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Independents Day

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Independents Day Part 2

A Day in the life of Transgressive Records

Read this week's other feature on 'Mumford & Sons'

Read part 1 of the indendents day feature here

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Words by Tom Hannan

4AD - Still going strong after 28 Years

Massive, ghoulish, nasty, evil, cartoon baddie global enterprises don’t just form by themselves. No, of course, of necessity, everything was independent once. Even those big labels like Warner, Atlantic, Columbia, Virgin – they all started out with quite humble beginnings before going supernova.

Nowadays, there are four major labels, many with a stake in smaller labels, meaning the whole term independent is really a bit up in the air. And the term ‘major’ does make a difference to how a label operates. Even if they’re releasing great, timeless music, they are owned by and answer to their shareholders and are as such there to make money before they make art. When they’re doing their job to the best of their abilities, they can make both – let’s not forget the likes of Prince, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Jay-Z, Bruce Springsteen and even so called ‘indie’ acts like Blur are all making great art on major labels, and have done for years – making a huge amount of money in the process. But sometimes, it’s got to be one or the other. And you can guess which one they’ll go for.

"Independent labels, truly independent ones, are often labours of love.."

Independent labels, truly independent ones, are often labours of love. Artist relations are often born out of (and the best ones certainly develop in to) friendship and mutual admiration more than financial concern. As such, many of these smaller indie labels will put less pressure on their artists than a major, allow them more creative and artistic freedom, room to indulge their dreams, give them time to grow, to find their feet, to develop and experiment, and realise what it is their craft strives towards. It’s up to us to celebrate difference, independence and independents – the three often go hand in hand.

Of course, there’s often an air of DIY ‘cool’ to independent labels. It puts some people off, but it’s the same reason that other people love them so. You’ll see someone walking around in a Touch and Go Records or 4AD t shirt far more often than you’ll see someone sporting a big Universal Records logo across their chest. I’m not even sure the staff of Universal would wear those. They’re probably all wearing caps with ‘SST’ written on them. Running a record label from, for example, your front room (where everything from Dischord to K Records started) just has something wonderfully romantic about it, doesn’t it? The idea that the head of your favourite label will have personally licked closed the envelope in which your favourite new band’s release has been sent to you, and may have included a little note of thanks, the odd badge or postcard – well, things just don’t get much more exciting when you’re a 14 year old boy discovering your taste in the sonic arts.

But doesn’t that sound like a hard slog? Damn right – it really can be. Ideas of glamour, style and an easy life can be thrown out the window and left to be run over by the first fat cat in a Merc that drives past. But if an independent label succeeds, and many do, they’ve done it on their own terms, and often find themselves in stronger positions to move forward because of just that. Rough Trade, Dischord, Touch and Go – these are all staunchly independent labels with enough success to ensure that bands on their rosters can actually make a career out of playing music.

Regina Spektor

Many of the labels I’ve mentioned, along with the likes of Fierce Panda and Johnson Family, have been the inspiration behind the formation of the label I myself have most of an insight on, a London based independent record label called Transgressive Records. In the early days, Transgressive operated on a rolling fund of £1000, pressing seven inch singles. If a single sold out, you could afford to press another one. If it didn’t, then the label couldn’t afford to release any more material. Luckily, everything sold out (the records were ace, quite simply), and the label progressed from releasing early seven inches by the likes of The Subways, Mystery Jets and Larrikin Love to albums from Foals, Regina Spektor, The Shins, Iron and Wine and Young Knives.

A typical day in the life of the Transgressive Records office does not exist, and I can vouch for that. But if one did, it might start with a small team of people (four of us in total, running various sides of things) who are supposed to be in at 10am rolling in to the office at around half past, bleary eyed, probably after heading to a gig the night before, maybe with an eye on a new band, maybe supporting one we’re already involved with. This is the problem you see – even if you’re getting up to go do something you love, you still have to get up! Something quiet will go on the stereo (we used to listen to 6Music pretty constantly until George Lamb became unbearable) as we clamber half awake about our inexplicably messy office, all cardboard boxes, napkins from the local Subway and used jiffy bags, bemoaning to each other the state of the industry at large through only semi-comprehensible mumbles.

Computers go on, and we’re confronted with more emails than we reckon is physically healthy for one person to deal with in a day. Numerous times now we’ve reached Hotmail’s enforced limit for how many you’re actually allowed to send in a 24 hour period, and I reckon this will only get worse. You know how I told you it wasn’t all glamour? It isn’t. It’s ninety percent reading and replying to emails. Rock and flippin’ roll.

Mornings are spent catching up on whatever we didn’t manage yesterday, lunch is taken from the local supermarket back to the desk, staring all the time at the correspondence piling up, up and away. Afternoons can consist of anything from meetings with PR people and booking tours for bands to attending mastering sessions and choosing artwork for upcoming releases. Often, we’ve been known to hand make sleeves for our band’s more intricately packaged works of genius, and have the cuts on our fingers to prove it. We sit around arguing about records. We pull our hair out and get a bit tetchy. Someone will eventually make a very crude, often unforgivably offensive joke and we’ll all fall about laughing, remembering that we love this stuff and are all, when it comes down to it, the best of mates.

Foals - One of the many Transgressive successes

Apart from that last bit, I’ve made it all sound a little hum drum and depressing, haven’t I? Well it isn’t – it’s often the most rewarding job imaginable. Sometimes there’s real magic. Sometimes a band will come in to us with nothing but a poorly recorded CDR of three songs that sound incredible, not knowing what to do with them. The sound will become lodged in our brains, glued to our stereos, a part of our lives. We’ll work every hour God sends to ensure we land their services, and they benefit from ours. The band will become friends. With the band I have in mind, Foals, we sent them to New York to record with the producer of their choice to realise what it was they wanted to sound like. They made a record called ‘Antidotes’ which went in at number 3 in the UK charts. They’re about to play two nights at London’s massive Brixton Academy. And we’re prouder than parents of a kid who’s just said ‘palaeontology’ as its first word – there’s the pay off.

Read the 1st half of this feature here