Music, Style & Culture

Gary Powell: Your Music Needs You

Gary Powell gives us an exclusive behind-the-scenes glimpse into the running of his record label.

The nicest guy in rock (DIY has not had the pleasure of interviewing Mr Grohl yet) and ex-Libertines drummer Gary Powell gives us an exclusive behind-the-scenes glimpse into the running of his record label 25 Hour Convenience Store, talking us through his new roster of artists – and how you can become one of them! - as well as discussing his frank views on a floundering music industry and those fresh rumours of a Libertines’ reunion.

Gary, what gave you the kick up the old proverbial to start your own record label?
It was working with my old tour manager Max Mistry, who has worked with me on projects like my work with a fashion designer Todd Lynn and my band The Invasion Of…, where he was sound engineer and tour manager as well. His background was as a house and dance DJ and he set up an act called San France Disco with a buddy of his (a really gay name, but whatever!) and they set up a bunch of labels themselves to do their own collections of back catalogues of dance music and sell via labels. Originally I was just going to be the front for a label to utilise my name, but then I started to think of the overall state of play with regard to the industry at the moment and how it interacts with artists. Now I’ve gone full steam ahead with the development of artists and putting on shows for them, so that, on the odd occasion, the artists can come home with some money for themselves as opposed to putting money in for promoters who can’t be bothered to promote shows for whatever reason.
I wanted to concentrate on artist development - creatively or with respect to their personal life. A record label is a really important form of development for any young aspiring artists and that is the way it should be. That impetus has been lost over the last 10, 20 years or so but it has been aspiring towards that big hit. You’re lucky if you are in the industry after 2 years.

To what extent will you be helping your artists?
I co-produced Jeye T’s album [listen here] with Jon Moon who also worked with the late Amy Winehouse, Kings of Leon and Example and so forth. I’ve been sorting out the band’s PR and going through how they should be negotiating contracts with respect to when they hopefully get that big deal. 25 Hour Convenience Store is pretty much a feeder label as there is no real income from being involved in my label, but you are going to get development, experience and possibly a leg up to a deal where you can more and likely ascertain some money. It’s assistance from an artist’s point of view because with a record company, at the end of the day, it is about revenue and all about cashing in. An artist only wants to cash in only in respect with having a career making music.

And the music they want to make.
Exactly. Artists tell me what they want to release. For the majority, I say “Whatever you want to release, release what you want to release”. You have to be emotionally connected to your music and if you are, that’s good enough for me, as why do I know any better? Most record labels and A&R people don’t know any better when listening to it a couple of times in an office with a bunch of people looking at it from an investment point of view. The industry needs to start prioritising the artist’s emotional involvement and the dynamic they wish to achieve in the long-term.

That’s why we need people like you Gary – the music industry, particularly with investment constraints and illegal filesharing headaches, sadly neither has the money nor the time to care for this.
Yes, it’s become really mercenary and also from the public standpoint as well. People are listening to what they have to listen to and what they are told to listen to. You hear something on the radio, you try to download it from I-tunes or Mediafire straight away and then you won’t listen to it again and then you’ve lost the complete plot of how that piece of music fits into an EP or an album or the overall development of the artist beforehand. We used to hear a record on the radio, we’d take the record home, we’d listen to the album, we’d read the inlay, we’d check out what material they had had beforehand and we’d rarely invest ourselves in that artist unless we did this. Now, we listen to one song and we move on. The record industry is not doing anything to change this. As long as it’s bringing in some sort of revenue, then that’s all we can expect. That is not all we can expect! That is a listening habit that has been dictated to by the music industry. All the industry needs to do is hold up on some things and not let things go viral straight away. The wanting for new material has gone out of the window.

