Music, Style & Culture

Instinctive Racoon: Confessions Of A Band Manager

'It’s a difficult bloody thing, managing bands.'

Photo Credit: David Gourley

“It’s a difficult bloody thing, managing bands,” says Jamie Webster, the boss of Glasgow indie label Instinctive Racoon, almost as soon as he sits down. Immediately I’m suspicious. Firstly, because managing a record label is to music lovers what cake testing is to gluttons - a fantasy job, a dream come true. Secondly, because the tour diary I’d read in preparation for this interview, authored by Webster himself and released some time ago on MySpace, is somewhat at odds with his solemnity: “The party went on into the small hours and a couple of the boys managed to snuggle up to some smoking hot babes,” he writes, finishing the entry smugly with, “It’s all part and parcel of being on tour.” The rest of the diary is chock-full with fun times and debauchery, mostly revolving around boozy nights-out and hungover morning-afters, plus a few unspeakable antics which apparently he can’t print “for legal reasons”. (Though, given Charlie Sheen’s recent transgressions, I’d suggest doing so might boost his popularity ten-fold).

The tour to which Webster is referring was with Three Blind Wolves during their support slots with fellow Scots band Frightened Rabbit. Webster has nurtured the act from its early days as a solo project by Glasgow singer-songwriter Ross Clark - whom he spotted at an open mic night - to its current success as the latest signing by Communion, the coveted label founded by Ben Lovett of Mumford & Sons. The band also won Best Live Act at the recent Scottish Alternative Music Awards and are currently on an extensive tour of the UK. It all sounds pretty positive to me - so why the long face?

"The first time we toured Three Blind Wolves in the UK we probably had one good show out of seven. The others were a wash-out. We weren’t getting paid, it was costing us a lot of money, and the band were going out onstage and playing to a small handful of people. It can be soul-destroying”. Ah, fair enough then.

Even on the considerably more successful jaunt with the Rabbits, the band often travelled home through the night to save money on hotel rooms, and survived on crisps and supermarket sandwiches for the duration of the tour. It’s a far cry from the backstage banquets and fluffy dressing gowns demanded by the likes of Fleetwood Mac and co. “It can be difficult sometimes, wondering where I’m going to find the money to do what we need to do,” admits Webster.

Fortunately, he’s become a dab hand at economical touring: “We’ve developed a model that works pretty well for us. We focus on gig promotion, and all of the money that we make from shows gets fed straight back into the label, whether that be a record release, another tour, or merchandise. Quite often we’ll do a show in Glasgow or Edinburgh first because we know we have a big fan base there and lots of people will buy tickets, and the money from that will fund the guts of the rest of the tour. A mini tour in Scotland can pay for a much bigger tour across the rest of the UK.”

How can you guarantee an audience in places where the band is not well-established? “You can’t - that’s the tricky thing. You’re emailing people in Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and so on who don’t know the band, and trying to encourage them to book them for a fee. It’s tough. Promoting virally is really important, and the social network is amazing because its free and lets you reach your target audience fairly easily. Posters and flyers are good, but in reality it doesn’t matter how many posters you’re putting up: if nobody’s heard of the band, they’re not going to come to the show.”

Financial and promotional issues aside, there’s the additional task of taming the untameable. Band members are notoriously wild. “When I first met Ross, he was prone to running off stage and standing on people’s tables, kicking their drinks over and singing in their face if they weren’t listening to him,” remembers Webster. “It’s just his personality - he’s so excitable and he gets a bit carried away - but it put some people off. I’ve tried to calm him down a wee bit and make him more crowd-friendly. He’s definitely getting better, although sometimes you still see that side of him when he’s had too much Irn Bru!”

So what was it about Ross - apart from the outlandish behaviour - that caught Webster’s eye? “His songwriting. I see a lot of bands play live but to get my attention, they have to make a lasting impression. You might spend an enjoyable half hour watching a band but for me, the songs and melodies need to stick in your head long after that. All of the bands I’ve worked with have grabbed me with their songwriting: as long as that element is there, you can work on the rest.”

Bands on the Instinctive Racoon roster have included Washington Irvine, French Wives and Bear Bones, each of whom are rapidly moving towards deals with bigger labels. “They’re all phenomenal, and they are beginning to get the recognition they deserve,” says Webster, a hint of pride in his voice. “We’ve put out some great releases for them, but for us it’s always been about being a feeder to bigger labels”.

In this, Webster reveals another grievance of the band manager - letting go. “It’s sad sometimes, but you have to let them move on. You have to be realistic and know that a manager or label’s loyalty to a band is probably far greater than the band’s loyalty in return. For us, the reputation for putting on memorable shows and promoting good music is enough”.

With his popular Thank You Frankley club nights, Webster has created the opportunity to do just that. The lure of cheap entry, a line-up of Instinctive Racoon favourites and DJ slots by friends of the label such as We Were Promised Jetpacks, has made the nights a staple on the social calendars of Glasgow music-lovers. “The club nights are an opportunity for all of us to get together and also welcome anyone who wants to join in the fun. They’ve made people sit up and take notice. Anybody that’s ever come to one tends to go, ‘Wow, look what I’ve been missing’, and they turn up again and again. They want to hear more.” Webster is set to take over the Communion nights when they launch in Glasgow next month.

Similar to the Communion model, Webster has essentially created a music collective, with musicians often swapping instruments and bands to play at each other’s shows. “The whole idea behind the label doing so many different things is for it to become a community. Instinctive Racoon is like a family.” Webster even coaxed several ‘family members’ into his own short-lived soiree with live music, a band called The Lo-Fi Disco Project. He is sheepish when I bring it up: “I really enjoyed the writing aspect, but I didn’t have any real singing ability, or musical talent for that matter. I wish I did. It was a very brief flirtation, and I don’t think I’ll be doing it again - I’ll leave it to the real musicians from now on! We had a lot of fun with it, though.”

And his biggest achievement so far? “The most rewarding thing was having three of our bands [Three Blind Wolves, French Wives and Washington Irvine] play on the T Break stage at T In The Park last year. BBC Radio phoned me up and said, ‘Jamie, this is amazing - this has never happened before’. Thousands of bands apply, so to have three from the same label is really something special. I can’t even explain how happy I felt.”

From the depressing lows to the dizzying highs, it is clear that Webster revels in the trials and tribulations of music management. “It’s always worth it. Right now, there’s an over-saturated market: there are so many venues and so many bands. It’s a boom time for music and I’m glad to be involved.” And when the going gets tough? “What keeps me going? Total faith in the bands.” I wonder whether those honeys on tour have something to do with it, too...

Communion Glasgow launches on 28th April at Stereo with Ben Howard, Washington Irvine and Kitty the Lion. The Three Blind Wolves EP ‘Sound of the Storm’ will be released on Communion Records on 20th March, and the band are currently touring. Visit http://www.communionmusic.co.uk for more information.