| ■ Resonant interview questions for Andy Smith (Resonant) |
| PLOP：First of all, please introduce yourself and tell us how you've started making music. |
| Resonant is run/owned by two people, Andy Smith (Me!) & Andy Slocombe. Slocombe is based in London and i'm based near Birmingham. we live about 200 miles apart so most business is discussed via telephone and email. the label was conceived in October 1999 and the first release was a 12" EP by Canadian's Do Make Say Think called 'Besides', that was released in December 1999 and quickly sold out. Subsequent releases from such artists as Tarentel, Kepler, Jessica Bailiff, Stafraenn Hakon, Esmerine, Szam Findlay etc reinforced the identity of Resonant, and the label is still going strong. |
| PLOP：what is the concept of the label? |
| there is no concept other then to release music we both love. if we don't both agree on something we don't release it. for example, if we get a demo that i love but the other Andy doesn't we take it no further. you can only run a two-man label by working to that principal. |
| PLOP：you can say that resonant is one of the most remarkable among the present (so-called) post rock label. i think releasing the 12" from do make say think as your first release pretty much symbolizes your label.. did you have a concrete concept/vision of the label from the very start? |
| thank you very much ! i think releasing the do make say think 12" was a great way to start the label. it was great of them to allow a new label to release something that's for sure, and we're forever thankful to them for that. there was no plan or agenda discussed when we started the label though. we always said from day one that we would only release something we both agreed on 100% and that remains true to this day. which means we may release 1 or 10 records a year depending on what we receive demo wise. we've never wanted to be a prolific label or stuck in one area of music, and i think the difference between artists such as Kepler, Stafraenn Hakon, Esmerine, Sk/um, Szam Findlay etc show that well. we are sometimes seen as a post-rock label but there's definately a lot more going on than that. |
| PLOP：you have released stafraenn hakon along with many Icelandic artists.. how did you get to meet them? |
| it all started with the Borko 12". he sent us a demo that we liked and once we released that we inevitably got demos from other Icelandic bands inc Stafraenn Hakon, Sk/um and Olvis. it wasn't planned and we did worry about releasing too much Icelandic stuff but at the end of the day we love the music so we want to release it. we'd never turn a release down because of where the artist came from. ideally we'd love to work with more British artists/bands but unfortunately we haven't had much joy in that area. we get demos obviously but we haven't had many that have made us want to release something. Dialect is the exception and we hope to work with him for many years to come. |
| PLOP：you are running the sub-label "riot season" and have released many albums by the japanese Acid mothers temple.. tell me your impressions of the japanese experimental music and what attracts you about them. do you have any other favorite japanese artists other than Acid mothers temple? |
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i must stress that Riot Season is absolutely NOTHING to do with Resonant, it's not an offshoot or anything like that. it's just my own personal label where i can persue my own little love of noisy music :o) the other Andy has nothing to do with Riot Season (he doesn't like the music at all), i started Riot Season as i really like heavy, weird, noisy music that doesn't fit in with the other Andy's musical tastes. Japan has some really great bands in that area of music. going back to the 70's and Les Rallizes Denudes and the Taj Mahal Travellers, through to bands like Corrupted, Boris, Mainliner, Ruins, Boredoms, Merzbow etc etc. my own love of Japan started back in the late 80's when i had a Japanese penfriend called Miho Goto who i loved very much. i can't put into words why i like Japanese bands so much, they just do something 'different'. i also love Japanese movies like Audition, Ichi The Killer, Battle Royale etc. the Japanese know how to make disturbing mo vies. i think it's about time that i visited Japan myself. maybe next year with Stafraenn Hakon. |
| PLOP：how do you decide on the artwork? the packaging of the "emery reel" CD looks very original. |
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Emery Reel designed the sleeve themselves. it seems that a lot of American bands like that style / design. the Constellation label should take a lot of credit as they always release beautiful looking records and cd's, i think they've influenced a lot of bands / labels in that area. unfortunately we cannot find anywhere in the UK to get letterpressed cd sleeves made :o( |
| PLOP：it seems as you are conscious of keeping distance from the present UK post rock scene. are there any reasons? |
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that's not our intention at all. as far as i'm aware there isn't a UK post rock scene, in fact there aren't really any genre scenes at all. we will release records by any band we love regardless of where they come from. it doesn't matter if that's Dialect from Reading (England) or Port-Royal from Italy. if it's something we love we'll release it ! but we don't see ourselves as a label that only releases one type of music. we don't want to be seen as a post rock label that's for sure, we like all types of music and think you can see that from the releases we've done so far. |
| PLOP：tell me your favorite labels or labels that you are associated with. |
| to be honest, i don't really have favourite labels. its very rare that i like everything a label releases, but i do like most of the releases on Constellation, Anticon, Fat Cat and my friends labels such as Static Caravan and Monotreme. |
| PLOP：please tell us your future release plans. and sorry for the personal question - my first resonant release was borko's EP and i really enjoyed it! do you have any plans for their album release? |
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we're ending 2004 with a special limited edition 7" from Stafraenn Hakon called 'Glussi Christmas'. it's a fun Christmas release featuring cover versions of Wham! and Band Aid in the much loved Hakon style. we've got three albums planned for release during the first few months of 2005. all three are debut albums and all are amazing!, they are from Dialect (England), Port-Royal (Italy) and Blindfold (Iceland). we're very proud of all three and think people will definately enjoy listening to them. Borko has kind of disappeared since we did that 12" (Trees and Limbo), we exchange emails occasionally but he doesn't seem to have any new material to release. we're both very proud of that Borko 12" though and would love to work with him again if the chance arose. |
| PLOP: Please list your recent top 5 favorite albums. |
| (title/artist/label) Chosen by Andy Smith Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds 'Abbatoir Blues/Lyre Of Orpheus' Todd 'Purity Pledge' Low 'The Great Destroyer' The Dresden Dolls 'The Dresden Dolls' Circle 'Forest' |