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By: Dan Salter – Main photo by Kyle
For the last few years Cut Loose Promotions have gradually been building a reputation as one of Scotland’s finest promoters of post rock and related weird music. Recently they branched out in to creating their own multimedia offering with CutLoosetv. On the eve of the announcement of their biggest project yet, we caught up with main man Kyle Chesney for a bit of a chat and a sneaky peak at the new video.
(((o))): So first off, tell us a bit about Cut Loose. When & why did you start it?
Well music has always been a passion of mine. To be honest, I wasn’t enjoying my degree at the time so it seemed like a great way to get away from that. When I started off I had very little knowledge of the local music scene or how it all worked to be perfectly honest, all of my friends at Uni weren’t into music a great deal so I really wanted to create a new night in attempt to get new people along to see these local bands who wouldn’t do so otherwise. I couldn’t believe how many incredible bands were on our doorstep. I felt there wasn’t a great deal being done to try and bridge that gap, I’m not one for sitting and complaining about it all so I decided to go do something about it.
So I founded Cut Loose back in 2011 – seems like such a long time ago now! We are a local independent team who specialise in putting on quality shows throughout Glasgow, comprised of myself, Conor, Sandy and Dave. We see Cut Loose as a collective, it’s a setup to showcase bands on various platforms. Currently we run gigs and have the music channel but there are other avenues we are exploring so expect more branches to follow.
If anything Cut Loose has been a brilliant opportunity to meet like minded people and I have meet some great folk along the way – yourself included Dan. I love the community, if you go to a festival like ArcTanGent you really begin to understand what it is all about.
(((o))): Have you enjoyed it? The life of a promoter can be one fraught with stress!
Every minute of it. Absolutely yeah, unless you have done it yourself I don’t think people truly appreciate the amount of work that goes into it. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to set up the branding of the night and always reevaluated where I wanted to go with Cut Loose. We have been fortunate enough to put on the likes of Maybeshewill, Rolo Tomassi, LITE and so on – some of my favourite bands out there. A real onus of the way I run things is to try and ensure that the quality of the night is high and that goes through the whole set up, so I probably put a lot stress on myself through being pernickety!
The thing is if I don’t do these nights then there aren’t many other promoters around who go out of their way to bring bands from all over up to Glasgow. What keeps me going is knowing we can make a difference and
(((o))): Haha, no bad thing I think! The secret to good promoting lies in the details like that I think. I look at the guys doing well like you, Chaos Theory, Goodsoul, Bad Owl & the like & the reason they are successful is they look at things holistically. Does that reflect your philosophy?
Thanks for the kind words! Certainly some other great names in there for company. I’m a freak when it comes to organising stuff, I forever take a notepad around with me in case any ideas pop into my head. Again, I just love the challenge of it all. Well my philosophy is always to keep that quality as high as possible. I simply run my nights on the basis that if I wouldn’t pay for to go into that gig then why should I expect others to come along.
(((o))): So do you think you’ve got to the stage yet where people come because it’s a Cut Loose night even if they don’t know the bands? That they trust it to just be a good night?
That’s exactly what we want to create, that’s the objective! If we are there yet or not it’s difficult to judge but we are definitely starting to see regular faces at the night. Being able to pull in a regular following allows us to bring in unknown bands from further afield, bands who people wouldn’t get to see otherwise, as it means we can cover ourselves financially. For example a band that I’ve admired for a long time is Jean Jean, we specifically went out of our way to bring them over from France to get them on our all dayer bill last December. They were a huge hit on the night and that is what we want to do, provide a platform for bands and it’s opportunity for like minded music lovers to see some crazy good bands! It’s a challenge of course, but as promoters I see it as our task to try and deliver.
(((o))): You’ve recently started CutLoosetv. What’s the lowdown on that?
Founding a music channel has always been an aspiration of mine from an early age. I just love the concept of creating a hub for new music and particularly for bands who wouldn’t otherwise get much exposure from many other avenues. We continuously strive to push the boundaries of what is possible in live showcases, and in whatever form that may be. It is this passion and desire to break new ground, which has lead to the creation of CutLoosetv.
The channel is dedicated to showcasing the most exciting alternative emerging acts around, in a new and innovative way, which pushes the boundaries of what is possible in video content. It’s an exciting prospect being able to gauge with an audience on a worldwide scale.
Looking through our analytics we have thousands of views from countries all over the globe, from Chile to Japan, Belarus to Malaysia, it’s astonishing. It’s things like that or even just some of nice comments that make it all worth while.
(((o))): I’d imagine the TV production is a whole level of complexity above the gig promotion? How do you deal with that?
I love the challenge, I had a vision and have gone about trying to replicate that. It involves many sleepless nights, a whole load of work and just perseverance – it’s part and parcel of being involved in any music project I suppose.
I really have to thank a man called Nick Lawrie for his influence and help with the whole set up. I knew what I wanted to do with the channel but to find the right people is always a challenge, lucky enough I was pointed in the direction of Nick and it’s probably the most significant factor in what CutLoosev has become to date. He understood the concept, is incredibly talented and as a bonus is really into the same music. We quickly moved to bring in Oscar Sansom into the fold to direct the footage and boy this guy is talented. Yeah, I am fortunate to work with the team I do, great bunch and crazy talented, and there are several folk I should really thank but I could go on forever!
The big challenge is trying to establish the channel in an already saturated market. We want to fashion a music that is recognised as one of the leading platforms for cutting edge music and video content, on a worldwide scale. We have collectively created something that we believe will take it to an unrivalled level, hoping to seize the imagination of fellow music lovers.
(((o))): You have a big ‘thing’ to reveal. Do you want to tell us a bit about that?
Man, I’m so excited for the next installment of CutLoosetv. It’s two of my favourite bands on one of my favourite labels – it’s an absolute dream. We have really gone all out for these sessions, nothing spared. We ended up booking out The Garage is Glasgow for it which is a huge space – it was weird seeing the place sober for once! We brought in some lighting for the backdrop and even spent the whole day travelling all around Glasgow to get some of the finest persian rugs around!
For a hint as to what we’re talking about, watch this teaser video!
(((o))): For me working with these kinds of bands marks a bit of a graduation to a ‘higher level’ . Do you see it like that & where do you go from here?
This is the benchmark. Unfortunately the way we operate restricts the amount of sessions we can do currently but it’s certainly a matter we are looking into. In it’s own way, it’s half the charm of the channel, we don’t release videos regularly but when we do we want them to be special. We hope the videos do the bands justice and really capture the imagination of fans around the world.
The first of three videos from this session will be online on Monday 10th August at 9am at CutLoosetv.
