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By: Richard Collins
Box Records is pumping out some of the best music we’ve ever heard and it’s seemingly come from nowhere. Our man Richard Collins had a chat with the Box Records CEO Matthew Baty to find out what the hell is going on.
(((o))): Hi Matt, how are you?
Matt: My back hurts, I wake up feeling like a retired wrestler every morning. Apart from this I’m in good spirit.
(((o))): Tell us a bit about Box Records. How long’s it been going? Why did you start it?
Matt: The first release was a split 7″ with Gnod and Bong in 2009, to my knowledge this was the very first time both bands appeared on wax, I’m pretty proud of that. It came with a bonus CD of extra tracks and longer edits. At the time I was living in Manchester and I was a part-time member of Gnod, playing extra percussion and noises. They were the first band I discovered since moving to Manchester that truly blew my mind. I moved to Manchester from Newcastle, the last band I saw in the North East that blew my mind were Bong. It seemed sensible that they should meet each other.
(((o))): What’s with the name?
Matt: I keep thinking that I should have some kind of interesting answer to this but alas, I don’t. I was playing in a fairly short lived band at the time called Box, we played Grateful Dead kind of jams. Box Records was founded by myself and my friend in the band, Matthew Childs. The band was called Box simply because we were looking for a one syllable word that sounded nice to say.
(((o))): Are you only doing releases for bands in the North East?
Matt: Nope, though it’s natural that I’m exposed to more music from the North East since I live here.
(((o))): Is there a certain brief you need to fulfil to be a Box Records band? Heavy, weird, loud etc?
Matt: There are no set rules or schema. I release music that I’m passionate about and hope other people will enjoy. I’ve got to find the music exciting and it’s got to move me in some way. I’ve said it before, but I genuinely don’t see much of a difference between the music of say, Richard Dawson and a band like Khünnt. Sure, sonically it’s completely different but both are emotionally charged, honest and true.
Sometimes I look at labels that specialise in particular genres and wonder whether it would have been better for me to go down that route. I’m not saying it would have been, but I see Box Records as an extension of what I enjoy listening to and I think that’s a good thing.
(((o))): For me, the North East is creating the most exciting music in the country. Does it feel like there’s a vibrant scene up there? Is there a link between the culture in the North East and the innovative music that’s being churned out?
Matt: I’m unsure really. I guess historically we’re an industrious lot, us Northerners. We’re also not ones to take ourselves too seriously either, and I think that helps too. There’s a certain care free attitude which I think definitely helps if it’s harnessed in the right way. Of course, I could be massively generalising here. Like anywhere else, the North East is also full of arseholes.
(((o))): Is it true that nobody wears coats in Newcastle?
Matt: I wear coats, massive coats. It’s fucking cold up here. If you take a stroll around the world famous Big Market on a Saturday night at say, around 10pm on a cold winter’s evening you could quite easily draw the conclusion that people up here have coat allergies.
(((o))): Everyone seems to be in everything, is there only about 8 blokes doing 63 bands up there?
Matt: I flippantly said to someone that ‘there’s only 10 musicians in Newcastle’ the other day. Of course, this isn’t true but there are probably 10 or so that are exceptionally busy.
(((o))): What band would you love to have on your label that you know you never will?
Matt: This could potentially be a very long list. One band? I thought about saying Sabbath, but did you hear their last album? OUCH. If Swans ever came knocking I think we could arrange something.
(((o))) Sorry to sound like an enthusiastic sixth former who deserves a good shoeing, but what advice would you give to someone who’s starting a label?
Matt: Get your postage costs right. Post things out on time. Package records up real well. Have good taste in music.
(((o))): If Box Records were an animal what would it be?
Matt: It would be a fictional mythical creature. A cross between a young boy and an ox… a box.
(((o))): What’s next for Box Records?
Matt: I’ve pretty much got the full year mapped out. Next up is the debut Foot Hair album. That’s away at the pressing plant now but frustratingly caught up in the Record Store Day jam. It should land mid-April.
After this I’ll be putting out a Box Records compilation which will showcase the Box Records family. It’ll have unreleased tracks, out of stock/painfully unavailable tracks and a few exclusives too – basically a good summary of the back and near future catalogue. Following this the debut Luminous Bodies album should be well on it’s way to landing. I’ve heard first mixes of this and it sounds very, very good.
Amongst this there’ll be a new album from County Durham’s finest, Waskerley Way and a new album from Haikai No Ku.
Towards the end of the year I’ll hopefully be working on a very special collaboration album. I can’t really say anything about this, since details aren’t completely finalised but if it happens it’s going to be exciting.
