10 Music Week 08.06.12 THE BIG INTERVIEW COLINBARLOW,RCA
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‘THIS LABEL NEEDED RE-
When Colin Barlow left Universal after 22 years in 2011, there was only one place he was ever going to go: the company where he cut his teeth as a teenager. Now he’s on a mission to bring the good times back to RCA - and he’s already got JLS, Paloma Faith and a crop of smaller labels to help him
LABELS BY TIM INGHAM
H
e helped shape the sound of Boyzone, The Wanted, The Lighthouse Family and Take That; all artists not exactly averse to a bit of sentimental schmaltz when the time calls for it. So when Colin Barlow candidly tells Music Week
he’s “starting to feel a bit romantic” in our company, we half expect mushy vocal harmonies to strike up from the speakers in his Sony office. Yet it’s neither an emotive chord sequence nor the
crisp crooning of namesake Gary that’s making the bright, optimistic eyes of the bequiffed ex-Polydor and Geffen boss go a little misty. It’s the memory of his halcyon days as a talent scout at Sony/CBS, which he joined as a wet-behind-the-ears 17-year- old in 1986. This was Barlow’s first job in the record industry, and the most persuasive reason for his shock departure from Universal last year. “I loved my time at CBS,” he says. “There was a
really exciting clash of stuff happening there; Terence Trent D’Arby, Sade, The Psychedelic Furs – all kinds of amazing acts. But then there was Bruce Springsteen and Michael Jackson from the US, too – real global superstars. “I’d been at Universal for 22 years when I left and I needed a refreshing change. This place was
ABOVE Captain Barlow: Colin’s RCA team includes Marketing Director Murray Rose (3rd from right); Head of Creative Affairs/A&R Pete McGaughrin (9th from right); Head of Promotions Neil Hughes (far right); and GM Ricardo Fernandez (5th from right)
crying out to be re-energised. And if I’m honest, I think that I needed re-energising as well.” Barlow admits that he wasn’t exactly blown away
by the RCA UK setup he inherited; a company too reliant on its US megastars and, he says, not enough in thrall to its storied history. “I want to bring the heritage back to this place,” he explains. “Back in the day, RCA was a very broad label; it had gone from Bowie to The Monkees to Nina Simone to Eurythmics to Lou Reed. “It had a real strength in depth across its roster. It’s time for us to bring that spectrum back – I
THE MUFF STUFF EXECUTIVE BEST
WHO IS THE BEST EXECUTIVE Barlow has ever worked with? “Muff Winwood. On every level,
Muff taught me everything about why I’m in this job. His whole philosophy on music was amazing and he’s a hugely impressive person. There’s a humbleness to him but also just a joy about music. He always seemed really thankful to be in a job like this. “I hate the arrogance of people that take this job for granted
because it’s a brilliant gift to be given. You see some people that really take themselves far too seriously; that’s not for me. “Obviously, Nick Gatfield’s great and Doug Morris is somebody that still loves music in the way I find very refreshing. “Another person that I found
absolutely fascinating – one of the most inserting people I ever met – is Jimmy Iovine, a very bright man indeed.”
promise RCA won’t just be known as a pop label for too much longer.” Barlow, who started at RCA on January 3, has
already put partnerships in place with exciting feeder labels to help bring through acts unencumbered by pop music machinery. These include trend-setting imprint Chess Club, which put out Mumford & Sons at the start of their career and will soon release Post War Years’ first record through RCA; Search And Destroy, the all-out rock JV created with Craig Jennings and Raw Power, which boasts Bullet For My Valentine on its roster; and Just Jam, the imprint created by SB:TV founder Jamal Edwards. “Jamal’s got a kid called Maxsta we’re really
excited about and we’re also developing a guy called K Koke with Roc Nation,” explains Barlow. “He’s from Stonebridge in the UK and he’s probably made the best hip-hop record to come out of this country in a long time.” Meanwhile, the ink is still drying on a new
contract with dance label Space & Time, which Barlow says will handle “cutting-edge” releases – including the first material for six years from UK garage producer Wookie. Another of Barlow’s projects is the resurrection
of RCA Victor, which the affable exec has earmarked for leftfield acts – including Imogen
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