Midlake
Without his job working at Beggars Banquet Records in London, Simon Raymonde may never have joined the Cocteau Twins, and after they split he and Robin Guthrie would never have been left with a beautiful space that they thought “may as well be used for something.” A ‘something’ that eventually became Bella Union Records.
So Bella Union started as a means for you to release Cocteau Twins records away from your original home of 4AD, but what made you continue the record label after the band split?
I suppose because I didn’t really know what else to do initially.
We had moved into Pete Townsend’s recording studio in the early 90s, it was a beautiful, fancy-pants riverside place in Richmond. We loved being there but then the band broke up and we were like “oh shit, well we’ve got this beautiful studio so we may as well use it for something.” So we made a lot of the early Bella Union records there for free. It was the perfect place to run a record label from, I would never have been able to sign bands like The Czars if I had not been able to bring them over from Denver and make their records with them. It all made perfect sense until the studio went bust and we lost all the gear we had acquired over the past 16 years. It was kind of heart breaking but also, you know, pretty humbling. I had to think on my feet, I put my head down and just carried on with the label and now we’re here and it’s like really weird.
How has the label grown and changed since those early days?
It’s hard to believe we’re still here today to be honest because of the traumas and dramas we have been through, most of which have been of a financial nature. Running a label is not a cheap business, as I’m sure you know, it’s a cash out business. You have got to spend a lot of money before you ever see any back, and even then you only may see it back. It’s a gambling business, and quite how we’ve managed to get it right more than wrong I can’t really tell. It is just a lot of luck really. Well, I mean I know I’ve got good ears and I’m not being big headed.
John Grant – I Wanna Go To Marz by Bella Union
You’re roster is kind of a testament to that.
Well yeah, I hope so.
The music industry has changed a lot in recent years. How do you think this has affected you as an independent record label?
There have been plenty of times when I have really thought there is no point carrying on with this, no one buys records anymore. I mean you go down that road in your mind quite often when things aren’t going very well, and there have been plenty of periods in the last few years when things haven’t gone well: distributors have gone bust on us, our licensing partners have gone bust and we’ve been left owing hundreds of thousands of pounds. I mean what do you do when you’ve already spent the money that is owed to you? It’s pretty hard to recover from that kind of thing and it has seen a lot of labels go under over the years.
What makes you keep going?
I think in my case it is probably just my own bloody mindedness, I’m not one for giving up. Also because I’ve been really lucky, I have got a lot of nice friends in the business who want to work with me.
We just love it, there is nothing better. I don’t think there is an art medium that makes people feel as awesome as listening to music does. I mean it can actually make you cry, make you feel things that other art forms can’t, it can take you out of yourself, get you through difficult times and it’s so tied up with memories. In every waking moment I am thinking about music is some form or other and I really can’t imagine doing anything else.
How important are physical releases to you as an Independent Record Label? Do you think it’s important to have a tangible testament to your releases?
Yeah, absolutely! Vinyl is the first thing we talk about when it comes to releasing an album, EP or 7” single and all our records come with free digital downloads. Vinyl and physical records are really, really important, and the only way I think we’re going to save the physical industry of music is to change people’s attitude. I was talking to someone the other day about how we sit at home and expect our TV’s to get bigger and bigger, and better and better with more pixels, HD, 3D but we just sit around watching our audio things get smaller and smaller, and shitter and shitter [he says laughing at TLOBF's little digital dictaphone]. We have to change something; we need people to believe that their audio systems should get bigger and better, not smaller and worse. And I think that problem is down to the industry: the majors and the corporates who we always used to look to for change don’t seem motivated to make changes anymore, and I think we’re going to have to start doing it ourselves.
It’s difficult of course; if you’re a teenager and you haven’t got a credit card then what are you supposed to do? You can’t go out and buy CDs because they’re too expensive so I totally get why people end up downloading for free. I mean, you can’t really deny it, people are going to download stuff for free but I bought my son a record player and a few records and now his room is just full of vinyl. I think maybe it’ll take another 20 years but people are getting more into vinyl, realising that it is better, not just like “oh my parents listen to that, why would I ever want to listen to vinyl?”
Josh T Pearson
Where did you shop for records growing up? Any particular fond memories of local independent stores?
My whole life I was brought up in record shops. When I was a teenager I would go down to the local record shop and buy my little 7”… Punk happened when I was 15, so vinyl was so important in my life and probably always will be because I know how good it sounds. I still listen to vinyl everyday and I can’t imagine why anybody would want to listen to music on their computer over listening to music on vinyl but you know I am very old fashioned that way. I do of course listen to music on my computer but you know, given the choice I wouldn’t because it doesn’t sound even half as good.
What do independent record stores mean to you?
Well I mean that is where it all starts really isn’t it? I come from that background anyway. I mean my first ever job, my only ever job was in a record shop.
Where did you work?
I worked at Beggars Banquet Records in Earls Court. It was the best one because all the record labels were upstairs – 4AD, Beggars and Situation 2. I was in a band on Situation 2 and working at Beggars was how I met all the 4AD people, and how I met Robin and Liz from the Cocteau Twins. They were fans of my band and I theirs, I actually took a cassette of their first album off them to give to the record label. It was the best shop to work in, it was absolutely brilliant.