That old romantic feeling of waiting for a record to come out or get the ‘import’ is not there anymore.
Completely… we’re all extremely mercenary with our listening habits and even I have to be to a degree – time-wise and to make sure I can get people to actually listen to what should be available to them. I may need to cut off my nose to spite my face initially until I can get people to realise that, via that one listen and opportunity to stumble across the website to ascertain a free download, they can say “Oh there is more going on than I thought… ” It’s not about free stuff, but it’s about communication between the audience, the artist and me. If you don’t like the music, you don’t like the artist or what I stand for then you should write it down and tell me, “Gary, I think you’re an idiot! I think this is all really stupid. I think your roster is an absolute waste of space!” and to me, that is empowering, and empowering the people who need to be empowered, which is the general public. The general public does not have a voice with regard to what they listen to. It’s a complete and utter draconian dictatorship dictated by people who don’t really have a vested interest in the development of artists and music – all they’re really interested in is how it affects them financially.

Is 25 Hour Convenience Store going to be digital-only?
It comes down to finances – especially in this day and age when there isn’t a lot of demand for it. Normally with business, this usually drives the prices down, but because demand is so little and because it is specialised in the industry, you must pay through your nose unfortunately. When everyone went from vinyl to CD, vinyl became more attractive and then lucrative over a short period of time. The same can still happen with vinyl, 7 inches and CDs again. I still think we live in a time where people miss the physicality of music. I miss going to an independent record store and trying to find that one release that I’ve been trying to find for ages, sitting on a bus and opening that CD inlay, knowing that there are people looking at me now and thinking “What’s he got there?”

As you are not only working on the label, but you are also doing some production, what is like for you sitting in the producer’s chair and how does your approach compare to those of your past producers such as Mick Jones or Dave Sardy?
I’m completely different! Working with the likes of Jon Moon, who are much more technologically adept than I am with regard to getting that proper finished product (as everyone who has Logic or Pro Tools thinks they are producer when really they are not: “We don’t care what music sounds like because we’re only going to listen to it once anyway.”) My approach is on the basis of my relationship with the artist and also the knowledge that I have ascertained from working with people like Jon and with Mick Jones a little bit as well. Mick was very much emotionally-orientated with regard to putting tracks down. He had no technical skills whatsoever. What he wanted was the right vibe from all the contributing musicians and then he let the sound engineers take care of everything else, which luckily for us was Bill Price who did The Clash and The Beatles and everyone else! There’s even a bit of an influence from Bernard Butler who produced What A Waster and I Get Along, but for the majority, it’s just me listening and voicing my own opinion and verbalising it to the artist with an ear to my musical education.

The roster is pretty eclectic – there’s a mix of electronic (Matt Acheson), hip hop (Black Einstein) and guitar music (Jeye T) [listen here]. Why did you end up signing these particular artists?
Purely on the basis that my listening tastes are non-genre specific. My 3 year old son loves to listen to The Misfits, Dead Kennedys, Fugazi and now he’s really into the Foo Fighters! And I listen to everything, including that and anything in between. I love jazz. I studied that and classical music. I went to punk gigs in New York and I went to jazz gigs with my dad and went to see Miles Davis as a young kid! I live by the mantra that “music is music”. The digital age has lessened the genre barriers – we don’t need to look at certain categories. If you go to I Tunes with a keyword, it’ll bring up a non-genre specific list of song titles that you have the opportunity to listen to! With most people who listen to 2 or 3 types of music, I bet that you can play them different genres of music and they will find at least one piece of music within that genre that they will like. It’s just that they’ve not been exposed to it.

What would recommend as a good starting point for our readers who haven’t been exposed to jazz?
John Coltrane or Miles Davis – A Kind of Blue.

When DIY interviewed Carl, he mentioned that album also. Is that common listening for both of you?
Who told him that? [Laughs] Whenever we were on the tour bus, he would always have something to say about the music I was listening to! Something a little bit derogatory – rarely would Carl say, “Wow – that’s a great track!”

