Running a label from Cornwall

Apologies for that unforgivable of things – not keeping up to date with blogging. A heavy release schedule and promotional planning for the run up to Christmas have been the big priorities…and enjoying the very late summer that arrived in Cornwall.

However, it’s the sunshine I enjoyed every second of which forms a part of this blog. Soaking up the rays, surfing and sailing reminded me just why I moved from London to Cornwall nearly four years ago. While Cornwall is a great place to work and live without sunshine and heatwaves – it’s even more magical when summer hits properly. It never ceases to amaze me how much this place is a source of inspiration.

Take business meetings for instance. In London, I’d have had meetings in the bars and eateries in and around St Johns Wood. Nothing to be sniffed at, for sure: nice coffee, nice meals, nice puddings and expensive drinks. In Cornwall, we’re talking proper Westcountry cider with home-cooked pub meals by the waterside with amazing views out to sea. OK in London you have cars which detract from the scene and in Cornwall we have seagulls. At least you can make the seagulls to bugger off.

While we may have to do some serious convincing to get prospective business partners to come down to Cornwall to see us – once here, they find it difficult to leave.

So when people ask how it’s possible to run a record label from an ancient Cornish port village, I always reply ‘come down, meet us and see for yourself.’

Old friends in London thought I had lost the plot when I decided, rather on the spur of the moment, that I had had quite enough of London and wanted to move to Cornwall. To them, the very idea of Cornwall invoked images reminiscent of the movie ‘The Wicker Man.’ They just didn’t get it. They thought it was impossible to run a record label so far from, well, anywhere. I suppose when one thinks of an obvious place to run a label, people immediately think of London or Manchester. Bristol, Brighton and Liverpool might get a look in. Pretty much everywhere else is a void, even though there are successful smaller labels scattered all over the UK. Cornwall, however, might as well be the moon.

Technology is the key. Broadband enables us to communicate not just with the rest of the UK or the rest of Europe. Broadband enables us to do business all around the globe. High speed data drops allows us to deliver our music to club and radio DJs, producers and manufacturers all around the globe – and allows us to deliver broadcast quality music videos to countless music television production companies around the world. One FTP transfer later and our latest releases and albums are in the hands of our digital music aggregator ready to be sold just about everywhere within a matter of days.

And it works for us. While this label is far from being a household name, we’re not exactly unknowns either. As I see more and more of our artists hitting the top spots on various music charts peppered across the globe, I know that it was all done from our quaint and cosy (read ‘small’) HQ.

And I’m not the only one to make the exodus from the Big Smoke. This was once a wasteland in terms of music industry presence. Now I can’t go anywhere without tripping over former London A&R and former London music executives. Once upon a time A&R wouldn’t have crossed the Tamar for all the latte in Chiswick, Hammersmith and Fulham. Now I see them everywhere, scouting Cornish talent.

So today is a typical autumn day in Cornwall: torrential downpours mixed with brilliant blue skies. I sit here with a new album uploading to our aggregator’s server as the wind literally beats the rain against the window…and I watch the palm trees getting blown to bits and the waves giving the beach a serious bashing. I know the sun will pop back out in another 15 minutes or so. Epic weather. Cornish weather. And I know there really isn’t anywhere else I’d rather run a label from.