabbed him for musical skills and kept half an eye on him. He’s now sober and the best he has ever been and I’m immensely proud to have him bless my recordings.

CC: You’ve abbreviated your performing name for the new album to RKC. Is that because you see this album as starting a new chapter of your solo career, or did you just want something snappier?
AF: RKC is definitely a new chapter. I now feel I’m close to where I want to be musically. I could have just kept my songs hidden for the past four years and released a perfect album now, compiled from the best of the songs I’d written in that time, but I like the way I’m laid bare by having released the other records as I went. Although I do cringe when I listen to some of the old stuff. There are songs on previous records that I would never release now, but that’s how I personally move on and develop, I like to air it all for people to see, I want my fans to experience my evolution. So, yes, RKC is a finer tuned, honed version of Roses Kings Castles.

CC: Having been in a major label signed band, and at the same time having played around with the whole DIY thing, you seem much more tuned into the way the music industry is changing than many artists. We read a lot of doom and gloom about the business. Are you optimistic though?
AF: We are in a challenging time, that’s for sure. I have put the idea of ‘monetising’ anything I create to the back of my mind. It’s sad, but I think music has lost its worth for the time being. But I’m clinging to the hope that the trend towards streaming and subscription services will give the musicians more of an income in the long term.

CC: And finally, and with all that in mind, what advice would you have for budding musicians?
AF: Do it because you get a buzz from it. If it’s the fame and fortune you’re seeking maybe go into an alternative career: set up a website or something.

Three years after taking up with the Super Furry Animals, Gruff Rhys and the band released their much-lauded debut, ‘Fuzzy Logic’ in 1996. This marked the prolific quintet’s first of nine successful LPs to date, with their latest (and longest yet) album ‘Dark Days/Light Years’ emerging in 2009.

Exhibiting rough yet ready solo promise with 2005′s Welsh-spoken ‘Yr Atal Genhedlaeth’, a lone Gruff further plundered the mysterious realms of psych-experimentation with its successor ‘Candylion’, released in 2007. Playing under the moniker Neon Neon, he and US producer Boom Bip also released conceptual LP ‘Stainless Style’ that same year. Gruff has since worked with acts including Simian Mobile Disco and Gorillaz, also collaborating with Brazilian composer Tony Da Gatorra on last year’s ‘The Terror Of Cosmic Loneliness’.

Now nearing the end of a tour in support of his third solo LP ‘Hotel Shampoo’, Gruff’s biggest ever solo show will take place this evening at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire. His latest single ‘Whale Trail’, which is taken from the soundtrack to an app-based iPhone game of the same name, is due out on 20 Oct. Ahead of all that, CMU Editor Andy Malt caught up with him for some chat.

AM: How has 2011 been for you? Are you pleased with how things have gone with the release of ‘Hotel Shampoo’?
GR: Yes, it’s a record I really love, and I was very happy that it was released internationally.

AM: Do you approach the writing of a solo album as a specific project, or it is more a collection of standalone songs written over time?
GR: The latter. My three solo records are all collections of songs written over time. Though there are lyrical aspects that tie them together as collections. It’s like putting together a coherent compilation album or something.

AM: What was it like working with Tony Da Gatorra. Did working with him have any particular influence on ‘Hotel Shampoo’?
GR: Tony is one of the most resourceful and inspiring people I’ve ever met. He’s a lot of fun to be around and he remains true to his convictions. I can’t hear any specific influence on ‘Hotel Shampoo’, but I think he’s influenced the way I think of music and politics and the correlation between the two. He manages to write political thought clearly whilst keeping his own very individual personality intact.

AM: You’ve written so many songs through your various projects now and your lyrics always evoke such vivid imagery. How do you keep that creative spark alive?
GR: I don’t often question it, but I don’t take it for granted either. Once I hit 30 years of age I started to take more notice of prolific songwriters like Serge Gainsbourg. He wrote over 600 songs and didn’t really get going till he was in his 30s. I’m on my seventeenth album as a songwriter but in that sense I still feel that I’m just starting out.

AM: Do you find it more difficult to write solo songs without a collaborator to bounce off?
GR: There’s no rule really. Logistically it’s much easier to write alone. But sometimes you can create something unpredictable and unique when working with other people.

