Craig Murphy lets igloomag.com into the lush fields of Herb Recordings‘ musical spectrum and discovers that there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes ready and waiting to be discovered.
Igloo Magazine :: When did Herb start up and what was your inspiration?
Craig Murphy / Herb :: The label started in January 2006 partly for personal reasons, namely releasing my own album and also because I was becoming increasingly aware of the vast wealth of real talent there was in Scotland and further afield. There were so many naturally-gifted artists around it was hard not to sit up and take notice of the work they were doing. This kick-started the idea of starting a new label around the summer of 2005 and by the start of 2006 we were ready to go.
I have drawn inspiration from many diverse things and people over the years, but there has really only been two labels that have truly inspired me. The first of these was Glasgow’s Soma Records. Soma has been such a huge influence on my life, so much so that I genuinely believe it made me a different person. I started listening to them around 1993 when the Slam Nights were a weekly occurrence on a Friday at the Arches Nightclub in Glasgow. I loved the music they made and the music they played and I also got to see some legendary people at these nights. Jeff Mills, Sven Vath, Carl Craig and Richie Hawtin to name a few and these guys were doing stuff that at the time I just felt was mind-blowing. It was so different to the cheesy rave shit that was sweeping across Europe back then. You must cast your mind back to put it in context… if you can! To me as a 19/20 year old, I felt like I’d discovered some great secret and I totally immersed myself in the debauched subculture that went hand in hand with Techno music at that time and quite honestly I loved every minute of it!
The second label to truly grab my attention and make me interested in everything they were doing was Warp Records. It’s probably a cliché now to say you were inspired by Warp, you’d be more hard pushed to find people who haven’t been! But it’s the truth and like Soma when I first heard them, the stuff blew me away. At this point in my life I was drifting away from Techno and the debauched lifestyle I associated with it and I really was searching for something new. I honestly don’t remember how I found out about Warp, but I do know that it was purely by accident and that it was a very happy accident at that. I’d honestly never heard music like it before and to be quite honest, I can’t think of a more ground-breaking and revolutionary label than Warp. They really did introduce a completely new style of music to the world and its influence can now be heard and seen everywhere. People might think this is a bad thing now, but it was only because of their huge impact in the beginning that their philosophy could permeate society so much today. So it’s a double-edged sword perhaps, but that happens to anything that’s hugely successful. At some point it will be filtered for the mass-market. Warp has had a far more long-lasting effect on me aesthetically than Soma did, perhaps this was because I was interested in Warp for the music and the subtly anarchistic philosophy and not for the lifestyle or subculture I associated with it. Whatever the reason, they are a truly inspirational label, which to this day can still find some real gems.
Igloo :: Who were some of your initial artist relations and did your location help or hinder progress?
CM :: The first group of artists to work with the label were the likes of Kingbastard (still with us), Solipsism (still with us), Mark Franklin, Mosca (still with us), Cheju, The Lava Experiments and bit\bin. There were a few more in the first wave to join, but these were the guys who stood out a wee bit. The second group included the likes of Engine7, Shamanic Technology and Shoosh who are all still with the label. And finally we added people like Jack Marchment, Skytree and Haz and those guys are still with us also.
My location at the time both helped and hindered me to be honest! Although the label has always been Glasgow-based, I myself lived in a small village about 30 miles south of Glasgow with my wife and kids. This helped me in the respect there was very little to distract my focus from the label, though it hindered me due to the fact that it made promoting the label via live events difficult as I can’t drive. We moved back to Glasgow again last year though and it was the best decision I’ve made since I decided to start the label.
It’s important to me that I work with artists whom I feel are genuinely interested in the label and not just out to better their own cause. There’s a lot of work involved in running a label and there’s very little money in return, certainly not enough to justify the amount of work needed to make it even relatively successful. So I decided early on that there was no point in working with and promoting people who saw it as a one way street. I’m content with the group of artists we have on the label now, though I’m always looking to add more if the right people come along. I’m notoriously difficult to please though with regards to what I will release and having the right music is only the first step of many in the process towards a release with Herb.
Igloo :: What were some of the challenges (if any) starting up a label? …and how did you envision the label to stand apart?
CM :: I jumped into starting the label feet first and really didn’t engage my brain for a few months afterwards. I was completely naïve to many aspects of running a label and it was only once it was up and running a while and I began to hit stumbling blocks, I had to look into things a lot deeper to get a greater understanding of how things worked and what needs to be done. Looking back though, I believe that my naivety allowed me to get off to a good start. My belief in what I wanted to do, drove me on and I had no fear in approaching artists to come on the label and no trouble in selling my vision to them as I really believed we could make it happen. Hindsight is a great thing though and while I believe we have achieved real success aesthetically, we haven’t quite made the impact I would have liked to in other areas.
I don’t really have a plan for anything in my life, I like to let things keep moving naturally to see where it takes me and I firmly believe that if you do the right things, then you will get the rewards somewhere, somehow down the line.
I wanted the label to be eclectic, this was of paramount importance to me right from the beginning. I have a very eclectic taste in music and I like this to be evident in the music we release. I felt at the time of starting Herb that there were an awful lot of labels who seemed to be simply following the Boards of Canada blueprint and releasing only music that sounded similar to them. I couldn’t understand this approach nor not highlight the irony of the fact that such an original duo could have their art dismantled and regurgitated by an ever-growing band of tribute acts. I can think of nothing more insulting than copying someone else’s art and putting your own name to it. There is a world of difference between being inspired by something enough to create yourself and simply liking something enough to want to copy it. It is soulless degeneration and ultimately bad for progress.
Igloo :: What is your motivation in keeping the label moving forward into the next decade?
CM :: I don’t really have a plan for anything in my life, I like to let things keep moving naturally to see where it takes me and I firmly believe that if you do the right things, then you will get the rewards somewhere, somehow down the line. I just want to do stuff that I feel is worthwhile and to me as a music lover, releasing music I love and being involved in the process of seeing some wonderful artists and albums come through the label, is all the motivation I need to find the next artist and continue on. There are times when you wonder if it all seems worth it, but that happens in any walk of life and if you didn’t experience the lows, then the highs wouldn’t be so great either! It’s hard to believe the label is 5 years old now, but I hope we’re around for a good few years yet. We definitely would like to be.
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.
CM :: Our releases are distributed digitally by a company called State51 from London. In the short space of time we’ve been with them they’ve been fantastic in getting our music to the right places. Before that we were with Cargo who also did a decent job for us. Cargo still takes care of the CD’s we have available.
Most of the promotional work we do is done online and that’s primarily because of finances. We don’t have the money to invest in slick advertising campaigns or do extensive promo runs. So we really need to just try the best we can online and hope that it has a little impact. I have to be honest and say that the promotional aspects of running a label have been the hardest for me to accomplish and sometimes it feels like you’re hitting your head off of a brick wall. Though we’ve had some great support from people like igloomag (you guys!) and Clash Magazine who have both featured us fairly often over the past few years.
We recently put on a Herb Showcase night on the 29th of July 2011 with the Tronic folks who put on great Experimental/Electronica nights at the 13th Note in Glasgow. Engine7, Pumajaw and Solipsism all played and the night was a real success. Whether this translates into greater exposure for the label, I don’t know, but it was certainly a step in the right direction. There will be more Herb Nights in the near future hopefully!
Verdant is out now on Herb Recordings. [Release page]
