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27.04.12 MusicWeek 13
RICHARD RUSSELL ON...
MIA Standout XL album: Kala (2007) She changed the label quite a bit just by her way of looking at things. I still think she’s quite misunderstood. She doesn't always make things easy for herself but she has a terrific spirit. I consider her a good friend. She's just got a fascinating perspective and it’s always just completely outside of how any of
us looks at anything. She’s very inspiring.
ADELE Standout XL album: 21 (2011) Adele came from a scene back in 2005 or 2006 - people forget that. It was grime-influenced, but mostly involved white kids picking up guitars. Jamie T was the prime person in it, but there was also Mystery Jets and Jack Penate. The closest anyone came to a name was ‘Thamesbeat’ - but that was never going to stick.
I presumed she was going to make a folk record, but as soon as she
LEFT Listening space: Richard Russell checks out a new record in his XL office ABOVE XL’s roster: the label’s current range of artists includes Adele, Willis Earl Beal and Tyler, The Creator (top row); Jack White, Bobby Womack and Thom Yorke/Radiohead (bottom row)
“I absolutely feel part of an independent label
community,” he continues. “For the sake of other independent labels, I wouldn’t want anyone to stop thinking of us or Beggars as independent because of our success. I want us to show there is no limit to what you can achieve.” Russell’s commercial accomplishments in the
past few years – not least with modern industry phenomenon Adele – will have made many eyes glow green within XL’s label peers. But although the exec counts his blessings, he’s also got a top tip for anyone taking home a wage from the music industry: stop fighting so hard for victory – you’ve already made it. “You have to stay aware of the fact that you’re
just privileged to be involved in any capacity in this business,” he says. “The big dividing line is between not earning a living and earning a living. Beyond that, people get very hung up on the amounts – but it’s really not that relevant. If you’re past the point where you’re ever going to have to go and get a proper job, that’s a fucking result.” He continues: “I’m not actually that bothered if
[a great record] is on XL or not. This isn’t sport – to me, that’s a massive mistake that music industry people make. It’s not about you winning and others losing. It’s fine to want to be successful; it is not fine
PICTURED FROM LEFT Excelling at XL: The label’s Mercury Prize winners – Damon Gough/Badly Drawn Boy (2000), Dizzee Rascal (2003) and The xx (2010)
to want someone else to be unsuccessful. The more people engage with that kind of negativity, the less successful they will be.” And with that, Russell disappears, off to
introduce his latest intriguing production work – an LP with soul legend Bobby Womack – to a friend behind closed doors. The album will no doubt prove another absorbing
addition to a pantheon of vital, enthralling records that bear the XL name; and an artist spectrum that has gifted the world everything from ‘hardbeat’ rave to bhangra-synth; indie Africana to a reborn rap master; and screeching Delta blues to the 21st century’s defining soul star. Without Richard Russell, these bizarre, sharp,
fascinating projects may never have been brought to public attention. He fights the good fight for the weird and the mysterious every bit as much as he does the driven and the divine. In doing so, he not only enhances our industry, but the very fabric of our culture. It is precisely because of this bravery, this
discerning ingenuity, that his name will this week rightly take its place on Music Week’s revered roll call of Strat Award winners. Thank fuck for your music, Richard. And thank
you, too.
arrived here, she had a very strong idea about the music she wanted to create. I didn't know the producers she wanted to bring in - she already had her sound worked out in her head. She made a succinct, executive decision that she wanted to sign with
us in 2006, and she did a very small, sensible deal. She took far less money up front than other deals we were dong at that time. She didn't want to talk to any other labels, she just wanted to get on with it, with a minimum of fuss. There was a real focus and confidence about what she was going to do. I’m good at working with people who would be all right without me,
who’d be okay without XL. When you see it like that, the job becomes much simpler. You don’t want to kid yourself it’s because of you: it’s not. You have to give raw talent the room it needs. People have connected to Adele in a way which has been just
completely unpredictable. I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years. We’ve never had a record that has sold as much as this - and I'll be doing this for at least another 20 years, and we'll never have another record that will sell as much as this again.
HIS MUSICAL EDUCATION I was obsessed about music from when I was very, very young; I was obsessed with the radio and my dad’s cassettes and records and I was into playing the guitar. From the age of eight I used to go to Edgware’s two record shops all the time, and I was reading the NME by about nine. I was a big fan of The Beatles from when I was very young and I still
love Beatles records now. It’s interesting how little kids gravitate towards The Beatles. It’s like the best body of work that there is, and yet it just works on every imaginable level. It continues to sort of reveal itself in an interesting way throughout your whole life. But it was the moment I heard
rap music that I fell in love. I think I must have been 11. A very early memory is that I bought The Message by Grandmaster Flash (pictured) on 12-inch. I sat down
and listened to it at home on my dad’s stereo again and again and again and again. My dad came in and asked: “What are you listening to?” I told him what it was and he said: “What’s a sacroiliac? He’s saying he’s broken his sacroiliac. What does that mean?” I didn’t know. There might have been something in that – the idea that you've really got to listen, because if you’re not really listening then you’re not getting the whole experience. I was DJ’ing by the time I was 16. I found people paid for that, which I
thought was amazing. I was too into music for school. I just wanted to put club nights on and try to make beats. I spent thousands of hours practising in my bedroom at home. I first used a sampler at The Tabernacle aged 17, and that was a total revelation. To this day, they’re still the three strands of what I do: producing, DJ’ing
and running the label. I might be best known for one of them, but that doesn’t mean it’s any more meaningful for me than the others.
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