AM: Speaking of collaborations, how did the ‘Whale Trail’ project – combining song with game – come about?
GR: I’m an old friend of Neil McFarland who illustrated the game. We were introduced by Pete Fowler, someone he collaborated with for a long time. You can clearly see that they are from the same universe.

AM: How closely did you work with the game’s developers?
GR: Very closely, they sent me ‘white label apps’ of the game as they developed it. So I saw the game develop gradually as they refined it. The music was written in reaction to playing it (to the point of addiction!). The song has three different tempos – the BPM’s calculated according to the optimum speed you need to tap the screen to play successfully. They also visited the studio (Toybox, Bristol) during the recording so that we could make visual and sonic decisions simultaneously, as I was recording the sound bed and voice over for the game at the same time.

AM: You’re due to play your biggest solo London show to date on Wednesday, do you have anything special planned for it?
GR: The whole tour has been pretty special. The incredible surf band Y Niwl are helping me play the songs. Michael Brennan, who mixes SFA gigs and who mixed the incredible My Bloody Valentine comeback shows, is on the sound board, and Spencer Bewley is projecting film loops with two 16mm cinema projectors. Plus Richard James from Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci is opening up.

AM: Which other artists are you listening to at the moment? Do you try to stay up to date with new music?
GR: My comfort listening hours mostly goes on re-issues from the Finder’s Keepers and Light In The Attic labels. 80s Hindi and Tamil soundtracks are really sorting my head out right now! New music I tend to listen to randomly from blogs and websites. If something hits me I’ll end up buying it. Most of the sites seem to be US-based so I’ll end up buying US music like John Maus, Emeralds, Sufjan Stevens. Songwriters and instrumental bands who are grounded in playing but who aren’t too shy of technology basically.

My daughter loves Rihanna so I listen loads to her. And a lot of my neighbours in Cardiff are musicians so I’ll end up listening to records by H Hawkline, Sweet Baboo and Cate Le Bon. And Turnstile releases like Los Campesinos! and Islet. Plus new Welsh language releases are really strong at the moment, the new Jen Jeniro EP and lots of dark country rock by Cowbois Rhos Botwnog and Gwyneth Glyn.

AM: You’ve released music through major and indie labels, now you’re putting stuff out through your own label too. Do you have a preference? You don’t seem to be someone who’s ever had to worry about creative freedom (perhaps I’m wrong about that) but are there other freedoms any one method of releasing allows that sets it apart from the others?
GR: At the moment it’s really great to be able to release things thick and fast on my own label, with Turnstile and Wichita there to facilitate things. By the end of the year I will have released six singles in twelve months, which would be tricky to do on a bigger label.

But I’ve been extremely lucky and had mostly great if very different experiences on different labels. I’ve been on a tiny Welsh language independent run by a control freak and had someone really tamper with my work. But when SFA signed to Sony we were on our fifth album so, contrary to type, they pretty much left us to our own devices and, for example, bankrolled the recording of really risky (for them) DVD surround-sound albums which was amazing to get to do.

Creation, Rough Trade, Lex and XL were really nurturing and full of ideas and advice, and run by music obsessives that you can put your trust in. So when they have advice you end up taking note of it.

AM: And finally, are there plans for Super Furry Animals to work together again?
GR: Were letting people catch up with our back catalogue for a bit really. Cian and Bunf are at varying stages of finishing truly amazing solo albums. Daf has just co-written an album for his friend Wibidi in Cardiff. Guto has been touring the world with his childhood hero Sonic Boom, playing bass for Spectrum. In the mean time check out Daf and Cian’s label Strangetown Records and Cian’s digital techno label Som Bom.

This year marks 20 years since the release of Plaid’s debut album, ‘Mbuki Mvuki’, but Andy Turner and Ed Handley have actually been working together in various guises since the late 80s. Signing to Warp, the second Plaid long player, ‘Not For Trees’, came in 1997 and featured Björk on a track, which boosted interest in their particular brand of techno.

Since then, the duo have continued to experiment with each new release. Their last album, 2006′s ‘Greedy Baby’, was a collaboration with video artists Bob Jaroc. For the project, audio and visual elements for each track were created in tandem. This then led to two soundtrack projects, the duo creating scores for two films by award-winning director Michael Arias, ‘Tekkonkinkreet’ and ‘Heaven’s Door’.