Maybe by osmosis he’s got into a bit of Miles Davis. What does your label mean for music by Gary Powell?
Well, with regard to revenue streams, it makes things a bit easier and I can look to the artists around me for influences. My lyrical flow has taken a slightly different direction because I’ve been listening to Jeye T, Matt Acheson, Lizzie Nightingale and what their experiences are, as I’m much more of a storyteller than someone who is writing some life experience as my life experience is too narrow.

Would you be open to working again with members of The Libertines or Dirty Pretty Things again?
I would love to. I love all those guys – Pete and Carl, John, Didz, Anthony – I don’t have a problem with any of them and hopefully they don’t have a problem with me either! Generally, when we split up The Libertines and Pete did Babyshambles, I went in the studio with him and we did some of their first demos, I also did the same with John for Yeti and then I did Dirty Pretty Things with Carl. Since then, I wouldn’t say we’ve maintained a really close relationship as it would be hard to maintain a close relationship with people whereby every movement is emotionally charged. That is difficult. I still maintain that they are a bunch of great guys. The last shows we played were Reading and Leeds and we didn’t spend much time in the studio but I loved every minute of the time I spent with them and I maintain that no matter what anybody says derogatorily about them. As far as I’m concerned, they’re family to me.

And let’s not forget you make great music together!
Yes, but because of the emotional attachment between Pete, Carl and John and their history is a lot longer than it is with me… However, I’m much more of a forgiving and forgetting person and I will take people at face value on a day-to-day basis – I’m looking at you as the person you are in front of me at this particular moment in time. That’s one of the reasons why it works so well between us. But if I were to really look back at history and look at how we treated each other and hold onto that, I should get a lot more pissed off, but I won’t be pissed off because I know that a lot of that was the heat of the moment or being forced into a scenario that was completely out of their hands. It must have been really hard being Pete and Carl to know that the pressures of British rock were placed firmly on their shoulders and coupling that with their own history of being a pair of cads who were homeless for a while and never really had any money… I mean, how do you get your head around that? When all is said and done – there have been way more positives than the bad stuff.

You also DJ Gary… tell us about the kind of gigs you do.
I don’t really prepare – I turn up and play the music that I believe people want me to play and then I go party as much as possible. It’s not about trying to instill people into a new listening habit – you’ve paid good money to go out so why the hell shouldn’t you be having a good time? It’s usually alternative, indie, electro-orientated with lashings of hip hop and some RnB thrown in.

What would be your wildcard to get people going?
Some Beastie Boys or an old school tune to let people to let their inhibitions down and be more than likely and willing to get down with their bad selves.

Where do you play usually?
Around Europe… Belgium, Spain, Italy… can’t remember where I’ve been! I don’t pay that much attention. Last week, I was in Heidelberg in Germany and up until 2 days before I went, I had no idea where I was going. I wrote it down wrong and spelt it “Idlberg”! Usually I get to the place late and then my flight is in the afternoon the next day so sightseeing is the last thing on my mind after downing a bucket of whiskey. I also do London Guns with Adam Ficek where we do our own indie edits of songs and we provide live percussion.

Finally, what should young artists looking for industry help do to get your attention?
Keep hounding me! Just send me some stuff, some dates and be as prolific as possible. It’s not just about writing music but it’s about being communicative. Some artists believe music will do all the talking but unfortunately if you get a deal, you need to talk to your A&R person and your record label - people are more interested in sociable artists! It’s not rocket science – just prove you are passionate about the music that you’re doing.
If you are forceful enough and good enough, you can pretty much force me into anything... as far as releasing stuff anyway… [laughs]

Do they have be London-based or do you look further afield?
I look further afield. I’m just literally about to sign an artist from New Orleans!
I will say… even if nothing happens, my door is always open, especially on Facebook. I’m frank and honest, so even if I don’t like it, I’ll say “It’s not really for me but keep me posted”.

It just means it’s not for you… it doesn’t mean the door has closed though?
Exactly. You said it!