If music be the food of love play on!
There's nothing better than buying vinyl or going to an amazing gig but
for Richard Labran that just wasn't enough and not only he is the
singer/songwriter of the rock band IONS but he has his own record label too.
Welovebearwood caught up with Richard to find out
about Smokin Records, what he thinks of Bearwood's live music scene and how much he
loves Alan Warwick's pork and stuffing sandwiches.
Please
tell us why you decided to start your own record label.
That sounds very impressive,
please tell us about the bands on your label.
The bands
on our label are a mix of some of the most eye catching bands to grace the
Birmingham underground music scene in the past decade. Birmingham has had a
wealth of really amazingly talented bands taking to its stages and
unfortunately this has largely gone unnoticed due to a lack of interest in the
arts locally amongst the public.
We agree!
What do you offer new local bands and what events have you got planned?
We need
to be selective in what we do at the moment as our time is limited and all
directors of the label currently have full-time jobs but for bands that we can
take on we offer very reasonably priced studio time and a number of options for
CD and Vinyl manufacturing.
We
recently had a market stall set up at The Sun at The Station in Kings Heath as
a wider event for record store day and hosted IONS album launch party at The
Adam and Eve in Digbeth. We will have a number of events happening throughout
this autumn so please visit our site www.smokinrecords.co.uk
We've
never heard of the term DIY music recording, what does it mean?
DIY music
recording is a phrase that refers to the notion that nowadays many people are
capable of recording and producing their own music at home. Technology in this
field has advanced rapidly and if you are willing to put the time in and do
your research you can create a top quality professional sounding record at
home. IONS wake up is the first material I recorded and produced, I didn’t even
have a practise run and the quality is very good in my humble opinion.
The music
industry seems to be evolving all the time. How do you think downloads have
changed the music industry and do they impact running a record label?
I’d say
that technology has changed the music industry. Our phones, tablets, laptops
etc are all designed to support digital sounds and therefore the easiest and
most convenient way to access music is digitally. The Walkman, personal CD
player is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. It’s possible to record a track
at home in a day and have it uploaded to ITunes for download the next day,
that’s fairly crazy when you think about it. I guess downloads might help a
label cut down on its manufacturing costs in the long run but nothing beats
having a physical copy of a record, especially in Vinyl so I guess there will
always be a market for that too. Labels will have to be smart in terms of their
pricing points for different format releases and working out how many numbers
of a physical copy of a record to manufacture.
You must
be very busy. How would you like Smokin Records to develop in the future?
Well I’d
like to get to a point where the label can become a full time occupation for us
all but Rome wasn’t built in a day and all that so we’ll have to wait and see
what becomes of it.
We can
tell you love music. Are you in a band and where do you get your inspiration
from?
I am in a
band, at the moment I am a singer/songwriter in IONS. I guess most of my
inspiration comes from life experiences I observe and feel. A lot of my music
is also a reflection of the times however it’s best I don’t go on a rant about
that!
Don’t
blame you! What do you think of Bearwood’s live music scene and what changes
would you like to see?
Bearwood
doesn’t really have a live music scene does it? I guess I have been to see live
Jazz at Bearwood Corks Social Club on a number of occasions and there have been
the Bearwood Shuffles but unfortunately our little town doesn’t yet have a
scene as such.
So what’s
your connection with Bearwood?
I moved
to Bearwood 8 years ago and I did come to the town quite a bit as a boy with
the family having lived in West Bromwich most of the rest of my life. I came to
move here because of its excellent transport links to Birmingham and its
reasonable house prices, saying that I walk to Birmingham and back quite a lot!
Us too!
We seem to be for ever walking up and down Hagley Road.
Please
tell us your Bearwood All-Star. In other words, who,
what or where makes you smile in Bearwood?
Besides
my son…….err! Just kidding! I love pork and stuffing sandwiches and the ones at
Alan Warwick butchers are a bargain for £1.20. I like my Russian hairdresser
at Cuts Above near Bearwood Primary School as she’s well into her
conspiracy theories. I quite like an Iced Coffee too so often frequent We Are
Mud in the summer.
One
final question which we like to ask everyone. What
makes Lightwoods Chippy’s chips orange?
I heard
that they are deep fried in Orang-utan dripping.
Hee!
Hee! Now that's a good answer.
Thanks
Richard, it’s been fascinating! To find out more about Smokin Records
please visit here!
No comments:
Post a Comment