In 2009, they began work on their seventh studio album, ‘Scintilli’, which was released earlier this month. The CD version of the record comes with special fold out packaging which, when constructed, locks the CD inside the structure and turns it into an ornament. Ahead of the album launch show at Village Underground in east London on 7 Oct, CMU Editor spoke to Andy Turner to find out more.

AM: Your last album ‘Greedy Baby’ was a collaboration with Bob Jaroc, was ‘Scintilli’ created with a visual aspect in mind?
AT: We weren’t directed by any particular visual pieces this time. We did want the work to be emotive though, but we feel audio alone can have a more abstract narrative.

AM: Can you explain a little bit about the processes you went through in writing this album – there’s been talk of chanting and days spent working on each beat?
AT: That’s not strictly true, but the writing process is akin to meditation. Usually we start by creating a sound palette before starting on a composition. When the music is moving us we know we’re on track. There’s many layers of tweaking from there to a finished piece but we try and keep that initial feeling or spark in mind.

AM: Is there an overall concept or theme to the album?
AT: It isn’t a concept album, but the title refers to many sparks, and that describes a feeling we have when we’re moved by music. It can come from any style or genre. We hope the album covers a bit of ground.

AM: The artwork for the CD can be constructed to create a kind of ornament with the CD locked inside it. How did that idea come about, and is it a comment on the CD as a format?
AT: We’re not huge fans of the format, but it was a desire to have fun with it not make fun of it that motivated us. Though, of course, we’re not alone in anticipating the format’s imminent death. Once solid state players become standard in cars there’s going to be no home left for it. But the quality and longevity of the CD was always poor anyway, the polar opposite of the qualities it was sold with initially.

AM: This year marks 20 years since the release of your debut album. How has your approach to creating music changed over the years?
AT: I think we’re still looking for the same feeling from the music but we’re less easily satisfied these days. Every aspect of a track is endlessly adjustable now as it can easily be stored and recalled. This wasn’t the case 20 years ago. Hopefully our writing and production skills have improved a little too.

AM: Do you have any more soundtrack work lined up? How does that compare to creating your own standalone albums?
AT: There are a few possibilities but nothing concrete. We enjoy soundtracking and have learnt a great deal through this type of work. We’re keen to find a game to soundtrack as this modular approach to writing is something we’d like to explore further, a degree of randomization is possible here and that’s an interesting area for us. It’s quite a different process from writing an album, less self-indulgent in essence.

AM: What can people expect from your new live show?
AT: We’re deconstructing the album to give us more freedom to rebuild it live, it won’t be as gentle or subtle as the release. We didn’t want a ‘loud’ sounding production from the recordings but it’s more appropriate live. Most of the video will be triggered from midi data which allows us freedom to improvise and adapt the performance to the environment whilst still providing a coherent audio/visual experience.

AM: And finally, what does the future hold for Plaid, beyond ‘Scintilli’?
AT: We hope to remain interested, boredom is a killer. More specially with regard to music we’d like move away from western tonality and explore other possibilities. There are a few notes missing and we intend to find them.

Norwegian singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche released his debut album, ‘Faces Down’, just after his 20^th birthday. His smart, charming songwriting skills quickly won him fans both inside and outside of Norway. This adoration has only grown over the course of ten years and five albums, with many comparing him to Burt Bacharach.

Following hot on the heels of his version of Muppets song ‘Mr Bassman’ for the recently released ‘Muppets: The Green Album’ covers compilation, Lerche is due to release his eponymous sixth album on 3 Oct, the first through his own label Mona Records. Recorded and mixed over three weeks, the album sees Sondre utilise his creative ties with fellow musicians residing in Brooklyn, where he now lives, including the likes of Midlake drummer McKenzie Smith and Nicolas Verhnes of Spoon and Animal Collective.

He will also play a headline show at London’s Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen on 6 Oct. Ahead of all that, CMU Editor Andy Malt spoke to Sondre Lerche to find out more.

AM: How has relocating to Brooklyn influenced your songwriting on the new album?
SL: I think New York might’ve made me more confrontational and I think this album reflects that.

