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13.07.12MusicWeek 11
PICTURED Relentless roster: Misha B (far left), Rude Kid (left), The Other Tribe (above) and Misty Miller (right)
announcements in terms of signings which will be great across the board. I want Relentless to be defined by what we were
doing before – basically, really good music that we really like and are passionate about, regardless of genre. In the past I signed Cage the Elephant,You Me At Six, So Solid Crew,KTTunstall – it was across the board. We have come from an urban background in the
past which is great and very important to us. I think therefore the fit within Relentless and Sony will be very good - we provide something slightly different the other labels which I think is what the intention
was.And we’ve been busily getting stuff together and building our brand and signing things until we get to the point where we’re looking to release stuff. The philosophy in terms of what I’m looking to
do is to be distinctive.We’re not trying to be anyone else.What we’ve done in the past is try to do things that other labels wouldn’t do and I want to make sure we carry that on.
Whatwas it aboutMishaBthatmade you sign her toRelentless? I’m not naturally an X Factor watcher at all. [Sony Music UK chairman and CEO] Nick Gatfield and [ModestManagement boss] Richard Griffiths suggested I should meet her. I immediately thought ‘she’s very talented and very special - let’s give it a go’.The results have been great, she’s a fantastic singer-songwriter. Most people think that artists who come offThe
X Factor can’t write but she very clearly can. She’s written withMNEK, her first singleHome Run is with him, he’s co produced it with her. She’s written with a lot of people already –TMS,Naughty Boy – so we’ve been quite busy. Everyone’s been very pleasantly surprised with
her ability to write and come up with new ideas. She had an interesting background before she came to X Factor. She had her own band, she was busking and did a lot ofMC work inManchester. There isn’t thankfully a load of expectation but it’s all been quite a pleasant surprise with her, seeing what she can actually do.
You put outMisha’smixtape onRelentless already – there’s amixture of genres on there… It’s a really good taster. It’s kind of Drake, Biggie,TLC,Adele, it’s quite a nice mixed bag of things. It was mixed by DJ Envy from Unity radio inManchester. So it’s [from her] home town,with a lot of support and love for her there – so that was nice. Her adaptations of things like Unpretty byTLC
are fantastic. She did the LilWayne/BrunoMars track [Mirror] as well which is superb, so that was a nice
indication.And getting such early support from Radio 1Xtra has been great – it went on the playlist straight away. She’s on Kiss and all the pirates are behind what she’s doing too.
There are sometimes negative connotationswith being linked
toTheXFactor.Are you doing anything to combat that? Not really. I think the X Factor brand has been
THE BEAT GOES ON
Solid influence: The garage roots of early Relentless signings So Solid Crew can still be heard in today’s charts
changing over the years – it’s provided an amazing platformfor artists,not just in the UK but around the world withOneDirection,Rebecca Ferguson andOllyMurs all breaking out.What the brand means has
changed.Notmany artists get signed from the show so it’s a great achievement forMisha.
You recently signedTheOtherTribe –what are they all about? They’re a fantastic six-piece band from Bristol. It’s really exciting to sign a band from the house music scene at the
moment.This first record is going to be coming through as a Black Butter/Relentless
release.They are a really exciting group and we feel that they’ve got a long-term plan which we want to back and follow creatively. They’ve got their own DJ sound system which is
great.And coming from Bristol, it’s great roots music - they are really big in the scene down
there.There is a production versus Kidnap Kid as their opening track, single Skirts out in September, then another single in January and their album will be April/May of next year.
Relentless built its name on the UK garage scene in the late Nineties – and Jobanputra can still hear the influence on today’s chart hits. “Garage has actually almost
come back around,” he says. “Ironically all the artists or producers that we’re working with grew up early on listening to garage. “It’s like they’ve listened to
house, garage and trip-hop and are
putting it all together into dubstep and everything else. This is a time of interesting fusion. Dubstep was so big last year that it was hard for othermovements to grow, but now you’ve got things like house and new reggae coming through. “Things are beingmeshed
together – and if people are stumbling around for a name and they can’t find one then that’s a good thing.”
How’s your overall roster shaping up? We’ve gotMistyMiller working away in the studio which we’re really excited about, the Rude Kid single [Get Busy] coming at the end of July,Misha obviously, and thenThe
OtherTribe.There are some more things that we're looking to sign this year... and then that will kind of be where we want to
be.Being here so far, it’s been a good six months for us.We will be looking at signing singles and artists and then looking at developing long-term deals,working with a musical brand, like I did at Virgin with Deadmau5 and SwedishHouseMafia.
Are you still actively seeking artists to sign? We always are – but we’re pretty clear about what we think we can work well with, so we won’t be signing much.We want Relentless to be a quality boutique within Sony.Obviously Sony’s got great labels and great things going on but we want our artists to feel part of a small
home.That’s what we did in the past – work with things perhaps people didn’t want to work with, then bring themto the fore.
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