Over the years hundreds of labels have popped up only to disappear as quickly as they came. Rising Records, on the other hand, has gone from strength to strength and starts 2008 off with a series of strong albums. Planet Loud talked to head of Rising Records Mark Daghorn about the label.
Planet Loud – Hi Mark, how are things today?
Rising Records – Good thank you.
Planet Loud – So, for those people who don’t know who Rising Records are can you give us a potted history?
Rising Records – We set the label up late in 2003, and initially signed Defenestration and Mendeed. Our first releases were in September 2004, and since then we’ve been building it up and expanding our roster.
Planet Loud – What was your reasons for behind starting the label?
Rising Records – I’d always wanted to do it, and I was becoming frustrated with making records for other labels that I was really proud of but were allowed to disappear. I figured I could do it better but had I known just how hard it was going to be I probably would never have done it. It started out as something that was going to be a sideline along with the studio and my production work but it has become the absolute main focus of my life, and not just my working life.
Planet Loud – Your initial main band was Mendeed but now you have a fairly impressive roster of bands. Aside from the Mendeed split, what prompted the decision to expand your roster from one band to over 20?
Rising Records – I think we realised last year that we had placed far too much focus on one band, and of course if that band decide to let us down badly in the way that they did, we had a problem. I guess we had two options after such a kick in the teeth – one was to give up, and for a very brief moment we contemplated it, and the other was to get out there and find some great bands to sign. So we started actively looking for new bands around March last year and found Trigger The Bloodshed almost immediately, then with a lot of my time being freed up by not having to wipe one band’s arses all of the time I found myself getting out to a lot of shows and have really just kept on finding good bands that I wanted to sign.
Planet Loud – You split deals between DIY deals and full contracts. How do you decide what to offer a band?
Rising Records – Its often a case of timing – if we have a full roster of full time bands and something comes along that we like we would offer them a DIY initially. We generally try to do one album with a band on a DIY first and see how we all get along, then all being well, move them on to a full deal. There have been some exceptions to this where a band has had other label interest and we’ve gone in with a full deal straight away but I think its good for both sides to do a DIY album first but the great thing about the label expanding so rapidly is that we can afford to have more bands so we keep looking. Its really heartening just how many good bands there are out there, and a shame that the British press doesn’t really support it’s own scene in the way that it should.
Planet Loud – What are you looking for in a band when you offer them a deal?
Rising Records – I don’t always know – I’ve been doing this long enough to know when I feel right about a band, but other than trying to find that mystery ingredient its really a case of the band being very committed and working hard, and getting along well with each other. I’ve learned from bitter experience that if the members of a band don’t get along with each other its unlikely that they’re going to stick it out when things get tough. We all love the stories of The Who and The Police hating each other, but in reality that quickly becomes an impossible situation.
Planet Loud – I know from speaking to you, you make a point of going out of your way to check out bands live. How important is this aspect in your decision?
Rising Records – Its very important – I get out to shows all the time and catch some excellent bands that I didn’t even know existed. I certainly wouldn’t sign a band that were rubbish live.
Planet Loud – Have there been many bands who have impressed you on CD but have just sucked live?
Rising Records – Not many, but on the odd occasion when it has happened the bands have turned out to be dreadful. I heard one band’s tracks on their myspace and really liked what I heard, so I got in contact with them and went to Norwich to see them play. The singer started throwing a wobbler after the first song because the drummer had no spare drum sticks. I left immediately!
Planet Loud – What about the other way round?
Rising Records – Funnily enough I saw Nex live without having heard their demos. I loved them live but hated the demos, so I saw them again and thought they were even better than the first time and so I signed them and tried to capture what they were about as a live band on the first record.
Planet Loud – One of the benefits you have is your own recording studio. How much easier does that make life in terms of you monitoring the whole album process from start to finish?
Rising Records – Its crucial to us – it means we can provide the bands with studio time at a cheap rate and ensure that the quality control is kept up, but we’re getting to a point where I need to find other producers to work on some projects. I work closely with Karl Groom, who does all of Dragonforce’s stuff. He mixes a lot of albums I record and it works very well – I can be tracking another album whilst hes mixing. Chris Sheldon mixed the new Nex records and we both want to work on more projects together, and I’m always on the lookout for other people to work with.
Planet Loud – I’m guessing the studio is also used by non Rising Records bands? Do purely metal/rock bands use you?
Rising Records – Actually no, it is in effect a private studio that is only used by our label bands. There are a couple of exceptions where we let friends use it for projects but it isn’t commercially available. I’ve been down that road before and its not somewhere I would really want to go again. The studio is based around what I need to do what I do and wouldn’t work for a lot of people.