AM: Did the recording process for this album differ to previous records?
SL: It was faster and more intuitive. I only gave us two weeks to record and that was really exhilarating. It disconnected our heads somehow.

AM: Why, on your sixth album did you choose to go with an eponymous title? Is this album more ‘you’ than previous records?
SL: All my albums are me, for better or worse, but when I couldn’t find a title I liked it seemed sort of natural for this one to be self-titled.

AM: You’re often compared to Burt Bacharach, what are your thoughts on that? Does it create certain expectations of you?
SL: I like Bacharach’s songs a lot, always have. But he is mainly a songwriter and arranger, and I am mainly a songwriter and performer, so by default we are pretty different. But I take it as a fine compliment.

AM: Speaking of great songwriting, how did your cover of ‘Mr Bassman’ for the Muppets album come about?
SL: I was asked if I’m a Muppets fan, and of course I am, so I just picked a song from a long list they sent me and recorded it in my bedroom. Then I sent it to my buddy Kato in Norway and he added some banjo and the voice of Mr Bassman. It was really a lot of fun.

AM: Why did you choose to release your new album through your own label?
SL: I’d been wanting to do it for a long time and the timing was just right. I felt ready and my dear helpers encouraged me and we did it. It feels top!

AM: Does running your own label mean you are more involved now with the business side of things? Is that something you enjoy?
SL: It’s a fine line. I like being involved but I can’t deal too much with it before I feel funny. Luckily I have good helpers to deal with the business stuff. But I enjoy the freedom it provides me and the fact that I can communicate more directly with my audience.

AM: Would you go back to the traditional label system if it allowed you the same level of artistic freedom?
SL: Artistic freedom was never a problem for me when I was a major label artist. It was more just that the whole major label system fell apart, and after that it didn’t feel like a place for a small artist like me. So unless they offered me a particularly good deal, they’ve nothing much to offer me, which is totally understandable.

AM: Are you looking forward to getting back to Europe next month?
SL: Very much so. It’s been too long. I’ve a great band with me. It’ll be awesome!

AM: What are your plans for the future?
SL: More love, more music. Just doing my share.

It’s seven years since the release of the last Death In Vegas album, ‘Satan’s Claw’, in 2004. Various projects distracted founder Richard Fearless over those years, but in late 2009, now a solo project after the departure of Tim Holmes, he decided to being work on what would become the fifth Death In Vegas long player, ‘Trans-Love Energies’

Recorded in Andrew Weatherall’s Rotters Golf Club studio in Shoreditch, East London, the album sees Fearless take on frontman, as well as production, duties, as he sings on almost all of its tracks. However, he stepped aside for two, first single ‘Your Loft’ and ‘Witch Dance’, to allow Austra vocalist Katie Stelmanis to add her own touch to the record.

‘Trans-Love Energies’ is due for release through Drone Records on 26 Sep, and there will be a special launch show at Fabric in London tomorrow night, ahead of a full UK tour in December. Ahead of all of that, CMU Editor Andy Malt sat down with Fearless to ask some questions.

AM: Your last album, ‘Satan’s Circus’, was released in 2004. What have you been up to since then?
RF: Well, I went to New York and studied photography for a while. During that time I started another band, Black Acid, and I got more into producing other bands too. Plus I did a bunch of mixes for people – Yoko Ono, Oasis, A Place To Bury Strangers, The Horrors – and some film work for the Rolling Stones.

AM: Did you consciously take a break from Death In Vegas?
RF: I had been working solid on DIV since college and needed a break, yes. In fact, I kinda felt like I needed a break from music in general.

AM: When did you begin work on ‘Trans-Love Energies’?
RF: About a year and a half ago, when I moved back to London. My friend Andrew Weatherall had a spare room at his studio. So I moved in there and started to crack on with the new record.

AM: How do you feel your sound has developed on this album?
RF: Loads, I feel like I’m finally finding my sound. There’s a confidence in my production now, I feel. I would say it’s a much sparser record, and you’ve got to be really sure of every little sound if you’re going to strip tracks down to their minimum components.

