The legendary indie label,which gave the world Allo Darlin’, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and Joanna Gruesome and Let’s Wrestle,is closing its doors. Founder Sean Price takes us through the lessons he’s learned I judge indie pop is dying off in a way. It had a resurgence about 10 years ago with [London club nights] Twee As Fuck and White Heat. The demographic was right at that time – 20 years since 1986. That was when I had the Pains of Being Pure at Heart [on the label] and it felt like indie was having a real moment. Since then people acquire lost interest a slight bit, but in the last few years I’ve seen the rise of the DIY punk indie instead, and the world that Martha and Joanna Gruesome are piece of. It’s a more healthy scene because it’s more inclusive and politically aware.
I started the label in 1995. I was 25,and my brother and his friends were in a band so I chipped in a bit of money to buy a reel-to-reel 8-track recorder from a chef from an east Midlands hotel where one of our friends worked as a dishwasher. Once they recorded it, I decided I’d save it out. I had no notion what I was doing. I looked in the back of Melody Maker and found an advert for a company called Key Production, and so phoned them up from a phone box and said: “I want to compose a record. How can I do it?” They helped out but I still didn’t understand about distribution. I thought John Peel would play it and we would get on Top of the Pops. A year later I still acquire about 1000 of their records underneath my bed. I thought: there’s something I’ve missed here.
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Source: theguardian.com