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13.04.12 MusicWeek 11
and co. dump the Black Lion moniker and resurrect the Fiction label, the stars aligned. Final Straw went five-times platinum, selling three million copies worldwide. That success helped instill an uncommon
patience in Chancellor and his Fiction family that still holds today - not to mention a belief in signing semi-experienced acts that lesser A&R minds might consider “tried and failed”. “It feels like the bands who do the best
eventually are the bands who spend a good few years honing their craft,” he reasons. “Look at The Black Keys: I saw them at South-
By-South-West about 10 years ago and felt like I was watching Jimi Hendrix – it was that exciting. Then finally this year they wake up the world of radio and it’s just, ‘Boom!’” Yet doesn’t this faith in perseverance risk running
against the core quarterly fiscal objectives of a PLC? How can Chancellor’s imprint maintain a long- term trust and investment in artists – a slow and steady build-up to eventual greatness - with impatient corporate demands dangling over them? “That’s a very tough question,” he acknowledges.
“It’s true that within the auspices of this building, it’s tricky to keep a ball in the air for four years [without an artist producing an album]. I’ve always tried to protect the artists we’ve got in whatever way I can, but occasionally it does reach a point where it’s probably best if it just ends.” Chancellor’s mood dips as he recalls dropping
singer/songwriter Stephen Fretwell for those very reasons: a two-albums-in-eight-years workrate which didn’t nestle well with an unforgiving balance sheet – or a fledging label looking to avoid internal disreputation. “I could have happily put out Fretwell records for
the rest of my life,” he says. “They’re great - but at what pace? In the 1960s and 1970s – even the Nineties – that might have been fine. But… we’re only eight years old into the Fiction rebirth, you know?” These business realities cut both ways for
Fiction. Often referred to as the “indie of Universal” (something Chancellor respectfully terms “a truly lovely compliment”), the label admits it has missed out on the signature of coveted artists to AIM members - likely due to a fear amongst some acts over UMG’s corporate vastness. “There are a lot of great people out there in my
position; some work for indies and some work for majors,” he says. “There’s an element of ‘business’ that I guess sometimes can sway certain artists away from us, but it always, always comes back to personal connection. If we have one with the artist,
we can usually guide them and their manager through the business stuff. But if a certain deal wasn’t meant to be, it wasn’t meant to be. I’m quite Zen about that. He continues: “We run Fiction like an indie in
the sense that we try and stay very close to the artists – we don’t feel dislocated from them. But I also very much feel part of Universal. We’re given these amazing resources and I’m hugely appreciative of them. Yes, it comes with some problems; in the deals you do, sometimes certain business practices have to be navigated. But I feel really privileged to
be given this amount of rope, and I want Fiction to have occasional successes so we keep being given it in the future. “Universal is a fantastic place. I know people
deride it or whatever, but that’s rubbish – it’s full of amazing people in every area: sync, press, radio, they’re all top notch. It’s an honour to work here and work alongside them. “I’m given the freedom to sign acts that I fall in
love with – and people here understand that love doesn’t necessarily only last a day or a year. If you’re lucky, it can last forever.”
GETTING BETTER AND BETTER... FROM MACCABEES TO GONNA-BES
Chancellor signed The Maccabees before releasing their debut album on Fiction in 2007. The band’s third LP, Given To The Wild, hit the charts earlier this year. “I thought they were really
special when I saw them at the Water Rats about six years ago,” he recalls. “Me and [scout] Alex Close were there. We started off at the back of the gig and ended shuffling to the front; looking up at them from the edge of the stage, shaking their hands and
being generally schoolboy about it. “They were very young men,
when we signed them, and have grown up fast. I remember when they walked into the building having recorded [second album] Wall Of Arms – all the ladies here swooned. Given To The Wild may be their best record yet. I think that’s all your artists can aspire to – to get better and better. When you do that, I can’t see how it’s not going to work.”
WHAT’S IN STORE? FICTION REMIXES VOL. 1
As well as committing staff to serve behind the desk of Rise Records in Bristol, Fiction will be releasing its first ever compilation album for Record Store Day next week. Fiction Remixes Vol 1. features 16 hand-picked tracks from the label’s catalogue.
White Lies Death (Chase & Status remix)
The Naked And Famous Young Blood (David Andrew Sitek remix)
Ian Brown F.E.A.R. (UNKLE remix)
Kate Nash Foundations (Metronomy remix)
Alice Gold Runaway Love (Andrew Weatherall remix)
Snow Patrol In The End (Whateverman remix)
Spector What You Wanted (S.C.U.M remix)
The Bees Winter Rose (Nicolas Jaar remix)
Crystal Castles Celestica (Thurston Moore remix)
The Duke Spirit Procession (Gary Numan remix)
The Maccabees Bag Of Bones (Surgeon remix)
2:54 You’re Early (Wild Beasts remix)
White Lies Is Love (Stereolab remix)
LEFT/RIGHT Coming in 2012: Jim Chancellor is looking forward to unleashing new releases from Crystal Castles (left) and Kate Nash
Naked & Famous
Spector
The Duke Spirit
Jacknife Lee Making Me Money (Switch remix)
Ian Brown Just Like You (The Prodigy remix)
The Naked And Famous Girls Like You (Felix Da Housecat remix)
Ian Brown
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