Obviously this was way before CDs or anything like that so it was all vinyl, punk and reggae was all we sold really. It was tiny, like half the size of my office now. There was just two of us working there and all the label people would walk through the store to get to their offices so they were really incredible days. I was there for about 2 years before the shop closed.
How do they impact what you do as an independent label?
Independent record stores are vital for us as a label because the major retailers don’t really stock our stuff on vinyl as standard. There is something really special about the brand of Rough Trade too, its something ever so powerful. You know the Rough Trade Album Club is hugely important to labels. If they get behind one of your releases then that can be responsible for propelling even little bands into a greater sphere of consciousness. They are amazing; they have become a lot more than just a record shop.
I rely on people like Nigel House a lot for my tips because you know you can’t find out everything yourself. Lanterns On The Lake is the perfect example of how invaluable stores like Rough Trade can be to us as a label. Before they were even signed, well I mean obviously I’ve signed them now but before there was even a visible buzz surround them the guys at Rough Trade lead me to appreciate the vibe surrounding them. Just chatting to them they mentioned “everytime we order their EP it just sells out” and so I started investigating and it so happens that they are now on Bella Union. Their inside information is incredible.
Lanterns on the Lake – Lungs Quicken by Bella Union
Obviously a lot of music that is bought by the public nowadays is from online sources but what is it about independent record stores that is special and worth championing?
The reason Rough Trade has been going as long as it has and is pretty much packed out every day is because they know their shit; you go in there because you want to buy into their knowledge and the whole experience of shopping is a pleasurable one. Whereas if I went into HMV or Virgin any time in the last 20 years I wouldn’t come home and be like “hey I had a great time at Virgin today” I’d come home and be like “fuck I couldn’t find anything, the people were really rude, I didn’t know where to go and I just forgot what I wanted when I went in there – I just got completely bamboozalled and then left with a DVD!”
Knowledge is so important as well. When I grew up working in the record store, if a customer came into the shop I would go over and say hello, talk to them about their musical taste and they would become regulars and come back every week because they would learn to trust your recommendations. I’m sure this happens maybe less so now but I know in Rough Trade it still does, I could talk to those guys all day about music.
I just pray to God that somebody is going to say to Nigel House and Pete Donne who run Rough Trade one day that they would like to open up a store in every city across the country. It’s just such a brilliant experience going into Rough Trade, as it is going into a lot of smaller independent record shops. I don’t have as much experience with all the ones up and down the country but I know they are all really important.
Beach House
Do you think the music community feels losses like Pure Groove?
Pure Groove was definitely a bit of a bummer, they tried to do something completely different. It was a really brilliant idea but I guess it is tricky trying to turn a profit when there is so much malaise about physical product. It is very easy to get blasé about things like that though and just see a store closure as another blip.
What role do you think Record Store Day plays in supporting stores and highlighting maybe the problems faced by independent stores?
It’s so important and it’s just been getting bigger and bigger, year on year. Rough Trade took in something ridiculous last year, which is just fantastic, the thought that you can’t get inside a shop that sells vinyl is wonderful. It is so heartening to hear that so many people love the day and are motivated to go and buy records, it can’t just be to own the stuff, people love the whole thing.
But I mean some people in high-ranking positions at major labels don’t even know what Record Store Day is. Maybe I shouldn’t be so shocked, I mean what possible interest have they got in it? It doesn’t feel like a label thing at all, it’s led by the stores and the bands who want to be involved, its not being shoved upon us by “the industry” it feels more real and organic.
Another thing I’m excited about is The Independent Label Market that is taking place in May on Berwick St and all the bosses of the labels are going to don a black cap and man a market stall to sell vinyl hand to hand. The more of these kind of things the better, because it gets people excited about buying music again.
Have you got any exciting exclusive records coming out for Record Store day on the 16 April?
Now we did have quite a few but unfortunately a lot of them have fallen by the way side. We do have a 12” Fleet Foxes record coming out featuring a couple of tracks from their forthcoming album Helplessness Blue, so I think that will be quite successful. We did have Treefight For Sunlight doing a ‘Wuthering Heights’ cover due out on 7” but unfortunately EMI put a stop to that at the last minute because apparently Kate Bush doesn’t approve of covers. Of course we didn’t know that until the band had gone and recorded it, mixed it, mastered it and it was at the pressing plant.
We are doing this thing called a ‘Play Button’, which is very cool. It’s like a badge that will have a picture of an album sleeve on front of it and it will actually contain an entire album’s worth of audio inside it. I mean it’s not vinyl but it’s not a download and it’s fun.
Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues by Bella Union
What are you planning on doing on Record Store Day?
I’ll be down at Rough Trade, I’ll try and get there really early. Caribou have got a 12″ coming out and I want to get hold of some Captured Tracks releases, like the Beach Fossils/Wild Nothing 7″ in which they cover an 80s punk outfit called The Wake so yeah I’ll be down there with my credit card out.
Elbows at the ready?!
Well yeah, if it is anything like last year I will need to camp out the night before. It would be really cool if they had like a midnight opening, I love stuff like that.
Explosions In The Sky – Trembling Hands by Bella Union
www.bellaunion.com
www.facebook.com/bellaunion
www.twitter.com/bellaunion
www.soundcloud.com/bella-union
Related posts
Comments are closed.