Lucky Number Music, Friends and the Independent Label Market, London

Hello pop pickers! Sorry it’s been so long since I last posted, but there so is a lot to talk about, so I’ll get right down to business. First post first: Independent Label Market. Now this was a…well…market in Spitalfields, London, put on today to hawk the wares of predominantly small independent record labels who had had stock destroyed at the Sony warehouse during the London rioting in August (did those rioters know they had caused such callous artistic destruction?! I should hope not.) Anyway, the fruits of their violent labour have clearly produced one good outcome.

The twist I so love about this event is that the stalls were manned by label bosses themselves. For my part, this gave me an opportunity to chat with one of my favourite labels, Lucky Number Music, who are behind Friends and Caged Animals (see below).

Now, I believe among all those stalls there, Lucky Number are onto something unique with their artists, and have a really special eye for detail. I discussed this with co-guru leader man, Michael Morley, and he said that within its sound, the label hopes to build a common thread among its artists, an identity if you will, that speaks for the label, or if you want to be more market-speak about it, a ‘brand’. This is evident in everything about them. The artists appear to stand for creativity above pop perfection; product above packaging. If those ideas sounds hoity-toity, consider Darwin Deez, Caged Animals, Friends and Sebastian Tellier; all esoteric, idiosyncratic, different from one another, although this, (and a noticeable zeal for music) is what they all have in common. I mentioned Friends’ September London gig: “Did you meet them afterwards?” Morley said, matter-of-factly. I had. The band were there after the gig, talking to everyone and were genuinely interested in what people had to say. They sold ‘I’m His Girl’ a month or so before its official release (review below), and guess who bought one based on their performance that night and a good chat about London? Two spare copies were brought along today apparently, and sold even before the stall had opened.

Friends are arguably becoming the label’s biggest ever artist. Morley and co-founder Stephen Richards saw them at their sixth ever gig. Pretty incredible. It’s now widely known that Friends have been together only a year. The pair were immediately impressed by the band, and additionally, a rarity in live indie music, Urbani’s uncanny ability to bring girls to the front of the crowd. The band were signed up soon after, and debut ‘Friend Crush’ was released, now a 250-copy Ebay rarity, never to be pressed again if the label is true to its word.

While I don’t think a label can set the world alight, it's interesting to know that in an industry now bombarding us with new artists, information and ‘packaging’, someone is focusing on product and letting music speak for itself. Multi-linguist Sebastien Tellier’s 2008 album Sexuality was a great coup; a well-received record which included ‘Divine’, a song Tellier later sang when he entered 2008's Eurovision song-contest!

Tellier is typical of the independent-minded creatives Lucky Number seems to like. Reflecting now on Friends’ inclusion in the BBC Sound of 2012 poll, a veritable hype machine, Morley had mixed feelings about whether a top-5 finish is important considering it would produce expectation from the rest of the industry for Friends to sell loads of records: a mixed blessing. I didn’t raise the suggestion that a critical lift like that could be a self-fulfilling prophecy in the shops, even for a too-cool indie band like Friends, but I’m sure deep down, the duo would be completely chuffed if that were to happen.

Seventeen Evergreen are their newest project, but it's still early days for their other artists. Friends will have an album out in early 2012, a tentative, tentative, release date of April 23rd, preceded by two shows in London (Lexington- Feb 7^th sold out, XOYO- Feb 8^th) and Caged Animals have Vincent Cacchione’s astro orbit creativity and energy to harness in promoting their debut (check out recent single ‘Teflon Heart’ by the way).

Enough from me. There will be more posts to come.