AM: With the reference to Detroit-based 60s radicals the Trans-Love Energies Unlimited collective in the album’s title, does this reflect a political theme in the new songs?
RF: No, not at all. This album is a journey into my head, and everything on it comes from my heart. It’s about escapism. The message is about love and sound. The name was more referring to the team of people that helped me on this, musicians, engineers, friends. But saying that, having spent so much time recording in Michigan over the last seven years, it is also a nod to the Anne Arbor scene.

AM: How did the collaboration with Austra’s Katie Stelmanis on the album’s first single, ‘Your Loft’, come about?
RF: I had heard one of her tracks and loved her voice. My manager emailed her, and it turns out she was a DIV fan, so that was perfect.

AM: What was she like to work with?
RF: She was cool to work with. It was supposed to be a day’s recording but it took us a few weeks to nail it. I was trying to get her to under sing, sing slightly more nonchalantly, which I think is quite hard for someone who trained as an opera singer. But yeah, it worked out fantastic and I can’t wait for her to join us for some of the shows live.

AM: Are there any artists you’d particularly like to work with who you haven’t as yet?
RF: Beyonce. ‘IWYLA’ [one of the bonus tracks on the limited edition version of 'Trans-Love Energies'] was written for her…

AM: You’re playing a one-off show at Fabric on 22 Sep ahead of a UK tour in December. What can people expect from your new live show?
RF: Sonic annihilation!

AM: Which other artists do you think are particularly exciting at the moment?
RF: I saw a band called ToY the other night who I loved. I’m also listening to Indian Jewelry, The Black Angels, Matthew Dear, Horrors, and SCUM.

AM: What’s next for Death In Vegas?
RF: Erm… touring, and I just want to crack on with the next record asap, really. And something’s in the pipeline which could be fucking mental, but it’s a secret!

We’ve never done a survey of the most admired music companies, but we’re pretty sure if we did the Beggars Group would be up there in the top five. Almost 35 years since its first release, it’s admired for having achieved success and scale without ever seeming to sell out, for its reputation of being a particularly artist-friendly label, and for simply for bringing so many great artists and albums to the world.

Last night the artist and management community honoured the company’s founder and chairman Martin Mills by awarding him the first ever Industry Champion Award at the inaugural Artist & Manager Awards. To mark that occasion, CMU Business Editor Chris Cooke spoke to Mills about the Beggars story, successes and the challenges of operating an independent record company in 2011.

CC: Most people know Beggars Banquet began as a record shop. When and why did you launch the Beggars record label?
MM: The label came in 1976, three years after the first shop. We had a basement rehearsal studio under our Fulham shop and we started managing a band who rehearsed there called The Lurkers. We couldn’t get a record deal for them because every label already had the token punk band they wanted (signed just in case ‘it’ all happened), so we started our own label instead. Nowadays that kind of thing happens every day, but then it was pretty unusual.

CC: What were your ambitions for the label in those early days, and have they changed over time?
MM: To put out the next record, mainly. Looking back, for the first ten years or so, there  were no real ambitions other than to survive and keep doing it. It’s probably still the same, were just more conscious of it now!

CC: You’ve grown your business over the years by forming alliances and partnerships with other labels and individuals, as well as through internal expansion. How do you decide who to ally yourself with?
MM: It’s a mixture of opportunity and instinct. Those partnerships are the core of the business. Over the years, there have been some that have worked and some that haven’t, obviously. But the current quartet – 4AD, Matador, Rough Trade and XL Recordings – feels very right.

CC: The Beggars Group seems to be admired by pretty much everyone in the music business, including your major label rivals. Are there any specific things that have been behind your success?
MM: I think we’ve benefited from being totally independent, and having no commitments or obligations to any external shareholders or funders. It’s fairly obvious, normally, what the right thing to do is, but avoiding doing the wrong thing is harder. Doing the wrong thing is normally caused by financial need, or external demands.

CC: Are there any particular achievements that stand out for you in the building of the Beggars company?
MM: The answer, once again, has to be surviving, when most have not. And providing an environment in which we can put out music that people love and care about, and in which those we work with, artists and staff, can spend their lives doing something they love.

CC: Do you think the post-Napster challenges of the last ten years have been easier or harder for indie labels to deal with than the majors?
MM: Easier for indies because we’re natural licensors, we don’t have hang-ups about control, we’re less defensive and are more open to taking risks. Harder for indies because the four majors, or the two big ones in particular, are effectively monopolies that digital music services can’t do without. That gives the majors leverage, which can be unhealthy for the market and prejudicial to indies. Merlin was formed to address that.

