Transgressive Records’ TimDellow

Fri 3rd Sep, 2010 in Features

In 2004 Tim Dellow and Toby L formed the Transgressive Records label after meeting at a Bloc Party gig organised by Toby. The company has since signed over thirty acts and has released over 100 records from bands including Foals, The Subways, Noisettes, Mystery Jets, Two Door Cinema Club, Johnny Flynn, Regina Spektor, Graham Coxan and Pulled Apart By Horses.

Tim Dellow will soon be in Australia as a guest speaker at BIGSOUND – joining Michael Azerrad, Michael Gudinski and many others – but FasterLouder caught him before he jumped on the plane to find out about running a label, breaking ‘indie’ bands and his proudest achievements.

It’s a bold move to found a label so young. What research did you do before starting the label?
I’d already been in some DIY math-rock bands who had been lucky enough to have a couple of small labels release our material, and had also given away CDRs with my first fanzine… so had an idea of the principals before leaping in with my first label…. By the time I founded Transgressive with Toby, I’d already helped release two 7 inchs so was hitting my stride. The “research” side came more from reading things like Michael Azzerad’s (who’s also speaking at BigSound) Our Band Could Be Your Life and hearing bands like Fugazi and Shellac in interview, and hanging out with older bands on the scene.

What was the most important lesson you learnt in the first year of running the label? And what changes have you made to your original plans in the 6 year of Transgressive Records? I think the first important lesson was that things often go wrong, or not as you plan, and the key to success at anything is just to pick yourself up after a setback and try again.

So many people start labels and enterprises with the best of intentions and think they’ve failed when they hit the first hurdle or have the first door slammed in their face. It happens relentlessly, but if you have a real passion for what you’re doing you just have to keep getting up and going for it…

Our plans have changed and grown as things progress, as have our ambitions: first of all it was “let’s release a great 7””, then “Let’s help release the last ever Peel session” then “Let’s release an album”, “Make a second album with a band” etc. etc. Luckily the one thing that we’re not short of in this world is genius in music, and it’s our job to keep finding it and supporting them in their artistic endeavours.

What is the relationship between Rockfeedback – the media company, live promotion and online music magazine – and Transgressive Records?
Toby L, my partner in Transgressive, founded Rockfeedback as a webzine and live night – that’s where I met him, as he was promoting a Bloc Party show and I’d just put out their first single with my then bandmate on our first label… Rockfeedback developed too – into making TV shows for MTV and then into a larger media company.

My involvement has grown with my interest in these areas (although I always used to write for the site, and still do when I can) and now I’m helping Toby spearhead a new approach to music media with Rockfeedback as part of our new venture LoveLive, which is an attempt to legitimise high quality online music media to ensure that all bands have a fair deal. Simple answer is we’re partners in both!

You told Clash that “We wanted to find an ethical, cool way to have a kind of old fashioned career in music through releasing great records.” Do you feel that you have achieved that goal? What ethical issues have you faced?
Totally… we keep each other in check ethically (as does our kick-ass label manager Lilas Bourboulon ) to make sure we all travel down the same road together.
You’re constantly tested, but we have really core values as a label which always include the band in major decisions regarding their art, and so it’s really easy to make sure that you’re doing things right. For us we have some really simple mantras which we apply to every opportunity that comes our way – for example “is this really in the band’s best interests?” which help us make decisions and act respectably!

In that same interview you noted that “the internet is a massive library that is difficult to filter then I think that these brands are the places you can go to first as you can trust them for years and rely on them to give you the best music.” Is the role of a good label in 2010 to simply be a ‘filter’?
Nope. I think that’s a big part of it, but I also think we’re lacking genius “music (wo)men” that used to exist in the industry – pioneers who would take chances with bands and encourage them creatively. I think in a sense we’re one of the last labels that try and have that kind of close relationship with, understanding of and respect for our artists… and hopefully that shows in the quality of the records we release.

How do you find acts for the label? Hours of internet trawling?
It’s magic. But not internet trawling. Geoff Travis (the founder of Rough Trade) once told Toby that the only thing to this is to find genius… and that’s all we strive for.

The company has signed in excess of thirty acts and has released over 100 different records. What’s your the proudest achievement with Transgressive?
Every release, or band we associate to is like a different child, so we’re proud of all for different reasons. Whether it be the Noisettes (who we publish) having a HUGE UK pop album, or Foals being nominated for the Mercury Music Prize or Pulled Apart By Horses blowing minds with their sets at Reading and Leeds, we’re eternally proud of all of our artists. I guess, we’re also proud to be able to keep doing this, and offering our services to bands we love.

Only one act on the label is also managed by Transgrassive – why have you made that extra step with Johnny Flynn?
Johnny Flynn is a true genius who I’m honoured to be able to work with. For us it made sense for what he needed at the time to have a complete management solution. We actually manage two other artists, but it’s really early days for them so we don’t want to hype things unnecessarily yet and pile on the pressure!

I think in this day and age, there are very few things that can be offered, and sustainability cannot be created for the future, by just running a label – hence our supportive efforts in publishing, management, producer management, TV, online and live… they all help factor into building, protecting and sustaining artists through a hard and changing landscape.

From Australia is often seems that the breaking an ‘indie’ act in the UK requires a label to seduce the NME – how important is the influence of the magazine? And what are the biggest hurdles involved in trying to ‘break’ new act?
NME was totally important when I was growing up, and we’re friendly with them today… but now I’d say (and this is reflected by their website) people are looking more online for their new music news etc.

What has been the strangest moment in Transgrassive’s history? Larikin Love splitting and becoming the new ‘Hole’ with Courtney Love must have been a shock…
Strange moments abound. Working with one of our heroes Graham Coxon had an air of the surreal to it, but has been a delight. Larrikin was a tricky one… a very talented band who split up the day before they were due to headline our Transgressive Roadshow which caused us bigger problems then Miko [Larkin] joining Hole… in fact it’s totally rad he’s doing that now – he’s such a talented guitarist and one of the most Rock ‘n Roll dudes we’ve ever worked with.

Are there any Australian touring plans for Transgressive acts – there’d be plenty of punters for a Graham Coxan or Pulled Apart By Horses tour and after Splendour a Foals return seems very necessary…
Hopefully we’ll get Pulled Apart By Horses and Foals out for the festivals!