“I set up DiN in March 1999 with the ethos of having a series of albums, all released as limited editions , to encompass the diverse worlds of ambient electronica and to evolve and grow this to include a broad range of artists releasing music in various solo and collaborative projects…” (Ian Boddy / DiN Recordings)
Igloo Magazine :: When did DiN start up and what was your inspiration?
Ian Boddy / DiN Recordings :: I have been involved in composing and releasing albums of electronic music since way back in 1980. My background was very much in the tradition of the early German electronic bands such as Tangerine Dream, Ashra, Klaus Schulze etc. That’s the music I loved when I was growing up so whilst at university studying of all things Biochemistry I jumped at the chance of using a local arts funded sound studio that had loads of cool gear such as VCS3’s and several Revox tape recorders. Over the next 15 years I balanced the usual life activities such as having a job and family with my musical career which led to me performing a load of concerts in the UK, Germany & The Netherlands as well as releasing a series of first cassette, then vinyl and finally CD albums. Most of these were released on my private label Something Else Music and were primarily solo releases although in the mid 90’s I started to work on more collaborative projects with albums released in conjunction with Mark Shreeve (as ARC), Ron Boots & Andy Pickford. However by the late 90’s I was getting dissatisfied with this piece-meal approach and my music was evolving from a structured, melodic form to a more open, ambient sound. I was also wanting to do many more collaborative projects as I found these a fascinating way to work. Furthermore electronic music had so many sub-genres and styles that had evolved out of those early classic albums that I wanted to explore these areas too. Thus was born the idea of setting up a more organised, professional label to achieve these aims. I was certainly very much influenced in this goal by Peter Namlook’s Fax label which through the 90’s had released an astonishing number of innovative ambient albums. Thus I set up DiN in March 1999 with the ethos of having a series of albums, all released as limited editions , to encompass the diverse worlds of ambient electronica and to evolve and grow this to include a broad range of artists releasing music in various solo and collaborative projects.
Igloo :: Who were some of your initial artist relations and did your location help or hinder progress?
IB :: Some of the early collaborations were governed by friends and contacts I had made over the preceding years. I worked for Akai selling their hardware samplers for 12 years so I had travelled a lot and made many friends in various musical areas. Certainly one of the best known of these would be Chris Carter (of Throbbing Gristle and Chris & Cosey fame) whom I had met at several music trade shows as well as having appeared on the same bill at a couple of electronic music festivals. So it was a simple question I proposed to Chris to collaborate on a DiN release (DiN5 | Caged) and as we both had a love of analogue synths it worked really well. Other albums were long time friends such as Stefan Bojczuk whom I had met at university and we had done a lot of experimental music in Spectro Arts Workshop, the studio where I did a lot of my early work. He had a really nice album of dark ambient space music recorded under the name of Protogonos which had such a great feel that it was a great pleasure for me to release it for him (DiN3 | Strange Geographie). In my early planning for DiN I had several long discussions with another Spectro Arts stable mate Sid Smith who suggested I work with a young German touch guitarist Markus Reuter. I’d certainly not heard of Markus but he sent me over a demo CD of these gorgeous ambient looping atmospheres he’d created using his 8 string touch guitar and I was hooked – this was perfect for what I was looking for with DiN and so he came over to my studio and our first album was born (DiN2 | Distant Rituals). Markus has since gone on to many fine projects of his own as well as being one of DiN’s core artists. So with the help of all these contacts I found my location (North-East England) no hindrance at all and of course with the blossoming of the internet over the next few years this became even more irrelevant.
Igloo :: What were some of the challenges (if any) starting up a label? …and how did you envision the label to stand apart?
Music has so many permutations and avenues to explore that it is impossible in any single lifetime to see it all. So you have to go on a personal journey that takes you down paths and tracks that are unique to you.