CC: There has been much talk of the need for record companies to diversify into other areas of the music business, either by buying or launching non-recordings based music companies, and/or signing 360-degree style deals with artists. Is this part of Beggars’ strategy?
MM: No. Every year we reconsider whether we should be doing that, and every year we decide we’re right not to. I believe that 360-degree deals are a lose/lose. They mean you pay more than you should do for rights that aren’t within your skillset. Most of the time you just lose more money, and with the ones that work you end up with a resentful artist because you’re getting part of their income they think you don’t deserve. If you’re delivering real value in your non-core areas that can be different, and we have a few little ventures brewing away on that front. Fundamentally, though, we’re good at releasing recorded music, and that’s what we do.

CC: The management and artist communities clearly rate what you and the Beggars team do, hence last night’s award. Do you think indie labels across the board generally enjoy better relations with managers and artists than majors?
MM: I think that’s too broad a generalisation. I’m sure there are good and bad relationships in both camps. I do think, though, that the relationship between art and commerce is a fundamentally tricky one, and that the cottage industry nature of the independents makes positive relationships easier than for large companies who have to make their numbers.

CC: Do you see the relationship between managers and labels changing? Are managers more important now than in the past?
MM: Managers are always crucial. Of all an artist’s relationships, it’s the most important. I think the only way that’s changed is that the boundaries are blurring, in that managers can now be labels, and labels managers, and I think that’s healthy.

CC: In the 1980s, a lot of independent labels were bought up by the big guys, which was bad for the indie sector, but – as I see it – good for the majors, because it brought entrepreneurial free-thinkers into the big music companies. I think there’s an argument that the major record companies of today could do with recruiting some of the indie sector’s innovators, possibly through acquisition, even if that wasn’t so good for the independent sector. Do you agree?
MM: I think it’s almost always a shame when an indie is acquired by a major, and it’s hard to think of an example when that’s been ultimately for the best. I think they are very different environments, and pretty hard to transition between.

CC: Obviously Beggars itself has scale and a global reach, and that is strengthened further in the digital domain by Merlin, but are there ever times when you regret not having the budgets or size of a major record company?
MM: No. I can’t think of the last time we didn’t do something because we couldn’t afford it. We often spend more than the majors, because we’re not limited by budgeting processes. And, of course, Merlin and the independent trade associations are a vital access to scale for us when we need it.

CC: Finally, and I realise it’s horrible to make you choose – sorry! – but have there been any artists or albums over the years that you have been particularly pleased to have brought to the world?
MM: That’s an impossible question, it’s like choosing between your children! I love so many of the records we’ve released. Ones I’m listening to most right now include Warpaint, tUnE-yArDs, Cat Power and White Stripes, but that will be different tomorrow.

Having escaped a strange and sheltered childhood spent living with California’s infamous Children Of God cult, Girls frontman Christopher Owens became the adoptive protege of millionaire Stanley Marsh III, a Texan artist and ranch owner. Under Marsh’s patronage, he abandoned a short-lived stint in boy-girl pairing Curls, later taking up with production partner Chet ‘JR’ White in San Francisco to write and record Girls’ 2009 debut, ‘Album’.

The duo then garnered universal plaudits for last year’s ‘Broken Dreams Club’ EP, which further explored their penchant for penning lovelorn serenades and easy, elegant arrangements, something that has since become a defining characteristic of their finest work. Girls will release their new LP ‘Father, Son, Holy Ghost’ via Fantasytrashcan/ Turnstile on 12 Sep, later embarking on a UK tour that’s set to launch on 8 Nov at The Globe in Cardiff. Meanwhile, Christopher Owens faces our Same Six Questions.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
I initially wrote music for a group called Curls. There was a vocalist in that group who wrote lyrics to go with my music. When she quit the band and Curls broke up, I kept all my music, wrote my own lyrics to it, and then became the vocalist for this new project, which was named Girls. With JR on board as the engineer we began recording.