Planet Loud – Can you tell us a bit about the facilities and what a band needs to do to get a booking at Rising Records studio?
Rising Records – Well, they need to be signed to us! Its a great little studio set up in our farmhouse and is fully residential, no neighbours and loads of space. We’ve even got our own woods!
Planet Loud – You must have a lot of fun having the bands live/record with you? Any good stories you can tell us..?
Rising Records – Theres a lot of stories that I really can’t repeat but there is one from a few years ago when Defenestration were in. For some reason they got off the bus at the wrong bus stop in the middle of the night and decided to all strip naked to walk back to the studio. I was driving along the next day, listening to radio one, and the presenter started talking about how five naked people had been seen walking through our village the night before. I spent all day waiting for the police to turn up but thankfully they never did!
Planet Loud – A lot of the bands are quite young, aside from being their label manager, it must be quite important for you to get along with them as mates as well?
Rising Records – I guess to a degree. I mean I get on with everyone on the label really well and give them all whatever moral support I can, but I think its important not to mix business with pleasure and to always keep things at a professional level. I’ve been through enough situations now to read people pretty well and there were a couple of instances last year where it was obvious that certain band members weren’t going to be sticking around, and frankly didn’t deserve to be. I take my hat off to the bands involved because they dealt with the situations in a very mature way and made the changes they needed to make. If you don;t do that you effectively kill the band off – it only takes one idiot to screw things up and of course, they always do.
Planet Loud – Correct me if I’m wrong but you’ve only signed British bands so far. Any plans to venture into the European market?
Rising Records – Maybe – we will eventually release our CDs in Europe rather than licence them as we do now, but it would be difficult to maintain a working relationship with a band who are in another country. I don’t rule it out though – any excuse to travel!
Planet Loud – Obviously you’re pretty much a one-man operation. I know myself how hard it is to do one million things but you must feel a sense of satisfaction at the end of each day?
Rising Records – Absolutely – I still get a buzz when we get a good review for something, or a radio playlist, or get a video on TV. The other side of it is that bad reviews sting, and sometimes I feel like I’m banging my head against a wall, but the good outweighs the bad by a long way and I love what I do so it never really feels like work to me.
Planet Loud – How hard is it to compete against the bigger labels who can fund bigger advertising campaigns, pay for tour slots etc?
Rising Records – Really really difficult. We’ve realised that investing in advertising is crucial and we’re doing more of that, but obviously we don’t have the clout of a major label and so have to rely on the quality of what we release for it to get somewhere. We’re seeing a huge buzz about Trigger The Bloodshed, more so than for anything we’ve been involved in, and that comes from people in the industry loving the album, not a quarter of a million pound advertising budget, and a load of unjustified hype.
Planet Loud – You must take a DIY approach to everything. How important are things like street teams, online promotion, Myspace etc to your label?
Rising Records – Myspace is really important to us – we got on board with it relatively recently and I wish we had done it a long time ago. Street teams are something we’re looking at right now as we had a couple of bad experiences using external people to organise them who just didn’t do their job at all.
Planet Loud – How important is it for you that the bands you sign do their own self-promotion as well?
Rising Records – The more they do the better – we’re all working towards the same thing, and a band that put the work in are going to go further than one that relies on their label to do everything for them.
Planet Loud – You’ve got a fair few releases coming up in the next few months, care to plug them?
Rising Records – Indeedy – Trigger The Bloodshed – Purgation – the heaviest record we’ve ever been involved in and I think its going to be huge – all the signs are there. Nex – A Clockwork Heart – Chris Sheldon mixed it and did an incredible job, great songs, really well sung – a real favourite for me. Open The Skies – Conspiracies – these guys are seriously accomplished songwriters and great players. We’ve also got albums out by Sworn Amongst, No Quarter Given, Many Things Untold, who have one of the most talented drummers I’ve ever heard, Early Grave, A Poetic Yesterday, and Soundshok.
Planet Loud – What are your goals for 2008?
Rising Records – We’re looking to sign some more bands right now, and move everyone up the ladder at least a little. I’m going to be doing an album with ex One Minute Silence bass player Glen Diani, which I think Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree is going to mix – its kind of modern prog with some heavy elements – its the kind of record I’ve wanted to make for a really long time. We’re also in the process of signing someone from a major band for their solo project but I can’t say who just yet, but this is another really different and exciting project. We’ve got a very busy year in the studio with some excellent projects booked in but my wife is insisting that we have a holiday this year!
Interview by Graham Finney