IB :: Well I was perhaps in an unusual position in that I already had a track record with several releases of melodic synth music that was sold via an enthusiastic network of mail order companies. What I was proposing was setting up a label with a distinct identity that was to release music that often strayed outside the comfort zone of many of my listeners. However I very purposely wanted to do this and to “spread my wings” musically. One of my first tasks was to have better more professional distribution and from early on Shellshock in the UK handled a lot of my UK and export sales. One of the early plans I set up with DiN was to release a sampler compilation album every 10th title which would cover the previous 9 releases. The first of these was DiN10 | iNDEX01 and I got a lot of interest from the influential music magazine Wire who gave this disc to all their subscribers in the May 2001 issue. This certainly created a lot of interest and so I was able to expand my distribution network further. By 2002 I had left my job at Akai and had set up my own music production company Something Else Music Limited. Alongside my activities with DiN I also do a library music for DeWolfe Music Limited as well as a lot of sound design and sample libraries. These activities give me a great deal of financial freedom to pursue and expand the music on DiN without the panic and pressure of having to sell “so many” of any particular title. This has I think allowed me to evolve a roster of artists and a catalogue of releases that is unique in both it’s span and sound output.
Igloo :: What is your motivation in keeping the label moving forward into the next decade?
IB :: For me personally I just love sound – pure sound in all its shapes and forms. Music has so many permutations and avenues to explore that it is impossible in any single lifetime to see it all. So you have to go on a personal journey that takes you down paths and tracks that are unique to you. For me this is what DiN is fulfilling. I have worked with some wonderful artists from around the world such as Robert Rich, Mark Shreeve (as ARC), Markus Reuter to name but three. Each of these musicians have their own distinct musical personalities and it’s so fascinating when working on an album with any of them as you’re never quite sure how it’s going to turn out. With Robert for example you can focus on a technical aspect of music like working on DiN21 | Lithosphere using an alternate tuning such as just intonation which opens up many new harmonic possibilities. With Markus I get stretched musically, sometimes beyond even my comfort zone, as with our last album DiN33 | Dervish which had guest drummer Pat Mastelotto (from King Crimson) playing on 4 tracks. Whereas when working with Mark Shreeve as ARC it’s just pure fun messing around with huge Moog modular synths and an arsenal of vintage keyboards. On the other hand it’s also a great pleasure to release bands and artists via DiN where I’m not directly involved. I’ve already mentioned the Protogonos album but there are notable releases by musicians such as Tetsu Inoue, Parallel Worlds & Surface 10 to name but three. Currently I’m working on the release of DiN38 so in cricketing terms I’m getting within striking distance of my half century!
Igloo :: Tell us more about how you (and your staff?) take the label’s “sound” to the listeners and fans. Distribution, campaigns, live shows, word of mouth etc.
IB :: DiN has a combination of the more “traditional” distribution methods for physical CDs as well as more internet based promotional activities. All CD releases are also available in download formats on the day of release and we use the digital aggregator AWAL to handle placement of product onto the big sites such as iTunes, EMusic, Amazon etc. All internet activities are based around the main DiN web site that had a total overall last year and includes it’s own CD mail order store for those who want a more personal service. DiNDDL was set up as a sub-label a couple of years ago to run a series of digital only releases and has currently just released DiNDDL10 | Submission 01. To mirror the activities of the core DiN label every 10th release will be a sampler compilation album of the previous 9 titles. Submission 01 is available for free download until 30th September from http://dinrecords.bandcamp.com/album/submission-01-dinddl10 and includes tracks by Ian Boddy, Dub Atomica, Bernhard Wöstheinrich, Markus Reuter, ARC, Zero Ohms and Memory Geist. Of course DiN has a presence on areas such as Facebook & Twitter via my personal pages. With such a diverse range of artists on DiN there is a more general, nebulous form of promotion in that each of these musicians have their own activities outside of DiN where more general promotion of both their DiN and non-DiN work occurs.
Links :: www.DiN.org.uk | Ian Boddy | Twitter | SoundCloud | Facebook | Bandcamp | DiNDDL
