We also have the wonderful Perth based visual artist, Sam Landels, coming on board in the role of photographer and video artist. What we’re hoping for there is for the kind of chemistry that happened between Reid Miles and Frank Wolfe during the Blue Note golden years. But maybe without the punch-ups! We all come from a visual arts/contemporary arts background so we inevitably draw from that experience and like to approach the label and its operation and activities in an open and creative way. We are also really excited about working with Sam to develop a series of music videos for release in 2007.

Q) What made you decide to sell digital media in the form of a download package as opposed to hard copy Cds?
A) It was a two-fold decision really. The financial aspect played a role and not because we are tight arses or started this thing off with 28 cents, but more because we had a real vision as to what this label could be and to realise that vision we needed to bypass a bunch of hurdles. Digital distribution allows us to get the music out to a global market, create active/responsive release schedules and allows us to develop a strong full roster of artists (we would not be able to handle the amount of artists we currently have on board if we distributed physically). To add to this, I have no romanticism attached to the cd as an object. I can sum it up by using two horribly worn clichés – “at the end of the day”, “it’s about the music”. Digital music stores have now been widely accepted by music fans and will soon be the primary vehicle for the sale of music. All album packages sold through the label’s store (The HSR Store) come complete with front and back printable cover art in PDF format and high quality mp3s so it’s all ready for anyone who wishes to make a cd from the digital package. Basically the digital distribution approach means we’ve been able to drop so much of the baggage, bullshit and barriers (the three B’s) to becoming a fully fledged indie label and do what we wanted to do from the outset without being limited by finances and issues with distributors.

Q) Can you talk a bit about the future and where you see the label going?
A) In terms of our larger vision, we want this to be a label where people look forward to the next release knowing it’s going to be interesting regardless of what genre it may or may not sit within. To that end we will continue to steadily grow and curate our wonderful catalogue. We are conscious however to keep the collective to a level where it still feels like family and where we can give each artist and their respective release the love that they need. Some labels seem to take on as many artists as they can get their hands on to fatten up their catalogue and it all starts to get disconnected and impersonal. Like I mentioned before we want this to be a collective where we can all work and communicate as a team to help everyone push their music forward.

In terms of practical directions we are just starting to push the licensing aspect of the catalogue through Hidden Shoal Publishing. So much of our catalogue is cinematic and visual and I am not just talking about the ambient and instrumental stuff here either. I think there’s lots of opportunities to get our artists work into interesting film and TV projects and we are all set up to do that. I’m excited about getting this aspect of the business up and running and looking forward to setting this up as another viable publishing option for our artists’ music. We are also just starting work on a cover album project, which will see release mid 2007. The album will consist of HSR artists covering a selection of artists from the early days of the 4AD label. We liked the concept of a label covering a label. We’re really looking forward to that one.

Written by Simone Score

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