Q2 What inspired your latest album?
The songs on this album are the songs of mine that we felt were best to record at this time. They were written over the past few years, so there are a lot of influences. If I had to say ‘what’ in particular, I’d have to say life. Life influenced this record, because life influences the songs and the songs influence the album.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
Usually we record the beat first, with a drum kit, then a rhythm guitar track and bass and any other things like keyboards. Then we record the vocals, and then lead guitar, and then any overdubs like percussion, extra keys or sound effects, and last are the backing vocals. Then we mix each track to make one song, then we mix the sound of that song, and then finally it gets mastered with all the other songs on the album. Then we listen to that and decide if it’s done or not.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Pretty much all artists do, there are the ones that influence the writing and then the ones that influence us sonically, then the ones that influence us professionally, and then we also pay attention to current music to see if there is anything that we feel we should be doing as well. Pretty much all recorded music gets weighed in to the decisions that produce a song or album. And then there are the artists that play on the songs, and then the artists that engineer and mix the records too, and they have a lot of influence over our sound at the end of the day. Then there are the labels that choose whether they’d like to release us or not, they are key in the creation of the records as well.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Congratulations.

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
To record the songs I have written.

MORE>> www.facebook.com/GIRLSsf

Belgian alt-rock outfit Deus made their full-length debut with ‘Worst Case Scenario’ in 1994, later signing a deal with Island Records for the album’s European release. Founder members Tom Barman and Klaas Janzoons then oversaw several shifts in the band’s line-up before taking a hiatus from recording in the wake of acclaimed 1999 LP ‘The Ideal Crash’. Having regrouped in time for 2005′s ‘A Pocket Revolution’, they continued to tour and rehearse, also building their own studio in Antwerp, in which fifth album ‘Vantage Point’ was completed.

Described by Barman himself as “very Can meets LCD”, Deus’ latest album ‘Keep You Close’ was co-produced by David Botrill (Placebo, Muse) and Adam Noble (Guillemots) over a six month period. With the LP due out via [PIAS] on 3 Oct, the band’s next scheduled UK appearance will be at London’s Koko on 11 Oct. Drummer Stéphane Misseghers found a moment to address our Same Six Questions.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
Well, a band was formed in 1989 by Tom Barman, originally consisting of him and four friends. None of those friends ever made it onto a Deus album though, the band wasn’t even called Deus back then. They mainly played covers, but as Tom busked on the streets and squares of Antwerp, the urge to write original songs grew, and so the band Deus began to emerge. I joined in 1991.

Q2 What inspired your latest album?
I can’t say we were especially inspired by anything really, except perhaps the joy of having great vibes in the band and the creativity that comes from that. It’s impossible to make an original piece of work if you have another brilliant piece of music stuck in your head, so I’d go further and say we actively tried to avoid other records when we wrote the album. If you are listening too much to something else, your song might turn out to be the same, and the last thing you want to be is a copycat of a band you really like, because they’ll always be one step ahead of you.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
For this record, we would record several jams during rehearsals, some of which we would then mould into some kind of a structure… and then we’d do the same thing over and over again until we thought: “Yep, we’re getting somewhere”. It’s fair to say that most of the jams we recorded were utter crap, but from time to time beautiful stuff happened. Sometimes we would then shelve a song for six months before picking it back up and finishing it. Let it sit there for while. It can be a painful process, the waiting, but it’s a good test. If we still like it in six months, you’ll probably still like it in six years!

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Hard to say at this point. I think with the earlier Deus stuff it was probably easier to put your finger on where we got the mustard, but nowadays… I don’t know. There are so many bands being thrown at us today that it has become an even bigger pleasure to listen to the likes of Neil Young, Beefheart, Led Zeppelin, Michael Jackson, Ennio Morricone, Hall & Oates, and listen how they did it, you know? But now and again we get blown away by newer bands such as The Roots, Tool, Arctic Monkeys, Gorillaz, and we play their records until the neighbours stop singing along.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Deus songs are like a single malt: it takes a hell of a long time to make, but every time you open it, you know you’re gonna want more than one…

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
Well, first of all… release it, and then tour Europe, the UK, and eventually aim for Australia in 2012. We also have plans to release an EP with some of the better groove-jams we did while making ‘Keep You Close’. So we’ll be back in the studio this month to put that together.

MORE>> www.deus.be